About the Journal

Computational Communication Research is a peer-reviewed, open-access, community-owned journal founded from the ICA Computational Methods Division and published by Amsterdam University Press.

We welcome submissions that further the understanding, development and application of computational methods in communication research. Computational methods include (but are not limited to) methods such as text analysis, social/semantic network analysis, online experiments, machine learning, visual analysis and agent-based modeling and simulations. Computational methods can be applied to “big data” and social media or (online) behavior data, but can also be used to provide a more sophisticated understanding of “small data” or for theoretical explorations.

Submissions should discuss, introduce, or apply computational methods to build and/or test theory or to quantify, analyze, explore or visualize communication structures and processes.

In particular, we welcome submissions that :

  • Apply computational methods to communication research questions;
  • Present innovative computational methods for communication research;
  • Evaluate or validate computational approaches to communication research;
  • Address the role of computational methods in communication research;
  • Present or validate tools, software packages, and datasets that are useful for communication research.

Papers can be either full papers of up to 9,000 words, shorter research notes of 3,000 – 4,000 words, or tutorials. Research notes should be focused on reporting data sets, tools, or empirical analyses and should contain a short introduction, with references and theoretical discussion kept to a minimum. Please submit manuscripts through the submission system, or browse this website for more information on editorial policy, and editorial team.

Next to full papers and research notes, we also publish shorter software or tool announcements (see below).

 

Aims and Scope

CCR is an open access, online only  journal that encourages and facilitates the sharing of 1) developments in computational tools and methods, and 2) the application of computational methods to answer theoretical questions about (human) communication.

CCR welcomes the publication of:

  • Traditional full-length articles (max 9,000 words) as well as short communications (3,000 – 4,000 words). Computer science and some social science outlets (e.g. Political Analysis or APSR) commonly publish articles in the 3000-4000 word range. Results can often be interesting without lengthy theoretical reflections.
  • Descriptions of novel tools, methods, and data sets, provided they are valid, well documented, and relevant to communication research.
  • Explorative and null findings, provided they are theoretically relevant and methodologically rigorous.
  • Tutorials (including code examples) that explain the usage and best practices of a particular tool or method in communication research.
  • Software or tool announcements. This is a very short (2-3 page) paper that essentially describes the overall goal of the software and gives a short explanation of how it can be used. These announcements go through editorial review only so they can be published very quickly. The publication will make it clear that it has not been peer reviewed and that no full code review or audit has been performed.

CCR is funded primarily through sponsorships and donations. CCR does not charge a subscription fee and does not currently charge a mandatory article processing fee. See the open access and sponsors pages for more information.

 

Registered Reports

Authors can also choose to submit their paper as registered reports. Registered reports implement peer review in a unique, two stage process. RRs are becoming increasingly common in experimental research, but have a special relevance to computational communication research, where the testing of external validity and the publication of null findings are crucial contributions. In the first stage, authors submit a short, typically 1000-2000 word description of research questions, dataset and analysis plan for peer review. Importantly, this submission is made before analysis is actually conducted. Reviewers then assess the relevance of these questions and the appropriateness of these data and analyses for addressing them. Reviewers may approve or reject the plan or ask for revisions. In particular, this enables reviewers to comment on, and encourage authors to adjust, critical early decisions that are hard to undo once a computational project has begun in earnest. Once the plan is accepted, the authors are given a conditional guarantee of publication -- if the authors show that they have done the analyses they said they would do on the data they said they would obtain, the paper is published, regardless of whether the findings end up being "significant" or particularly novel.

 

More about CCR

Computational Communication Research (CCR) is a peer reviewed and open-access journal focusing on development and application of computational methods in communication science.

Computational Methods are of increasing importance and prominence in the field of Communication Science. CCR aims to provide a central home for communication scientists with an interest in and focus on computational methods — a place to read and publish the cutting edge work in this growing subfield.  In keeping with this aim, the journal will emphasize the following:

  1. Judging computational work with appropriate standards and expertise.
    Scientists using computational methods face particular challenges and trade-offs that are not always apparent to researchers using traditional methods. For instance, questions of sampling strategy, appropriate sample sizes, how to detect and treat null-findings, which norms constitute validity and how to establish causality, need nuanced answers from scientists with a good understanding of computational methods. Editors of CCR will prioritize reviewers with experience and a solid understanding of computational methods.
  2. Accepting rigorous, relevant computational work on all topics in communication science.
    There are currently many excellent journals in the field that accept and promote computational communication research.  Most, however, do so because computational methods overlap with a subject area of interest (e.g. New Media & Society; Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication).  As a result, computational researchers often must shoehorn their work to fit the topical aims of these journals and current computational work is scattered over the various journals of our respective subfields, even though the methods and challenges can be highly similar. By gathering this work in a single venue, CCR facilitates the timely generation and distribution of computational research outputs among peers with shared interest and enhance the significance and visibility of computational methods in communication research.
  3. Strongly adhering to open science (open data, open tools, and open access).
    As researchers using computational methods, we are used to sharing our data, code, and tools on platforms like github. CCR will facilitate and generally require tools and data to be shared on accepted platforms and stimulate the publication of tools and data sets as stand-alone contributions. CCR encourages preregistration of studies.
  4. Providing transparent review procedures
    We strive to learn from editorial and review procedures pioneered by computational scholars that increase the transparency of the publication and review process. Thus, after a rigorous double-blind review phase to determine whether a manuscript is publishable, we will offer preprint publications and unblinded or single-blinded constructive reviewing procedures for articles still under review (see policy below).

CCR is archived through Portico and the Dutch Royal Library (KB)