Though a commercial resource, it has often been exploited for academic research applications.
The database is useful for marketing and public relations work.
[1] It has also been recommended for use in academic research and has indeed been leveraged as a key data source in peer-reviewed studies.
[2][3][4][5][6] As summarized by professor Philip M. Napoli, these directories are "widely regarded as the best-available commercial database for identifying media outlets and media workers in the United States," especially as "[t]he scale and scope of the data contained within Cision far exceed what can generally be gathered by academic researchers...".
[7] However, some scholars critique the use of Cision in such research because its method of gathering data "sweep[s] up problematic actors," such as bots, when aggregating data on media contacts.