Author Guidelines
Submissions
Solicited and contributed manuscripts must be double-spaced and submitted online via this site. In submitting a manuscript for consideration, the author(s) attest(s) that the paper reports on original research carried out by the author or by people under his/her direction, that it adheres to SSHRC ethics policies and policies of the authors’ institutions with respect to research ethics. Further, the author(s) attest(s) that the manuscript represents original work not previously published, that it is not being considered elsewhere for publication; that the author is willing to assign copyright to the journal as per a contract that will be sent to the author just prior to publication and, if accepted for publication, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in any language, without the consent of the editor. In the case of so-called "working papers," i.e., narrowly distributed in print form but also available online, the author(s) have to provide solid evidence the manuscript submitted to the CJC is substantially different in style, organization, data, and analysis from the working paper. In a word, that the submitted material is indeed original work. Authors must take full responsibility for all figures, etc, and present them as camera-ready copy.
Due to time and staffing limitations, please note that the editorial team does not provide pre-submission feedback to authors considering a submission to the journal.
Please review the journal's section policies before initiating a submission.
Go to the registration page to register as a user of the online system if you do not yet have a username and password. Ensure that you register as an 'Author' when creating your account.
Once you have an online account, login and click on the 'Author' link. The 'Author' page will include a link to begin the online submission process.
When submitting online, please note that you need to click on 'Save/Continue' at the bottom of each page in order to proceed to the next step in the submission process. There are 5 steps to an online submission.
Submission File, Tables, Figures, and Images
- In Step 1, please ensure that:
- You select a section from the 'Journal Section' menu.
- You review, complete, and check off each item in the 'Submission Checklist'.
- In Step 2, please ensure that:
- You provide your personal information (name, email, etc.).
- You provide the title of your article or reviewed book.
- In Step 3, please ensure that:
- You upload a copy of your manuscript in DOC or DOCX format (i.e. filename should end with .doc or .docx).
- You remove all personal, identifying information from the submission file as per the provided instructions. Please note that this is not required for book reviews.
- Do not include figures, tables, or images within your manuscript file. Instead, upload each separately in Step 4.
- In Step 4, upload all tables, figures, images, and supplementary files:
- Tables should be saved and uploaded as separate DOC or DOCX files (i.e. filenames should end with .doc or .docx).
- Ensure all personal, identifying information is removed from the supplementary files as per the provided instructions. Please note that this is not required for book reviews.
- Figures and images should be saved and uploaded using high quality image formats: BMP, TIFF, EPS, JPEG (uncompressed); not GIF or compressed JPEG.
- Figures and images should be 300dpi (print quality) and no wider than 4.5 inches.
- Audio and video files should be saved and uploaded using the MPEG format (MP3 for audio and MPEG for video).
- In Step 5, finish your submission by reviewing your submission details and confirming that your submission is complete.
Length Guidelines
Please ensure that your submission manuscript does not exceed the following length guidelines.
- Article: 7000-9000 words
- Policy in Brief: 3000-4000 words
- Research in Brief: max. of 5000 words
- Commentary: 3000-4000 words
Reviews
Interested in doing a book or media review? Visit our Books for Review page to see a list of currently available titles. The CJC is interested in commissioning reviews from a wide variety of scholars and students.
Book-Review Guidelines
The book's contents should be concisely stated. Most of the review should be dedicated to the assessment of the book's strengths and weaknesses. Rather than listing in detail what is found in each of the book's chapters, the reviewer should emphasize what is most significant in the volume, the adequacy of the methods deployed, and the overall worth of the text. The issues addressed in the review could include some of the following:
- What are the origins of the text? How did it come to be produced?
- What is the book generally about? What is the intent of the author in writing the book (e.g., scholarship, entertainment, political partisanship, etc.)?
- What standpoint is taken (e.g., detached scholar, autobiographical, advocacy, etc.)?
- What is the line of argument, if any?
- What sort of evidence is used?
- How is the material organized and structured?
- To what extent does the author achieve his/her goals?
- Is the standpoint appropriate to the intentions and the subject matter?
- Do the steps in the argument follow logically?
- Are there hidden assumptions?
- Are the claims following from the argument well supported by evidence?
- Is the work generally persuasive? Why or why not?
- Is the work generally consistent (i.e., are there contradictions)?
- Is the work generally coherent (i.e., do the various parts complement one another and go together well)?
- Is the book well written?
- To what extent does the book make a contribution to our understanding of the particular area of communication in question?
The length of the review should be around 1000 words and we would like to have it by three months from the current date.
Paper Abstracts
For each article (but not the commentaries or the research in brief), the author must provide a 100-125 word abstract in English and French. These summaries should be placed immediately below the paper title, author and institutional affiliation. Each summary should be indented 2.5 cm (1/2") and double spaced. For those who require the service, translations of abstracts can be undertaken by the Journal at a cost of 25 cents per word.
Author Bio
The author(s) must supply a brief (25 word) bio giving name, rank, institution, institutional address, and email address. Author information and bio should be entered in Step 2 of the online submission process, and not as part of the submission file itself. For example, Rowland Lorimer is Director of the Master of Publishing Program and Professor of Communication at Simon Fraser University, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 5K3. Email: lorimer@sfu.ca
General Formatting
Authors are advised to follow as closely as possible the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA Manual), with necessary variations to suit the field of Communication and Canadian spelling practices. Please see recent CJC volumes for current style and formats being followed.
Layout
- The text should be double-spaced.
- Start each paragraph at the margin (no tabs to indent first line). Place an extra blank line between paragraphs to separate.
- Dashes should be keyed in as double-hyphens with no space at either end. For example: word--word
Heading Styles
- First level headings: (Boldface, first word capitalized, justified at left margin, on a separate line)
- Second level headings: (Plain type, first word capitalized, justified at left margin, on a separate line)
- Third level headings: (Italic type, first word capitalized, justified at left margin, on a separate line)
Citations in the Text
- If the work has more than one author, give all the names the first time the work is referred to, then et al. thereafter.
- When titles of journals or books are mentioned, they should be italicized, not underlined.
- If the citation follows a quotation, place the parentheses after the quotation marks but before the end punctuation. For example: ''for the future of telecommunications'' (Smith, 1987, p. 42).
References
- Following the Notes, list only those works actually cited in the text.
- The heading for the references should be bold and left-justified, as References.
- Double space all entries.
- Begin each entry at the margin and indent the subsequent lines by 1/2 inch; i.e., hanging indent.
- Separate the main items in each entry by periods (i.e., name of author, title of book, etc.) Leave one space between a period and next part of the entry.
- Publication date should be in parentheses following author name. Title of book should be in italics and only the first word and first word after a colon should be capitalized (see examples above).
- For articles, the title should be in plain text, with only the first word capitalized; the title of the periodical or edited book should be in italics.
- For journals the volume number of the periodical volume is in italics, with the issue number in plain text and parentheses. Page numbers are given at the end of the reference but without the requirement for 'page'' or 'p.' See examples below.
- The formats must be strictly adhered to in terms of punctuation and order of the items within each entry:
Book: Klein, Naomi. (2000). No logo: Taking aim at the brand bullies. New York, NY: Picador.
Article in a book: Garnham, Nicholas. (2004). The information society theory as ideology. In F. Webster (Ed.), The Information Society Reader (pp. 165-183). London, UK: Routledge.
Article in a journal: Aronczyk, Melissa. (2009). How to do things with brands: Uses of national identity. Canadian Journal of Communication, 34(2), 291-296.
Government document: Royal Commission on newspapers. (1981). Report. Ottawa: Minister of Supply and Services Canada.
Website: Gurstein, Michael. (2000). Effective use: A community informatics strategy beyond the digitial divide. First Monday, 8(12). URL: http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue8_12/ gurstein/index.html [March 4, 2005].
Use of Notes
- Footnotes are not used in this format; only endnotes are used.
- Do not use automatically formatted endnotes. Notes should appear at the end of the text and before the references (typed in a regular text). Endnote numbers in the text should be regular text formatted as eight-point superscript.
- Use of notes should be very sparing. They should be used only where additional explanations are absolutely necessary and cannot be incorporated in the text. Maximum: 10.
- Notes should be listed after the text and before the list of biographical references.
- The heading for the notes should be bold and left-justified, as Notes.
Keyword index
The CJC requests that potential authors assign keywords from the following list to their article. Authors should confine their selection to five keywords or less, some of which may be their own.
A. Related Fields:
Anthropology
Astronomy
Cognitive science
Computer science
Economics
Education
Engineering
Geology
History
Library and Information Systems
Literary studies (English, Drama)
Linguistics
Management
Philosophy
Psychology
Sociology
B. Communication History:
Broadcasting
Electronic culture (Internet-based)
Literacy/literate culture/chirographic culture
Numeracy/calculation
Orality/oral culture
Pre-orality/gestural
Print culture/journalism
Telegraphy
Telephony
Toronto School/Transformation theory
C. Communication Research Methods:
Audience reception
Constructive technology assessment
Content analysis
Conversation analysis
Discourse analysis
Effects
Ethnography
Ethnomethodology
Frame analysis
Media/mass media
Nonverbal communication (gesture, body, kinesics, paralanguage, gaze)
Participatory action
Research methods
Rhetorical analysis
Semiotics
Socio-technical
Technology assessment
Uses and gratifications
D. Communication Theory:
Animal communication
Critical theory
Cultural studies
Cybernetics
Education/learning
Feminist/gender
Ideology
Information theory
Interpersonal theory
Interpretation/hermeneutics
Language origins
Mass media theory
Media theory
Message Transmission theory
Organization theory
Rhetoric
Risk Communication
Modernity/postmodernity
Phenomenology
Philosophy
Structuralism/post-structuralism
Structuration
Symbolic interactionism
Systems theory/social systems
Technology theory
Visual communication
E. International and Intercultural Communication:
Cultural imperialism
Democracy
Dependency
Diffusion of innovation
Globalization
Multiculturalism
North-South
Participatory action research
Post-colonialism
F. Policy and Law:
Arts policy
Access to information
Broadcasting policy
Copyright/intellectual property
Cultural industries policy
Film/video policy
Heritage policy
Law/legislation
Multiculturalism
Network policy
Newspaper policy
Policy
Privacy
Publishing/print policy
Regulation/CRTC
Sound recording policy
Telecommunications policy
Trade policy
G. Organizational Communication:
Advertising
Corporate communication
Ethics
External communication
Group decision support systems
Institutional communication
Internal communication
Knowledge management
Management of information systems
Marketing
Public relations
H. Interpersonal Communication:
Conversation analysis
Face-to-face
Intergroup
Mediated
Small group
I. Mass (Media) Communication:
Agenda setting
Ethics
Mass media effects
Message transmission theory
Ownership (concentration/competition)
Political communication
J. Film/video:
Content
Economics
Industry development
Marketing
Ownership
Production/co-production
Technology
K. Publishing/print journalism:
Books
Environmental journalism
Magazines
Marketing
Newspapers
Ownership
L. Broadcasting and telecommunications:
Broadcasting (public, private)
Cable systems
Disaster and Emergency communications
Radio
Satellite
Telegraphy
Telephony
Television/cable television
Videotext
Wireless
M. New Media: (Internet mediated):
Broadband applications
Broadband networks
Community networks
Convergence
Internet/IP/WWW
Geomatics (GIS/GPS)
Learning objects
Metadata
Multimedia
New media
Personal computers
Submission Files
To enable blind peer review for articles, the author(s) must ensure that all personal, identifying information is removed from all submitted files. This includes all identifying information in the actual text of the manuscript as well as all identifying information saved internally by software such as Microsoft Word as part of the file's attributes and properties.
To remove all identifying information saved as part of the file's attributes and properties, please complete the following steps, depending on your operating system and software, prior to uploading your submission files.
Windows Word 2016, 2013, 2010, or 2007:
Windows Word 2003:
Mac/OSX Word 2016:
- Open the file in Word
- In the menu, go to 'Tools' => 'Protect Document'
- Select the checkbox 'Remove personal information from file on save'
- Click on 'Ok' to save your settings
Mac/OSX Word 2011 and 2008:
- Open the file in Word
- In the menu, go to 'Word' => 'Preferences' => 'Personal Settings'
- Select the 'Security' tab
- Under Privacy options, enable 'Remove personal information from this file on save'
- Click on 'Ok' to save the preference settings
- Save the document
OpenOffice:
- Open the file in OpenOffice
- In the menu, go to 'Tools' => 'Options...'
- Under the left-hand, 'OpenOffice' menu, select 'Security'
- Click on the 'Options...' button for 'Security options and warnings'
- Enable 'Remove personal information on saving'
- Click on 'Ok' to save the preference settings
- In the menu, go to 'File' => 'Properties'
- Disable 'Apply user data' and click on the 'Reset' button
- Save the document
