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June 2015
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Discussion on the formal establishment of the journal began in March 2014 and the first issue was completed in March 2015. The theme of the first issue is derived from the inaugural conference: “Celebrating the Caribbean in Culture Communication and Community.” Selected invited essays, original research articles, a reflective essay by Professor Lawrence R. Frey, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA, the 2013 keynote speaker, and reports, reflections and notices provide the journal content. The journal website was built using the Online Journal Service (OJS) platform which is hosted by the Alma Jordan Library, UWI. This platform facilitated the online submission, and auto-replies and correspondence, review and editing, revision, copyediting, proofreading and layout of content. Other UWI journals use this platform, but the JHCSC is the first to create an online subscription service to give access to its online and print versions. The JHCSC aims to promote the study, teaching and research of human communication studies in the Caribbean and beyond by publishing peer-reviewed original research essays and articles on subjects and themes related to human communication studies. An earlier attempt to create a journal was made many years ago but it was not sustained. This version appears after 40 years of teaching and research in media and communication at CARIMAC at The UWI, Mona, over 15 years of communication studies at The UWI St. Augustine and four years of communication studies at The UWI Cave Hill. The journal invites scholars and other contributors with an interest in human communication studies in the Caribbean to submit original academic research papers. As the focus and content of the journal evolves, in addition to the call for academic original research articles, proposals for shorter and alternative, imaginative pieces such as reader responses, book reviews, interviews, research in progress, and concept papers will be invited by the editorial board. The online subscription service is based on the TouchNet platform. Subscribers will pay to access the full content of the journal and thus contribute toward making it sustainable. Some content is free. See: http://journals.sta.uwi.edu/jhcsc/index.asp?action=currentIssue . A subscription entitles the holder to a reduced conference fee and membership in the AHCSC. The JHCSC aims to publish at least one volume consisting of at least two issues per year, but there may be periodic special thematic calls for papers that necessitate a deviation. Interested authors should submit original research papers on human communication studies in the Caribbean for double-blind international peer review. The JHCSC received start-up funding from the 2013 Human Communication Studies International Conference and the Campus Research and Publication Fund. Another issue is planned for later in 2015. The Editorial Board consists of three officers, Drs. Godfrey A. Steele, Editor, Livingston A. White, Associate Editor and Korah L. Belgrave, Associate Editor, who represent three campuses and are supported by 25 other reviewers from the Caribbean, USA, UK and Australia. These reviewers come from a wide range of interests in human communication studies and a variety of other disciplines including cultural studies, gender, literature, linguistics, history, management, psychology, information technology and education. The JHCSC has benefitted from interdisciplinary linkages and support from many partners and the Association for Human Communication Studies (AHCSC). Also launched at the same time was a conference being hosted by the Human Communication Studies Postgraduate Programme in the Department of Literary, Cultural and Communication Studies. This conference takes place on September 24 and 25, 2015 and focuses on “Identity, Context and Interdisciplinarity in Human Communication Studies in the Caribbean.” (Dr Godfrey Steele) |
