Study finds UGA PR program most prolific in online PR research

Kaye Sweetser

University of Georgia public relations faculty ranked number one in a recent analysis of research about "online" public relations efforts. The study was conducted by Drs. Lan Ye and Eyun-Jung Ki, faculty at the University of Alabama, and was published in the Journal of Public Relations Research, Vol. 24, No. 5, 2012. The analysis examined peer-reviewed articles published from 1992 to 2009.

The University of Georgia ranked first with a calculated score of 9.24, followed most closely by the University of Florida with a score of 3.66, Rutgers University with a score of 3.65, and the University of Maryland with a score of 3.00. Associate professor Kaye Sweetser led the UGA public relations faculty with nine published articles relating to online public relations, followed by Professor Lynne Sallot with four articles, Associate Professor Bryan Reber with three articles, Professor Ruthann W. Lariscy with two articles and Associate Professor Carolina Acosta-Alzuru with one article.

"UGA's ADPR department received a score of 9.24 in this study.That score is a combination of the number of articles produced by the university and the number of researchers from that university," said Dr. Reber. "The second-best university in this study was Florida with a score of 3.66.  So, you can see that Georgia really dominated in research about online public relations."

To compute the scores, the study assigned a credit of 1.0 to each article. For a single-author article, the author and the author's institution was assigned 1.0 credit. For multi-authored submissions, the authors and their institutions would receive partial credit. For a two-author article, an author would receive a credit of 0.5, while a three-author submission would give each author a 0.33 score. 

"The results of this analysis show that University of Georgia is the top source of cutting-edge knowledge about the nature and effects of social and digital public relations practice," said Tom Reichert, Department Head of Advertising and Public Relations. "Our public relations faculty are leading the field in this important area of scholarship."