A Study of the Reputations of Doctoral Programs in Communication 2016.pdfVIP

National Communication Association National Office 202-464-4NCA 1765 N Street, NW fax 202-464-4600 Washington, DC 20036 NCA Doctoral Reputational Study, 2004 Thomas A. Hollihan, Chairperson Doctoral Education Committee, 2003-20041 In August, 2001, the Doctoral Education Committee DEC of the National Communication Association NCA , sought and gained the agreement of the Administrative Committee of the NCA, to conduct a second reputationa l study of doctoral programs in communication. 2 The first NCA reputational study had reported its results in April, 1996.3 The goal was to update that study and to put in place a system where a new study was conducted every three years so that new doctoral programs could be added and so that significant changes occurring in programs new faculty hires or losses, new curricula, new areas of specialization, new research initiatives, etc. could be taken into account by evaluators and reflected in program evaluations . Methodology of the Study The DEC deliberated over the design of the study and agreed that all programs that offered the Ph.D. in one or more of the major specialty areas of communication studies would be included. The study thus included the communication programs that were ranked in the first NCA study, those new doctoral programs that had been established since that first study, and the research and doctoral education components but not the professional training components of units devoted to the study of mass communication. The units to be ranked were those in which the doctoral programs were 1 Thomas A. Hollihan directed the study and is responsible for this final report. He would like to acknowledge the efforts of Justin Acome who coordinated the data collection and analysis and the following USC-Annenberg students who assisted with the study: Caroline Estrada, Emma Lee, Amy Granados, Allie Basker, Hara Hailele -Griffin, Jackson DeMos, Lisa Green, Tal Zavlodaver, Joshua Francis, Tanya Wennma