Have you ever spent hours searching for reliable financial data, company information, and market news for an academic paper or thesis, only to find that the information is scattered across different sources? LSEG Workspace provides a practical solution by bringing together financial data, company analysis, market intelligence, ESG information, ownership data, news, screening tools, and AI assistance in one platform. By learning how to use these features effectively, students can refresh their financial data skills while developing a more structured and informed approach to academic research and market analysis.

From finding potential companies to verifying financial information and researching complex questions, different stages of academic research can be supported by different tools within LSEG Workspace:

Task Workspace Function
Find Investment Ideas Screener
Understand a Company Overview
Analyze Financial Performance Financials
Understand Market Expectations Estimates
Compare Companies Peers & Valuation
Understand What’s Happening News & Research
Analyze Shareholders Ownership
Assess Sustainability Factors ESG
Analyze Stock Performance Price & Charts
Research Complex Questions AI Search / Deep Research
Build Models Excel / Workspace Data

Screener — Narrow it down to the right companies

Helps narrow down companies or securities using highly specific criteria such as industry, country, market capitalization, financial ratios, valuation, and other available metrics. This is particularly useful for constructing a research sample that closely follows predefined methodology.

Overview — Get the bigger picture

Provides a quick snapshot of a company, including its business profile, key financial information, market performance, and recent developments. Useful for building an initial understanding of a company.

Financials — Turn statements into insights

Provides historical financial statements and key financial metrics that can be used to analyse profitability, growth, leverage, and other aspects of financial performance.

Peers & Valuation — See how the company measures up

Helps compare a company with its peers using financial and valuation metrics, supporting benchmarking and relative valuation analysis.

News & Research — Understand what’s happening behind the numbers

Provides relevant financial news, research, and market developments that can help understand the events and market conditions behind changes in company performance.

ESG — Look beyond the balance sheet

Explore environmental, social, and governance data to assess a company’s sustainability profile and incorporate ESG factors into financial and academic analysis.

Ownership — Know who owns the company

Provides information about shareholders and ownership structures, supporting research into institutional ownership, shareholder concentration, and corporate governance.

Price & Charts — See the market in motion

Allows students to examine historical price movements and visualise market performance, which can be useful for analysing returns, trends, and other market-based variables.

AI Search / Deep Research — Ask. Explore. Research deeper.

A newer feature in LSEG Workspace, designed to help users investigate complex financial questions using natural-language queries. It can search across relevant financial data, filings, news, and research to accelerate information discovery and provide a starting point for deeper analysis. For academic work, students should still verify the underlying sources and data before incorporating them into their research.

From Academic Research to Professional Skills

A key advantage for academic research is that much of the data available across these Workspace functions can be exported to Excel. This allows students to move from data collection in Workspace to data cleaning, calculations, statistical analysis, visualisation, and model building in Excel—making Workspace a practical starting point for developing a complete research dataset.

Refreshing these financial data skills helps students become more comfortable turning large amounts of financial information into structured evidence, developing stronger market awareness, and communicating analysis with greater confidence. With platforms such as LSEG Workspace becoming increasingly integrated with professional financial workflows, learning how to navigate and critically evaluate financial data is a valuable step toward becoming a more market-aware finance professional.

References

https://www.lseg.com/en/data-analytics/products/workspace/workspace-for-students

https://www.lseg.com/en/data-analytics/products/workspace