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Mobile Media & Communication

Mobile Media & Communication


eISSN: 20501587 | ISSN: 20501579 | Current volume: 12 | Current issue: 1 Frequency: 3 Times/Year

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Mobile Media & Communication
is a peer-reviewed forum for international, interdisciplinary academic research on the dynamic field of mobile media and communication. Mobile Media & Communication draws on a wide and continually renewed range of disciplines, engaging broadly in the concept of mobility itself.

The journal embraces both quantitative and qualitative approaches to the study of mobility in communication, but above all aims toward state-of-the-art methodology. While the center of gravity lies in social sciences and humanities, the journal is open to research with technical, economic, and design aspects, provided they help to enlighten the social dimensions of mobile communication.

Mobile Media & Communication examines the phenomenon of mobility in communication – that is, what is understood as mobile media and communication, but also emerging phenomena such as mobile and ubiquitous computing. Contributions may include, but are certainly not limited to, explorations of the following topics:

  • Mobile communication as an innovation, including the emergence of new usage forms, the negotiation of norms, and symbolic representation by producers and users
  • The interrelationship of this nearly ubiquitous technology and the users’ everyday lives
  • The embeddedness of mobile communication within social networks, and the mutual shaping of technology and social structure
  • Local cultures and forms of use of mobile communication
  • Mobile communication in developing countries
  • Cultural differences in mobile communication
  • Mobile communication and gender
  • Specific methodologies that address the mobile character of the phenomenon: ethnography, observation, network analysis, experience sampling, and other still emerging methods
  • Mobile learning and education.
  • Persuasion through mobile media in various domains
  • History of mobile media
  • Journalism and mobile media
  • Specific methodologies that address the mobile character of the phenomenon: ethnography, observation, network analysis, experience sampling, and other still emerging methods

This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Mobile Media & Communication is a peer-reviewed forum for international, interdisciplinary academic research on the dynamic field of mobile media and communication. Mobile Media & Communication draws on a wide and continually renewed range of disciplines, engaging broadly in the concept of mobility itself.

The journal embraces both quantitative and qualitative approaches to the study of mobility in communication, but above all aims toward state-of-the-art methodology. While the center of gravity lies in social sciences and humanities, the journal is open to research with technical, economic, and design aspects, provided they help to enlighten the social dimensions of mobile communication.

Mobile Media & Communication ** examines the phenomenon of mobility in communication – that is, what is understood as mobile media and communication, but also emerging phenomena such as mobile and ubiquitous computing. Contributions may include, but are certainly not limited to, explorations of the following topics:

  • Mobile communication as an innovation, including the emergence of new usage forms, the negotiation of norms, and symbolic representation by producers and users
  • The interrelationship of this nearly ubiquitous technology and the users’ everyday lives
  • The embeddedness of mobile communication within social networks, and the mutual shaping of technology and social structure
  • Local cultures and forms of use of mobile communication
  • Mobile communication in developing countries
  • Cultural differences in mobile communication
  • Mobile communication and gender
  • Specific methodologies that address the mobile character of the phenomenon: ethnography, observation, network analysis, experience sampling, and other still emerging methods
  • Mobile learning and education.
  • Persuasion through mobile media in various domains
  • History of mobile media
  • Journalism and mobile media
  • Specific methodologies that address the mobile character of the phenomenon: ethnography, observation, network analysis, experience sampling, and other still emerging methods
Co-Editors
Veronika Karnowski Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany
Rich Ling Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Adriana de Souza e Silva North Carolina State University, USA
Past Editors
Steve Jones University of Illinois at Chicago, USA
Thilo von Pape University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Book Review Editor
Earvin Charles Cabalquinto Monash University, Australia
Software Review Editor
Jakob Ohme Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
Social Media Editor
Nariman Sawalha LMU Munich, Germany
Editorial Board
Jason Vincent A. Cabañes De La Salle University, Philippines
Mariek Vanden Abeele Ghent University, Belgium
Naomi Baron American University, US, USA
Joseph Bayer The Ohio State University, USA
Jeffrey Boase University of Toronto, Canada
Scott Campbell University of Michigan, USA
Manuel Castells Professeur Emerite de Sociologie, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Michael Chan Chinese University Hong Kong, Hongkong
Arul Indrasen Chib Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Kathleen M. Cumiskey City University of New York, USA
Lieven de Marez Ghent University, Belgium
Adriana A. de Souza e Silva North Carolina State University, USA
Jonathan Donner Caribou Digital, USA
Jason Farman University of Maryland, USA
Mireia Fernández Ardèvol Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain
Leopoldina Fortunati University of Udine, Italy
Jordan Frith University of North Texas, USA
Gerard Goggin Western Sydney University, Australia
Leslie Haddon London School of Economics, UK
Jeffrey Hall University of Kansas, USA
Maren Hartmann University of the Arts (UdK), Berlin, Germany
Rasmus Helles University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Andrew Herman Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada
Larissa Hjorth RMIT University, Australia
Heather Horst University of Sydney, Australia
Lee Humphreys Cornell University, USA
Kenichi Ishii Bunkyo University, Japan
Klaus Bruhn Jensen University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Yong Dal Jin Simon Fraser University, Canada
James Katz Boston University, USA
Leah Komen Daystar University, Kenya
Sun Kyong Lee Korea University, Korea
Christian Licoppe Telecom Paris, and Institut Polytechnique de Paris, France
Christine Linke University of Rostock, Germany
Philipp Masur University of Hohenheim, Germany
Rhonda McEwen University of Toronto, Canada
Shin Mizukoshi Kansai University, Japan
Teresa Naab University of Augsburg, Germany
Didem Özkul Bilkent University, Turkey
Katy Pearce University of Washington, USA
David Phillips University of Toronto, Canada
Jessica Piotrowski University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Harrison Lee Rainie Pew Research Center, USA
Giulia Ranzini Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands
Leonard Reinecke Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany
Rivka Ribak University of Haifa, Israel
Anna Schnauber-Stockmann Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany
Araba Sey University of Washington, US
Richard Smith Simon Fraser University, Canada
Fred Steier University of South Florida, USA
Keri Stephens University of Texas at Austin, USA
Edson Tandoc Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Cara Wallis Texas A&M University, USA
Amanda Watson The Australian National University, Australia
Ran Wei University of South Carolina, USA
Oscar Westlund Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway
Rowan Wilken RMIT, Australia
Tien Ee Dominic Yeo Hong Kong Baptist University, Hongkong
Guoliang Zhang Shanghai Jiao Ton University, China

Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Mobile Media & Communication

This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics. 

Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/MMC 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 Mobile Media & Communication will be reviewed.

There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.

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, 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, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.

  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 policies
    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 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 Mobile Media & Communication, please ensure you have read the journal description.

1.2 Article Types

Mobile Media & Communication publishes original research articles (~8,000 words, including main text, tables, figures, and references) examining the phenomenon of mobility in its meeting with communication. We are also interested in emerging phenomena such as mobile and ubiquitous computing. Contributions may include, but are certainly not limited to, explorations of the following topics:

  • Mobile communication as an innovation, including the emergence of new usage forms, the negotiation of norms, and symbolic representation by producers and users.
  • The interrelationship of this nearly ubiquitous technology and users' everyday lives.
  • The embeddedness of mobile communication within social networks, and the mutual shaping of technology and social structure.
  • Persuasion through mobile media in various domains
  • Effects of mobile communication.
  • Local cultures and the forms of mobile communication use.
  • Mobile communication in developing countries.
  • Cultural differences in mobile communication.
  • Mobile communication and gender.
  • Mobile media and communication in education, entertainment, health, agriculture and other specific fields
  • History of mobile media.
  • Journalism, news consumption, and mobile media.
  • Specific methodologies that address the mobile character of the phenomenon include ethnography, survey research, observation, network analysis, experience sampling, and other still emerging qualitative and quantitative methods.

Reviews: Mobile Media & Communication includes two review sections. The Book Review Section, edited by Sun Sun Lim, consists of both essay length and shorter contributions reviewing current books in mobile media and communication.

The Software Review Section, edited by Jakob Ohme, provides a forum for discussing, enhancing, and acknowledging the development of open-source research software in mobile media and communication. The section calls on researchers to present their self-developed software or review software they have utilized in their research projects. The goal is to make innovative software known and accessible to a broad audience and thereby to contribute to the advancement of mobile communication research.

1.3 Writing your paper

The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.

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.

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2. Editorial policies

2.1 Peer review policy

Sage does not permit the use of author-suggested (recommended) reviewers at any stage of the submission process, be that through the web-based submission system or other communication. Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if:

•  The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors

•  The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper

•  The author has recommended the reviewer

•  The reviewer has provided a personal (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution). 

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.

Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.

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.

2.4 Funding

Mobile Media & Communication 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

Mobile Media & Communication encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.

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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

Mobile Media & Communication 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

Mobile Media & Communication offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.

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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.

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.  

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

Mobile Media & Communication adheres to the APA reference style. View the APA guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

4.5 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.

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5. Submitting your manuscript

Mobile Media & Communication is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/MMC to login and submit your article online.

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.  For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

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.

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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.

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.

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7. Further information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Mobile Media & Communication editorial office as follows:

mobilemediaandcommunication@googlemail.com

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