Harvard Business School

Baker Library | Bloomberg Center

 
Factiva

Help Sheet

No individual personal options are available through Baker Library's subscription.

Description of the Database

Scope

Factiva.com covers information on industries, public and private companies, business and management topics, current awareness information, and historical news.

Years

1969-present; dates vary by publication

Content Type

  • Many full-text articles
  • Trade journals, newswires, media programs, company and stock reports, pictures, and Web sites

Updated

Continuously

Regions

Worldwide

Sources

Select sources include various trade journals, Dow Jones, Reuters, the British Broadcasting Company, the National Broadcasting Company, Media General, Hoover's, and Knight Ridder.

Reasons for using Factiva

  • Find articles on over 22,000 public and private companies including description and history, current stock quote, financial data, competitors, and the latest news on business activities.
  • Search publications by title, industry, geographic location, and type.
  • Find news in twenty-two languages in over 8000 sources.

Alternative databases/differences from Factiva.com

  • OneSource: Covers public and private companies worldwide and includes analysts' reports on industries, public companies, and SEC documents. Only recent articles and newswire stories. Excellent screening function is available.
  • ABI/ProQuest: Provides full-text articles on industries, companies, business and management topics, and recent and historical news from over 1000 sources. Includes thesaurus and flexible searching capabilities. Focuses on academic and trade publications.

Additional Resources

User Guide (two-page PDF)

Why can't I find articles from some publications in Factiva?

Publications in Factiva.com


Boolean Operators, Truncation, and Other Connectors

Connector Explanation
and technology spending and canada finds items containing the words "technology spending" adjacent to one another, as well as the word "canada"
or merger or acquisition finds items containing either "merger" or "acquisition"
not software not spreadsheets finds items containing software, but excludes those containing spreadsheets
() Parentheses or [] Brackets select releases and (university or instruction, or courses) finds items about select releases related to universities, instruction, or courses
atleastn, where n is any number between 1 and 50 atleast5 microsoft will return items with at least five mentions of Microsoft
Note: Atleast works only in Search: Free-Text/Indexing, and not in Track.
same vodafone same telecommunications finds items containing "vodafone" in the same paragraph as "telecommunications"
w/n, where n is any number from 1 to 10 president w/2 bush finds items containing "president" within 2 words of "Bush," where "Bush" is the second word ("President Bush" or "President George Bush")
Note: w/1 is assumed if a number is omitted.
adjn, where n is any number from 1 to 10 world Cup adj5 rugby finds items containing "World Cup" within 5 words of "rugby," where "rugby" is the fifth word (0-4 words between)
Note: adj1 is assumed if a number is omitted.
nearn, where n is any number from 1 to 500 carrefour near5 retail sales displays articles with the word "carrefour" not more than 5 words away from "retail sales," where "retail" is the fifth word (0-4 words between)
/Nn/, where n is any number from 1 to 500 boeing 747/N30/british airways finds articles containing the term "boeing 747" within 30 words of "british airways," where "British" is the 30th word (0-29 words between)
/Fn/, where n is any number from 1 to 500 toyota/F50/ will find articles with the word "toyota" within the first 50 words of the article.
Note: /Fn/ works only in Search: Free-Text/Indexing, and not in Track.
$n, where n is any number from 1 to 9 earn$4 will find articles that contain any word with the root "earn," including earnings, earns, or earned
Note: At least 3 characters must be typed before using the $ sign, and the $ sign must be entered at the end of a word only. $5 is assumed if a number is omitted.
* (asterisk) telecom* will find articles that contain the root "telecom," including telecom, telecommunications, telecommute, or telecommuting
Note: At least 3 characters must be typed before using the * sign, and the * sign must be entered at the end of a word only. No number is allowed following the truncation.
? globali?ation will find articles that contain the words "globalization" or "globalisation."
Note: At least 3 characters must be typed before using the ? sign.

 

Searching for Articles Written by a Particular Author

Steps Action
Step 1 Enter the author's name into the free-text box. If possible, enter the first and last names.
Step 2 Make sure you have selected the publication or publications for which the author writes. If you are unsure, go to Source on the main search screen and select All Sources. To find a particular source, see Searching a Specific Publication.
Step 3 In the "Search for free-text terms in" drop-down menu, select Author
Step 4 Select Run Search.
Tips:
  • Punctuation is not required but can be used if desired. For example, the last name O'Connor can be entered with or without the apostrophe. A middle initial can be entered with or without a period after it.
  • If you are unsure whether the author uses his or her full name, you can use truncation. For example, enter Jo$ Smith to search for Joe or Joseph Smith.
  • If you are unsure whether the author uses a nickname, enter both names in parentheses, using or. For example, enter (Dorothy or Dotty) and Smith.

Searching a Specific Publication

Steps Action
Step 1 From the Search screen, select Source.
Step 2 Type as much of the name of the source as you know, or enter a description. Example: To find all sources that primarily cover the energy industry, type energy in the text-entry box and press Enter. The sources that match your search will appear in alphabetical order.
Step 3 To view information about the title such as the availability of full articles, frequency, and the source code for field tag searching, click the "i".
Step 4 To add the sources to your search statement, highlight the source or sources. To exclude sources from your search, double click on the name to strike it out.
Step 5 To browse publications or Web sites by Title, Industry, Region, Type, or Language, select the appropriate list from the "Select Source Category" drop-down menu.


Browsing Most Recent Headlines

In the main search screen, use Source Name field tag (sn=) to search the source name.

Alternatively, in Step 4 of Searching a Specific Publication , obtain the Source Code field tag (sc=) to search the source code.

To browse articles from a specific time period, use the Date option to enter a date range.


Searching Specific Field Tags

(Select List)

Field Name Field Tag Description
Author by= Author's name
Art art= Captions, descriptions of graphics, etc.
Column clm= Column Name
Corrections cx= Corrections
Dow Jones Ticker Symbol* co= Company ticker symbol
Edition ed= Edition of Publication
Factiva Company Codes** fds= Factiva Company codes
Headline hd= Headline
Headline Group hl= Includes HD, SE, CLM
Headline/Lead Paragraph Group hlp= Includes HD, SE, CLM, LP, CX
Industry Code in= Industry codes
Language Code la= Document Language
Lead Paragraphs lp= First two paragraphs of a story
Page pg= Page of a publication
Notes/Reference rf= Notes associated with an article
Region Code re= Geographic Region codes
Section se= Section name
Source Code sc= Publication source code
Source Name sn= Publication source name
News Subject Code ns= News subject codes
Text td= Text of article after lead paragraphs
Volume vol= Volume and/or number of publication
Word Count wc> wc< All words found in the Headline and Text groups

* Searchable fields, but not displayable fields in articles.
** Factiva Company Codes are searchable using the fds field tag, but are displayed in the CO field.

Searching in a Foreign Language

Factiva.com offers two methods for limiting a search to specific languages:


1. On the main search screen use the Language option to select specific languages or select All Languages.

2. If the Languages option is set to All, language codes can be used in the free-text search box to limit searches to specific language(s). This can be done using the language field tag, la=. For example, searching la=bg would limit your search to sources written in Bulgarian.

Language Code Language Code
Bulgarian bg Hungarian hu
Catalan ca Italian it
Chinese (Simple) zhcn Japanese ja
Chinese (Traditional) zhtw Norwegian no
Czech cs Polish pl
Danish da Portuguese pt
Dutch nl Russian ru
English en Slovak sk
Finnish fi Spanish es
French fr Swedish sv
German de Turkish tr


E-mailing, Printing, and Saving

Select individual or multiple items, then use the desired icon from the toolbar to View items in Rich Text Format, E-mail, Format for Printing, or Format for Saving.

Notes: Use browser version Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher.


Baker Library | Bloomberg Center, Harvard Business School, Soldiers Field, Boston, MA 02163, 617-495-6040