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About

Research, Teaching and Service

Our faculty members are active in the areas of research, teaching, and service. Among the highlights from the past academic year include:

Research:

In a 2020 article published in Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, the Department of Communication Studies was ranked #5 in research productivity across publications in 182 journals from 1915-2018. Moreover, three faculty members-- Dr. Scott A. Myers , Dr. Matthew Martin, and Dr. Alan Goodboy--were ranked as being among the Top 3% of published scholars in the Communication Studies discipline. 

Dr. Megan Dillow was awarded the President's Award by the Eastern Communication Association in 2021 in recognition of her research and service accomplishments to the discipline.

Dr. Alan Goodboy published an article introducing bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling (bifactor-ESEM) to the measurement and modeling of relational uncertainty in the Journal of Communication. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqab009

Dr. Alan Goodboy published an article featuring finite mixture modeling to test processes of Relational Turbulence Theory in Communication Monographshttps://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2021.1951785

Dr. Alan Goodboy and Dr. Matthew Martin  published a primer on calculating coefficient omega for scale reliability in the Annals of the International Communication Association.  https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23808985.2020.1846135

Dr. Daniel Totzkay, Dr. Megan Dillow, and Dr. Alan Goodboy received a NSF RAPID grant ($109,440) to study  Appalachians’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic during the initial lockdown period and the beginning of state “re-openings” in the Spring of 2020. 

Dr. Daniel Totzkay received a state contract to evaluate West Virginia’s Comprehensive Cancer Program (PI, $70,000) and a state contract to plan and evaluate state-wide COVID-19 vaccination messaging (Co-I, $40,000).

Teaching:

Dr. Alan Goodboy received a 2020-2021 Outstanding Teacher Award from the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. He also received the 2020-2021 WVU Foundation Award for Outstanding Teaching.

Dr. Alan Goodboy was named a Distinguished Teaching Fellow by the Eastern Communication Association.

Service: 

Dr. Elizabeth Cohen was appointed to the editorial boards of Mass Communication & Society and Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media.

Dr. Megan Dillow was appointed to the Communication Monographs editorial board.

Dr. Alan Goodboy was appointed as the Vice Chair of the WVU IRB Emergency Use Committee.

Dr. Scott A. Myers is the current Editor of the Journal of Family Communication

Dr. Christy Rittenour represents and utilizes Communication Studies through her work with WVU's ADVANCE team.