Industry groups such as the Magazine Publishers of America(MPA)，American Business Media(ABM)，American Society of Magazine Editors(ASME)，Veronis，Suhler&；Associates，Media mark Research Inc.(MRI)，Simmons Market Research Bureau，and Publishers Information Bureau(PIB)are just a few of the research resources available to editors and publishers.Plus，the research department staffs of such magazine publishing giants as Meredith，McGraw-Hill，Time Inc.，Condé Nast，Hearst，Gruner&；Jahr，and Hachette Filipacchi spend hours trying to decipher the links between individual covers，newsstand sales，circulation figures，and media buzz.Unfortunately，much of this research is proprietary and not available to magazine scholars.
Obviously，magazine editors，publishers，readers，and their cover subjects(especially the celebrities)take covers seriously.Yet a review of key academic journals and convention papers reveals a paucity of research about magazine covers.
Academic Research About Magazine Covers：Refereed Journals
When I first started studying magazine covers in the early 1980s，I was surprised to find that researchers had not turned their attention to magazine covers and the people and events they represented.My review of Journalism Quarterly from 1924 through 1985 yielded no articles that directly addressed magazine covers.My co-author(William G.Christ)and I found“articles that investigated news photos in magazines，specific content or styles in news magazines，how magazine stories were put together，and newspaper front pages，but none that directly addressed magazine covers.”William G.Christ and Sammye Johnson，“Images Through Time：Man of the Year Covers，”Journalism Quarterly，62：4(Winter 1985)，p.891.Yet as we researched the“Man of the Year”covers of Time，we were struck by the implications of the editorial decisions that had been made.As Time's editors explained from the start，the“Man of the Year”selection identified the individual who had“dominated the news of that year and left an indelible mark-for good or for ill-on history.”Time's Man of the Year 1950-1927(New York：Time Inc.，1951)，p.1.That meant，we wrote，“Analyzing the covers is useful for at least two reasons.First，the covers provide benchmarks to history.Second，the covers give a sense，generically，of who wields power and influence.”Christ and Johnson，p.892.We expected to see more studies that looked at such benchmarks and how they affected cultural and social viewpoints.
We didn't find follow-up or new research on covers，so in 1988，we decided to look at how many women had been depicted on the cover of Time since its inception in 1923.Our review of the literature found only one article focusing on magazine covers：“TV Guide：Images of the Status Quo，1970-1979”by Jean E.Dye and Mark D.Harmon in the Summer-Autumn 1987 issue of Journalism Quarterly.However，“this study sought to evaluate how well TV Guide reflected the development of its host medium during a critical period in the history of television，the decade of the 1970s”and didn't apply to our research questions.Jean E.Dye and Mark D.Harmon，“TV Guide：Images of the Status Quo，1970-1979，”Journalism Quarterly，64：2/3(Summer-Autumn 1987)，p.626.Consequently，we based our analysis of women on the covers on the categories developed in our earlier study.The“Women Through Time”research revealed that women appeared on only 482 covers out of 3，386-or about 14 percent of the covers.We noted that women tended to be on the cover because they were artists or entertainers(128 individuals，or 37 percent of the time)；spouses or some other family relationship to a male featured on the cover(75 individuals，or 22 percent)；or socialite/royalty(28 women，or 8 percent).Women were not shown in significant numbers as world or national political leaders(22 individuals，or 6 percent)，business executives(three women，or 9 percent)，or scientists/physicians(only one woman，or 3 percent).Sammye Johnson and William G.Christ，“Women Through Time：Who Gets Covered，”Journalism Quarterly，65：4(Winter 1988)，pp.889-897.We thought this was significant information and expected to see more scholars turning to magazine covers as a research category.We expected to see other cover research that assumed social responsibility on the part of magazines and that attempted to determine whether covers accurately reflected gender，ethnic，and occupational trends.Again，we were disappointed.