Library Help: Teaching and learning

If you are completely new to Datastream:

• 🌐 Access Datastream
• 🎞️Watch some videos from the Refinitiv Learning Catalogue (below)
• 🧍Book on our Introduction to Datastream workshop (or view its workbook)
• 📄Read the Datastream via Workspace Quick Reference Card PDF

Above: Excerpt from the Quick Reference Card PDF

On the LSEG website: webinars and videos

LSEG (formerly Refinitiv) has a Learning Centre which offers, in their words:

• A personalized dashboard to keep track of your upcoming and completed courses.
• Access to certificates for every course that you complete, easily obtained, and easily shared with your connections on LinkedIn.
• Market Insights and Intelligence Webinars, led by experts, providing insights on industries, companies, and markets, powered by our robust data and analytical tools.

Within the Learning Centre, LSEG hosts on-demand videos on the Learning Catalogue pages (replacing the Refinitiv Academy). These cover Datastream, Workspace for Students and Tick History. They also host live online classes around the world to suit people in any time zone, although these are more aimed for commercial users.

Datastream videos from the Learning Catalogue

The following on-demand videos may be of interest for Datastream. Some were written for older versions of Datastream so may look a bit different. The videos all have subtitles:

• Datastream Formula Builder for Refinitiv Workspace Excel
  • A 3-minute introduction to the Datastream Formula Builder button in Workspace Excel.
  • There is now a single interface for static and time series requests.
  • The search boxes are more powerful but you can still launch the full Datastream Navigator.
• Getting Started with Datastream
  • Learn how to plot charts and use Excel functionality to extract historical content from Datastream.
  • This video appears to be written for a non-academic audience and may not be as useful as it first appears.
• Getting Started with Datastream Navigator
  • Learn how to search most effectively for the series and datatypes required for your analysis.
• Datastream for Office: Using Request Tables (for Refinitiv Eikon users)
  • Understand how to utilise the Request Tables functions in Datastream Excel to retrieve data systematically.
  • Note, this is written for the previous version of Datastream, available via the Eikon platform. 
• Learn Simple Steps to Access Economic and Equity Data for a Project with Refinitiv Datastream
  • Introduction to Datastream functionality to find and collect historical equity and economic data.
• Datastream Functions and Expressions
  • Learn how to use different functions and expressions in Datastream to manipulate and analyse data.
• ESG Methodology
  • Learn the basics via an overview of LSEG Refinitiv’s ESG Methodology, which is used across Workspace and Datastream.

Datastream live classes from LSEG

LSEG host live online classes throughout the year. New classes are being scheduled all the time.

• Getting Started with Datastream (EN WebEx)
• Getting Started with Datastream (DFO) Excel Add in: For Students* (EN WebEx)

• Utilize Functions and Expressions in Datastream to create customized analysis (EN WebEx)

Datastream Infobase

Datastream Infobase provides hints, tips, and resources for Refinitiv Datastream. It includes documentation on methodology and Worldscope data definitions. 

To access Infobase, either:

• View Infobase online; requires a MyRefinitiv login.
• View Infobase inside Workspace; search for the Infobase or IBASE app.

After you have logged into Infobase, go to the 'Datastream Content' page. Note, we do not have a subscription to all the features you see mentioned.

We have attached some of the documents from Infobase to this post, below. These documents may refer to older versions of Datastream. One of these documents is an advanced Datastream Hints & Tips PDF which includes guidance on the following topics:

• Using expressions (Datastream calculations)
• Unpadding values over non-trading days (pages 29 and 37)
• Using SEDOL or CUSIP codes in requests (page 48)
• Looking up series by name to get the 5 best matching symbols (page 49)

Alternative sources such as blogs

Our old blog Business Research Plus has many posts about Datastream. These posts were usually written up after we had answered a challenging enquiry that will likely be of use to others.

See also Research Financial, a regularly updated blog from Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, and Princeton University Library's Datastream research guide.

Finally, there is technical and software support available from LSEG through their MyRefinitiv portal or 0370 191 0581. The Library can try to answer your enquiry or pass it on through here if necessary. Refinitiv will not speak to students directly; they only respond to the Workspace Professor IDs and the Library.