2008 PROCEEDINGS - Public Relations Society of America

Method
Journal Inclusion Criteria
Sallot et al. (2003) conducted theory development research to find how public relations
theories and public relations research have developed from 1975 to 2000 in public relations
academic journals: Public Relations Review, Public Relations Research Annual, and Journal of
Public Relations Research suggesting that these journals have served significant roles to present
public relations research. Along with this notion, these same three journals were chosen for this
study to review PR effectiveness research.
Article Inclusion Criteria
A total of 948 articles were reviewed by title, all 697 articles through volume 33, issue 4
(2007) in Public Relations Review; all 30 articles in Public Relations Research Annual; and 221
articles through volume 19, number 4 (2007) in Journal of Public Relations Research. First,
articles chosen included “image” “reputation” “relationship” “OPR” “conflict” “contingency
theory,” and “collaboration” in their titles. A total of 95 articles were selected. Second, among
selected articles, 22 articles were excluded through reading their abstract and literature review.
Finally, 77 articles were content analyzed. As a pilot test, I was the only coder. In further studies,
more coders will participate and coder reliability will be checked.
Coding Schema
Type of management philosophy. Articles were reviewed to determine whether they fell
into one of four mutually exclusive categories: conflict, relationship, reputation, and image
management.
Descriptive characteristics. Each article was coded for its descriptive characteristics: year
of publication and journal title.
PR effectiveness. Each article was reviewed to determine whether it mentioned that its
type of management demonstrates one of four mutually exclusive statements: PR effectiveness,
importance, strategic management, and none of three.
Content of article. Articles were reviewed to determine whether they fell into one of four
mutually exclusive categories: theory development studies, implementation of theory or
campaigns, exploratory research, and retrospective research.
Type of theory. Articles were reviewed to determine what kinds of theory or theoretical
model drove their research. After the first review of articles, all theories and theoretical models
were written and coded.
Type of context. Each article was reviewed to determine in what kind of context it was
studied. All contexts were written and coded. Articles using multiple contexts were coded
multiple times.
Type of research design. Articles were reviewed to determine whether they fell into one
of nine mutually exclusive categories: content analysis, experiment, survey, secondary data
analysis, interview, focus group interview, case study, mixed method, and other.
Type of statistics. Articles were reviewed to determine what kinds of statistical method
were used to analyze their data. After the first review of articles, all statistical methods were
written and coded.
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