Manuscripts submitted for peer review typically fall into one of three categories: Original Research Article, Methodologies and Approaches, or Perspectives. Your cover letter should indicate the category to which you intend to submit your manuscript. Please adhere to the appropriate guidelines below.
Regardless of the submission category, your article should specify the methods used to collect and analyze any original research data that you are reporting. If any of that data collection has involved human subjects, your article should explicitly state that your methods have been approved or exempted by the appropriate entity (e.g., the IRB) at your institution. Manuscripts that do not meet the stated criteria may be returned to the author without being sent out for review.
If you are not sure whether your manuscript fits into one of these categories, please send an inquiry to the Editor, Amy Koerber.
Original research articles report the results of a formal study based on original research. TCQ publishes research informed by a wide variety of interpretive and empirical methodologies, including but not limited to the following: textual analysis, archival research, usability testing, ethnographic observation, interviews, and surveys.
The typical length for manuscripts in this category is 8,000-9,000 words (30-35 double-spaced pages, including notes and references).
Methodologies and Approaches articles are descriptions of innovative teaching or research techniques. This category provides a forum for reporting on specific techniques or strategies without the structure of a formal, full-scale study. The author should demonstrate familiarity with current relevant scholarship. Preference will be given to submissions that address timely topics and suggest techniques or strategies of interest to TCQ’s diverse readership.
The typical length for manuscripts in this category is 6,000-7,000 words (25-30 double-spaced pages, including notes and references).
Perspectives are opinion-based essays about some aspect of the field of technical communication. They may, for example, call attention to an under-examined issue in our current theories about technical communication, argue for the need for more extensive research about a given topic, review theory and research, or use ideas from other disciplines to lead us to rethink how we conceptualize practice and pedagogy in technical communication.
The typical length for manuscripts in this category is 6,000-7,000 words (25-30 double-spaced pages, including notes and references).
In addition to peer-reviewed manuscripts, TCQ also publishes book reviews. Book reviews offer critical insight into a recent publication of interest to teachers and/or researchers in technical communication. Reviews should offer readers more than a summary of a publication's contents. They should situate the publication under consideration within relevant conversations about the theory and practice of technical communication in its many contexts. Book reviews of single texts are typically no longer than 1,500 words. Reviews of multiple books may be longer.
Contact Brent Henze, Book Review Editor, if you are interested in reviewing a book for TCQ.
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