Information for The Globe 100 was collected and analyzed by Compustat, a product of Standard & Poor's Institutional Market Services. Criteria for rankings were developed by The Boston Globe.

Compustat gathered information on 299 Massachusetts-based companies whose stock is publicly traded on NASDAQ, the New York Stock Exchange, or the American Stock Exchange. Real estate investment trusts, royalty trusts, limited partnerships, and closed-end funds were excluded. Compustat collects its data from Securities and Exchange Commission filings, commercial news services and corporate and government reports.

A company's rankings are derived from financial data for the four quarters ending closest to Dec. 31, 2001, and for corresponding quarters a year earlier.

Revenue for banks is calculated by adding net interest income after loan-loss provisions to total non-interest income.

Net income, or profit, equals net income from continuing operations, before extraordinary or non-recurring items, as filed on the company's income statement. Net income reflects income available to common shareholders. If a company includes special charges, such as merger costs, in its pre-tax figures, the numbers will not be considered extraordinary and will be included in net income. (This occurs most often in pooling of interests.)

Profit margin is determined by dividing net income by revenue. The one-year charge is profit margin is calculated by computing percentage change in profit margin between 2000 and 2001. Return on shareholders' equity is determined by dividing 2001 net income by the average of 2000 and 2001 common shareholders' equity.

All stock prices have been adjusted for splits.

To be ranked in any of The Globe 100 charts a company must have its headquarters in Massachusetts and must have 2001 and 2000 revenue of at least $10 million.

To be considered for The Globe 100 composite score ranking, the following additional criteria apply: a company must have been public at the end of 2001, reported positive net income in both 2000 and 2001, not reported a negative common shareholders' equity for two years, and have a long-term debt-to-equity ratio less than 4:1.

To be considered for The Growth 50, a company must have been public in both 2000 and 2001. Companies are ranked by a composite score of a two-year average annual sales and profit growth rates. They must have had sales of at least $10 million and a net income of at least $1 million in 2000.

For all stock market charts, the company could have gone public any time during 2001. Market value is as of March 31, 2002. To be considered for the Market Value 100, a company's stock must have traded on March 31, 2002 at $1 or more a share.

The Top 50 Employers are Massachusetts-based public companies ranked by total worldwide work force.

The 299 companies researched were broken into 12 sectors: banking, biotechnology, consumer goods, electronics, financial services, health care, manufacturing/industrial, medical devices, retail/restaurant/entertainment, services, technology, and telecommunications.