International Journal of Communication

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Author Guidelines

To submit a paper, you need to log in to our site, which requires you to be registered. If you are not registered, please complete the form on our registration page (which will log you in after it is submitted). If you are registered, please go to the paper submission page (which will ask you to log in if you are not already logged in).

• The submission must default to the 6th edition of the APA styleguide.
  For example,
  Alvarez, A. (1970). The savage god: A study of suicide. New York: Random House. Natarajan, R., & Chaturvedi, R. (1983). Geology of the Indian Ocean. Hartford, CT: University of Hartford Press. Maddux, K. (1997, March). True stories of the Internet patrol. NetGuide Magazine, 12(2), 88-92.
• Research articles should range between 6,000 and 8,900 words (all-inclusive).  Papers must NOT exceed 8,900 words.
• Features are papers that are along the lines of opinion or op-ed pieces should range between 3,500 and 6,000 words.
• Forum essays should range between 1,500 to 3,000 words. Forums are effectively considered Special Sections in several key respects. Thus, production costs for Special Sections and Forums will need to be subsidized by guest editors. Special Sections and Forums that may not be fully funded will be considered in light of IJoC's budgetary status at the time of submission. To inquire about or to submit a proposal for a Special Section or Forum, please contact Kady Bell-Garcia, Managing Editor, at bellgarc@usc.edu.
• If you would like to submit a proposal to be a guest editor of a Special Section, please note that the timeline and protocol for producing Special Sections is different from single articles published on IJoC. Special Sections typically require around 12–14 months from proposal to publication, and Annenberg Press is not budgeted to cover the editing and proofing costs for those projects, so funding is required.
• The submission can include files such as graphs, pictures, images, or video and audio files to be stored on IJoC server. Graphics should be in JPEG, GIF, PNG, or TIFF format. Audio segments should be in MP3, or AIFF, WAV (Windows Audio Wave) format. Video segments should be in Quicktime, MPEG, AVI (Video for Windows), or WMV (Windows Media Video) format. Other audio and video file formats may be acceptable; but please check with us before uploading them to confirm their compatibility with our software and our conversion programs. We encourage authors to obtain appropriate permissions to use materials originally produced by others, but do not require such permissions as long as the usage of such materials falls within the boundaries of Fair Use.
• An abstract and keywords are required for an article submission. Please be sure to complete the text box for an abstract in the submission's metadata section.
• If you are requested by the Editor to submit revisions for review, you can upload a revised version under the "Editor Decision" section in the submission's Review page, specifically the "Upload Author Version" field.
• 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. (Referees are not compensated for their reviews of submissions.)
• Please see the Submission Preparation List for specific guidelines.

BOOK REVIEW GUIDELINES:

The following are some guidelines for a book review essay.  Your book review should concern only the book(s) that you’re reviewing with a word count of about 1,500 words (including the references).  It should provide IJoC  readers an engaging, informative and critical discussion of the work.  The review should also consider:

• The intended audience for the book and those who would find it useful
• The main objectives of the book and how effectively these are accomplished
• The context or impetus for the book (e.g., political controversy, review research, policy, theory, etc.)
• A comparison of other works on this subject
• Constructive comments about the strengths and weaknesses of the book
• See any IJoC book review Oliver Boyd-Barrett as examples of excellent essays at ijoc.org

Please lead your essay with the following listing:

• Author(s) or editor(s) first and last name(s) and please indicate if it is an edited book
• Title of book
• Publisher's city and state and name of publisher
• Year of publication
• Price (please indicate paperback or hard cover)
• Total # of page expressed as XXX pp.
• Image of the book cover

Under this listing, please include your information:

• Your first and last name
• Institution affiliation

Style Guidelines

• All references should follow APA (6^th edition) formatting.
• Roman, 12 point
• Spacing: Multiple 1.3
• Margins: 1.7 top and bottom; 1.25 left and right sides
• All reviews should be submitted with American English spelling, rather than British English.
• The International Journal of Communication is a multi-disciplinary journal, thus authors must communicate to a wide audience rather than just those within their own field. Language must, therefore, be direct and void of unnecessary jargon and technical terms.  Please use the active voice as much as possible.

Submission Guidelines to the IJoC System

• Submit your book review by registering as an author at http://ijoc.org and follow the submission process to submit your essay.
• Only one submission per book reviewer is allowed at a time.  
• Multiple reviewers are allowed only by pre-authorization from the IJoC editor-in-chief.

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for publication consideration (or an explanation has been provided in "Comments to the Editor").

2. The submission file is in Microsoft Word and should not exceed 8,900 words (all-inclusive).

   IJoC regularly checks submissions for plagiarism through iThenticate.

3. All URL addresses in the text (e.g., http://ijoc.org) are activated and ready to click.

4. The text is double-spaced; uses a 12-point font (Times Roman preferred); employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate reference points, rather than at the end of the article.

5. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in "About the Journal."

6. The text has had the authors' names removed. If an author is cited, "Author" and year are used in the bibliography and footnotes, instead of author's name, paper title, etc. The author's name has also been removed from the document's Properties, which in Microsoft Word is found in the File menu.

   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.

   Ensure that your submission is anonymized (including in "Properties). To anonymize your manuscript for double blind peer review, follow these instructions.

   Ensure there is no author information in the metadata of any of the files submitted (e.g., in Word see: http://bit.ly/201IdX7; in Adobe see: http://adobe.ly/1NJEtR7). Remove acknowledgments, grant funding, or other author-related information from the manuscript. Check the figures for appearance of any author names.

   When referring to your own work within the paper, consider the likelihood of someone being able to identify you from the citation. Reduce that possibility by:

   a)  Avoiding the first-person in association with any citation (e.g., replace “As we have shown (Jones, 2012) …” with “As Jones (2012) has shown…”).

   b)  Remove references to your own unpublished / in press work except where essential; where such work is cited, delete the author’s name (i.e., cite as “Author, in     press”) and remove from the reference list.

   c)  Avoid references that by implication identify the author (e.g., delete “This work is part of a larger grant project (Ibrahim, 2013, 2014)”).

   d)  Avoid excessive self-citation—typically, articles citing “Ramirez (2004, 2005, 2007, 2012, 2014) …” are by Ramirez!

   e)  More generally, use common sense. Consider whether your writing has the potential to identify you to a reader who is an expert in the field; if it does, think about sensible ways to reduce that possibility.

7. Research articles should range between 6,000 - 8.900 words (including the abstract, images with captions, footnotes, references, and appendices, if any - ALL INCLUSIVE). Book reviews should range between 1,200 - 1,500 words. Feature articles which are along the lines of opinion or op-ed pieces should range between 3,500 - 6,000 words. Forum essays should range between 1,500 to 3,000 words (considered as part of Special Sections, only).

8. Ensure that the author's name has also been removed from the document's Properties, which is found in the Microsoft Word File menu.  SEE #6.

9. Any endnotes should be converted to footnotes.

10. Authors must include their profile, including affiliation and position, when completing the bio information.

11. All articles should include an abstract of no more than 150 words and keywords.

12. All articles must follow the 6th edition of the APA style guide (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association).

13. All articles must include a bibliography at the conclusion of their manuscript that conforms to the 6th edition of APA style.

14. All spellings must be rendered in American English. To change British or Commonwealth spellings to their American equivalents, please see the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary.

15. Only one submission by an author will be considered at a time.

16. Articles and features are double-blind reviewed and therefore these papers must be anonymized.

    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.

Copyright Notice

The International Journal of Communication is an academic journal. As such, it is dedicated to the open exchange of information. For this reason, IJoC is freely available to individuals and institutions. Copies of this journal or articles in this journal may be distributed for research or educational purposes free of charge and without permission. However, commercial use of the IJoC website or the articles contained herein is expressly prohibited without the written consent of the editor. Authors who publish in The International Journal of Communication will release their articles under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd) license. This license allows anyone to copy and distribute the article for non-commercial purposes provided that appropriate attribution is given. For details of the rights authors grants users of their work, see the "human-readable summary" of the license, with a link to the full license. (Note that "you" refers to a user, not an author, in the summary.) This journal utilizes the LOCKSSsystem 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. The publisher perpetually authorizes participants in the LOCKSS system to archive and restore our publication through the LOCKSS System for the benefit of all LOCKSS System participants. Specifically participating libraries may:

• Collect and preserve currently accessible materials;
• Use material consistent with original license terms;
• Provide copies to other LOCKSS appliances for purposes of audit and repair.

Fair Use

The U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 specifies, in Section 107, the terms of the Fair Use exception: Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include:

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; &
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors. In accord with these provisions, the International Journal of Communication believes in the vigorous assertion and defense of Fair Use by scholars engaged in academic research, teaching and non-commercial publishing. Thus, we view the inclusion of “quotations” from existing print, visual, audio and audio-visual texts to be appropriate examples of Fair Use, as are reproductions of visual images for the purpose of scholarly analysis. We encourage authors to obtain appropriate permissions to use materials originally produced by others, but do not require such permissions as long as the usage of such materials falls within the boundaries of Fair Use.

The International Journal of Communication encourages authors to employ fair use in their scholarly publishing wherever appropriate. Fair use is the right to use unlicensed copyrighted material (whether it is text, images, audio-visual, or other) in your own work, in some circumstances. We consult the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Scholarly Research in Communication, created by the International Communication Association and endorsed by the National Communication Association, and you should too. If you have any questions about whether fair use applies to your uses of copyrighted material (whether it is text, images, audio-visual, or other) in your scholarship, simply include your rationale, grounded in the Best Practices, as a supplementary document with your submission.

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