Nope. The 300 page manual by Bruce Geryk is the only official one. If you don't have it you probably have been decieved by an evil e-bayer.
Research is easy, just give your mages the research order and chose what school to research in the magics menu. After a couple of turns you have access to a bunc of new spells.
The game would be a lot more understandable if you had a manual
