Business Information Center--Online Guide for MBA@Rice and Others: Finding Databases
Searching for Database Information
Information on business databases can be found on the BIC homepage. The databases are organized by type.
Additionally you may review the list of business databases via the A-Z Database Guide. Check out the Best Bets section...these databases selected by our business library team, will often provide you with the information you need.
Tips:
- Online access to all databases is for current Rice faculty, students, or staff.
- Use the BIC or Fondren websites to access any of the databases. The system will recognize you as a subscriber associated with Rice University.
- If you have a problem connecting to a database from the BIC website try Fondren's.
- Non-business databases can be useful as well. Many of them have business articles or industry information. Compendex is an engineering database with excellent industry related articles.
- If you do not find what you need in a database, try another one. No database does it all.
Database vs. Dataset
| Database | Dataset |
|
A collection of information and/or data, usually covering a broad theme (e.g., company information, psychology, etc.). Info/data can exist in any medium- text, images, spreadsheets, video, etc. |
A narrower collection of information and/or data, usually describing a specific topic or phenomenon (e.g., the stock price of a company, or consumers' responses to surveys, etc.). In business and economics, as academic disciplines, datasets are often presented as spreadsheets in filetypes such as .xlsx or .csv. |
- Database vs Dataset
A database is usually the container for datasets. Our databases are resources that either 1) contain pre-made datasets, 2) or help you create custom datasets by requesting specific data (i.e. running a query) within the database.
- Data
"Related items of (chiefly numerical) information considered collectively, typically obtained by scientific work and used for reference, analysis, or calculation." (OED Online)
- Raw Data
This term is fuzzy because almost any observable or recorded phenomena could theoretically be raw data, but people often use it when referring to a dataset in a file format (e.g. .xlsx, .csv, .sav) that's often presented as a spreadsheet.- Caveat: raw data is not always cleaned data.
- Caveat: raw data is not always cleaned data.
- Cleaned Data
To clean data, people or computer programs assess data, organize it, and correct errors, omissions, duplicates, inaccuracies, etc., thereby making the data ready for analysis. Determining whether data is clean enough for your needs can be tricky. Read the supporting documentation that accompanies a dataset, and contact the data producer or custodian if you have questions.
- Time Series Data
To clean data, people or computer programs assess data, organize it, and correct errors, omissions, duplicates, inaccuracies, etc. thereby making the data ready for analysis. Determining whether data is clean enough for your needs can be tricky. Read the supporting documentation that accompanies a dataset, and contact the data producer if you have additional questions.
- Statistics
This generally refers to data that has already been processed and analyzed. For example, if you have sales data from several local car dealerships, then you could use that to generate statistics about local consumers preferences for vehicles.