Public Relations Research Resources: Find Articles

Overview of Periodical Indexes/Databases

Periodicals (magazines, newspapers, trade publications, and scholarly journals) are excellent sources of current and/or specific information for research projects. Often, they are considered primary sources for research.
To see if the Oviatt Library subscribes to a specific periodical, use the Library Catalog's Journal title search. To see a list of the journals specific to journalism, public relations, etc. that the Oviatt Library subscribes to, from the Library Catalog's Basic keyword search, enter journalism periodicals (or public relations, mass communication*, mass media, etc. along with periodicals) in the "Search For:" box, and limit to "Periodicals/Serials." Note: any periodical title proceeded by [electronic resource] or [online] means that it is available in full text online.
For periodicals not held by the Oviatt Library, request an Interlibrary Loan or search WorldCat to see if other local libraries have the periodicals you need.

Periodical Databases for Background Information

Academic Search Elite(EBSCO): Provides full text for nearly 1,850 periodicals, including more than 1,250 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to the full text, indexing and abstracts are provided for all 3,237 periodicals in the collection. This database offers information in nearly every area of academic study. Allows limiting search results to peer-reviewed scholarly journals.

Gale Power Search: Simultaneously access 11 Gale databases to locate magazine articles, trade publications, academic journal articles, news, reference books, Web sites, and multimedia resources. Includes "Viewpoint" (pro/con) essays and topic overviews on controversial issues from Opposing Viewpoints In Context in the "Books" results.
Google Scholar: Searches for scholarly materials such as peer-reviewed articles, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and reports across many disciplines and sources. On your first visit, go to Google Scholar Preferences and type "CSUN" in the box next to Library Links and click Find Library; check the box next to "CSU, Northridge (SFX Find It);"and click the Save Preferences button. Helpis available for using Google Scholar.
News + Current Issues: Search across a variety of databases that cover newspapers and other news sources. Databases such as ProQuest Newsstand, LexisNexis Academic, and Ethnic NewsWatch (ProQuest) are recommended.
ProQuest Newsstand: Full text for 500+ U.S. and international news sources. Includes coverage of 150+ major U.S. newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and the Chicago Tribune, plus hundreds of other news sources and news wires. Scroll down to the Search Options on the main search screen to reveal choices for limiting by Document Type, such as editorial, statistics/data report, speech, and review.
Find Articles by Subject.: Provides links to additional library databases organized by discipline. Or, see Databases A-Z for a list of library databases by name.

Periodical Databases for Public Relations Practice and Research

Communication and Mass Media Complete (EBSCOhost): Indexes and abstracts over 600 journals and trade publications; includes full text for over 240 journals. Subjects covered include journalism, public relations, mass media, photojournalism, communication studies, speech, linguistics, communicative disorders, deaf studies, advertising, and related areas of interest to practitioners and educators in these fields. Dates of coverage vary by journal.
ABI/INFORM and ProQuest Business Databases: Access to almost 3000 full- text business journals, many full text newspapers/newsletters and company reports, from 1971 to present. Good for articles on organizational communication, public relations, media business, and related areas.
Art Full Text (Wilson): Covering 400 art publications, including those relevant to photojournalism and graphic design. Includes indexing 1984-, abstracts 1994-, and select full text 1997- .
ARTstor: A digital archive containing nearly 500,000 world art and architecture images, including an extensive collection of photographs from the renowned Magnum Photo group of documentary photographers. Requires Sun Java 1.3 and Flash Player 6.
Factiva: Dow-Jones and Reuters full text business services, plus newspapers, and magazines.
Film & Television Literature Index (EBSCOHost): Indexes over 350 U.S. and international film and television periodicals, including popular magazines, scholarly journals, and trade publications. In addition, selected content is chosen from thousands of additional publications that contain relevant content. Dates of coverage vary.
Jack O'Dwyers Newsletter: Covers the general news and trends of the PR industry and its professionals. Searchable through LexisNexis Academic.
LexisNexis Academic: To find press releases, click on News from the left navigation bar, and then select "Newspapers & Wires." On the search screen, select "Newswires." "PR Newswire" (for press releases from companies and organizations) and other specialized sources for press releases are searched, such as,"Business Wire," "University Wire," and "Healthcare News."
PR.com: Pr.com is a press release distribution service for companies worldwide. It is a directory of businesses, products and services, a press release distribution service, job search website, and a source for articles, reviews and celebrity interviews. With a full company profile, each business listed on PR.com has a means by which to generate leads as well as gain worldwide and local exposure for all of their products, services and other business information.
Regional Business News: Regional Business News incorporates coverage of more than 80 regional business publications covering all metropolitan and rural areas within the United States.

Developing a Search Strategy

Once you have chosen a topic, write it down in the form of a question or brief statement:
What is the relationship between SAT scores and college success?
Underline the key words and phrases that are most specific to your topic.
What is the relationship between SAT scores and college success?
Write down each key word or phrase, and underneath it, list synonyms or related terms.
Use a dictionary or thesaurus to find additional keywords. For example:
SAT

scholastic aptitude test
college

university
success

achievement
Think about the singular, plural, and other endings of words and write down the root of the word.
SAT

scholastic aptitude test
college, colleges -- college

university, universities -- universit
success, successful, succeed -- succe

achievement, achieve, achiever -- achieve
Write down your key words and phrases along with their synonyms in the form of a Boolean search statement. Use the root word, and truncate it with an asterisk (*). Note: Different databases use different truncation or wildcard symbols. Check the database's help page. For example:
(SAT or scholastic aptitude test) and (college* or universit*) and (sucee* or achieve*)

Boolean Operators

Boolean operators are words (or, and, not) used to connect search terms to expand (or) or narrow (and, not) a search within a database to locate relevant information. Boolean operators are also called logical operators or connectors.

It is helpful to diagram the effects of these operators:

women or females

Or retrieves records that contain any of the search terms. It expands the search. Therefore, use "or" in between terms that have the same meaning (synonyms) or equal value to the search.

women and media

And retrieves records that contain all of the search terms. It narrows or limits the search. Therefore, use "and" in between terms that are required to make the search specific.

image not weight

Not eliminates records that contain a search term. It narrows or limits the search. Therefore, use "not" in front of a term to ensure that the search will not include that term. Warning: Some databases use "and not" instead of "not." Check the database help screen.

Truncation

Most databases allow for a symbol to be used at the end of a word to retrieve variant endings of that word. This is known as truncation.
Using truncation will broaden your search. For example,
bank* will retrieve: bank or banks or banking or banker or bankruptcy, etc.

Databases and Internet search engines use different symbols to truncate. In general, most of the Library's databases use the asterisk (*) ; however, the exclamation point (!) is used in LexisNexis. Check the database help screen to find the correct truncation symbol.
Be careful using truncation. Truncating after too few letters will retrieve terms that are not relevant. For example:
cat* will also retrieve cataclysm, catacomb, catalepsy, catalog, etc.

It's best to use the boolean operator "or" in these instances (cat or cats).

Check for Full Text Using Find Text

If the article isn't available full text in the database you are searching, click the button to see if we have access to the full text through another database or in print. A new page opens that will have one or more of the following links:

Full text available via [database name]: Click to access the full-text online. If the link takes you to a publication-level page, you can navigate to the article by first choosing the correct year, then the correct month or volume number, then the issue, and then selecting the article from the displayed table of contents.
We have this. Check availability in CSU Northridge Catalog: We have the article in print. Click to view the catalog record for the journal or magazine. You'll need to note the call number and then go to the fourth floor to get the article.
Request document via Interlibrary Loan: We do not have the article online or in print. You can request the article via interlibrary loan (takes approximately ten working days).

For more information, see About Find Text.

Access Databases from Off Campus

Only current CSUN students, faculty and staff can access our databases from off campus. To access the databases from off campus, click the name of the database. You will then see a screen asking you to log in, using your CSUN User ID and password (the same ID and password you use to log in to the portal).

For more information, see Accessing Library Resources from Off-Campus and the Library's Copyright Statement (in particular, the Appropriate Use of Oviatt Library's Electronic Resources section).