Submissions

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Submission Preparation 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 manuscript consists of original research and has not been previously published, nor is it under consideration for publication in another journal.

  • The body of the manuscript is spaced at 1.15 with standard margins, 0.3" tabs and 12-point fonts.

  • The manuscript files accompanying the submission have been saved in Microsoft Word document file format (DOC or DOCX). 

  • Images, figures, and tables have been saved as their own separate file in publishable format (BMP, TIFF, EPS, uncompressed JPEG; not GIF or compressed JPEG) and are not included with the manuscript itself.

  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.

  • Studies that make use of human subjects have demonstrated compliance with ethical research standards, including Institutional Review Board approval and consent by participants.

  • To ensure the integrity of the double-blind review process, any information identifying the author(s) has been removed from the body of the manuscript, including references and footnotes, as well as author identification within the properties for the submitted file(s).
  • The submission includes a title page as a separate file independent from the body of the manuscript, with names, affiliations, biographies, and contact information for the author(s). The title page follows the template on the JPIC website. 

  • The title page includes a list of five keywords to help classify the paper and an abstract of no more than 120 words.

Author Guidelines

Manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Public Interest Communications must be submitted through the Journal’s online site. Manuscripts must be original research and cannot be published or under consideration for publication elsewhere. There are no article processing or submission charges. Please review the JPIC submission policies before submitting.

Manuscripts should be 1.15 spaced, 12-font. Manuscripts must be submitted in Microsoft Word file format (DOC or DOCX). Failure to submit manuscript files in this format may result in a delay in the review process. You must include with each submission a title page with author and contact information as well as a manuscript scrubbed of personally identifiable information to ensure blind review.

Tables, figures, and images should be uploaded separately in Microsoft Word file format (DOC or DOCX files). Figures and images should be saved and uploaded using high quality image formats: BMP, TIFF, EPS, JPEG (uncompressed); not GIF or compressed JPEG. Figures and images should be 300dpi (print quality) and no wider than 4.5 inches.

JPIC uses a double-blind review process, which means that both the reviewer and author identities are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa. To ensure the integrity of the double-blind review process, authors must make every effort to prevent the identities of the authors and reviewers from being known to each other. This also involves the authors, editors, and reviewers (who upload documents as part of their review) checking to see if the following steps have been taken with regard to the text and the file properties:

  • The authors submit a title page document with any identifying information separate from the body of the manuscript.
  • The authors of the document have deleted their names from the manuscript, with "Author" and year used in the references and footnotes, instead of the authors' name, article title, etc.
  • With Microsoft Office documents, author identification should also be removed from the properties for the file (see under File in Word), by clicking on the following, beginning with File on the main menu of the Microsoft application: File > Save As > Tools (or Options with a Mac) > Security > Remove personal information from file properties on save > Save.
  • With any other relevant file types, the authors' names should be removed from the respective document properties.

Manuscript Length

Please ensure that your submission manuscript does not exceed the following length guidelines:

Original research: 6,000 – 8,000 words
Practitioner reports: 4,000 – 6,000 words
Campaign reviews: 4,000 – 6,000 words
Commentary 3,000 – 4,000 words

Abstracts

Each article is required to have a brief abstract of no more than 120 words. The abstract should appear on the article’s title page beneath the paper title, author(s), and institutional affiliations.

Author Bio(s)

Each contributing author should supply a brief biography of no more than 150 words. Biographies should appear on the title page beneath the paper abstract and should be written in the third-person.

General Formatting

Manuscripts, including reference lists, must be prepared following APA 7th edition formatting. Paragraphs should start with an indent and no extra space between paragraphs. Dashes should be keyed in em dashes no space at either end. For example: word—word.

Heading Styles

First level headings: (Boldface, first word capitalized, justified at left margin, on a separate line)

Second level headings: (Plain type, first word capitalized, justified at left margin, on a separate line)

Third level headings: (Italic type, first word capitalized, justified at left margin, on a separate line)

Author's Agreement

This agreement takes effect upon acceptance of the Submission for publication in JPIC.

  • I hereby grant to the University of Florida (“the University”) the non-exclusive right to retain, reproduce and distribute the Submission in whole or in part, in print and electronic format and in any medium. This agreement does not represent a transfer of copyright to the University.
  • The University may make and keep multiple copies of the work for purposes of security, backup, preservation and access; and may migrate the work to any medium or format for the purpose of preservation and access.
  • I represent and warrant to the University that the work is my original work and that I have the authority as sole author or I have the authority on behalf of my co-authors to grant the rights contained in this agreement. I also represent that the work does not, to the best of my knowledge, infringe or violate any rights of others.
  • I further represent and warrant that I have obtained all necessary rights to permit the University to reproduce and distribute the work, including any third-party material. Alternatively, I represent that my use of any third-party material is allowed because the material is not in copyright or I have performed a fair use analysis and reasonably believe my use is permitted. Any content owned by a third party is clearly identified and acknowledged within the work.
  • I grant these same rights to JPIC. Additionally, I grant the right to both the University and JPIC to enter into agreements with third-party entities and the rights necessary to host, print, index and abstract the Submission.

Open Access and Self-Archiving

JPIC follows an open-access publishing model, meaning that all articles will be publicly accessible on the Internet immediately upon publication. I understand that I may share the submitted manuscript (preprint) of the Submission on the Internet at any point before or after publication, with a citation and link to the final version of record to be added as soon as the issue is available. I may disseminate the final peer-reviewed version at any point after publication. 

Creative Commons License

JPIC applies a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY NC) 4.0 to encourage sharing and reuse of content and to maximize the impact of published research. By publishing in JPIC, I agree that the terms of this license will be applied to the Submission. Smathers Libraries (copyright@uflib.ufl.edu) may be able to offer additional information.

By granting this license, I acknowledge that I have read and agreed to the terms of this agreement.

Original Research

Research findings are written primarily by academic researchers working in fields relevant to public interest communications. These articles are designed to offer empirically-based suggestions for communicators and activists working on campaigns, or to contribute substantially to the theoretical basis of the field.

Practitioner Perspectives

These articles are written by communications experts and practitioners of public interest communications to analyze strategies and tactics used in the field. Practitioner reports can take the form of best practices, approaches to avoid, and calls for additional analysis of a particular aspect of public interest communications.

Campaign Reviews

Campaign reviews are analyses of specific public interest communications campaigns either past or in progress. These articles are designed to analyze the constituent components of campaigns and offer a critical look at what worked and what did not work within the campaign.

Commentary

Commentary pieces offer a place for practitioners, researchers, activists, and others invested in public interest communications to engage in a dialogue with one another, offer constructive criticism, and suggestions for future research.

Editors' Essay

Articles published in this section are written by the issue's editors.

Invited Papers

Papers in this section were invited by the journal's editorial board.

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