The University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications (UFCJC) Public Relations Department has emerged as the academic university program that produced the highest number of publications among 108 institutions over four continents. The details are featured in the study “Social Construction of Public Relations Knowledge for Academic Institutions Worldwide: A Bibliometric Network Analysis” by Central Michigan University scholars Lana Ivanitskaya and Elina Erzikova. It was published in Public Relations Review on July 12.

The UFCJC Public Relations scholars contributed the highest number of publications to top public relations journals with 77, followed by the University of Maryland at 74.

This bibliometric study examined scientific knowledge construction in public relations research since 1955. A citation analysis of author affiliations revealed a number of findings, including universities with the highest count of publications, university pairs that tend to cite each other, as well as regional university groups and large clusters within a broader, citation-based network. The data was featured in an interactive cluster map.

According to the authors, “Since it is challenging to describe the structure of a map with 108 universities, we will describe clusters by focusing on most published institutions, defined as 35 or more publications in the nine peer-reviewed journals.”

A co-citation analysis indicated that public relations increasingly relies on scholarship generated within its own discipline, with Public Relations Review, Journal of Public Relations Research and Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly being the most cited academic sources. Cross-referencing citation relationships among university clusters in different world regions illustrates an ongoing pattern of globalized construction of public relations knowledge.

Posted: July 19, 2023
Category: College News, Research News
Tagged as: Public Relations