The Public Relations Journal, published quarterly by the Public Relations Society of America

Public Relations Society of America

The ' , based in New York City, is the world's largest organization for public relations professionals. The organization has more than 21,000 members, including professionals from public relations agencies, corporations, government, health care institutions, military, professional services firms,...

, is an open access peer-reviewed

Peer review

Peer review is a process of self-regulation by a profession or a process of evaluation involving qualified individuals within the relevant field. Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards, improve performance and provide credibility...

, electronic academic journal

Academic journal

An academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as forums for the introduction and presentation for scrutiny of new research, and the critique of existing research...

 covering topics having to do with public relations

Public relations

Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....

 and communication studies

Communication studies

Communication Studies is an academic field that deals with processes of communication, commonly defined as the sharing of symbols over distances in space and time. Hence, communication studies encompasses a wide range of topics and contexts ranging from face-to-face conversation to speeches to mass...

. The editor-in-chief is Donald K. Wright (Boston University

Boston University

Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...

).

History

The Public Relations Journal was founded in 1945 by Rex F. Harlow of the American Council on Public Relations. After this council and the National Association of Public Relations Counsel merged to form the Public Relations Society of America in 1947, it became a monthly publication of the latter society. It was published until 1994, after which it was superseded by two publications, the monthly PR Tactics and the quarterly The Strategist. However, the original Public Relations Journal had an editorial focus towards news, trends, and how-to information about the practice of public relations. The new journal is dedicated to the online publishing of research articles that examine public relations in depth and/or create, test, or expand public relations theory.

Audience

The journal’s main audience are practitioners, scholars, and students of public relations and other aspects of applied organizational communication.