The following databases provide the strongest coverage of scholarly journals in the fields of advertising and public relations. However, they include more than just scholarly articles: you'll also find articles from some trade, news, and popular magazines.

Use these databases especially when you're researching issues or theories.

Scholarly articles usually ...

• provide analysis of a topic / issue, exploring it in greater depth
• are considered the most authoritative
• can be very narrow in scope, technical or theoretical

Some of these databases also contain more than just trade journal articles, some scholarly, some popular, even some newswires. But their strength is in their coverage of the trades.

Use these databases when you're researching specific agencies, companies or industries.

Trade journal articles usually ...

• are written by people who work in or specialize in a particular industry / profession, but are not scholars
  
• provide current news and information about the industry and the companies in it
  

Use these databases when you're researching specific companies, especially if the company is small or private. Use them also if you're researching business conditions at a local level, not regional or national.

Searching in newspaper databases is not always as easy as in other article databases: they do not usually have any subject terms, so often you must put more thought into finding alternate search terms. I suggest starting with the large "Newspapers in ..." databases.

Here's a short video showing how Find it @ MU works. (About 4 minutes long.)

Two common ways to find out if the Libraries have access to the articles you need:

1) You are searching in an article database, but it doesn't have the full-text:  

Click on  in the article citation. Another window / tab opens with two possible options:

• Links indicating Find it @MU may have located one or more sources for full text of the article. Click on the links and follow the trail to the article. 
• Links to search MARQCAT by the journal title or its ISSN number. The journal may be available in print or electronically through a source not searchable by Find it @MU.

2) You already have a specific citation and aren't currently searching in a database:

• Use MARQCAT's Advanced Search to search for the journal title.

The MARQCAT record will indicate what years we have in print and/or online, providing call number locations for the print and links to the e-journal.  Once at the e-journal, navigate to the volume, issue and page that you need.

Questions:

Didn't find the article/journal using Find it @MU or MARQCAT?  Request the article through Interlibrary Loan (ILL) by clicking on the link at the bottom of the Find it @MU window or tab.  Learn more about ILL here.

Ever wonder why the full-text isn't there?  Watch this short video about the Business of Information.