Public Relations Review 38 (2012) 1–4 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Public Relations Review Commentary Reviewing public relations research and scholarship in the 21st century Anne Gregory * Leeds Metropolitan University, United Kingdom a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 17 August 2011 Received in revised form 10 October 2011 Accepted 14 October 2011 I have been prompted to write this Commentary piece following a period of reflection on the field of public relations as a whole. My thoughts have been focused by sharing Meet the Editor platforms with a number of respected colleagues including Ray Hiebert, the long-standing editor of this journal and an analysis of papers coming to my own journal and to others where I serve as an editorial board member. It is also informed by attending numerous academic conferences around the world, an ongoing involvement with the practitioner community over the past 10 years and my current role as Chair Elect of the Global Alliance. 1 After the first decade of the 21st century it is appropriate to take stock of our field. The main lens through which I do this, the papers that are being submitted to journals in the field, provides an insight into what topics are taking up the time and energy of many in the academy, and the too few practitioners that submit their work to our refereed publications. This Commentary might also partially explain the dearth of practitioner contributions to our journals and it is certainly a plea for more. I confess I have been goaded into writing this piece, partly out of frustration about what I see as some issues in our field of scholarship that are not being honestly confronted, and partly because I see many opportunities being missed. My wish is that this piece stimulates debate, possibly even a conference to address some of the topics raised. It is driven out of a deep desire for our field to advance, to be respected and to take its place as an academic field of note and a practice of the same standing. I make no apology about the stance I take in this Commentary as an academic who has spent many years in practice and who happily straddles the divide between the academy and those who work in the increasingly challenging and complex world of practice. We are an academic field that has arisen from the practice and my unashamed ambition is for the practice to be more rigorous and respected. I also recognise there are many areas left unconsidered in this piece, but I am hopeful it will serve as a starting point and others will delve below the surface I have skimmed, and venture much wider. 1. Introduction It is evident that ours is a vibrant field. The number of papers being submitted to journals is rising and the number of article downloads is also increasing. For example, downloads of full text articles from Public Relations Review have tripled from 106,617 in 2006 to 356,658 in 2010 (see Fig. 1 below). There are more journals in the field, including those published online. This year, the Canadian Journal of Public Relations and Communication Management and Public Relations Inquiry have been launched. There are growing numbers of academic * Tel.: +44 0113 283. E-mail address: A.Gregory@leedsmet.ac.uk 1 For further information about the Global Alliance please see http://www.globalalliancepr.org/content/1/3/about. 0363-8111/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2011.10.003