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Academic Journals

Academic journals serve a vital function in furthering the discipline of communication studies, by showcasing the latest research on a variety of topics in different contexts (e.g., at home, workplace, policy, mass media, social groups). Articles appearing in such journals are typically peer-reviewed by other scholars before appearing in print, so they often enjoy greater legitimacy compared to self-published manuscripts or books. Journals are usually ranked on the basis of impact factor, which measures the number of times their articles are cited in recent years. Many university departments and schools of communication thus base their hiring, promotion, and tenure decisions on candidates’ records publishing in peer-reviewed journals. This entry explains the various types of communication journals and then addresses several issues of concern.

Types of Communication Journals

The major professional associations of the field (e.g., National Communication Association, or NCA; International Communication Association, or ICA) have partnered with publishers to produce a suite of communication journals, on topics such as applied communication, critical cultural studies, media and political communication, and rhetoric. While NCA and ICA journals are usually ranked highly by rating agencies like Thomson Reuters (previously known as the Institute for Scientific Information, or ISI) according to impact factor (led by NCA’s Communication Monographs and ICA’s Journal of Communication), some journals produced by regional communication associations (e.g., Central States Communication Association), individual divisions of NCA or ICA, or even the ones unaffiliated with a specific association remain highly respected venues for scholarly work. In line with the ubiquity of communicative processes in general, and the history of communication studies as a field with interdisciplinary roots, communication scholars also publish in interdisciplinary, special topic-driven journals that enjoy high impact factor and researcher credibility (e.g., New Media & Society, Public Relations Review).

Since the late 1990s, two important trends have surfaced. First, as journal publications gradually become expected for doctoral students even before they graduate, several journals catering exclusively or largely to graduate student research have emerged (e.g., Kaleidoscope). Many of these student-centered journals adopt the open-access online format, and are backed by credible editorial boards from well-known universities. Second, broader consumer shifts toward online rather than print formats means not only that some venerable journals plan on transitioning eventually online (most notably, ICA; its Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication is already an online-only publication), but also that several new journals are purely online (e.g., International Journal of Communication). While there has been much consternation in academe in general about the validity and rigor of online academic journals, many of these ventures in communication studies are backed by well-known scholars and institutions, although some of them may lack impact factor ratings. Moreover, online journals typically feature more progressive copyright policies, permitting authors to reuse or distribute their work in broader forums, compared to traditional print journals.

Contemporary Issues

Published research in academic journals often sets the benchmark for top-notch scholarship in communication—as with other scholarly fields—and helps organize a knowledge-sharing network for scholars. This network helps categorize not just key theoretical concepts and methods but also the academics who draw from these concepts and use these methods. This might constitute a source of friction, however, given that most highly ranked journals publish functionalist and quantitative research, compared to interpretive, rhetorical, critical, and feminist perspectives. For instance, critics have averred that high-ranking journals’ standards of scientific rigor and “quality research” are often used to dismiss work emphasizing humanistic and emotive/evocative elements (e.g., studies using autoethnography, or critical discourse analysis using smaller samples). To counter these perceptions, and help encourage “nontraditional” scholarship, several new journals have been instituted (e.g., NCA’s Journal of International & Intercultural Communication, ICA’s Communication, Culture, and Critique). Editors of established journals frequently reiterate the need to publish “alternative” research, and also issue calls for special issues on niche topics to address some of these disparities. While such measures have been received favorably, ensuring adequate representation for scholars and scholarship remains an abiding concern.

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