Public Relations Inquiry
Communication and Media Studies (General) | Cultural Studies (General) | Political Communication
Public Relations Inquiry is an international, peer-reviewed journal for conceptual, reflexive and critical discussion on public relations, supporting debates on new ways of thinking about public relations in social, cultural and political contexts, in order to improve understanding of its work and effects beyond the purely organisational realm. We interpret public relations in a broad sense, recognising the influence of public relations practices on the many forms of contemporary strategic, promotional communication initiated by organisations, institutions and individuals.
The practice of public relations arises at points of societal and organisational change and transformation, affecting many aspects of political, economic, social and cultural life. Reflecting this, we aim to mobilize research that speaks to a scholars in diverse fields and welcome submissions from any area that speak to the purpose of the journal, including (but not only) public relations, organizational communication, media and journalism studies, cultural studies, anthropology, political communication, sociology, organizational studies, development communication, migration studies, visual communication, management and marketing, digital media and data studies.
We actively seek contributions that can extend the range of perspectives used to understand public relations, its role in societal change and continuity, and its impact on cultural and political life. We particularly welcome multi-disciplinary debate about the communication practices that shape major human concerns, including:
- globalisation, politics, and public relations in international communication
- migration, refugees, displaced populations
- terrorism, public diplomacy
- public and corporate governance
- diversity and cultural impacts of PR
- the natural and built environments
- Communication, space and place
- The development and practices of major industries such as health, food, sport, tourism, technology
- The cultural industries (theatre, film, music, and the arts
- the history and politics of public relations as a discipline, promotional occupation and professional field
Public Relations Inquiry provides a unified space to facilitate reflection on such topics and others of global concern and local relevance. Submissions should be conceptually innovative and theoretically robust. They must be rigorous in their approach, detailed and precise in their argument. Theoretical and empirical papers are equally welcome. Interdisciplinary work is especially important to the journal, particularly if it extends the relevance of public relations theory and practice to new contexts and academic fields.
In line with our desire to encourage innovative and creative research in the field, a wide range of methodologies are acceptable to Public Relations Inquiry. Traditional qualitative methods, critical applications of quantitative methods, and marginalised empirical and analytical approaches, are all welcomed.
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Public Relations Inquiry is an international, peer-reviewed journal for conceptual, reflexive and critical discussion on public relations, supporting debates on new ways of thinking about public relations in social, cultural and political contexts, in order to improve understanding of its work and effects beyond the purely organisational realm. We interpret public relations in a broad sense, recognising the influence of public relations practices on the many forms of contemporary strategic, promotional communication initiated by organisations, institutions and individuals.
The practice of public relations arises at points of societal and organisational change and transformation, affecting many aspects of political, economic, social and cultural life. Reflecting this, we aim to mobilize research that speaks to a scholars in diverse fields and welcome submissions from any area that speak to the purpose of the journal, including (but not only) public relations, organizational communication, media and journalism studies, cultural studies, anthropology, political communication, sociology, organizational studies, development communication, migration studies, visual communication, management and marketing, digital media and data studies.
We actively seek contributions that can extend the range of perspectives used to understand public relations, its role in societal change and continuity, and its impact on cultural and political life. We particularly welcome multi-disciplinary debate about the communication practices that shape major human concerns, including:
- globalisation, politics, and public relations in international communication
- migration, refugees, displaced populations
- terrorism, public diplomacy
- public and corporate governance
- diversity and cultural impacts of PR
- the natural and built environments
- Communication, space and place
- The development and practices of major industries such as health, food, sport, tourism, technology
- The cultural industries (theatre, film, music, and the arts
- the history and politics of public relations as a discipline, promotional occupation and professional field
| Kristin Demetrious | Deakin University, Australia |
| Kate Fitch | Monash University, Australia |
| Alenka Jelen | University of Stirling, UK |
| Jenny Hou | Queensland University of Technology, Australia |
| Nilanjana Bardhan | South Illinois University at Carbondale, USA |
| Rob Brown | Salem State College, USA |
| Douglas Brownlie | University of Dundee, UK |
| Valerie Carayol | University of Bordeaux 3, France |
| Craig E. Carroll | Rice University |
| Antonio Castillo | University of Malaga, Spain |
| George Cheney | University of Colorado, Colarado Springs, USA |
| Yang (Alice) Cheng | North Carolina State University, USA |
| Patricia A. Curtin | University of Oregon, USA |
| Bernard Dagenais | Laval University, Quebec |
| Scott Davidson | University of Leicester, UK |
| Aeron Davis | Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand |
| Luiz-Alberto de Farias | University of Sao Paulo, Brazil |
| Alina Dolea | Bournemouth University, UK |
| Jesper Falkheimer | Lund University, Sweden |
| Jo Fawkes | University of Huddersfield, UK |
| Bob Franklin | Cardiff University, UK |
| Magnus Frederikson | University of Gothenburg, Sweden |
| Owen Hargie | University of Ulster, UK |
| Gerard Hastings | University of Stirling, UK |
| Vince Hazleton | Radford University, USA |
| Robert Heath | University of Houston, USA |
| Mats Heide | Lund University, Sweden |
| Jamilah Hj Ahmad | Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia |
| Sherry J. Holladay | University of Central Florida, USA |
| Derina Holtzhausen | Lamar University, USA |
| Oyvind Ihlen | University of Oslo, Norway |
| Octavio Islas | Instituto Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico |
| Inger Jensen | Roskilde University, Denmark |
| Mònika Jimenez | Pompeu Fabra University, Spain |
| Jane Johnston | University of Queensland, Australia |
| Ferran Lalueza | Open University of Catalonia, Spain |
| Larsake Larsson | Orebro University, Sweden |
| Ryszard Lawnczak | Poznan University of Economics, Poland |
| Thierry Libaert | University of Louvain, Belgium |
| Jairo Lugo-Ocando | University of Sharjah, UAE |
| David McKie | University of Waikato, New Zealand |
| Debashish Munshi | University of Waikato, New Zealand |
| Paulo Nassar | University of Sao Paulo, Brazil |
| Mahuya Pal | University of South Florida, USA |
| Michael J. Palenchar | University of Tennessee, USA |
| Gregory Payne | Emerson College, USA |
| Donnalyn Pompper | University of Oregon, USA |
| Oliver Raaz | Ernst-Moritz Arndt University, Germany |
| Yanyn Rincón | Universidad Belloso Chacín, Venezuela |
| Juliet P. Roper | University of Waikato, New Zealand |
| Philip Schlesinger | University of Glasgow, UK |
| Nancy Snow | California State University - Fullerton, USA |
| Ian Somerville | University of Leicester, UK |
| Donn Tilson | University of Miami, USA |
| Margalit Toledano | Monmouth University, USA |
| Chiara Valentini | University of Jyväskylä, Finland |
| Marina Vujnovic | University of Waikato, New Zealand |
| Damion Waymer | University of South Carolina, USA |
| Kay Weaver | University of Colorado Boulder, USA |
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Public Relations Inquiry
This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics
Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/PUBRI to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Public Relations Inquiry will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.
- What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Supplementary material
4.4 Reference style
4.5 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
6.1 Sage Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article - Further information
Before submitting your manuscript to Public Relations Inquiry, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
Public Relations Inquiry mobilizes research that speaks to a range of scholars in diverse fields and welcomes submissions from public relations, media, communications and cultural studies, anthropology, political communication, sociology, political science, strategic studies, law, organizational studies, management and marketing, literature, philosophy and history. Given that public relations as a practice arises at points of societal and organizational change and transformation the journal encourages multi-disciplinary debate on public relations and public communication practices through foci on major human concerns such as migration, diversity, poverty, environmental issues. While Public Relations Inquiry embraces submissions across a range of research perspectives and methodological orientations, it especially encourages work that develops social, cultural, critical and qualitative understandings of public relations theory and practice. Public Relations Inquiry seeks innovative, creative perspectives and forms of writing, and welcomes new challenges. On this basis, while Public Relations Inquiry does not reject quantitative studies, it does require that statistical analysis be substantiated by, and situated within, theoretically informed engagement with the subject matter.
The journal welcomes the following types of submissions.
(1) Full research articles incorporating substantive findings and promoting critical scholarship. Public Relations Inquiry is especially open to articles that encourage or incorporate new ways of thinking about theory, research policy and practice in public relations and organizational communication. While we expect most articles to be around the 7,500 word length including all elements (title page, abstract, notes, references, tables, etc.) the editors recognise that some forms of research will require more space to incorporate theory and empirical evidence.
(2) Full length conceptual essays and diverse literary forms of writing in the liberal arts tradition around the 7,000 word range.
(2) Short theoretical essays or polemical pieces in the range of 2,000-4,000 words, addressing current issues, topics and debates.
(3) Review Articles. The Editors wish to encourage the following types of review, but request that authors contact them in advance:
(a) general reviews that provide a synthesis of an area of public relations research;
(b) perspectives - brief overviews, which are 4-6 printed pages in length including references, that address important new areas of general interest;
(c) critiques - focused and provocative reviews that are followed by a number of invited commentaries, with a concluding reply from the main author.
(4) Book Reviews. A list of up-to-date books for review is available from the Journal's Editorial Manager. If you wish to submit a book review to Public Relations Inquiry, pease ensure that you follow the journal's Book Review Guidelines.
The journal will also publish occasional special issues devoted to a particular theme or topic.
Papers should be written in English and should not have been published already, nor be currently under consideration elsewhere.
The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
Sage does not permit the use of author-suggested (recommended) reviewers at any stage of the submission process, be that through the web-based submission system or other communication. Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if:
• The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors
• The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper
• The author has recommended the reviewer
• The reviewer has provided a personal (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution).
All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.
2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:
- Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
- Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
- Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.
Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
Public Relations Inquiry requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
Public Relations Inquiry encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.
3.1.1 Plagiarism
Public Relations Inquiry and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
3.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway.
3.3 Open access and author archiving
Public Relations Inquiry offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.
4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.
This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files.
Public Relations Inquiry adheres to the Sage Harvard reference style. View the Sage Harvard guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Harvard EndNote output file.
4.5 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
Public Relations Inquiry is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/PUBRI to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.
6. On acceptance and publication
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.
6.3 Access to your published article
Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Public Relations Inquiry editorial office as follows:
Jacquie L’Etang
publicrelationsinquiry@gmail.com