Introducing the Institute for Public Relations: Dedicated to the Science Beneath the Art

This chapter introduces the Institute for Public Relations, an independent nonprofit organization located at the University of Florida in the United States. The organization exists to build and document research-based knowledge in the field of public relations, and to channel such knowledge into practice and education. While the organization celebrates its fiftieth anniversary in 2006, it is not yet well known outside the United States. All Institute publications are available free on our website, www.instituteforpr.org. Many of the papers there have been authored by members of the Commission on Public Relations Measurement & Evaluation, formed under the Institute’s auspices in 1998, and of the Commission on International Public Relations, formed in 2005.