AEJMC PR Division: Call for Papers (2024)
The Public Relations Division invites submissions of original papers that advance the theory, practice, and pedagogy of public relations. The division encourages submissions that reflect a variety of theoretical and practical perspectives relevant to public relations, as well as a diversity of methodological approaches. Submitters should carefully review the specific instructions for the Public Relations Division as well as the general requirements contained in the AEJMC Uniform Paper Call.
Submission Categories: A paper may be submitted in one of the three PRD research categories: (1) open research, (2) student research, or (3) scholarship of teaching, (4) GIFTs.
In a change for this year, the GIFT competition will run with the same submission system (AllAcademic) and deadline (11:59 p.m. CT, April 1, 2024) as the other categories. Complete information on the GIFT competition is available here.
Top Research, Teaching, and Student Papers: Monetary awards are given for the top three papers in each of the categories. Thanks to a generous gift from Dennis Wilcox, Professor Emeritus, San José State University, top papers in open research and scholarship of teaching categories will be awarded: $750 for the top paper, $500 for the second-place paper, and $250 for the third-place paper. Top papers will receive priority processing by the Journal of Public Relations Research, and top teaching papers will receive priority processing by the Journal of Public Relations Education, provided they are submitted by December 31, 2024. Thanks to the generous support of The Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations at the University of Alabama, the first author of each of the top three student research papers will receive $300, $200, and $100, respectively. In cases where a category does not have enough qualified submissions, the Public Relations Division reserves the right to not award any or all of the three places in that category.
Special Research Award Categories:
Doug Newsom Award
The Doug Newsom Award created in honor of Doug Newsom, Professor Emeritus, Texas Christian University, will again be given in 2024. The award in the amount of $250 is for the top paper that fits the theme of global ethics and diversity. Papers must follow the rules of the AEJMC Public Relations Division call for papers. A special Doug Newsom Award Committee will evaluate the papers on the basis of the award’s theme and recommend a nominee to the research committee for recognition.
Museum of Public Relations History Award
The Museum of Public Relations is also awarding $250 for the best paper about the role of public relations in history. The historical figures do not need to self-identify as public relations people and can include social and political movement leaders. People who are not typically cited in public relations textbooks are of particular interest. Papers must follow the rules of the AEJMC Public Relations Division call for papers. A special Public Relations History Award Committee will evaluate the papers on the basis of the award’s theme and recommend a nominee to the research committee for recognition.
DEI & Public Relations Award
The Top Paper on DEI & Public Relations will also be awarded in 2024. The winning paper will earn $250. Paper submissions must follow the general rules of the AEJMC Public Relations Division call for papers. The PRD Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) committee will evaluate the papers on the basis of the award’s theme including (but not limited to) scholarship around race, gender, LGBTQ rights, and accessibility. The committee will recommend a nominee to the research committee for recognition.
Those who wish to compete for the Doug Newsom, Public Relations History, or DEI & Public Relations awards should submit papers using the appropriate award submission link in the All-Academic system. Authors must indicate the submission categories (i.e., teaching, open, or student) and then clearly label their papers for consideration of the award for which they wish to compete. Papers not selected for the awards will still be considered for acceptance in the categories (i.e., scholarship of teaching, open research, or student research) to which they are submitted.
In cases where an award competition does not have enough qualified submissions, the Public Relations Division reserves the right to not award any paper in that competition.
Submission Limitations: No more than TWO papers or abstracts may be submitted by any one author or co-author across the three PRD categories (i.e., teaching, open, or student) including awards submissions. If it is found that one person is author and/or co-author of more than two submissions across the three PRD categories, all submissions beyond the second submission will be excluded from consideration. GIFT submissions are considered separate and not included in this limitation.
A Paper May NOT be Under Review: (1) simultaneously with more than one of the PRD categories, (2) simultaneously with more than one division within AEJMC, (3) simultaneously with the AEJMC conference and any other conference, or (4) simultaneously with the AEJMC conference and any potential publication, including refereed journals, book chapters, etc.
Authorship: When submitting co-authored papers, permission to submit the paper should be sought and obtained from all authors on the paper. Paper authorship cannot be added, deleted, or changed after submission of the paper.
Author Identification: All authors and co-authors, their institutional affiliations and contact information must be included WHEN REGISTERING on the online system. If there are three co-authors, for example, information about all three must be included in the registration. Student papers must be authored or co-authored by students ONLY (no faculty co-authors), and all student papers must have the word “STUDENT” on the title page and in the running head. Author-identifying information MUST NOT appear anywhere in the attached paper file. Identifying information includes (1) listing of authors’ names and/or affiliations, (2) references to authors’ previous work in a way that reveals authorship of the current work, and (3) links to authors’ websites, e-mail addresses, or social media accounts. Inclusion of identifying information will result in automatic disqualification of the paper. It is the responsibility of the paper author(s) to verify that no identifying information is contained in the paper text or in the document file properties. Please follow the directions for removing your identifying information from the properties. This will need to be done EACH time you submit your paper to All-Academic. All paper submitters are strongly encouraged to submit at least a day or two before the deadline so they can check to make sure that the uploaded document does not contain any self-identifying information in its properties, as can happen sometimes, mysteriously, via “save as pdf” or as a result of some other technical issues. An early submission will allow all submitters to fully check submissions as they are entered into the system so that a resubmission prior to the deadline is possible. Submitters should download a PDF version of their paper submissions from the All Academic system and verify that self-identifying information has successfully been removed from the document’s properties.
Research paper content: Any recognized research method and citation style may be used. Papers should include appropriate literature reviews, methodology, findings, and discussion. Papers should test, refine or expand public relations theory or practice; critically review issues relevant to public relations theory and research; or explore methods of effective public relations practice. Scholarship of teaching papers should test, refine or expand principles or practices associated with public relations pedagogy using rigorous research methods. GIFT submissions should review the GIFT-specific paper call for content guidelines.
Paper Formatting (General): All papers (full papers and extended abstracts) must contain continuous page numbers; if multiple files are merged for the paper, then the author must ensure that the page numbers are continuous and do not repeat or start over from page 1. Because of past conversion issues with the All-Academic system that resulted in papers being longer than the established requirement, all papers must be submitted in PDF format. For those using the newest version of Microsoft Word, you can save your paper as a PDF file using the “Save As” function. For those not using this version, you may use a free web service, such as www.freepdfconvert.com. Failure to follow these formatting guidelines will result in an automatic disqualification of the paper.
Paper Formatting (Full Paper): A full paper cannot exceed 25 pages EXCLUDING abstract, references, figures and tables. Tables and figures will be counted toward the page limit unless placed at the end of the paper. Papers must be typed in a 12-point font, using Times New Roman, Times, or Arial font. Paper text must be formatted with double line spacing with 1-inch margins on all sides of the document; references may be single spaced, with a double space between citation entries. Papers over the page limit will be disqualified.
Paper Formatting (Extended Abstract): The Public Relations Division will accept extended abstracts for the 2024 conference. Extended abstracts should contain all of the same content sections and elements that would normally be used in the full paper, including the study's purpose, literature review, research questions and/or hypotheses, method, findings and discussion/conclusion. The main difference, however, is the length of this submission format. For authors considering the extended abstract option, data collection and analysis must be at least 75% complete in order to meaningfully report tentative findings and conclusions. Authors should clearly report in the Method and Findings sections how far along the data collection and analysis phases are, respectively, and explain what steps remain and the anticipated value/contribution of these steps, so that reviewers can assess the foundations on which conclusions are based. Extended abstracts will be reviewed and scored using evaluation criteria specific to the abstracts and not the same as those used for full papers.
The extended abstracts must be at least 750 words long but no more than 1,500 words. Extended abstracts must include a reference list and a 75-word summary of the abstract and must be submitted in PDF format. The reference list and abstract are not included in the word count. When submitting in this format, authors must select the “Extended Abstract” option in All Academic AND include the words "Extended Abstract" at the start of their paper title (e.g., "Extended Abstract: [Your paper title]"). Authors should clearly indicate the same on the title page of their submission. Submissions that are not appropriately labeled may be rejected. To preserve the value of fully developed research papers, extended abstracts will not be eligible for division awards.
Presentation Requirement: At least one author of an accepted faculty paper must attend the conference to present the paper. If student authors cannot be present, they must make arrangements for the paper to be presented by someone else. Failure to be present or provide a presenter for any paper will result in a one-year ban on the review of papers for all of the authors involved. Authors of accepted papers are required to forward papers to discussants and moderators prior to the conference. Presentations at AEJMC conference may be disseminated via social media; presenters may opt out of social media dissemination by requesting so at the time of presentation.
Questions? Please contact the research committee chair, Luke Capizzo, University of Missouri, capizzol@missouri.edu.