Influential Authors and Works of the Public Relations Scholarly Literature: A Network of Recent Research

A bibliometric study of the public relations scholarly literature revealed the most cited authors and most cited published works for 1990-1995. Unlike other disciplines, public relations is typified by a concentration of scholars, institutions, and topics. J. E. Grunig is by far the most cited scholar, J. E. Grunig and Hunt (1984) is the most cited work, and public relations roles is the most co-cited category of works. Findings indicate that public relations is a young, but growing, social science discipline that might benefit from a certain amount of paradigmatic or topical diversity in the future.