PUBLICATIONS & PRODUCTS
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Information for Authors
AIMS AND SCOPE
Augmentative and Alternative Communication is the official Journal of the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (ISAAC), and is published quarterly by Informa Healthcare. The Journal publishes original articles with direct application to communication requirements of persons with complex communication needs for whom augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) techniques and systems may be appropriate. Itbrings together authors who have a clinical/educational and research interest in AAC, transcending disciplinary concerns; it integrates theory, technology, and systems development for the assessment, treatment, rehabilitation, and education of people who use AAC systems.
Augmentative and Alternative Communication seeks manuscripts of the following types:
Research Articles (full peer review): Research articles report the results of empirical research, including studies using qualitative and quantitative methodologies, group, small-n and single case research designs, and systematic reviews.
Tutorials and Synthesis Articles (full peer review): This type of manuscript synthesizes an area of knowledge. Tutorials are designed to summarize ideas and concepts that are important to AAC researchers and practitioners (e.g. Venkatagiri & Ramabadran, 1995). Synthesis articles integrate and interpret an existing body of literature (e.g., Mirenda, 1997).
Forum Notes (abbreviated or full peer review): Forum notes include brief letters to the editor, comments or discussions about articles published in the Journal, requests for research, or personal insights about issues relevant to the field of AAC (e.g. Fox & Fried-Oken, 1996). Brief letters to the editor may be assigned an abbreviated peer review; however, more extensive manuscripts are assigned a full peer review.
Case Studies (full peer review): Case studies report the results of unusual AAC applications not conducted within the confines of a rigorous research design but with direct implications for program development and/or intervention (e.g. Odom & Upthegrove, 1997; see also McEwan & Karlan, 1990 for case study guidelines).
Research Notes (full peer review): Research notes are brief manuscripts that address methodological, statistical, or other research-related issues that are of interest to the AAC community (e.g. Beukelman & Ansel, 1995; Creak, 1996).
Technical Notes (full peer review): Technical notes are brief manuscripts that discuss a technical aspect of the field that is of particular interest to the AAC community or that contain a request for the research community to address specific technical issues (e.g. Ferrier, Fell, Mooraj, Delta, & Moscoe, 1996; Salamo & Jakobs, 1996).
Intervention Notes (full peer review): Intervention notes are brief manuscripts that present AAC intervention information coupled with a request for the research community to address an issue or to investigate some aspect of clinical practice (e.g. Robinson & Owens, 1995). Typically, intervention notes either address new clinical practices that require research attention or attempt to bring the research community's attention to areas that have been poorly or minimally researched in the past.
ISAAC Governance Reports (usually not peer reviewed): Articles related to ISAAC Governance are often included in the Journal. At times, these have been historical summaries, reports regarding the biennial ISAAC conference, reports of the management committees of ISAAC, and so on.
Book Reviews (abbreviated review): Books of either broad relevance or relevance to a specialized topic of interest to some readers of Augmentative and Alternative Communication may be reviewed for the Journal. Authors or publishers wishing to submit a book review must first submit a synopsis of the book and demonstrate its relevance to the readership.
MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION
Manuscripts should be written in English and prepared as Word files. Please do not submit any component of the manuscript in PDF format.
Manuscripts should be submitted via the Scholar One site (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/taac). At the site you will be given a user number and password and instructions for submitting your paper. Author information should be entered directly on the site. In addition, a title page should be submitted separately from the manuscript document in order to ensure the manuscript is blinded for the review process. Similarly, acknowledgements that include author-identifying information should be submitted as a separate document on the site.
Authors must submit a cover letter with the submission using the appropriate template on the site. This letter should have at least the following information:
- A request that the manuscript be considered for publication;
- A statement that the manuscript has not been published elsewhere and is not currently submitted elsewhere; and
- A statement that the ethics procedures have been followed and the standards governing research involving human participants in force in the country in which the research has been conducted have been met (note that The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) represents a minimal requirement).
Style Requirements
Prior to the start of the peer review process, all submissions MUST conform to basic requirements of the 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) for all of the following elements: headers, running heads, headings, page numbers, margins, type font, spacing; and presentation and order of elements standard to research papers (e.g., abstract, introduction, methods and results sections, references). It is the author’s responsibility to consult the APA manual and to ensure that these requirements are met. In addition, authors should be prepared to ensure that the manuscript conforms to the APA manual for all aspects (e.g., expression of numbers, placement of punctuation, use of italics, hyphenation, etc.) prior to final acceptance, if these have not been taken care of during the review process.
The elements of the manuscript, including tables and figures, should be organized and presented as outlined in the APA manual, 6th edition (see Chapter 2, Manuscript Structure and Content).
All figures must be in camera-ready format and self-explanatory. Graphs must include axis labels and a legend.
Refer to the APA manual for descriptions and examples of various table and figure types. Identifiable photographs of people must be accompanied by a signed release form. Color figures will appear in color in the online version of the Journal and black and white in the print version.
Submissions must also conform to style requirements specific to the Augmentative and Alternative Communication journal, including length of submission, use of terminology and conventions for examples of communications with and by people who use AAC, endnotes, and recognition of software/hardware manufacturers. Please refer to the document Style Requirements for specific instructions.
Submissions are checked for conformity by the Editorial Office. Manuscripts that do not conform will be returned to the author for revisions prior to the review process getting underway. Authors are therefore strongly encouraged to refer to both the 6th edition of the APA manual and the Journal’s Style Requirements. If you have any questions, please contact Editorial Assistant Jackie Brown at rbutus@shaw.ca.
REVIEW AND PROCESSING
Manuscripts are assigned to an Associate Editor (AE) and are reviewed by three Consulting Editors (CEs) for relevance and contribution to the field, logic, design, and scientific merit (but not on philosophical positions taken). CEs forward their comments to the AE, who synthesizes the CE comments, along with his or her own reading of the manuscript, and makes a recommendation to the Editor. The Editor informs the author of the final decision.
The review process requires 2 to 3 months from date of submission on the Manuscript Central site. Reviewers' comments (blinded) will be returned to the author.
Revisions/Editing
Following the initial review, the Associate Editor may request that the author revise the manuscript. Authors have 60 days following receipt of the first summary letter from the Associate Editor to make the revisions; otherwise, the submission may be considered withdrawn.
Once accepted for publication the manuscript goes through an internal, final editing process. The Editorial Office reserves the right to make editorial changes for clarity and style that do not notably affect the meaning of the text.
Note: prior to formal acceptance authors will be instructed to address all remaining APA and AAC-specific style requirements, as set out in the document Style Requirements.
Finalized manuscripts are moved from the Editorial Office to the Production Centre of Informa Healthcare for addition of printers' instructions, final grammatical and style consistency, and technical editing. Prior to publication, the publisher will send a PDF proof (via CATS -- Central Article Tracking System --) along with instructions and guidelines to the corresponding author. Corrections should be returned to the production editor by email within 48 hours of receipt. Authors shall be responsible for the accuracy of references and statistical computations.
Note: If, during the proofing phase, authors notice problems that are beyond typographical and other minor errors (e.g., a table or figure is missing), they should contact Jackie Brown at the Editorial Office immediately. She will work with the publisher to correct the errors. Only in exceptional circumstances will a second proof be issued.
Offprints
On publication, the publisher supplies the author with an electronic copy of his or her article as a portable data format (PDF) file and, upon request from Therese Pietilä at Informa Healthcare, a hard copy of the issue in which the article appears. The PDF may be circulated to up to 50 colleagues by email; or 50 printed copies made and circulated.
PLAGIARISM
Informa has a strict policy against plagiarism, defined as the use of extracts from another person's work that are not placed in quotation marks, without the permission of that person, and without acknowledgement to that person (using the appropriate reference style), with the result that your article presents these extracts as original to you. By submitting your work to an Informa journal, you warrant that it is your original work, and that you have secured the necessary written permission from the appropriate copyright owner or authority for the reproduction of any text, illustration, or other material.
If any article submitted to an Informa journal is found to have breached any of these conditions, Informa reserves the right to reject that article and any others submitted by the same authors. Informa may also contact the authors' affiliated institutions to inform them of its findings.
COPYRIGHT
Permissions
Authors are required to secure permission for the reproduction of any figure, table, or extensive (more than 50 words) extract from the text, from a source that is copyrighted or owned by a party other than Informa Healthcare or the author. This applies both to direct reproduction or derivative reproduction (i.e. when the author has created a new figure or table that derives substantially from a copyrighted source). It is the author’s responsibility to request and obtain the required permissions.
Copyright Assignment
It is a condition of publication that authors vest copyright in their articles to the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (ISAAC). When an author's work is accepted for publication, the author(s) will be asked to sign a Copyright Assignment and Agreement conveying all copyright ownership to ISAAC. This enables ISAAC to ensure full copyright protection and to disseminate the article, and the Journal, to the widest possible readership in print and electronic formats as appropriate. Informa Healthcare will manage the copyright on behalf of ISAAC. Authors may, of course, use the material elsewhere after publication, providing that prior permission is obtained from Informa Healthcare. Please note however that authors retain certain rights to the article where permission is not needed (please see the Copyright Assignment and Agreement for further details).
REFERENCES
Beukelman, D., & Ansel, B. (1995). Research priorities in augmentative and alternative communication. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 11, 131 - 134.
Creak, G. A. (1996). Comments on some statistical techniques observed in AAC papers. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 12, 189 - 192.
Ferrier, L., Fell, H., Mooraj, Z., Delta, H., & Moscoe, D. (1996). Baby-babble-blanket: Infant interface with automatic data collection. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 12, 110 - 121.
Fox, L., & Fried-Oken, M. (1996). AAC Aphasiology: Partnership for future research. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 12, 257 - 271.
McEwan, I., & Karlan, G. (1990). Case studies: Why and how. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 6, 69 - 75.
Mirenda, P. (1997). Supporting individuals with challenging behavior through functional communication training and AAC: Research review. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 13, 207 - 225.
Odom, A. C., & Upthegrove, M. (1997). Moving toward employment using AAC: A case study. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 13, 258 - 262.
Robinson, L., & Owens, R. (1995). Functional augmentative communication and positive behavior change. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 11, 207 - 211.
Salamo, G., & Jakobs, T. (1996). Laser pointers: Are they safe for use by children? Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 12, 47 - 51.
Venkatagiri, H. S., & Ramabradran, T. V. (1995). Digital speech synthesis: A tutorial. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 11, 14 - 25.
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