Market Research Basics: Finding Trade Publications

Trade Publications/Journals

Remember that trade publications, or trade journals, are periodicals that keep professionals up to speed on a given industry’s trends, debates, news, professional development opportunities, and best practices.

These are vital for industry research, especially for their:

• up-to-date coverage of trends
• summaries of paywalled reports and studies

You may find some types of these publications on association websites.

1. Do a Google search using advanced search techniques.

For example, I'm interested in how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the book publishing industry. I know that trade publications will likely have articles on this topic. I add "site:.org" to my keyword string in Google. I try different combinations of keywords, like "book publishing magazine site:.org" or "book publishing pandemic site:.org". My search results may include news stories, articles from publishing associations, and specialized trade publications. Publisher's Weekly is one recognizable example of a trade journal about publishing..

2. Databases for trade journals

• ABI/Inform (UNC link; public library link)

Go to the Advanced Search page. Search by keyword. In your results list, use the Source Type filter on the left side of the screen. Check the box for Trade Journals. See this guide for step-by-step instructions.