Journal of Creative Communications

Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Journal of Creative Communications (JOCC)

This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics

Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site https://peerreview.sagepub.com/crc to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Journal of Creative Communications will be reviewed.

There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this journal.

As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that Journal of Creative Communications may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy. If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.

1. What do we publish?

1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper

2. Editorial policies

2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

3. Publishing polices

3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving

4. Preparing your manuscript

4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Supplementary material
4.4 Reference style
4.5 Book Reviews
4.6 English language editing services

5. Submitting your manuscript

5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions

6. On acceptance and publication

6.1 SAGE Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article

7. Further information

1. What do we publish?

1.1 Aims & Scope

Before submitting your manuscript to Journal of Creative Communications, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope

1.2 Article types

There could be two to three sections in the journal:

• Research Articles
• Commentaries
• Research in Brief
• Case Studies
• Practitioner Essays

Research articles should be of approximately 6,000–8,000 words in length, including references, tables, and figures. They should be written as continuous expository narrative in a chapter or article style - not as lists of points. Shorter articles of 3,000–4,000 words (all included) can be published as commentaries/ brief research/ case studies/ essays, etc.

1.3 Writing your paper

The SAGE Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources.

1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online

2. Editorial policies

2.1 Peer review policy

Journal of Creative Communications adheres to a rigorous double-blind reviewing policy in which the identity of both the reviewer and author are always concealed from both parties.

2.2 Authorship

All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.

2.3 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.

2.3.1 Third party submissions

Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

•    Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input 
•    Identify any entities that paid for this assistance 
•    Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

Where appropriate, SAGE reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

2.3.2 Writing assistance

Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.

2.4 Funding

Journal of Creative Communications requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading.  Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. 

2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

Journal of Creative Communications encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway

3. Publishing Policies

3.1 Publication ethics

SAGE is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the SAGE Author Gateway

3.1.1 Plagiarism
Journal of Creative Communications and SAGE take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

3.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a SAGE journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the SAGE Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

3.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement      

Before publication, SAGE requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. SAGE’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants SAGE the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than SAGE. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the SAGE Author Gateway

3.3 Open access and author archiving

Journal of Creative Communications offers optional open access publishing via the SAGE Choice programme. For more information please visit the SAGE Choice website. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit SAGE Publishing Policies on our Journal Author Gateway.

4. Preparing your manuscript for submission                                              

4.1 Formatting

The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

The manuscript should be structured as follows:

• The cover page should carry the title of the article, the author(s)’ name(s), institutional affiliation(s), address(es) (postal, email and web), and phone and fax numbers. In case there are two or more authors, then corresponding author’s name and address details must be clearly specified on the first page itself; all correspondence, including those of the proof of the article would be sent to her/him.
• All articles must be accompanied by an abstract of 150–200 words, 4–5 keywords, and a brief profile of the author of about 50 words and not exceeding 100 words (in total) in case of multiple authors.
• Endnotes should be used instead of footnotes, and should be numbered serially using standard figures (e.g., 1, 2, 3). The notes should be linked to the note cues within the text. Notes should contain more than a citation of a work. Use notes to elaborate an issue that is already made in the main text.
• The spellings used should be British (UK), with ‘s’ variant, e.g., globalisation instead of globalization, labour instead of labor.
• Use single quotes throughout. Double quotes only used within single quotes. Spellings of words in quotations should not be changed. Quotations of 45 words or more should be separated from the text and indented with one space with a line space above and below. When directly quoting from a work, include the page number in the citation.
• Use of italics and diacriticals should be minimized but consistent. For non-English and uncommon words and phrases, use italics throughout the text. Meaning of non-English words should be given in parenthesis just after the word when it is used for the first time.
• Use capitals sparingly and double-check the logical application of any distinctions you wish to make between specific and general use.
• Abbreviations are spelled out at first occurrence. Very common ones (US, GDP, BBC) need not be spelled out.
• Spell out numbers from one to nine, 10 and above to remain in figures. However, for exact measurements use only figures (3 km; 9 per cent). Use thousands and millions, not lakhs and crores.
• Use ‘per cent’ instead of % in the text. In tables, graphs, etc., % can be used.
• Give specific dates in the form 22 November 1980. When referring to a century it should be in words, e.g., ‘twentieth century’ and when reference is being made to a decade use numbers, e.g., ‘1980s’.
• Ibid should not be used.
• The data in Figures should be mentioned in thousands and millions, and not lakhs and crores.
• Tables and figures to be indicated by numbers separately (see Table 1), not by placement (see Table below). Present each table and figure on a separate sheet of paper, gathering them together at the end of the article.

4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit SAGE’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines  

• All photographs and scanned images should have a resolution of minimum 300 dpi/1500 pixels and their format should be TIFF or JPEG.
• Due permissions should be taken for copyright protected photographs/images. Even for photographs/images available in the public domain, it should be clearly ascertained whether or not their reproduction requires permission for purposes of publishing (which is a profit-making endeavour).
• All photographs/scanned images should be provided separately in a folder along with the main article.

Please Note: All figures and tables should be cited in the text and should have the source (a specific URL, a reference or, if it is author’s own work, ‘The Author’) mentioned irrespective of whether or not they require permissions.

Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from SAGE after receipt of your accepted article.

4.3 Supplementary material

This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files

4.4 Reference style

Journal of Creative Communications adheres to the APA reference style. View the APA guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

• References: A consolidated listing of all books, articles, essays, theses and documents referred to (including any referred to in the tables, graphs and maps) should be provided at the end of the article.
   
• Arrangement of references: Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last name of the first author of each work. In each reference, authors’ names are inverted (last name first) for all authors (first, second or subsequent ones); give the last name and initials for all authors of a particular work unless the work has more than six authors. If the work has more than six authors, list the first six authors and then use et al. after the sixth author’s name.
   
• Chronological listing: If more than one work by the same author(s) is cited, they should be listed in order by the year of publication, starting with the earliest.
   
• Sentence case: In references, sentence case (only the first word and any proper noun are capitalized—e.g., ‘The software industry in India’) is to be followed for the titles of papers, books, articles, etc.
   
• Title case: In references, Journal titles are put in title case (first letter of all words except articles and conjunctions are capitalized—e.g., Journal of Business Ethics).
   
• Italicize: Book and Journal titles are to be italicized.

In-text citations:

• One work by one author: (Kessler, 2003, p. 50) or ‘Kessler (2003) found that among the epidemiological samples…’.
• One work by two authors: (Joreskog & Sorborn, 2007, pp. 50–66) or Joreskog and Sorborn (2007) found that…
• One work by three or more authors: (Basu, Banerji, & Chatterjee, 2007) [first instance]; Basu et al. (2007) [Second instance onwards].
• Groups or organizations or universities: (University of Pittsburgh, 2007) or University of Pittsburgh (2007).
• Authors with same surname and different or similar year of publication: Include the initials in all the in-text citations even if the year of publication differs, e.g., (I. Light, 2006; M. A. Light, 2008).
• Works with no identified author or anonymous author: Cite the first few words of the reference entry (title) and then the year, e.g., (‘Study finds’, 2007); (Anonymous, 1998).

If abbreviations are provided, then the style to be followed is: (National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2003) in the first citation and (NIMH, 2003) in subsequent citations.

• Two or more works by same author: (Gogel, 1990, 2006, in press)
• Two or more works with different authors: (Gogel, 1996; Miller, 1999)
• Secondary sources: Allport's diary (as cited in Nicholson, 2003).
• Films: (Name of the Director, Year of release)
• Mere URLs can be provided as notes before the references.

Reference Examples:

• Books:
  Patnaik, U. (2007). The republic of hunger. New Delhi: Three Essays Collective.
   
• Edited Books:
  Amanor, K. S., & Moyo, S. (Eds.). (2008). Land and sustainable development in Africa. London/New York, NY: Zed Books.
   
• Translated books:
  Amin, S. (1976). Unequal development (trans. B. Pearce). London and New York, NY: Monthly Review Press.
   
• Book chapters:
  Chachra, S. (2011). The national question in India. In S. Moyo & P. Yeros (Eds.), Reclaiming the nation (pp. 67–78). London: Pluto Press.
   
• Journal articles:
  Foster, J. B. (2010). The financialization of accumulation. Monthly Review, 62(5), 1−17.
   
• Newsletter article, no author:
  Six sites meet for comprehensive anti-gang intiative conference. (2006, November/December). OOJDP News @ a Glance. Retrieved from http://www.ncrjs.gov/html

[Please do not place a period at the end of an online reference.]

• Newspaper article:
  Schwartz, J. (1993, September 30). Obesity affects economic, social status. The Washington Post, pp. A1, A4.

[Please provide a URL if the page numbers of the article are not available.]

• In-press article:
  Briscoe, R. (in press). Egocentric spatial representation in action and perception. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. Retrieved from http://cogprints.org/5780/1/ECSRAP.F07.pdf
   
• Non-English reference book, title translated into English: 
  Real Academia Espanola. (2001). Diccionario de la lengua espanola [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (22nd ed.). Madrid, Spain: Author.
   
• Special issue or section in a journal: 
  Haney, C., & Wiener, R. L. (Eds.) (2004). Capital punishment in the United States [Special Issue]. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 10(4), 1−17.
   
• Online article:
  Robert, R. (2018). Egocentric spatial representation in action and perception. Retrieved from http://cogprints.org/5780/1/ECSRAP.F07.pdf

Please Note: For each in-text citation there must be a corresponding reference in the reference list and for each reference there must be a corresponding in-text citation.

4.5 Book Reviews

The title of these must contain the name of the author and the book being reviewed, the place of publication and the publisher details (name and location), year of publication, number of pages, price and binding (hardbound/paperback) set as follows:

Mark David Chong and Abraham P. Francis (Eds.), Demystifying Criminal Justice Social Work in India. New Delhi: SAGE Publications, 2017, xlix + 297 pp., ₹ 950 (hardback). ISBN: 978-93-860-6247-5.

Reviewer’s name must be provided at the end of the book review along with the e-mail address and the affiliation.

4.6 English language editing services

Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using SAGE Language Services. Visit SAGE Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

5. Submitting your manuscript

Journal of Creative Communicationsis hosted on SAGE Track SAGE, a web-based online submission and peer review system. Visit https://peerreview.sagepub.com/crc to log in and submit your article online.

The corresponding author will receive a link for the copyright form once a contribution is accepted for publication. The submission will be considered as final once the author submits the copyright form.

IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created.

5.1 ORCID

As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process SAGE is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.

The collection of ORCID IDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID ID you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID ID will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.

If you do not already have an ORCID ID please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

5.2 Information required for completing your submission

You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

5.3 Permissions

Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the SAGE Author Gateway

6. On acceptance and publication           

6.1 SAGE Production

Your SAGE Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly.  Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate. Please note that if there are any changes to the author list at this stage all authors will be required to complete and sign a form authorising the change.

6.2 Online First publication

Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the SAGE Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.

6.3 Access to your published article

SAGE provides authors with online access to their final article.

6.4 Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The SAGE Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice. 

7. Further information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Journal of Creative Communications editorial office as follows:

E-mails: manisha.shelat@micamail.in; kallol.das@micamail.in; and arpit.christian@micamail.in