The Journal of Science Communication (JCOM) is a diamond open access, peer reviewed journal focused on science communication. The Journal covers a broad range of issues pertinent to science communication and public engagement with STEM, including citizen science as well as environmental and health communication, where these relate to communication of research.
JCOM caters for scholars coming from sociology of science, science and technology studies, media and communication, museum studies and other disciplinary perspectives. By doing so, it seeks to encourage interdisciplinary exchange in the study of today’s complex knowledge societies and the role of public and scientists in the development of new knowledge.
JCOM publishes research that explores a wide range of issues pertinent to the science communication community, including: issues in communication between science and citizens and within the scientific community itself; challenges arising when models for theoretical analysis or practical means to popularize science are used; the changing relation between science and social institutions; and the informative, pedagogical, interpretative and political dimensions of science communication.
JCOM contributes to forging a common identity for scholars across disciplines by adopting a policy of free circulation of information. JCOM is also a platform where distant and sometimes fragmented communities can meet: academic scholars, journalists, museum operators, and scientists who live and work in fields where theoretical reflection and concrete action are strongly intertwined.
JCOM has published research relevant to both the academic and practitioner communities engaged in science communication since 2002. In addition to research articles, JCOM also publishes invited thematic commentaries, essays, practice insights, review articles, book/conference reviews and letters.
The Journal ethical policy is available here.
JCOM is indexed in Web of Science (WoS), Scopus, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Dimensions and Scilit.
To improve its open access characteristics, JCOM has adopted a Creative Commons licensing policy, giving the community the opportunity to freely spread published contributions under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Authors retain the right to distribute their author accepted manuscript (AAM) via an institutional and/or subject repository under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence, starting from the date of publication. Copyright is retained by the authors by default. The journal does not apply any article processing or submission charge.
The JCOM web site uses Janeway, an open-source software with some custom code. Everything is licensed under the AGPL. Therefore anyone is free to use and modify the software, so long as they make their changes similarly open.