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In today's global economy, having access to the latest business and industry information is all important. Databases that contain information about business, industries, markets and products are key to understanding world economies that are changing minute by minute. A company known for its focus on business information is Gale, a part of CENGAGE Learning™. Two important, complementary Gale files are Gale Group PROMT (File 16) and Gale Group Trade & Industry Database (File 148), which provide a comprehensive look at business and industry worldwide. In the following overview you will learn a bit about these files, what types of information they contain and how they can help you in your research.
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A bit of history describes how PROMT and Trade & Industry got their start. PROMT and Trade & Industry, containing abstracts and fulltext were developed by Predicast. In the 1980s Informational Access Company (IAC) acquired these two databases from Predicast. In 1998 although IAC merged with Gale, IAC still maintained support of PROMT and Trade & Industry. In the late 1990s, Gale incorporates PROMT and Trade & Industry as part of their native-language business. In 2000 abstracts were removed from the content going to Dialog and fulltext was offered. Then in 2008 new publications were tagged for inclusion in both PROMT and Trade & Industry. Gale and Dialog have additional plans for the future. They want to add the abstracts back into the files since they add value for the user. Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, is a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses. Gale is based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, with additional offices elsewhere in the U.S. and in the U.K., Australia, Germany, Switzerland and Malaysia.
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Now, let's take a look at each of these databases produced by Gale Group. PROMT is a 'one-stop' database whose versatility and size enables you to research a product, its markets, the materials used to produce it, competitive products, regulatory issues and other factors that impact a company, industry or business. The file also offers expert opinion and insider perspective. The information in PROMT is very specific: it provides records, such as company announcements, containing statistical information and useful, current facts and figures about companies. General articles are not picked up (such as those on general management strategies); only those that mention a company specifically are included. PROMT is action-oriented; that is, it culls articles specifically related to events and activities of companies from around the globe. This file uses special indexing to identify articles based on the action of the article and the company or companies involved. I'll talk more about the indexing a bit later.
A few statistics about PROMT will show you the size and diversity of this database. PROMT contains 1,100 active international trade and business publications, plus archive sources. All documents from non-English sources have the bibliographic details translated into English and approximately one-third of these contain an abstract in English. File 16 covers from 1990 to the present and is updated daily; File 160 covers 1972 through 1989. You can search both databases together using the file numbers or BEGIN PROMT.
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PROMT offers comprehensive coverage of more than 60 manufacturing and services industries as shown here from advertising, computers, electronics and telecommunications to chemicals, food, pharmaceuticals, marketing and finance; public relations; aerospace, defense, and commercial aviation. Additional coverage includes Agriculture; Apparel; Automotive, Biotechnology, Chemicals, Communications, Computers, Defense Products and Systems, Electronics, Financial Services, Food and Beverages, Medical and Health Services and many others.
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PROMT currently contains approximately 13.6 million records and File 160, the archive file more than 9.1 million records. It retrieves content from a variety of different sources, among them: trade and business journals, local, national and international newspapers, industry newsletters, research studies, investment analysts' reports, corporate news releases and annual reports. The breakdown of the content by source is shown in the pie chart at the right. These percentages are a rough estimate based on the current publication list from which articles are selected. This content makeup may change as different types of publications are added to the database. Gale provides Dialog with monthly lists from which new publications can be selected. Publications are mostly in English, but some Spanish and French language publications are also included. Currently, PROMT includes at least 83 cover-to-cover publications. It also chooses articles based on special indexing from more than 280 publications.
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The following example illustrates the type of information you can find in PROMT. One area of concern today is the credit crunch facing most industries in many countries. A record from a search on this topic in PROMT is shown here:
At the top of the record is the title, along with the sourceóBusiness Wire and date of the article. This record contains the fulltext with a word count of 796 words. This is a portion of the fulltextónote the focus on different companies like Brand Care and Research Ltd. The bottom of the record shows the indexing: Company names, product names and codes, industry names and SIC and NAICS codes. Notice that the descriptors tell you what the main focus of the article is.
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Let's take a look now at Gale Group Trade & Industry Database. The database is large containing more than 19.7 million records with approximately 600,000 new records added each year. It provides the fulltext and indexing of articles from over 500 key trade, management and regional business sources. Some older documents may also include an abstract. In addition, index citations for articles from an additional 600 publications, and two newswire services from 1983 onwards, offer regional to global coverage of company, industry, product, marketing, manufacturing and management information. Strong coverage of such areas as management techniques, financial earnings, economic climate, product evaluations, and executive changes are also included. It provides broad coverage of international trade, industry, products and markets, as well as company information. Rather than selectively choosing articles based on the information contained in them, Trade & Industry takes full publications from cover to cover whose subject matter fits within Trade & Industry's broad scope. And whereas PROMT collects articles pertaining to specific companies, Trade & Industry includes articles from publications that cover general business issues and news. These subject areas can include management techniques, product evaluations, the general economic climate, financial earnings and executive changes. The database covers from 1976 to the present and is updated daily.
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Trade & Industry complements the content in PROMT providing strong international coverage of over 65 major industries, including automotive, defense, chemicals, electronics, advertising, and marketing, retailing, telecommunications, insurance, metals, and oils. In addition to covering information on companies, industries, products, and markets, Gale Group Trade & Industry Database features excellent coverage of: management theory and practice, company stock performance, professional business activities, industry overviews, reviews, economic and demographic information, financial exchange information, biographies,
company securities transactions and product evaluations.
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The following sample record illustrates the type of information you can find in Gale Group Trade & Industry. This record was retrieved using the same search strategy on credit crunch that we conducted in PROMT. The record discusses how the failing economy affects pension firms and the possibility of layoffs.
At the top of the record is the title, journal name and date of publication. Note this is a fulltext article and the word count is given. A portion of the fulltext of this article illustrates the type of information in this file. The bottom of the record shows the indexingóindustry codes and names, product names, event codes and names and NAICS codes. You can use any of this indexing to create another more targeted search.
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What value do the Gale filesóPROMT and Trade and Industry have for you, the business researcher? First of all, different kinds of specific indexing is added to each article so PROMT and Trade & Industry are especially useful to find targeted information. Indexing lets the searcher retrieve a selective collection of articles based on specific criteria. Moreover, PROMT has a deep archive that is useful for locating historical information and tracking a subject over time. Each of the following codes enables the searcher to target a topic of interest:
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As you can see, Gale Group Promt (File 16) and Gale Group Trade & Industry Database (File 148) provide unique information about business and industry worldwide. As you have seen, the focus of each file is a bit different. You can try these two files as Dialog's Free File of the Month in April. Read the story on the Free File in the April Chronolog and try searching Files 16 and 148! Make sure you are signed up for the Chronolog to see all the news at Dialog including other free files each month. If you have any questions, you can also contact the Knowledge Center by phone or email at .
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This completes our overview of the two Gale Group files: PROMT and Trade & Industry Database. Thank you for your interest in these comprehensive business and industry databases and put them on your list to try for free in April.