IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication: shaping and reflecting a discipline

Abstract

As the discipline of technical and professional communication continues to develop, it is important to look to our past as a way of understanding who and what we are. In this paper, we report the results of a study using the IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication to help us answer questions such as: How multidisciplinary is the field of professional communication? What disciplines inform the field of professional communication? Who produces knowledge within the field? How is that knowledge developed and expanded? What are the main subjects or themes in professional communication? Finally, how have these changed over the past 25 years? Answering these questions can provide insight into the history of professional communication and illuminate some of the ways in which the interests of academics and practitioners shape the discipline.