Information for Authors
Business Communication Quarterly is a refereed journal devoted to the teaching of business communication. The journal aims to present the many interdisciplinary, international, and organizational perspectives that characterize the field. Most BCQ manuscripts fall into one of the following categories. Suggested lengths are for the main text of the submission (i.e., exclusive of abstract, references, and appendices):
- Feature articles (1,500-4,500 words): BCQ welcomes a variety of theoretical, applied, and practical approaches and topics, including qualitative and quantitative research on classroom teaching or assessment, case studies of specific classroom techniques, reports on strategies for program development, and reviews of scholarship relevant to business communication pedagogy.
- Innovative Assignment articles (1,500-4,500 words): This type of article presents a fresh approach to a traditional assignment or topic in business communication. The submission should justify the innovative approach (with some reference to previously published work), provide enough detail to allow readers to adapt the approach in their own teaching, and provide evidence for the effectiveness of the approach.
- “Focus on” articles (1,000 words): Submissions to columns such as Focus on Teaching and Focus on Business Practices should respond to the topics and deadlines for those columns as announced on the ABC Web site: http://www.businesscommunication.org/index.asp.
- Reviews (1,000 words): Reviews may cover textbooks, scholarly monographs, trade books, and new media relevant to business communication pedagogy. A list of books available for review is available from the book review editor. Reviewers may also suggest items not on the list, but should correspond with the book review editor, Peter Cardon petercardon@gmail.com, before writing a review.
Submission Guidelines
“Focus on” articles should be submitted via email, as Microsoft Word documents, directly to the appropriate column editor. Topics, deadlines, and editors’ contact information for the Focus on Teaching and Focus on Business Practices columns are posted on the ABC Web site: http://www.businesscommunication.org/index.asp.
Reviews should be submitted via email, as Microsoft Word documents, to Peter Cardon at petercardon@gmail.com.
Feature articles and Innovative Assignment articles should be submitted via the Manuscript Central online submission system: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/bcq. Please note the following points in particular as you prepare your files for online submission:
1. Follow the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed., 2010) in preparing the manuscript. For points not covered in the APA manual, refer to the Chicago Manual of Style (15th ed., 2003).
2. Prepare a separate title page file that includes the following information in the order shown:
- manuscript title (maximum of 12 words)
- each author’s name, institutional affiliation, city and state of institutional affiliation, and email address
- email address; office, home, and fax phone numbers; and mailing address of the author to whom all correspondence should be sent
- the number of words in the article (including all parts)
- a optional biographical note (50 words maximum) for each author; see recent issues for examples
- any acknowledgments or information about manuscript history (e.g., basis in a conference presentation)
3. For a feature article submission, prepare a 100-word (maximum) abstract and at least three keywords. (No abstract or list of keywords is needed for an Innovative Assignment submission.)
4. Prepare a separate manuscript file that begins with the title of the article and proceeds to the main text. Do not include any personal or institutional identification in the body of the manuscript. Use double spacing throughout, 1" to 1.5" margins all around, and as little formatting as possible. Do not use footnotes or endnotes. Include “placeholder” callouts to indicate the placement of any tables or figures (e.g., “Insert Table 1 about here”).
5. Include a list of references at the end of the manuscript file. Cite only those works that you build on or challenge, and include only those works actually cited in the manuscript. Follow the APA manual carefully for the content and format of all references. When citing BCQ articles published through 2003, include both volume and issue numbers. The issue number is not needed when citing BCQ articles published in 2004 and later. (See p. 227 of the APA manual for details.)
6. Prepare a separate file(s) containing any tables, figures, appendixes, or other supplementary material––again, with no personal or institutional identification. Limit visuals to those that can be presented effectively within the journal’s trim size. Authors of accepted manuscripts will be asked to provide camera-ready copies of any graphics or to pay actual preparation costs.
Review Process
Following a satisfactory initial review by the editorial office, feature article and Innovative Assignment submissions are evaluated by at least two reviewers, using a masked peer-review process. We strive to return reviewers’ reports to the author(s) within 8 weeks after the initial editorial review.
Submissions to the “Focus on” and book review columns are reviewed by the appropriate column editor.
Selection Criteria
Manuscripts elected for publication must
- clearly address an issue in the teaching of business communication in academic, corporate, government, or other organizational settings
- present genuinely useful information on such topics as written, oral, electronic, managerial, interpersonal, organizational, and intercultural communication
- situate the study in the context of previous research and other published work in the field
- appeal to a broad range of BCQ’s interdisciplinary and international audience, which includes undergraduate and graduate university educators, community college educators, consultants, and practitioners
- adhere to ethical guidelines (e.g., for human subjects research) and legal requirements of the country in which the study was conducted
- serve as a model of effective writing
- be the original work of the author(s), submitted solely to BCQ and not published, in press, or submitted elsewhere
- follow the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed., 2001)
Manuscripts selected for publication may be edited as deemed appropriate by the editor. The author retains responsibility for the accuracy of a manuscript published in BCQ.
