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J. Robert Van Pelt and John and Ruanne Opie Library

Company Research: Home

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Frequently Asked Questions

Top 5 Library FAQ's:

Key Resources

These resources provide financial information, products & services, competitors, etc. They also provide access to trade journals, reports, news, and articles about individual businesses.

Trade Publications

What are trade publications?

Like scholarly journals that you may have used in other courses, trade publications or journals are 
published regularly (weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly) and have to do with a specific topic or 
field. However, instead of in-depth technical research, trade publications often contain important 
news that is relevant to the field, summaries of new research (rather than the research itself), 
trends and predictions for the field, and advertisements for products or services that people in 
that field might be interested in. Some are broad (e.g. Engineering News Record) and some are 
incredibly targeted (e.g. Bicycle retailer and industry news).

Who reads trade publications and why?

Generally, trade publications are geared very specifically towards professionals currently and 
actively working in a field. They’re a quick and easy way to keep your finger on what’s important, 
begin to understand the broad context of research in a field, and just get an idea of what’s 
important right now. Often, professionals will pick out individual ideas or articles that they 
gained a basic understanding of in a trade publication and explore those in-depth using a more 
scholarly resource.

Trade Publications By Discipline​


Biomedical Engineering

IEEE engineering in medicine and biology magazine: this quarterly publication focuses on current technology in the biomedical engineering field.

  • Online available 1983-2010

IEEE pulse: focuses on current technology, news, and societal implications within the field.

  • Online available 2011-present

Biotech business week: a summary of research, financial, and other news pertaining to the field from the past week.

  • Online available 2003–present

Biotech week: a weekly summary of biomedical research and findings

  • Online available 1998-present

Civil Engineering

Engineering News Record: news from the engineering field with a heavy focus on infrastructure & building.

  • In-print availability 1987-present (some gaps)

New civil engineer: civil engineering news published in England (so not all of the articles about government are relevant), but good info about the industry overall.

Civil engineering news: News, trends, and analysis pertaining to structural and civil engineering. To view the publication, visit the “Magazine” tab on the website.

  • Online available 2004-present

Chemical Engineering

Chemical and engineering news: “news edition” of the American Chemical Society: news, research, and analysis of the field produced by the American Chemical Society.

  • In-print available 1942-2004
  • Online available 1998-present

Chemical week: information and news dealing with chemical markets and industries

  • In-print available 1951-2012 (with some gaps)
  • Online available 1987-2012

The chemical engineer: news and resources published by the Institution of Chemical Engineers.

Computer Engineering

ACM queue: tomorrow’s computing today: covers a wide range of computing topics and is produced by the Association for Computing Machinery.

  • Online available 2003-present

Computer: this publication bills itself as being a resource that falls in-between a research journal and a trade publication. There are a number of articles characteristic of trade publications, as well as a few original research articles in each volume.

  • In-print available 1971-2003
  • Online available 1970-present

Electrical Engineering

IEEE spectrum: covers trends in engineering, science & technology, with a focus on electrical engineering. Has lots of cross-disciplinary information that would be of interest to other types of engineers!

  • In-print available 1966-2003
  • Online available 1964-present

IEEE power engineering review: covers power and energy industry news.

  • Online available 1981-2002

IEEE power & energy magazine: news and research relevant to power and energy.

  • Online available 2003-present

Mechanical Engineering

Machine Design: research, industry, business, news and manufacturing information relevant to the mechanical engineer.

Professional engineering: covers a wide range of engineering topics with a heavy focus on mechanical.

  • In print available 1994-2014

Air conditioning, heating, & refrigeration news: a trade journal dealing with a fairly specific subset of mechanical engineering.

  • Online available 1989-present

Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

ASBMB today: an online publication produced by the American Society for Biochemistry and molecular Biology.

  • Online available 2002-present

Microbiology today: each issue is geared towards a given theme or topic relevant to current microbiology news. Produced by the Society for General Microbiology.

  • Online available 2009-present

Geological Engineering

Mining Engineering: publication of general mining news and research by the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Explorations.

Industrial Minerals: trade publication with a specific focus on minerals and mining.

  • Online available 2009-present

General Sciences & Arts

Below are a few trade publications that deal with a range of fields that fall under the heading “General Sciences & Arts” that may be of interest. However, if none of fit what you’re looking for, contact the library for assistance at reflib@mtu.edu.
 

Franchising world: covers all aspects and news that would be relevant to a small business or franchise owner.

  • Online available 1992-present

Book business: articles, ideas, and news relevant to writers and publishers.

  • Online available

BioScience: publishes news and research reviews as well as occasional peer-reviewed research articles on key life science and ecology topics.

  • In print available 1964-2003
  • Online available 1964-2013

Veterinary Economics: information on how to run a veterinary practice as well as relevant business news.

  • Online available 2002-present