Worldscope Database Datatype Definitions Guide

Issue 6
Frequently Asked Questions
specify a 4 to 6 month reporting deadline and companies can delay their filing
until this deadline is in sight.
2. Document acquisition. Worldscope aggressively pursues various sources of
information. Companies themselves remain the primary source in most
countries. In this, we are significantly aided by the Documents Acquisition
team, whose corporate document acquisition activities are among the most
extensive in the world.
3. Document update. When annual information is received, it is assigned an
update priority generally based on inclusion in a targeted index, investor
interest, and market capitalization. This becomes especially important where
annual reports are received en masse due to clustering of fiscal year ends,
e.g. Japan's predominant 31 March year-end. At such times, prompt
turnaround may not be possible for all companies. Data processed from news
sources is generally turned around within 72 hours. Key items from the final
accounts are available within 5-10 days of receipt of document.
33. IS A UNIQUE IDENTIFIER AVAILABLE FOR EACH COMPANY ON THE WORLDSCOPE
DATABASE?
Yes. Field 06105, Worldscope Permanent ID, provides a unique identifier for all
company and security entities.
For all companies with the exception of U.S., field 06105 corresponds to Field 06035,
Worldscope Identifier.
For U.S. companies and securities only, the Worldscope Identifier is based on the
CUSIP code issued by the Committee on Uniform Security Identification Procedures.
Therefore, when a CUSIP change occurs, the Worldscope Identifier must also
change. In such cases Worldscope, with the exception of a few identifying fields, will
delete the data on the old record and re-update it to a new record. Presence of data
in Field 00000 Company Status indicates that the company or security had a CUSIP
change. The data in this field contains the text "CUSIP changed to [new CUSIP]".
Footnote C attached to Field 00000 Company Status will identify the new name of the
company.
34. IS INTERIM FINANCIAL STATEMENT DATA AVAILABLE ON WORLDSCOPE?
Worldscope contains Interim time series financial statement data. The time series
available may be quarterly, cumulative quarterly, semi-annual or trimester as
determined by the individual company’s reporting pattern and is in addition to
providing the key interim income statement fields on the annual times series. Interim
time series data includes summary Balance Sheet, Income Statement and Cash Flow
Information where this information is reported by the company concerned. (The
Interim data items available on the annual time series are listed in the 4 main industry
templates under the heading Annual Series Interim Data and date back to 1980. The
full Interim data subset, including Financial Statement data, is available in time series.
Items supported are listed under the Interim Time Series Template heading. . This
data is generally available from Quarter 1 1998 for US coverage and from 2001 for
non-US coverage.
It should be noted that both the reporting and detail of Interim data can vary greatly
by country and company.
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