Starting Term as Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication

Effective January 1, I have started my term as Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication.

I'm excited about working with this journal, which in its half century of publication, has earned its place as one of the leading journals in the field of professional and technical communication.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the Transactions, it publishes original, empirical research (that is, research that collects data first-hand, and reports that research in a way that others can replicate the studies).

The Transactions is still focused on research typically addresses one of these contexts:

·         The communication practices of technical professionals, such as engineers and scientists

·         The practices of professional communicators who work in technical or business environments

·         Research-based methods for teaching and practicing professional communication

The Transactions is specifically looking for articles presenting research on these topics:

·         Communications technologies and their impact on the workplace, such as the impacts of content management systems, social media, electronic books, intelligent agents and similar technologies

·         Design, techniques and readability of communication materials in various media, such as the design of web-based materials, online help, printed and electronic books, user interfaces, and live presentations

·         Design, techniques, and impact of communications materials in various genres, such as technical reports, user assistance, proposals, public relations materials, slide decks for presentations, and engineering specifications 

·         Management of groups that produce professional and technical communication materials

·         Social impact of communications and related technology to engineering efforts

·         Reports on the effectiveness and limitations of research methodologies used to study these issues

The Transactions will continue to publish teaching cases, tutorials, and book reviews. 

The research submitted for consideration might have been conducted using:

·         Quantitative methodologies, including experimental and survey-based studies

·         Qualitative methodologies, including action research, design research, ethnographies, case studies, interview-based studies, and usability test results

·         Critical methodologies, including discourse analysis and integrative literature reviews.

Primary readers include:

·         Professional and technical communicators, including corporate communicators, editors, linguists, technical writers, translation specialists, and visual communicators (graphic designers and illustrators)

·         Engineers, scientists and other technical professionals who communicate as part of their job, such as consulting engineers, technical authors, and technology-transfer specialists

·         University instructors who include professional communication as part or all of their courses

If you're interested in learning more or want to discuss an idea for an article, please contact me.