SEC EDGAR Filings

Global Access (Disclosure)

For researchers at the University of Chicago, the best source for EDGAR filings is Thomson Research (formerly Global Access). Thomson Research lets you look up companies by name or symbol, by industry code, or to search by full text for topics such as "tracking stock", "social responsibility," or "online retailer." There is a pop-up menu for looking up the SIC code for the industry you are looking for. You can also search particular sections of filings, such as the executive compensation section of a Form 10-K. Documents are displayed with a table of contents.

Do not be limited to the table of Contents, and use care when you limit your search to a particular section of a filing. For example, stock options and other non-salary compensation of executives is not discussed in the "Executive compensation" section.

Securites & Exchange Commission

The SEC web site lets you look up Edgar filings by company name and type of filing, or by SIC code. Coverage starts with 1996. There is a table of SIC codes, and a comprehensive list of types of EDGAR filings. The SEC public web site isn't quite as up-to-date as the commercial online services.

FreeEDGAR

FreeEDGAR, a free service of Edgar Online, offers two years of EDGAR filings, with full-text searching. The Reference page has a handy list of form definitions and a list of web sites for investors.

Lexis.com

Lexis.com has a full menu of full-text SEC filings. Look in the sources menu under Company & Financial : Corporate Filings : Financial Filings : US Financial Filings. You can search all SEC filings together, including abstracts of pre-EDGAR filings, or files containing only a single kind of document, such as a Form 10-Q or 8-K. EDGARPLUS lets you search individual sections of a filing, such as the Executive Compensation section of a Form 10-K, and lets you limit your search to the largest companies, for instance the top 100 Fortune 500 or Forbes 500 companies. Note: Access Disclosure has abstracts of filings back to 1967, but it only works with Lexis/Nexis software, not with Lexis.com on the web. Caution: The SEC Online file has not been updated since 1997.

Westlaw

Westlaw has SEC filings from several sources. Look in the directory under Public Information, Records, and Filings : Securities Filings. EDGAR lets you search the full text of filings. SECNOW, a Dow Jones wire service, lets you look up filings by company name or ticker symbol. (The FEDFILES and FEDFILESPLUS databases do not have filings, just news stories reporting information gleaned from SEC filings.) The Company Index lets you look up basic information such as ticker symbol, address, SIC code. Caution: The SEC Online databases have not been updated since 1997. On Westlaw, long filings tend to be broken up into multiple parts for viewing online.