Editor's Focus, March 2009

Technical Communication Quarterly

Technical Communication Quarterly (TCQ) is a refereed journal published four times per year with support from Taylor & Francis, the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW), and the Texas Tech University English department. The journal was established in 1973 as Technical Writing Teacher. In 1992, it was renamed as Technical Communication Quarterly, reflecting a growth in ATTW membership and the increased profile of technical communication as a practice and scholarly discipline. Having recently begun a five-year term as editor, I am currently working with a newly appointed editorial board to ensure that TCQ continues to publish the excellent scholarship that has allowed its scholarly profile to steadily increase under the terms of editors who preceded me. Because the journal is currently indexed in Communication Abstracts, Communication and Mass Media Complete, PsychINFO, and Scopus, as well as several other locations, publishing in TCQ will ensure that your articles are visible across the many humanities and social sciences disciplines that inform and interact with technical communication.

TCQ publishes research on technical communication in academic, scientific, technical, business, governmental, and related organizational or social contexts. Articles published in TCQ combine theoretical and practical perspectives. All articles have a sound basis in theory, use accessible examples and illustrations, and include implications for teaching, research, or practice in technical communication. Articles cover a range of topics that include communication design, pedagogical approaches, the role of digital technologies, ethics, the rhetoric of workplaces or professions, the practices of publication management, dialogue between academics and practitioners, research methods, and connections between social practices and organizational discourse.

Manuscripts submitted for peer review typically fall into one of three categories: Original Research Article, Methodologies and Approaches, or Perspectives. Detailed guidelines for each of these submission types are included in the Instructions for Authors, which you will find at the journal's Web site, http://www.taylorfrancis.com/journals/htcq. This same site also includes a link to the Manuscript Central system that we use to facilitate online submissions and double-blind peer review. We welcome submissions from scholars at all stages in their academic careers, and we feel it is especially important to mentor authors who are new to academic publishing. If you have any questions about the submission process or if you'd like to get some feedback about a potential submission, please send an inquiry to the editor, amy.koerber@ttu.edu.

You can purchase a TCQ subscription online at http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t775653704~tab=subscribe~db=all. When you subscribe to TCQ, you gain access to the print issues of the current volume of the journal, the complete online archive of Technical Communication Quarterly, and a full membership in ATTW. A professional organization that has supported teachers and scholars of technical communication since 1973, ATTW hosts an annual conference, a listserv-based discussion forum, and an interactive Web site. For more information on the organization, please visit the Web site at http://cms.english.ttu.edu/attw.

I hope you will consider Technical Communication Quarterly as both a resource for your research and a publication venue. I look forward to hearing from you.

Amy Koerber
Editor, Technical Communication Quarterly
amy.koerber@ttu.edu