LibGuides: ACRL/EBSS Library Resources for Communication Studies (LRCS): Public Relations

About

This guide is intended to identify the resources available for research in the field of public relations.

Current Page Editor: Kristina De Voe

Subject Headings

Please consult the Library of Congress subject headings for more ideas.

Call Numbers

HD 49-49.5 Crisis Management -- Emergency Management
HD 58.7-58.95 Organizational Behavior
HD 59-59.6 Public Relations (formerly HM 263)
HD 60-60.5 Social Responsibility of Business
HF 5717-5734.7 Business Communication

Databases for Articles and Reports

See General Communication Resources to get started.

ABI/Inform Collection (fee-based) Includes major academic business journals, business magazines, trade and industry publications, and the Wall Street Journal.
Gale Business Insights (fee-based) Provides full text company profiles, company brand information, rankings, investment reports, company histories, chronologies, and industry news and information.
Business Source Complete (fee-based) Business database featuring more than 1,900 full text peer-reviewed journals. Included as part of the comprehensive coverage offered by this database are indexing and abstracts for the most important scholarly business journals, dating back as far as 1886 and detailed author profiles for the 40,000 most-cited authors in the database.
Business Source Elite (fee-based) Indexing of business periodicals, some in full text. Four versions are available with increasing amounts of full text coverage: Business Source Elite, Premier, Complete, and Ultimate.
Communication & Mass Media Complete (fee-based) EBSCO database that focuses on communication studies writ large. Provides full-text, indexing, and abstracts for many top public relations-related scholarly journals and trade publications.
eMarketer (fee-based) eMarketer provides market research information about the Internet, e-business, online marketing, and emerging technologies. Includes analyst reports, daily research articles, and e-business and online marketing statistics.
Forrester (fee-based)
IBISWorld (fee-based) Reports on various industries
Mintel Academic (fee-based) Full text market research and consumer behavior reports focusing on the US, UK, and Europe.
Passport Euromonitor's Passport provides U.S. and International reports, data, and news for industries, companies and brands, economy, and consumers.
The Work from Cannes Lions View the most recent winners' work; past award winners available via subscription.

Journals and Trade Publications

Journal of Public Relations Research Peer-reviewed articles on public relations
PR Museum The PR Museum has a museum and reference library on the history of PR. Their website includes a blog which has short PR case studies.
PR News Trade articles about the public relations industry and a directory of public relations firms
PRovoke (formerly The Holmes Report) Reports and articles about public relations. Some content is "premium" and comes at a cost.
PRWeek PRWeek is a trade magazine for the public relations industry.
Public Opinion Quarterly Peer-reviewed articles on public opinion research.
Public Relations Inquiry Peer-reviewed article on public relations.
Public Relations Journal Peer-reviewed articles on public relations.
Public Relations Review Peer-reviewed articles about public relations.
Strategies & Tactics Trade publication from the The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).

Databases for News Articles and Press Releases

See Newspaper Aggregators for more information on the newspaper databases and aggregators.

Access World News (fee-based) Dates vary. More than 1500 news sources on countries worldwide, including 650 in the U.S. Largely newspapers for the U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, other English-speaking countries. For the rest of the world mostly wire services and BBC newspaper digests
Factiva (fee-based) Dow Jones news and business article database that covers thousands of news outlets worldwide in multiple languages. Academic subscriptions are unable to license the full content, but still include articles from websites, daily newspapers, and business publications.
Nexis Uni (fee-based) Formerly LexisNexis Academic. Provides full-text access to more than 17,000 sources, including company profiles, financial reports, broadcast news and government transcripts, trade journals, wire services and newspapers. Updated with full-text documents from general interest wire services, newspapers, and magazines from around the world. RELX Group (formerly Reed Elsevier).
ProQuest Global Newsstream (fee-based) 1977-present. Digitized content from over 900 daily newspapers, including state, regional, national, and international titles (including more current portions of the ProQuest Historical Newspaper titles). Core titles include: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Washington Post, The Guardian, El Norte, Jerusalem Post, and South China Morning Post. Exclusive access to 85 Gannett papers was added. Subscribers can customize the titles selected.

Statistics, Demographics, Rates

See Media Ratings, Data and Statistics for more information.

Census Data Access to the US census from population, housing, economic, and geographic data.
MRI Simmons-Catalyst (fee-based) MRI Simmons-Catalyst contains data about consumer behavior, media consumption, and attitudes. Users can generate crosstabs and reports.
PolicyMap (fee-based) PolicyMap is a web-based mapping and analytics platform that allows users to explore and visualize a wide range of social, economic, and health data for the United States. It includes data from government sources, as well as from private companies. PolicyMap is a good option for users interested in understanding the social and economic conditions of different communities in the United States.
SimplyAnalytics (fee-based) SimplyAnalytics is a web-based mapping, analytics, and data visualization application that makes it easy for anyone to create interactive maps, charts, and reports using 100,000+ data variables.
SRDS (fee-based) The SRDS online planning platform makes it easy for agencies and advertisers to connect with the media brands that fit their objectives. Top U.S. ad agencies use SRDS for their media campaigns, searching among 125,000+ media properties, categorized by media type, market, and geography.
Statista (fee-based) Statista provides statistical data from thousands of institutions and sources. It provides access to data from market and opinion research institutions, as well as from business organizations and government agencies.
Vivvix (formerly known as Advertising Insights, Ad$pender) (fee-based) Vivvix lets users view a top-level summary of the multi-media advertising marketplace. It monitors advertising expenditures and occurrence information for 3+ million brands across 18 media.

Open Educational Resources (OERs)

Be Credible: Information Literacy for Journalism, Public Relations, Advertising and Marketing Students Peter Bobkowski and Karna Younger, 2018. CC BY-NC 4.0 license.
The Evolving World of Public Relations: Beyond the Press Release (textbook) Rosemary Martinelli, 2020. CC BY 4.0 license.
Public Relations (a free course) Sign up for a free account first from the Saylor Academy to access the textbook.
Write Like a PR Pro Mary Sterenberg, 2023. CC BY-NC 4.0 license.
Writing for Electronic Media Brian Champagne, 2017. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
Writing for Strategic Communication Industries Jasmine Roberts, 2016. CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

ACRL/EBSS Library Resources for Communication Studies (LRCS)