Communication, Culture, & Critique (CCC) is ICA's latest publication and the first new journal to emerge from the Association for more than a decade. CCC will provide an international forum for critical, interpretive, and qualitative research examining the role of communication and cultural criticism in today's world. The journal welcomes high quality research and analyses from diverse theoretical and methodological approaches from all fields of communication, media and cultural studies. Sites for enquiry include all kinds of text- and print-based media, as well as broadcast, still and moving images and electronic modes of communication including the internet and mobile telephony.

Communication, Culture & Critique welcomes contributions examining the role of communication from all theoretical perspectives and using all forms of inquiry. As well as 'traditional' scholarly research and theory-focused articles (approx. 7000 - 8500 words in length), we also welcome shorter research notes and commentaries (approx. 1500 words), together with scholarly reviews of cultural artefacts (eg books, films, DVDs, websites/blogs) which might be of interest to other readers. Please see below for separate CFP for the 'Comments, Crits, and Notes' section.

Whilst CCC has no interest in perpetuating the unhelpful binary of quantitative/qualititative in terms of the kinds of submissions it will accept, the journal will specifically encourage scholarship which is critically informed, methodologically imaginative and careful in its exposition and argument. We believe that by providing a new outlet for critical, interpretive and qualitative work, our contributors will push the boundaries of considering the role that communication and culture play in our local and global world.

We expect to publish well-argued, rigorous and thoughtful work which asks more questions than it answers. We aim to provide a lively forum for debate, dialogue and doubt. In the coming years, we will be inviting contributions on topical themes and encouraging interdisciplinary and cross-over work which uses innovative approaches and methods to cast new light on some of the urgent issues facing our planet. Bringing a critical lens to the social, cultural and political dimensions of our media-saturated world is a crucial task in which the academy must engage if we are to be of any real use to the societies in which we work and play. We must recognize the salience of geography on communication flow, the importance of gender on lived experience, the place of poverty in the knowledge society and the historical antecedents of contemporary events, if our work is to have any real meaning for or influence in the lives of real people in the real world. If you would like further information about contributing to the journal, please contact me by email.

Karen Ross
Editor
E-mail: rossk@liverpool.ac.uk

Call for Comments, Crits & Notes

Informed opinion, in the form of commentary, has always enlivened critical and cultural studies, whether focused on a current issue or something long debated. We are therefore seeking short commentaries and critiques to complement the longer articles to be published in CCC, so as to ensure a lively mix of content and format. These short-order pieces should be no longer than 1500 words and should take the form of an op-ed piece rather than a scholarly article. However, if your contribution includes references to published works or media texts these should be cited appropriately. We also welcome research notes on work-in-progress: these notes should be no longer than 3000 words. I look forward to receiving your comments, crits or research notes in due course. If you would like to discuss a possible contribution to the CCN section, please get in touch with Carolyn Byerly by email, as below:

Carolyn M. Byerly
Associate Editor, Comments, Crits and Notes
E-mail: cbyerly@earthlink.net 

General Guidance

When to submit: Articles may be submitted to CCC for publication at any time, although we will be putting out a call for a special themed issues in 2008 and subsequent years.

Copyright: By submitting an article to CCC, you are agreeing that it is not under review for any other journal, edited collection, or conference proceedings.

Preparing your manuscript

Citation style: The academic citation style used in CCC follows the most recent American Psychological Association (APA) Manual of Style, currently the 5th edition. Go to the APA site for a list of FAQs which will help - http://www.apastyle.org/faqs.html#12. You can also look at Blackwell's other ICA journals and follow the citation and referencing style of articles: go to Blackwell Publishing's website and then to any of the following: Human Communication Research, Communication Theory, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication or Journal of Communication.

Manuscript submission

Submitting a manuscript to CCC can only be done via the online submission process at Manuscript Central. Before accessing the online submission site, you should have the following ready to upload: 

• manuscript title (limit 50 words)
• running head (limit 50 characters)
• abstract (150-200 words)
• email address(es) and institution(s) of coauthors, if any
• an anonymized version of the manuscript
• a cover page containing author(s) name(s), contact details and title

Submitting your article through Manuscript Central

Go to the CCC Manuscript Central website at: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cccr.

If you have not used the website before, you will need to create an account. To do this, click on "create account" all the way in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

 Follow the instructions to create an account. Fields marked with "req" are compulsory to complete.

Note: the password you select must be at least eight characters long.

After you have created your account, click "log in." You should see a welcome screen with two options: Author Center and Reviewer Center.

To submit a manuscript, click on "Author Center," then "Click here to submit a new manuscript" in the Author Resources column.

Provide all requested information and upload your document(s).

Note: Manuscript Central allows you to upload figures and tables separately; please do NOT choose this option. If you have tables and figures, they should be incorporated into the main manuscript.

Acknowledgment of receipt will be sent by email shortly after your submission is processed by the online submission system. Submitted articles will not be returned. Authors should retain an original copy.

Reviewing procedure and decision-giving

All articles will be double-blind reviewed by at least two reviewers. The decision of the editors and reviewer comments will be returned by email. We hope to complete the reviewing process in timely fashion and anticipate a turnaround of between three and six months from initial submission to final decision.