The Bureau of Business Research instructions to agents on standard practice includes guidelines for case preparation by agents, progress reports, and memos. The instructions were created to standardize the case writing model so that all HBS cases were written in the same voice. HBS Professor Malcolm P. McNair was the managing director of the Bureau of Business Research when the instructions were created.

The Bureau of Business Research was the original research arm of Harvard Business School. The records include correspondence, research, administrative and financial records, publications and newspaper clippings regarding the unit's research activities and output.