Focus and Scope
Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture (WPCC) wishes to engage international scholars in a critical debate about the relationship between communication, culture and society in the 21st century.
WPCC is a peer-reviewed journal, published online. The interdisciplinary nature of the field of Media and Cultural Studies is reflected in the diverse methods, contexts and themes of the papers published. Areas of interest include – but are not limited to – the history and political economy of the media, popular culture, media users and producers, political communication and developments arising from digital technologies in the context of an increasingly globalized and networked world.
Contributions from both established scholars and those at the beginning of their academic career are equally welcome.
Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture (WPCC), is published by the Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI) in the Westminster School of Media, Arts and Design, University of Westminster, with the University of Westminster Press.
ARTICLE TYPES
Research Articles must describe the outcomes and application of unpublished original research. These should make a substantial contribution to knowledge and understanding in the subject matter and should be supported by relevant figures, tabulated data (if relevant) and a description of methodology. Research articles should be between 6000 and 8000 words in length.
Commentaries should consist of any or several of the following: reviews of secondary literature, interpretations of an aspect of primary research, less detailed than of a full research article; overviews of a specific topic with polemic or practitioner angle; reflections on one aspect of a theoretical topic; short case studies in narrative form on a topic of interest; reflections or critiques of a specific 'happening' or notable occurrence related to the journal's focus; or interviews with a notable subject. Commentaries should be between 3,000 and 6,000 words in length except interviews which may be between 1,500 to 3000 words.
Book Reviews should provide a scholarly review of an academic book (or books) including monographs and collections of interest to the WPCC readership. Reviews should attempt to place the work within the broader literature on a particular subject. Please discuss potential book reviews with the editor before submission. Book reviews should be no longer than 3,000 words in length.
For further submission information please see the Author Guidelines.
Submission Checklist
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
- The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
- Any third-party-owned materials used have been identified with appropriate credit lines, and permission obtained from the copyright holder for all formats of the journal.
- The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, or RTF document file format.
- All DOIs for the references have been provided, when available.
- Tables and figures are all cited in the text. Tables are included within the text document, whilst figure files are uploaded as supplementary files.
- Figures/images have a resolution of at least 150dpi (300dpi or above preferred). Each file is no more than 20MB per file. The files are in one of the following formats: JPG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, EPS (to maximise quality, the original source file is preferred).
- The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.
Copyright Notice
Authors who publish with this journal hereby agree to the following terms:
You agree to grant to us (University of Westminster Press) the right both to reproduce and/or distribute your article (including the abstract) ourselves throughout the world in printed, electronic (Open Access) forms, or any other medium. You agree that we may publish your article in the journal named above.
You warrant that the article is your original work, has not previously been published, and is not currently under consideration by another journal. If it contains material which is someone else’s copyright, you warrant that you have obtained the unrestricted permission of the copyright owner (please attach evidence of this) and that the material is clearly identified and acknowledged within the text. You also warrant that the article does not, to the best of your knowledge, contain anything which is libellous, illegal, or infringes anyone’s copyright or other rights.
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a CreativeCommons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. If you would prefer to publish your work under an alternative Creative Commons License, please indicate this in the Comments for the Editor box below, providing reasons for your request.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of OpenAccess).
Peer Review
All articles submitted to Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture are initially assessed by an Editor, who decides whether or not the article is suitable for peer review. Submissions considered suitable for peer review are assigned to one or more independent experts, who assess the article for clarity, validity, and sound methodology.
Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture operates a single-blind peer review process, meaning that authors and reviewers remain anonymous for the review process. The review period is expected to take around four weeks. Reviewers are asked to provide formative feedback, even if an article is not deemed suitable for publication in the journal.
Based on the reviewer reports the editor will make a recommendation for rejection, minor or major revisions, or acceptance. Overall editorial responsibility rests with the journal’s Editor-in-Chief, who is supported by an expert, international Editorial Board.
Licences
The following licences are allowed:
- CC BY 4.0
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
Publication Fees
Article Processing Charges for this journal are paid for by CAMRI or the University of Westminster. There are therefore no publication fees to pay. The journal does not charge submission fees.
Where possible, we encourage authors to ask their library/institution to support open access publishing from the University of Westminster and other open access based university presses and their associates in open access publishing networks.
Publication Cycle
The journal is published online in two issues per year in the form of special issues. Additional special issues or issues open to all topics on a particular topic may also be published from time to time.
Sections
