Online Media & Global Communication

eISSN:  2749-9049

Sponsored by Center for Global Public Opinion of China and 

School of Journalism and Communication, 

Shanghai International Studies University, China

E-mail: OMGC@shisu.edu.cn

CALL FOR PAPERS

The rise of global online media, such as social media, blogs, mobile apps, podcasts, messaging apps, video streaming sites, calls for more understanding on how these global media affect the world, especially in the field of global communication. Research in global online media is growing with the aid of computational, big data techniques. Researchers now can easily collect and analyze large amount of online media data in their own countries and other countries through webscrapers, Python computer programming and machine learning. Tools such as online survey software and cross-national panels also facilitate research across countries.

Online Media & Global Communication is a new free open access English language refereed journal published quarterly by De Gruyter and sponsored by Shanghai International Studies University. It aims to publish high quality, innovative and original research on global communication especially in the use of global online media platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, Weibo, WeChat, Wikipedia, web sites, blogs, etc., in an effort to make theoretical contributions under the contextual scenarios of and based on practices of online media and global communication, particularly in but not limited to the Global South. This journal will address the contemporary concerns about the effects and operations of global digital media platforms on international relations, international public opinion, fake news and propaganda dissemination, consumer behavior as well as the balance of voices in the world.

Studies that examine significant topics on theories and methods in global communication discourses between countries in both offline and online media or comparison of online and non-online media are within the scope of the journal. Comparative research across countries is particularly welcome. Empirical research is preferred over conceptual papers. Descriptive studies with a nationally representative sample that can serve as benchmarks for a topic will also be considered.

The journal hopes to serve as an academic bridge in the research of online media and global communication between the dominating English-speaking world and the non-English speaking world that has remained mostly invisible due to language barriers with the six-language abstracts in United Nations official languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish).

In addition to original research articles, the journal will also feature one invited research trend and state-of-the-art review essay on the online media and global communication research in a non-English speaking country or region. 

In addition, one highly commended translated article published in non-English native language communication journals as “Gems from the Global South” pertinent to the journal’s scope will be added to each issue for readers’ reference. 

This journal adopts a dual track review system as the first in the field of communication. Two review tracks are offered to the authors and authors must choose either one before final submission: 1) double blind (masked) review track that both authors and reviewers do not know the identity of the author; 2) single blind (masked) review track that reviewers will know the identity of the author and the authors are free to cite their own works and refer to themselves in the manuscript. Submitters who have posted their manuscript or its earlier version elsewhere online or with more than five self-citations will undergo the review process using the single-blind review track. 

All original submissions are in English with reviews by two or more reviewers. 

We adopt a structured abstract format with purpose, method, highlight of findings, practical implications, social and theoretical implications, originality and contribution so that just the abstract would be informative to the readers. Authors pay no fee to publish in the journal. 

To ensure fastest dissemination of the articles, we will post the accepted articles online as soon as the production is complete, and they will be compiled to an issue based on a quarterly basis. An article alert will be sent to all subscribers of the journals. Selected articles may be published in print and fully translated to Chinese on a limited basis at the discretion of the journal. 

Author Submission Guideline:

1. Publication Ethics. The journal will follow the Committee on Publication Ethics guideline for both reviewers and the authors.  https://publicationethics.org/ 

2. Original Submissions. All unsolicited authors’ submissions must be original and have not been published in English or other languages, either in print or online publications. Manuscripts which have been posted online such as university web sites, in preprint servers or file-sharing sites must self-identify such posting in the cover letter and undergo single-masked review.

3. Submission procedure.  Authors use the ScholarOne journal submission system to submit papers to the journal. https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/omgc  

ScholarOne Tutorial: 

4. Cover Letter.  All new submissions must include a cover letter explaining whether the manuscript is the first time the dataset was being used. If not, then the author should report previous articles or submissions to other journals using the same dataset and explaining the advancement of knowledge of the submitted manuscript over previous articles and other manuscripts under review in other journals. 

5. Abstracts and keywords. Manuscripts must include a structured abstract format no longer than 300 words in total (purpose, method, findings, implications, value) and proper keywords to help identify appropriate reviewers. See example on journal web site. Up to eight keywords can be accepted. The keywords must include country/region of study, research method, and the name of the online media platform being studied such as YouTube or category such as social media.

6. Citing your own works. When authors choose double-masked review track, excessive self-citations (more than 5) are discouraged and will be viewed as an attempt to identify the author. Such manuscript will undergo single-masked review automatically. Authors going through a double-masked review track who need to cite their own previous works should cite them in the same way as other authors. There is no need to specify the work is written by the author. The only exceptions are in press or forthcoming articles. In those cases, the in-text reference should be (Authors, in press/forthcoming). In single-masked review track, authors are free to cite and refer to their own works in the text of the manuscript and there is no limit on self-citations as long as they are appropriate.

7. Citation style. The journal generally adopts APA style 7th edition in general and publishes in American English. However, in the reference section, authors are required to provide the full name of each cited author such as Chen, Daiwen and Kaoqiu Lu (2020), instead of initials, to help identify authors in non-English speaking countries who have little differentiation by last name. 

For free subscription to the journal (including new article alert) and access to Shanghai International Studies University’s Center. For Global Public Opinion Research of China research database subscription, please send to:

OMGC@shisu.edu.cn 

SUBJECT: SUBSCRIBE 

For submission inquiries, please send to Founding Editor-in-Chief, Louisa Ha, Professor of Research Excellence at Bowling Green State University, U.S.A.: OMGC@shisu.edu.cn