THE PUBLIC RELATIONS DISSEMINATION KNOWLEDGE IN THE SPANISH INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORIES

As the Declaration of Berlin (2003) has stated, dissemination knowledge is only half complete if the information is not made widely and readily available to society. In this sense, self-archiving in institutional repositories can be a powerful tool, particularly, for fields where research is less visible than other areas. In Spain, the Public Relations (PR) scientific production is scarce in comparison with other areas as Advertising. However, for Advertising and Public Relations undergraduate students, PR is one of the most preferred fields to work in. So, self-archiving PR materials in institutional repositories can aid to fill this information gap. The aim of this paper is to explore the public relations dissemination knowledge in the Spanish Institutional Repositories. The practical implications of the results obtained in this paper are multiple. Firstly, given that open access gives authors and their works vast and measurable new visibility, readership and impact (BOAI, 2002), we will know if there is a need to encourage our public relations researchers to publish their work according to the principles of the open access paradigm. Secondly, if we consider that repositories function as the public face of the institution, it will be of interest for universities to supervise the flow of public relations digital scholarly works deposited in their repositories. In this sense, this material could contribute to the academic reputation of the institution and it could be a core element to increase the power of attraction of universities on students. Lastly, teachers and students could have an important database of public relations open access resources that could enrich the teaching-learning process.