In PR, trade publications are valued types of information resources along with scholarly journal articles. Case studies, best practices, industry reports, market intelligence research, media data and costs, audience or target market data, campaign videos, or public opinion polls may be useful as well.

To get good info, write down your research main ideas, then list your concepts and synonyms. Now apply your keywords in databases using the linked Word document below, noting options like date, language, subject terms, and advanced features like the drop-down options at the end of the search boxes which let you be more specific about where the words will be searched. This process will save you time and improve your sources!

• use "quotation marks" around phrases
• truncate - shorten a word to its trunk or root to get alternate endings - with an asterisk * (shift 8), e.g., truncat* finds truncate, truncated, truncation
• apply Boolean connector AND to combine unlike ideas, e.g., dance AND promotion
• apply Boolean connector OR to connect synonyms, e.g., advertisements OR campaigns

Put it all together:

• "hip hop dance" in one box
• AND (promot* OR advertis* OR campaigns) in the next box
• use parentheses in single-box searching - when you don't have another set of boxes, e.g.,:
• "hip hop dance" AND (promot* OR advertis* OR campaigns)

Use the left or right menus to narrow your results, e.g., by language, date, subject, etc.

Databases have a citation (information about an article such as the title, author, name of the journal or magazine, volume and issue (which correspond to the date), date, and pages) and sometimes they will also contain an abstract, or summary, of the article.

Databases also often cite multiple types of resources - books, essays or chapters, government documents, etc.

Some databases will also have the complete item (called the full text): you should see a link to an HTML or PDF document. Or click on - this will check the other library databases for the full text of the article.

When researching, you will come across a variety of different types of journals. Most journals and magazines fall into one of the following three categories: scholarly, popular, and trade publications. This table will show you how to find out how to tell the difference between these types of journals.