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General |
The editorial procedure for papers - from submission to publication - is carried out electronically.
Authors and referees run their specific stages of the editorial procedure through personal web pages, which are automatically updated in real time as soon as new events occur.
Authors can access their personal page where they can check the status of their preprints throughout the editorial procedure and communicate with the Editorial Office and with the editor in charge of the preprint.
Referees also operate from a personal page where they can read and download the preprints to be reviewed, upload their reports and communicate with the Editorial Office.
The members of the Editorial Board are consulted to give their expert opinion on the more appropriate reviewers for each and every submitted contribution.
In every page there are buttons for internal communication. Users should always use these tools instead of normal e-mail. These messages will be saved in the database and associated with the document to which they refer. One can find them in the "correspondence" section in every document page.
Submission |
Authors submit their manuscripts via the Internet, from the JCOM website.
At the time of the submission the preprint receives a preprint number which identifies it throughout the editorial procedure (Figure 1).
Figure 1, Preprint number
A different letter will characterize the preprint number indicating whether the submitted contribution is an article, an essay, a practice insight, a book review or a conference review, a commentary, a letter or a special issue contribution.
To submit preprints, authors must carefully follow the instructions given in the section For authors
Refereeing |
The JCOM refereeing procedure is based on the traditional peer review system in which an editor receives the submitted preprint, examines it, asks at least 2 referees for an opinion, and then a decision is made accordingly.
Decision |
Decisions are made according to the JCOM Editorial policy. Preprints are processed as quickly as possible, though the necessary time is given to evaluate their scientific quality.
The criteria for acceptance of an article in JCOM, are robust scientific research, originality and relevance to the field of science communication research or practice. The confidentiality of both the identity of the authors and the referees are guaranteed.
After acceptance |
Accepted contributions are formatted according to the JCOM style. Authors can then proofread them. Only one round of proofreading is possible. After correction, contributions are published by the journal's production team. At the time of publication, contributions are assigned an ID and a DOI which can be used for bibliographic reference.
A different letter will characterize the publication ID indicating whether the submitted contribution is an article, an essay, a practice insight, a book review or a conference review, a review article, a commentary, a letter or a special issue contribution.
Published contributions are made available to all interested readers on the JCOM website in PDF format.
Published contributions can be updated by publishing errata or addenda.
After a request for revision |
If a revision is required, authors must tend to the modifications requested and provide a new version of their preprint and a cover letter within the specified deadline, according to the type of contribution. Author may ask to have these deadlines extended if strictly necessary. Revised versions are submitted by the authors from their preprint page. They are then reviewed again before a final decision or a further round of revision.
After rejection |
Contributions are considered, processed and reviewed as fairly as possible. Authors of contributions that have been rejected can ask for reconsideration by submitting an appeal and replying to the referee(s)'s comments. Appeals must be scientifically justified and not polemic. Please send your rebuttal letters by connecting to the preprint page and using the "write to Editorial Office" button.
Author inquiries |
Authors can communicate at all times with the Editor-in-chief through the "write to editor" button on their pages, or through the Editorial Office ("write to Editorial Office" button).
