Letter from the Editor

Dear JCMC Readers,

On January 1, 2004, I started work as the Editor-Elect of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, soliciting and processing new submissions for consideration for publication starting in January 2005. In addition to being a lot of fun, it is truly an honor to take on the editorship of the JCMC. Almost 10 years ago, the journal's founding editors, Margaret McLaughlin and Sheizaf Rafaeli, realized the need for a venue devoted exclusively to the then-emergent field of computer-mediated communication, and had the foresight to implement it as a web-based journal. Thanks to their initiative and vision, and the consistently high standards to which publication in the journal has been held, the JCMC is today the premier journal for CMC research in the world. Mine is the second editorship the JCMC has known; the transition corresponds to the International Communication Association lending its institutional imprimatur to the journal.Thanks are due to the School of Library and Information Science and the School of Informatics at Indiana University for providing institutional support during my editorship.

Computer-mediated communication is an inherently interdisciplinary phenomenon. My goals for the JCMC are to preserve the broadly interdisciplinary perspective and the high standards of quality for which the journal is known, while at the same time being responsive to the latest developments in CMC scholarship and contemporary trends in online publishing. By the end of this year, I hope to implement an integrated web-based submission and review mechanism that will reduce email volume and allow authors to check on the status of their submissions, and the journal's home page should have a new look and feel. In this, I will be assisted by John Paolillo in the role of Associate Editor, whose responsibilities will include oversight of the journal web site. His technical expertise will enable the journal to publish articles that take advantage of the multimedia potential of the Web, as well as to find solutions to challenges raised by Unicode and specialized non-English fonts, two phenomena the Web is increasingly embracing. An international and interdisciplinary board of CMC experts will also advise me in selecting high quality articles for publication, as well as in setting policy and charting a course for the journal that is both responsive to the constituencies it serves and intellectually on the cutting edge.

I need your help to maintain the breadth, quality and vitality for which the JCMC is known. This is an excellent time for submission of new manuscripts, as well as of proposals for special issues. I am particularly interested in proposals for special issues in which preliminary versions of the articles are already written (for example, for presentation at a conference); we may be able to provide a shorter time-to-publication at this juncture than is normally the case. Please feel free to contact me with your publication ideas or queries at: jcmc @ indiana.edu.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Link to the JCMC Editorial Board

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