Editorial Policies

Section Policies

Editorials

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Articles

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Special Sections

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Features

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Book Reviews

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Open Access Policy

This is an Open Access journal. Users have the right to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full text of articles in this journal, or use them for any other lawful purpose.

Open Access enables authors to obtain the maximum possible exposure for their work. Freely available papers are read more, cited more, and have more impact than ones available only to paid subscribers. As an experiment, enter a research topic into a search engine like Google and see how many links you obtain to papers published in traditional journals. You will find that most references are to working papers, not to published papers, because working papers are freely available. The advent of the web has made free dissemination of research feasible and financially viable. Because existing specialty journals obtain revenues from selling subscriptions, primarily to libraries, access to the research they publish is limited. The attractive revenue stream that such subscriptions provide makes it unlikely that these journals will convert to Open Access. Thus a need exists for new refereed Open Access journals to replace existing journals. We believe that the establishment of a major Open Access journal in communication study will lead others to establish Open Access journals for many sub-fields and specialties in communication, reclaiming full control for the profession of its research output. We hope that this will lead the profession to a new norm in which all research is freely available and which there are no article processing (APC) or submission charges. The International Journal of Communication has no article processing charges and no article submission charges.

 

Archiving

This journal utilizes the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration.

 

Turnaround Time

An important goal of IJoC is to speed the review process. In particular, we aim to have papers go through at most two rounds of refereeing. In light of this goal, a paper judged to be unlikely to be acceptable by a second round will be rejected, either without consultation with referees or in response to referee reports. We aim to turn around papers as quickly as is consistent with a thorough evaluation of their contribution. We aim to adhere to the following standards for turnaround time.

 

Appeals

IJoC does not consider appeals at this time, and will not reverse decisions or reconsider submissions that have already been declined, whether desk rejected or declined after peer review, unless involving allegations of misconduct. Please direct these to Editor Silvio Waisbord and cc Managing Editor Kady Bell-Garcia.

 

Code of Ethics

The International Journal of Communication (IJoC) aspires to select and publish, through peer review, the highest quality research in communication studies. In order to achieve this goal, we aim for the entire peer review and publication process to be thorough, objective and fair. Journal reputation depends heavily on the trust by all stakeholders in the fairness of the peer review and publication process. An important role of the publisher is to support the extensive efforts of the journal editors, and often unsung volunteer work undertaken by peer reviewers in maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record. It is a tribute to scholarly practice that the system works well, and problems are comparatively rare. The publisher has a supporting, investing and nurturing role in the scholarly communication process, and is also ultimately responsible for ensuring that best practices are followed. IJoC supports the principles established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), but is not an official member.

The peer review process is double-blind, and reviewers must agree to adhere to the Reviewer Guidelines, which are outlined when a reviewer responds to an invitation. Review timelines vary, but reviewers are initially given five weeks to review, and most articles go through at least two rounds of review prior to the final decision. If revisions are requested, authors have two months to complete revisions. If a manuscript is accepted, authors have a full year to submit their final versions. Authors are only notified of final decisions during the peer review process. The Editor makes all decisions following peer review, but some editorial decisions are also made by the Managing Editors, during the initial vetting processs of new submissions.

This journal uses double-blind review, which means that both the reviewer and author identities are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa, throughout the review process. To facilitate this, authors need to ensure that their manuscripts are prepared in a way that does not give away their identity.

 

Anonymization, Confidentiality, and Informed Consent

IJoC follows double-blind peer review protocols, including asking authors to anonymize their submissions (see Submission Guidelines). If articles contain content that could potentially identify participants, we also ask that a statement on participant consent be included on full text versions, which authorizes participation in the study itself and for use of any potentially identifying content within the article in question.

 

Complaints

Complaints are evaluated on a case by case basis by our editorial team. Please contact Managing Editor Kady Bell-Garcia with any concerns about the journal’s policies and procedures or specific content, including allegations of misconduct by authors.

 

Conflicts of Interest

Any potential conflicts of interest, generally defined as elements that might affect the integrity of the research, pubilcation, or double-blind peer review process, must be disclosed in a statement on the title page. This can be included as a footnote after an author’s name. Authors should include a statement declaring any conflicts of interest or acknowleding none declared in a footnote on the title page (footnote can appear after an author's name in accepted versions).

 

Allegations of Misconduct

IJoC takes allegations of data fabrication/falsification, image manipulation, and plagiarism, among other forms of misconduct, seriously, and will internally investigate any potential concerns. IJoC will consider allegations brought forth by any party. Please contact Silvio Waisbord and cc Kady Bell-Garcia with any such allegations. For matters of academic misconduct that originated at an author’s home institution, this might involve asking the institution to handle an internal investigation before making any rulings. In response, IJoC reserves the right to issue a Correction, Retraction, or Expression of Concern.

 

Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions

Corrections must be immediately reported to the Managing Editor that handled the final publication of the article. Articles that have already been posted can be edited and reposted. Corrections can be made to correct any errors, including those that concern the validity or integrity of the article. Correction footnotes can be added, or letters might be issued, in some cases, depending on the extent and nature of the correction. Please note that some corrections might be subject to fees, depending on the scope of the work involved, post-publication process. This is in adherence with our Author Fees guidelines, in which authors who choose to review more than three proofs are charged $60 for each additional proof, and line changes are $10/line. International wire fees (bank fees) of $50 might also apply, if outside of the United States.

Expressions of Concern and Retractions are possible forms of action following allegations of misconduct. An Expression of Concern indicates that an investigation is ongoing or was inconclusive, while a Retraction indicates that misconduct occurred and an article was officially retracted following publication.

All articles should contain brief statements about Institutional Review Board (IRB)/ethics approval, if applicable. If this was not required, please also include a statement explaining why. IRB approval numbers and dates can be provided, but should be blocked/redacted for the double-blind peer review process and reinstated later, if a manuscript is accepted.

 

Disseminating

We are making efforts to disseminate the journal content as widely as possible. If the journal is not listed in the catalog of your institution's library, we encourage you to request that it be listed. The journal is listed also in NewJour, a resource used by librarians, and on Registry of Embedded Multimedia Electronic Journals.

 

Archiving in D-Space

Papers published in International Journal of Communication are stored on the Annenberg Press server of the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, currently located at the University of Southern California. We take the preservation of the papers very seriously. We are working to permanently archive the content of the journal in D-Space.