Science Communication
Science Communication is an international and highly ranked communication research journal that publishes manuscripts that are of the highest quality, in terms of theory and methods. We define science broadly to include social science, technology, environment, engineering, and health, as well as the physical and natural sciences. However, across all scientific contexts, communication must be at the center of the investigation. We also recognize the critical importance of science communication practice and expect all manuscripts to address the practical implications of their research, as well as theory.
We are not an open-access journal and thus we do not charge authors publication fees. However, work that is accepted for publication can pursue an open-access option. https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-publishing-options-0
All manuscripts submitted to Science Communication are initially reviewed by the editor or an associate editor. This process can take up to two weeks. If the manuscript passes that initial review (is judged to be a good fit for the journal and is original and well-written), then the manuscript is entered into the blind peer-review process. At the start of the peer-review process, the editorial team seeks willing reviewers who are qualified to discern the merits of the work. At no time do the peer reviewers see the identity of the authors. Once we are able to locate two or three area experts to review a paper – and they agree to complete the review – our reviewers are given about four weeks to complete their reviews. Once the reviews are returned to the journal, the editorial team renders a final decision of reject, revise and resubmit, or accept within a week of receiving the reviews. We receive 1-2 new submissions a day. We publish about 30 research articles each year. This level of selectivity is typical of highly competitive journals.
The primary aim of Science Communication is to publish peer-reviewed research that is focused on both science and communication and is of the highest quality, in terms of theory and methods. As mentioned in our journal description, we define science broadly to include social science, technology, environment, engineering, and health, as well as the physical and natural sciences.
Our editorial team and reviewers welcome qualitative and quantitative, inductive and deductive research methods, as long as methods are well-explained, transparent, well-executed, and follow best-practices in reporting.
Authors should make clearly articulated contributions to larger theoretical and practical contexts that are relevant to science communication. That is, we expect all manuscripts to address the practical communication implications of their research, as well as the contribution to theory.
Among the myriad aspects of science communication that have been and continue to be explored within our pages:
Science communication among experts and professionals
The history of science communication
The practice of science journalism
Science-related content across media platforms and public-facing messages
Public engagement with science
Information-related and communication-related behaviors in the context of science
Communication’s impact on public understanding of science and public policy
We regularly publish full research manuscripts of 7000-9000 words, including references. Periodically, we publish research notes of 4000-6000 words that report preliminary but provocative findings. We also publish commentaries of 1500-2000 words that focus on emerging issues and trends in the field and are presented in a style that is appropriate to our readers (academic and practitioners).
An area that we are especially interested in expanding within the pages of our journal is inclusive science communication. Thus, we enthusiastically invite submissions from scholars whose work is focused on identities and/or communities that have historically not been included in the study of science communication.
| LeeAnn Kahlor | University of Texas at Austin, USA |
| Ayelet Baram-Tsabari | Israel Institute of Technology, Israel |
| Graham Dixon | Ohio State University, USA |
| Timothy Fung | Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong |
| Amanda Hinnant | University of Missouri, USA |
| Laura Rickard | University of Maine, USA |
| Janet Z. Yang | State University of New York at Buffalo, USA |
| Linda Billings | National Institute of Aerospace, USA |
| Lee Ahern | Pennsylvania State University, USA |
| Lucy Atkinson | University of Texas, USA |
| John C. Besley | Michigan State University, USA |
| Toby Bolsen | Georgia State University, USA |
| Rick E. Borchelt | Office of Science, Department of Energy, USA |
| Amanda Boyd | Washington State University, USA |
| Paul Brewer | University of Delaware, USA |
| Dominique Brossard | University of Wisconsin, USA |
| Michael Cacciatore | University of Georgia, USA |
| Suzanne de Cheveigné | National Centre for Scientific Research, France |
| Haoran "Chris" Chu | University of Florida, USA |
| Christopher Clarke | George Mason University, USA |
| Cynthia Coleman | Portland State University, USA |
| Julia Corbett | University of Utah, USA |
| Michael Dahlstrom | Iowa State University, USA |
| Sarah R. Davies | University of Vienna, Austria |
| Anthony Dudo | University of Texas at Austin, USA |
| William Evans | University of Alabama, USA |
| Bankole Falade | London School of Economics & Political Science, UK |
| Jane Gregory | University of Cambridge, UK |
| Robert J. Griffin | Marquette University, USA |
| Lars Guenther | Ludwig Maximilian Universitat, Munich, Germany |
| Miguel García Guerrero | Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas in Mexico, Mexico |
| Nancy Harrington | University of Kentucky, USA |
| P. Sol Hart | University of Michigan, USA |
| Stephen Hilgartner | Cornell University, USA |
| Jay Hmielowski | University of Florida, USA |
| Shirley Ho | Nanyang Technological University, Singapore |
| Avery Holton | University of Utah, USA |
| Yoori Hwang | Myongji University, South Korea |
| Jakob Jensen | University of Utah, USA |
| Hepeng Jia | Soochow University, China |
| Mo Jones-Jang | Boston University, USA |
| Marina Joubert | Stellenbosch University, South Africa |
| Hyekyung "Kim" Kim | Nanyang Technological University, Singapore |
| William Kinsella | North Carolina State University, USA |
| Bruce V. Lewenstein | Cornell University, USA |
| Robert A. Logan | University of Missouri-Columbia, USA |
| Nancy Longnecker | University of Otago, New Zealand |
| Pieter Maeseele | University of Antwerp, Belgium |
| Katherine A. McComas | Cornell University, USA |
| Merryn McKinnon | Australian National University, Australia |
| Jessica Myrick | Pennsylvania State University, USA |
| Mary L. Nucci | Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA |
| Chelsea Ratcliff | University of Georgia, USA |
| María Len-Ríos | The University of Minnesota, USA |
| Sonny Rosenthal | Nanyang Technological University, Singapore |
| Katherine E. Rowan | George Mason University, USA |
| Dietram Scheufele | University of Wisconsin, USA |
| Michael Siegrist | ETH Zurich, Switzerland |
| Hollie Smith | University of Oregon, USA |
| Brian G. Southwell | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA |
| Jocelyn Steinke | University of Connecticut, USA |
| Bruno Takahashi | Michigan State University, USA |
| Esi Thompson | Indiana University, USA |
| Debbie Treise | University of Florida, USA |
| Sean Upshaw | University of Texas at Austin, USA |
| Matthew S. VanDyke | The University of Alabama, USA |
| Emily Vraga | University of Minnesota, USA |
| Kim Walsh-Childers | University of Florida, USA |
| Nathan Walter | Northwestern University, USA |
| Lillie Williamson | University of Wisconsin, USA |
| Jessica Willoughby | Washington State University, USA |
| Ronald Yaros | University of Maryland, USA |
| Sara Yeo | University of Utah, USA |
| Leona Yi-Fan Su | University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign, USA |
| Shupei Yuan | Northern Illinois University, USA |
Manuscripts (including tables, figures, etc.) should be submitted electronically at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/sc. Authors will be required to set up an online account on the Manuscript Central system powered by ScholarOne.
All manuscripts should be prepared following the latest edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), although some flexibility is permitted to accommodate varying disciplinary traditions. Our preferred manuscript length is 7000-9000 words, including references. Tables and figures should be kept to a reasonable minimum. Each manuscript submission should include (a) a separate title page file with the names, addresses, telephone numbers, and e-mails of all authors; (b) a separate biography page file of 50 to 80 words for biographical descriptions of each author; and (b) an abstract of not more than 100 words accompanied by approximately 4-5 suggested keywords, both of which may be included at the beginning of the manuscript file. Tables should be included at the end of the manuscript file, and figures, if any, should be appended in an additional separate file in clear, camera-ready format. To facilitate anonymous review, the names and affiliations of all authors should appear only in the title page and biography page files. In some cases authors may also want to delete or disguise multiple references to their own work. Please note that at this time the journal cannot accept any PDF files, even for figures. Contact the editor at kahlor@austin.utexas.edu for assistance.
Submission of a manuscript implies commitment to publish in the journal. Authors submitting to the journal should not simultaneously submit the manuscript to another journal, nor should the manuscript have been published elsewhere in substantially similar form or with substantially similar content. Authors in doubt about what constitutes prior publication should consult the editor at kahlor@austin.utexas.edu.
Commentary articles address emerging issues and trends in the field in a style appropriate to an academic audience; they need not be based directly on new empirical research. These submissions are generally between 1,500-3,000 words and are reviewed by the editors only. Queries regarding possible Commentary submissions may be addressed to Linda Billings at billingslinda1@gmail.com or to the editor.
We also publish research notes with a preferred length of about 4000-6000 words that report preliminary but provocative findings. Queries regarding any submission type and suggestions of books for announcement may be directed to the editor at kahlor@austin.utexas.edu.
If you or your funder wish your article to be freely available online to nonsubscribers immediately upon publication (gold open access), you can opt for it to be included in Sage Choice, subject to the payment of a publication fee. The manuscript submission and peer review procedure is unchanged. On acceptance of your article, you will be asked to let Sage know directly if you are choosing Sage Choice. To check journal eligibility and the publication fee, please visit Sage Choice. For more information on open access options and compliance at Sage, including self/author archiving deposits (green open access) visit Sage Publishing Policies on our Journal Author Gateway.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that Science Communication may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the journal. If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.
When articles are accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the Sage's author archiving policy.
For more information, please refer to the Sage Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
Please note that the Sage submission format template is a generic one and all details do not apply to this journal, which follows APA style for most issues. Consult the Editor regarding any questions.