Shaping the field: Bob Heath and the two volumes of the Encyclopedia of Public Relations

•We discuss what the Encyclopedia of Public Relations did do.•We reflect on what an Encyclopedia of Public Relations should do.•We look at how the Encyclopedia of Public Relations offers a springboard for the discipline.•We consider how the Encyclopedia of Public Relations constructs an academic community.•We explore the Encyclopedia of Public Relations as an enlightening adventure.

The five papers on this theme emerged from a plenary panel with the same title as the one above at the third Barcelona International PR Conference held on 2–3 July, 2013. They were stimulated by the then-forthcoming publication of the second edition of the Encyclopedia of Public Relations although they also address the first edition, the place of both in the public relations field, and links to issues surrounding encyclopedias in general. At the time of this submission, most of the authors had not seen the complete published copy that was released in late September, 2013. All five articles, albeit with some overlap as this was not a co-written project, are presented here as individual pieces with different titles and a variety of approaches.