Communication Studies— Popular Culture & Magazines
See, too, the 5 volume online 
St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture.
Popular magazines are primary sources for the study of popular culture as well as tools for the mastery of magazine writing. The following databases contain access to numerous popular magazines (as well as scholarly journals). Each database includes abstracts, citations, and/or full text articles.
- ArticleFirst "Bibliographic citations describing items listed on the tables of contents pages of more than 12,500 journals.... [some] abstracts and some provide links to the full text.... Broad subject areas covered include business, the humanities, social sciences, popular culture, science.... is searchable by keyword, author, title, and a variety of other fields.... browse the tables of contents.... limit searches to items with full-text links and to journals held by the NU libraries. Articles in periodicals not held by NU libraries may be requested online through the Interlibrary Loan Department."
- LexisNexis Academic "...contains several thousand full-text publications. These include regional, national and international newspapers, news wires, magazines, trade journals.... newsletters, profiles of the U.S. states and countries of the world, selected reference sources for facts and statistics.... Sources are grouped by broad topic areas, each with a search form that has been customized for its specific content. Many topic areas include the 'More Options' search screen, which allows users to build searches using pull-down menus, with the option of searching for keywords or phrases across the full text of an article or within the headline and lead paragraphs. Dates of coverage vary by publication. Coverage of news sources generally begins in the late 1980s...."
- Periodical Abstracts "Contains more than 800,000 citations and abstracts from over 1,500 general and academic journals covering topics such as business, history, religion, culture, literature, sociology, economics, psychology and women's studies. Periodical Abstracts also includes transcripts of significant segments from more than 80 television and radio news programs." 1986 to present.
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Readers' Guide Abstracts Abstracts, citations, and some links to full text "for over 300 popular periodicals published in the U.S. and Canada. Topics include current events and news, fine arts, fashion, education, business, sports, health and nutrition, consumer affairs, and other areas of general interest. Corresponds to the printed Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature." 1983 to present.
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Readers' Guide Retrospective "Historical index (1890 to 1982) to over 250 general interest periodicals.... The index is a work in progress; eventually it will include the entire contents of the printed Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature which dates back to 1890. This database is continued by Readers' Guide Abstracts (1983 to present)."
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Wilson Select Full Text Plus "Citations, abstracts, and ASCII full text from over 1300 periodicals indexed in Readers' Guide Abstracts, Social Sciences Abstracts, Humanities Abstracts, General Science Abstracts, and Wilson Business Abstracts."
For further information, contact:
Stacey Devine
Assistant Head, Acquisitions and Rapid Cataloging
Northwestern University Library
1970 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208
(847) 491-7584
stacey-devine@northwestern.edu
Catherine Grove
Head of Acquisitions and Rapid Cataloging
Northwestern University Library
1970 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208
(847) 491-4426
c-grove@northwestern.edu
Research Guides A-Z -> Directory of Subject Specialists
