John Courtright (U of Delaware) takes the helm of Human Communication Research (HCR) next month, so I caught up with John as he prepared for the full takeover. This is John’s second editorship (Communication Quarterly his first) and he brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the role. He was kind enough to answer a few questions during a busy NCA conference.

John Paul Gutierrez: Why did you want to become editor of HCR?

John Courtright: I had been an editor of CQ about 12 years ago and I knew I had the skill set to do it I enjoyed it, and I knew I would enjoy it again. And it was my way of giving something back to the discipline.

JPG: What kind of changes do you think you’ll make?

JC: I don’t think I’ll make any major changes to the journal, per se. What I am going to do is add some new things. One thing is an author’s forward, inviting the authors of every piece in the journal to produce a 4- to 5-minute video to where they talk about their work. Talk about what prompted their interest in the work, problems they ran into, things they wanted to put in the article but couldn’t put in the article, where they see themselves going next and so forth. So it’s an attempt to allow more exposure to the authors, to the readers. So at conferences people can come up to them and say “I read your article/I looked at your video/I’m doing this kind of research, can we talk?” Well we don’t know who those people are if you don’t see their faces or hear their voice. So far all the authors have been very open and positive about this.

The second thing I plan to do is go to an Early View format. So shortly after manuscripts are accepted, copyedited and go through the production process they will appear on the HCR website. So they will appear there, a few weeks, if not months, before they actually show up in print. So readers will get access to that research sooner, and authors will get to take that “in press” label off of their vita.

So, those are my two additions, I don’t think HCR was broken, so I don’t see any need to fix it.

JPG: What do you expect from your authors when they submit?

JC: It sounds simplistic, but I expect it to be well written, I expect the methodology to be accurate, clear and straightforward, not necessarily simple, but accurate and clear. I expect clear theoretical linkages, and I expect findings that are substantive, that move us forward.

I think that, if the previous 13 editors of HCR were sitting at this table, they would shake their heads, “yes.” Because that is pretty much what they’ve done in the past and what I will continue to do in the future. That’s why our acceptance rate is 9-10%, because those are very demanding attributes for a manuscript to have.

JPG: With impact factor being important to a lot of institutions, how do you feel about the metric?

JC: The former president of our institution had a very interesting quote, he used to say “I don’t care much for all these magazines that rank universities, I really don’t think they do a very good job, but if they are going to do it, I would really like to be high in the rankings.” So that is kind of how I feel about the impact factor. I’m not sure if it’s doing a real great job, I’m not sure how valid it is. But if they are going to do it, we surely want to have a high one.

JPG: Tell us something about yourself that would surprise people?

JC: I am an avid clay target shooter. I shoot clay targets with a shotgun on a regular basis.

JPG: And you wear your ICA visor?

JC: Sometimes, sometimes, just not in the winter!