About the Journal

Focus and Scope

Information & Culture is an academic journal printed three times a year by the University of Texas Press. It publishes original, high-quality, peer reviewed articles examining the social and cultural influences and impact of information and its associated technologies, broadly construed, on all areas of human endeavor. In keeping with the spirit of information studies, we seek papers emphasizing a human-centered focus that address the role of and reciprocal relationship of information and culture, regardless of time and place.

The journal welcomes submissions from an array of relevant theoretical and methodological approaches, including but not limited to historical, sociological, psychological, political and educational research that address the interaction of information and culture.

To learn more about our submission standards or submit an article for publication in Information & Culture, visit our submissions page.

Review Process

Review

Articles submitted to Information & Culture are initially reviewed by the editors, who determine whether the manuscript will be sent to outside reviewers. If chosen for review, the manuscript is then evaluated in a double-blind process by at least two and usually three outside reviewers, including members of the journal's Editorial Advisory Board, and/or other experts in relevant fields as selected by the editors. This peer review process is designed to ensure that Information & Culture publishes only original, accurate, and timely articles that contribute new knowledge, insights or valuable perspectives to our discipline.

Evaluation

Questions addressed by reviewers include:

  • Is the topic within the scope of the journal?
  • Is the topic significant or sufficiently interesting to warrant publication?
  • Is the scholarship adequately documented and is relevant literature reviewed?
  • Are the research aims and any methodological choices made by author clear and justified?
  • Is the article well organized and clearly written?

Reviewers make one of three recommendations: acceptance, acceptance with revision, rejection. Reviewers are asked to include comments explaining the recommendation and to provide authors with suitable feedback to improve the article. Our aim is to create a constructive process that benefits the journal and the authors while respecting the time and efforts of all volunteer reviewers.

Review Timetable

We understand that the timeliness of decisions and publication is a major concern of authors. The typical manuscript is reviewed by one of the editors and sent out to reviewers within a couple of weeks after submission. Reviewers typically have six weeks to prepare their review (a second round of reviews may be solicited if the initial reviewers disagree). Then a couple of weeks are typically required to reconcile reviewer comments (and identify any significant copyediting issues for papers that were accepted or accepted with slight revisions). Thus, it is quite possible that an author could hear back in less than two months from the time of submission. However, the realities of the peer-review process sometimes extend our timeline. You will receive a response as expeditiously as possible. If you are seeking publication for a tenure packet, please allow for ample review time and let us know this is a consideration. Authors receive the reviewers’ comments and are often asked to revise the manuscript in line with the reviewers’ and/or editor’s suggestions. If the revised article is accepted for publication, the editor then determines the journal issue in which it will appear. Authors can help speed the process by ensuring they follow the submission requirements and, if accepted, addressing the reviewer’s comments and any copy-editing requirements in a timely fashion.

Self-Archiving and Institutional Repository Policy with UT Press

Information & Culture authors retain the right to make pre-print and post-print versions of their article available on their personal website, institutional repository, or not-for-profit server, upon acceptance by the University of Texas Press.  Authors are not required to remove pre-print and/or post-print versions after publication.

A pre-print is defined as the un-refereed, pre-copyedited, author-version of an article submitted for publication.

A post-print is defined as the version of an article following peer review that contains author revisions but that has not been copyedited by the University of Texas Press journal that will publish the article.

A pre-print must be accompanied by this notice:  "This is an un-refereed, pre-copyedited version of an article submitted for publication in (Journal title, volume, issue number, and year)."

A post-print must be accompanied by this notice:  "This is a pre-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in (Journal title, volume, issue number, and year) following peer review.  The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available from University of Texas Press."

More information can be found on the UT Press Website.