The history of academic research in public relations

Public Relations Review 40 (2014) 871–873

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Public Relations Review

Research in Brief

The history of academic research in public relations: Tracking

research trends over nearly four decades

Cui Meadows a,∗, Charles W. Meadows III b

a Department of Communication, The University of Texas-Pan American, 1201W University Drive, Edinburg, TX 78539, United States b Department of Communication, Pfeiffer University, 48380 U.S. 52, Misenheimer, NC 28109, United States

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:

Received 1 October 2013

Received in revised form 19 June 2014

Accepted 23 June 2014

Keywords:

Public relations

Scholarly research

Theory development

Research methods

a b s t r a c t

This study analyzed the history of public relations scholarship over 39 years of research pub￾lished in two journals:the Journal of Public Relations Research and the Public Relations Review.

By examining the topical, theoretical, and methodological themes, this study found new

research topics, theoretical and methodological trends. These revealing themes provided a

comprehensive picture of research trends and patterns of public relations scholarship, thus

providing insights for future research agendas aimed at improving the breadth and depth

in public relations.

© 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Our knowledge regarding the history of scholarly public relations (PR) research is limited. The present study aims to

provide a general picture of major PR journals’ publication history and trends. In particular, we are interested in whattopical,

theoretical, and methodological patterns are employed in these journals in the United States. Several previous studies of PR

scholarship focused on one or two aspects of PR research (e.g., Pasadeos, Lamme, Gower, & Tian, 2011; Sallot, Lyon, Acosta￾Alzuru, & Jones, 2003; Sisco, Collins, & Zoch, 2011). Overall, these previous studies suggested some patterns and trends of

scholarly research in PR: (1) a limited number of theories and methodologies have been employed in studies; and (2) there

was little evidence of a dominanttheory or methodology embraced by PR scholars. PR research still has numerous challenges

in terms of paradigm development and the acceptance of a shared theoretical and methodological construct. However, there

is clearly optimism among academic scholars.

To assess the development of PRacademic research, andmore importantly,tounderstand the future publicationdirections

in PR, it is important to analyze the history and status of research in leading PR journals. This study expands on previous

research by investigating the strengths and weaknesses of the three indicators (topic, theory, and methodology) of academic

research in PR scholarship. Therefore, the following research question is proposed:

RQ: What is the topical, theoretical, and methodological history of PR scholarly research across four decades?

∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 956 665 3584.

E-mail addresses: [email protected] (C. Meadows), [email protected] (C.W. Meadows III).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2014.06.005

0363-8111/© 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.