I. Profile and Focus of the Journal
- Communication Today is an academic journal from the scholarly fields of media studies and marketing communication. The Journal contains professional scientific reflections on the media and media competence; it also offers various academic discourses on the limits of reality, media thinking, new media, marketing and media relations, new trends in marketing (including their types and specifics), psychology and sociology of marketing communication, as well as new knowledge on the structure of media contents, marketing strategies and communication sciences. The professional public is offered an interdisciplinary, focused, targeted discussion.
- Communication Today is a double-blind peer reviewed academic journal published twice a year. It includes theoretical studies, theoretical and empirical studies, research results and their implementation into practice, as well as essays, interviews with media scholars, professional publication reviews and shorter news articles.
- Basic sections of the Journal are as follows: Editorial, Theoretical Studies, Research Studies, Reviews and Today, which consists of shorter news articles. The Journal’s Editorial Office also accepts manuscripts of interviews with renowned media scholars and professionals as well as essays.
- The Journal is registered in the List of Periodical Press at the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic under number EV 3972/10 and its international standard serial number (ISSN) is 1338-130X.
II. Publisher of the Journal
- Communication Today is published by the Faculty of Mass Media Communication, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, in the Slovak Republic.
III. Editorial Board of the Journal
- The Editorial Board of the Journal consists of Editor-In-Chief, two Deputy Managing Editors, and seven members of the Editorial Team. It also includes work positions of English Editor, Secretary, Online Content Administrator, Indexing Process Specialist, Technical Editor, Distribution Specialist and Graphic Production Coordinator. Names of the current Editorial Board members are available on the Journal’s website.
- The Editorial Board is a management body of the Journal and its members approve the final form of the Journal. The members of the Editorial Board are appointed by the statutory representative of the Journal’s publisher. The Editorial Board meets at least once before publishing each issue of the Journal, i.e. at least twice a year. On the basis of overall quality of submitted articles and reviews, they select texts to be published. Before approving the final form of a specific issue of the Journal, the members of the Editorial Board are obliged to read the content of all delivered articles, essays, interviews and reviews in detail.
- The Journal’s Advisory Board consists of domestic as well as foreign experts who professionally focus on media studies or related scholarly issues. The Advisory Board supervises and monitors quality of the Journal’s issues and individual articles or other contents in terms of using proper terminology, applying innovative theoretical or empirical approaches, presenting significant findings and contributing to further development of the field of media studies.
- English Editor, Secretary, Online Content Administrator, Indexing Process Specialist, Technical Editor, Distribution Specialist and Graphic Production Coordinator are executive bodies of the Journal. They are appointed by Editor-In-Chief.
IV. Acceptance of Submitted Manuscripts
- The Editorial Board offers interested authors an opportunity to publish their original theoretical studies, research articles, interviews, essays, reviews and short news articles, which have not been published yet. They have to be related to the focus of the Journal.
- It applies to the sections Theoretical Studies and Research Studies that one author must not have their texts published in two consecutive issues of the Journal.
- The Editorial Board accepts only manuscripts which are edited in accordance with Guidelines for Authors; the template is available on the Journal’s website.
- Using the text editor MS Word (.doc or .docx formats) is necessary. All texts are submitted electronically via the e-mail address as follows: communication.today@fmk.sk.
V. Review Process and Selection of Articles
- Two mutually anonymous review reports will be elaborated on each submitted manuscript, on the basis of which the Editorial Board will decide whether the text is to be published or not. The peer review process is double-blind. In the version of a manuscript assigned for reviewing, all identification data on its author(s) is removed in advance.
- The reviewers are selected by Editor-In-Chief from the database of reviewers, taking into account the thematic focus of the reviewed manuscript. The list of the Journal’s reviewers is accessible via the Journal’s website.
- The reviewers assess the overall quality of specific manuscripts’ form and content and submit thorough review reports, in which they point out positive as well as critical notions related to the texts and their recommendations related to further editorial procedures and adjustments (if needed).
- Each reviewer is obliged to clearly state their recommendation to publish or not to publish the reviewed text in the standardised review report. The Editorial Board fully respects reviewers’ decisions and arguments.
- On the basis of elaborated review reports, the Editorial Board proceeds as follows:
- If both reviewers recommend publishing the text, it will be accepted for publishing.
- If both reviewers recommend rejecting the text, it will be rejected.
- If both reviewers recommend the text to be published after necessary adjustments, the author(s) will be asked to re-elaborate it and the adjusted manuscript will be reviewed repeatedly by the same reviewers.
- If reviewers express their opinions on the same text in very different ways, the final acceptance or rejection of the text will be decided by the Editorial Board. The Editorial Board may accept the text for publishing conditionally, and also ask for implementation of reviewers’ comments.
- The author(s) will receive review reports related to their manuscripts (but not any information on specific reviewers who wrote them) and the final decision of the Editorial Board via e-mail.
- Reviewing of the submitted manuscripts is not liable to any form of financial or other remuneration.
- The Editorial Board decides on accepting or rejecting submitted manuscripts which are meant to be published in sections Reviews and Today. Their authors will be informed about these decisions by e-mail.
- Publishing in Communication Today is not remunerated.
VI. Distribution of the Journal
- The Journal is available in the University Library of the University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava (Hajdóczyho 2, 917 01 Trnava, Slovakia), and in the Faculty Library of the Faculty of Mass Media Communication, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava which is located in the building of the Elementary School V Jame (V Jame 3, 917 01 Trnava, Slovakia).
- Under the applicable law, the print version of the Journal, as well as its data and contents, may be ordered and subscribed only by research centres, universities and libraries – for study and research purposes.
- The authors, whose articles or other texts have been published in the Journal, are entitled to receive one print copy of the Journal’s issue free of charge in case of publishing a review or a news article in the section Today, and two free-of-charge print copies of the appropriate issue in case of publishing a theoretical study, a research article, an essay or an interview. The Journal’s print copies will be sent to them by regular mail.
VII. Funding of the Journal
- The Journal’s Editorial Office finances its basic operating costs through publication fees paid by the authors publishing their studies in Communication Today (for more information, see the Journal’s Editorial Policy). The Journal is also co-financed from the budget of the Faculty of Mass Media Communication, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, i.e. from public sources.
- Neither the Journal nor the members of the Editorial Board and members of the Editorial Team affiliated with Communication Today, receive any financial funding or voluntary financial contributions from the private (business) sector.
- The Journal does not include any commercial advertising and does not accept any related offers.
In Trnava, on 1st January 2020
Approved by:
Martin Solík, Editor-In-Chief