Submissions, ACJ

Submissions
Note: All new submissions should be sent to the incoming editor, Robert Schrag.

Concepts & Calls
Guidelines
Review Procedures
Formatting Submissions
Requirements for Publication

Concepts & Calls (from the editor)

I wanted to encourage folks to consider participating with ACJ either as contributors or possibly as guest editors for special issues.

First, realizing that for some of you this will be your first exposure to our journal, let me reaffirm the concepts for the journal which I articulated in my initial call for participation over a year ago.

I see my role as editor of ACJ as steward of limited and unique scholarly space: the digital environment. There are literally hundreds of paper based journals that aid in the dissemination of communication scholarship. There are a mere handful that undertake that same vital task in digital space. It is that incredibly tilted playing field that has persuaded me to simply not accept, even for review, manuscripts that can comfortably appear on the printed page. I realize the importance of publication in our academic world, and have already been told that my position has threatened careers and is inexcusably arrogant. Naturally, I see it a bit differently.

As a young media scholar trying to climb the tenure and promotion ladder in the early 1970s I was continually frustrated in trying to bring my own research to the journals. It wasn't only the fact that – if you can believe it – the discipline wasn't terribly interested in the media; it was also the fact that I had to spend a huge amount of space on the page simply describing the event I was studying. Today, while the investigation of communication events we encounter via the media has come to dominate the discipline, that major translation task remains for the print based journal: describe the event you are addressing. The digital environment allows for the inclusion of the event, in its original form, as a vital part of the "work that used to be an article." A world of new possibilities confront us.

Consider the simple concept of color . Most print journals will routinely eliminate the use of color for the very pragmatic reason that it is too expensive to print color. So we get charts in several shades of gray that are meant to depict interactions of variables. And let us not just rush over the word “interactions,” which has the word “action” in it. Statistics almost invariably describe some form of action – physical, conceptual – whatever. But a static page cannot replicate action; so we have created, over a few centuries now, a static numerical language for reporting action. The digital environment can do both color and action. And the scholarly community is falling behind our commercial colleagues in the utilization of these characteristics. The online version of the New York Times had a very neat graphic the day after the California Recall. It was a map of California that broke the event up in a variety of ways. By clicking on a variable name – say the recall itself – the map would reconfigure to reveal, by a color coding of the counties, which counties had voted for or against. Clicking on another variable – say candidates – would indicate in different colors which candidate won which county. By clicking on the county on the map one could call up a pop-up menu that listed all the candidates and their vote totals. A very powerful depiction of information – but because it is part of a commercial publication, you have to pay to see it after 7 days.

The point is that digital space allows us to depict in new and powerful ways the objects of our studies – art, film, music, speeches, commercials, focus groups, TV programs, whatever. The digital environment also provides powerful tools to display the results of those investigation – color, animation, sound.

It is my intent to build upon the work of previous editors and use ACJ as a scholarly platform to advantage works that depend upon the capabilities of the digital environment for their most beneficial depiction. There is a store here in my city called – “If It's Paper.” The idea is that you can buy anything there if it is made of paper. I think of ACJ as “If It's Not Paper.”

If you have a work that isn't a paper – we would love to review it! Please send it to me at: Robert_Schrag@ncsu.edu

Finally, several areas of investigation seem to lend themselves quite naturally to this type of environment. I am considering special issues or featured sections in these areas. I would strongly encourage you to write to me if you have a piece that fits these categories, but even more so if any of these areas are of special interest or expertise and you might be interested in serving as a guest editor for a special issue:

The Intersection of Art and The Digital Environment
Software Design: The New Language of Social Power and Control
The Multimodal Depiction of Scholarly Research Results

Naturally, I would also be interested in hearing about your ideas for special issues or sections.

Guidelines

The submission must default to the most recent version of either the APA or MLA styleguide.
The submission should have an abstract of no more than 200 words for ACJ archival purposes.
The submission should, in spirit and practice, make use of online resources.
The submission can include graphs, pictures, images, or video and audio files to be stored on ACJ's server space.
The author(s) must notify the Editor of the name(s), address(es), and contact information for all contributors in a separate e-mail or letter; additionally, the work that is to be submitted must not have any identifying information whatsoever to protect anonymity.

Review Procedures

The author submits her or his work (saved as an HTML file), using one of the three formats below (ranked in order of preference):
1. by notifying the Editor of the uniform resource locator (URL) where the HTML document and accompanying images are housed. The files will then be copied to a secure URL.
2. by mailing the HTML document and accompanying images to the Editor on an IBM-formatted 3.5" floppy disk.
The Editor reviews the work for blatant analytical, stylistic, or grammatical errors.
If no errors are found, the Editor determines which three (3) members of the Editorial Board are most suited to review the particular submission.
The HTML document is then placed in a separate location by the Editor, with the address being provided only to the reviewers.
All reviewers are asked to return their decisions and commentary to the Editor-elect, via an email form, within six (6) weeks of accepting the task.
Based upon these comments, the Editor decides upon one of three courses of action: a) rejection, b) conditional acceptance with revisions, or c) acceptance.
The researcher(s) are then notified of ACJ's decision, normally by e-mail.

Formatting Submissions

All submissions need to be saved as HTML files. We encourage authors to make use of the possibilities of online publication, including multimedia elements. If you are a new-comer to HTML editing, we ask that you leave the majority of the page unformatted, since it will be placed into a template to maintain the look of the journal. If you are an accomplished HTML editor and want to create a special look for your page(s), we are more than happy to make exceptions to the standard design. Just realize that if you want a different look, you will need to do the coding yourself (working with the associate editor as necessary). The following are a few specific guidelines we ask everyone to follow:

Any external links (links to other pages on the WWW) should be checked for accuracy.
Each item in the works cited list should have an anchor, using the last name of the author or the first significant word of the title as the name of the anchor. In the body of the article, create a link whenever a work is cited to the appropriate anchor point in the works cited list.
Use italics for emphasis and titles of journals/books.
Multimedia elements (graphics, audio files, video clips) should be inserted where desired, and checked for accuracy/functionality.
Heading levels should be as follows:

Heading One: Centered and Bold Face

Heading Two: Left Margin, Bold Face

Heading Three: Indented, Bold Face

Requirements for Publication

The author(s) must strongly consider all grammatical, stylistic, and substantive changes suggested by the Editorial Board and the Editor.
The author(s) must ensure that all information, hypertext format, and links are accurate.
Neither the American Communication Association nor the American Communication Journal assume any liability for any information housed on its server. By agreeing to publish in the American Communication Journal, authors assume liability for all words, content, and meanings, regardless of context or third party involvement. The American Communication Journal will copyright all works on its site; however, authors retain the right to make use of their own work (with the exception of commercial publication).