Newspaper Research Journal
Newspaper Research Journal (NRJ) is a refereed journal published quarterly that reaches thousands of journalism students, scholars, and media professionals in the United States and internationally.
Founded in 1979, NRJ answers questions about all aspects of US and foreign newspapers: their content, their staffs, their management (including advertising, circulation, and production) and economics, their technology, their design and layout, their relationships with their communities and democracy, their relationships with journalism educators, journalism ethics, and more. All research methodologies and all relevant theories are welcome.
NRJ is the official journal of the Newspaper and Online News Division (NOND) of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Newspaper Research Journal (NRJ) is a refereed journal published quarterly that reaches thousands of journalism students, scholars and media professionals in the United States and internationally.
Founded in 1979, NRJ answers questions about all aspects of US and foreign newspapers: their content, their staffs, their management (including advertising, circulation, and production) and economics, their technology, their design and layout, their relationships with their communities and democracy, their relationships with journalism educators, journalism ethics, and more. All research methodologies and all relevant theories are welcome; studies should be designed to test and develop theory, not simply gather data.
NRJ is the official journal of the Newspaper and Online News Division (NOND) of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).
| Kristoffer D. Boyle | Brigham Young University, USA |
| Matthew Haught | University of Memphis, USA |
| Joe Abisaid | Independent Scholar, USA |
| Mohammed Al-Azdee | University of Bridgeport, USA |
| Bernie Ankney | Point Park University, USA |
| Cory Armstrong | University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA |
| Ann Auman | University of Hawaii, USA |
| Carlos Barrera | University of Navarra, Spain |
| Chris Birks | Benedictine University, USA |
| Robin Blom | Ball State University, USA |
| Jan Boyles | Iowa State University, USA |
| Robert Britten | West Virginia University, USA |
| William Broun | East Stroudsburg University |
| Judith Buddenbaum | Colorado State University, USA |
| John Carpenter | University of Iowa, USA |
| Catherine Cassara | Bowling Green State University, USA |
| Bill Cassidy | Northern Illinois University, USA |
| Anju Chaudhary | Howard University, USA |
| Deborah S. Chung | University of Kentucky, USA |
| Dane Claussen | National Communication Association |
| Raluca Cozma | Kansas State University, USA |
| Vin Crosbie | Syracuse University, USA |
| Al Cross | University of Kentucky, USA |
| Nicole Dahmen | University of Oregon, USA |
| Marc Edge | Independent Scholar, Canada |
| Chris Etheridge | University of Arkansas at Little Rock, USA |
| Tracy Everbach | University of North Texas, USA |
| Patrick Ferrucci | University of Colorado, USA |
| Vincent F. Filak | University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, USA |
| Bruce Garrison | University of Miami, USA |
| Ted Glasser | Stanford University, USA |
| Peter Gloviczki | Coker College, USA |
| Peter Goodman | Hofstra University, USA |
| Manuel Goyanes | Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain |
| Marilyn Greenwald | Ohio University, USA |
| John Hamilton | Louisiana State University, USA |
| Matthew Haught | University of Memphis, USA |
| Elizabeth Meyers Hendrickson | University of Ohio, USA |
| Kirstie Hettinga | California Lutheran University, USA |
| Brian Johnson | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA |
| Gary Kebbel | University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA |
| James Kelly | Indiana University, USA |
| Linda Jean Kenix | University of Canterbury, New Zealand |
| Rick Kenney | Independent Scholar, USA |
| David Kurpius | University of Missouri, USA |
| Norm Lewis | University of Florida, USA |
| You Li | Eastern Michigan University, USA |
| Wilson Lowrey | University of Alabama, USA |
| Scott Maier | University of Oregon, USA |
| Virginia Mansfield-Richardson | Ithaca College, USA |
| Brian Massey | East Carolina University, USA |
| Gina M. Masullo | University of Texas, USA |
| Michael McCluskey | University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, USA |
| Andrew Mendelson | City University of New York (CUNY), USA |
| Marcus Messner | Virginia Commonwealth University, USA |
| Joseph Mirando | Southeastern Louisiana University, USA |
| Seungahn Nah | University of Florida, USA |
| Siddhartha Rastogi | Indian Institute of Management, India |
| Bill Reader | Ohio University, USA |
| Scott Reinardy | University of Kansas, USA |
| Chris Roberts | University of Alabama, USA |
| Jack Rosenberry | St. John Fisher College, USA |
| John Russial | University of Oregon, USA |
| Alireza Salehi-Nejad | University of Tehran, Iran |
| Arthur Santana | San Diego State University, USA |
| Hans Schmidt | Penn State Brandywine, USA |
| Michelle Seelig | University of Miami, USA |
| Claire Serant | The City University of New York, USA |
| James Simon | Independent Scholar, USA |
| John Soloski | University of Georgia, USA |
| Amanda Sturgill | Elon University, North Carolina, USA |
| Edson C. Tandoc, Jr. | Nanyang Technological University, Singapore |
| Sandra Utt | The University of Memphis, USA |
| Andreas Veglis | Aristotle University, Greece |
| Patrick Walters | Kutztown University, USA |
| Patrick S. Washburn | Ohio University, USA |
| Kathleen Wickham | University of Mississippi, USA |
| Lei Xie | Fairfield University, USA |
| Jin Yang | University of Memphis, USA |
| Mohammad Yousuf | University of New Mexico, USA |
| John Zibluk | University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, USA |
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.
To submit your manuscript for publication consideration, please visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/newspaperresearchj.
For questions regarding submissions, please contact NRJ Editor Kris Boyle, kris_boyle@byu.edu.
Stylebook—Because the purpose of NRJ is to provide a bridge between educators and professionals, the writing style should be clear, lucid and direct. Authors should consult the 6th Edition of Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association for the writing style. Authors must avoid writing in the first person and remember that each quote, including open-ended responses from interview or survey participants, must be referenced.
NRJ does not publish footnotes and publishes endnotes only regarding external funding sources plus for other reasons under extraordinary circumstances.
Length Limit—Article manuscripts should be about 5000 words, not including tables, graphs, illustrations, or endnotes. However, manuscripts up to 10,000 words will be accepted for review. The longer the manuscript, the more likely the author will be asked to shorten it and/or the editor will significantly edit it, prior to publication. NRJ discourages "Discussion" sections in articles because they often merely repeat data/evidence just presented in the results section and/or preempt (and thus repeat) the article's own conclusion section. Only include a "Discussion" section if the results are difficult to understand or interpret or if content should be included that does not belong in the literature review, methdology, data/evidence or conclusion sections. All relevant scholarly literature must be cited in the Literature Review; do not wait until the Conclusion section to introduce relevant literature. Conclusion sections should be used to: explain the study's theoretical contribution to the scholarly literature, explain how the study's findings could be applied in the newspaper industry (if applicable), detail the study's limitations, and mention related research planned for the future (if any).
Topics—The journal publishes articles about newspapers (daily, semiweekly, weekly, biweekly or monthly) in any country. This includes articles about news performance, newspaper history, newspaper management, newspaper economics, sociology of journalism, media ethics practiced at newspapers, media law applicable to newspapers, or newspaper professional or trade associations, in addition to articles about newspaper content, newspaper staff members, and other traditional topics. Articles may test any relevant mass communication or media studies theory. Articles must be theory-driven, are expected to include a scholarly literature review, and should be designed to draw conclusions that can help develop theory. Research may use any quantitative or qualitative research methodology(s) that is generally accepted in the mass communication discipline.
Keywords—Authors and reviewers should know that NRJ has a new, extensive set of standardized keyword categories. All authors are required to choose one or more item in each category as appropriate for their submitted manuscript specifically and themselves as scholars. It is hoped that this scheme is comprehensive enough to accommodate all types of manuscripts, authors, and reviewers. It also helps new authors to easily see if their manuscript falls within the scope of the journal by checking the categories. The success of this system relies on the cooperation of authors and reviewers to provide the journal with the necessary information.
Standardized keywords NRJ articles much easier to be found in online search engines, which is essentially a keyword-based system; and help the NRJ editor match reviewers and authors much better using the same terms. It will also help the NRJ editor to analyze research trends by using keywords consistently, and Sage can promote and group the articles more easily.
Tables—Authors should keep tables, graphs and figures to a minimum. The primary way to accomplish this is to present data in the text or in tables and graphs, but not both. If tables are crucial, they must be constructed in a manner that can be easily understood by a wide and diverse audience. All tables must be placed in separate Word or Excel files. Please ensure the tables are editable–do not send embedded images of tables.
Figures—Authors must submit high-resolution images (at least 300 dpi). They should be submitted press-ready and in their original file format. Images must be submitted separately from the Word document. Thus, please do not embed images into the Word file.
Statistics—Some NRJ readers have strong statistical backgrounds. Others do not. Studies that depend solely on statistics are discouraged. All statistical tools, applications and results must be explained so the application is clear.
Endnotes—Again, please consult the 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
Manuscript Review—The editor and Editorial Board make every effort to review manuscripts thoroughly and promptly. NRJ's review criteria are extensive and specific, aiming for the highest quality published research. (The review criteria are available upon request by authors preparing manuscripts for NRJ.) The editorial process takes approximately 75 to 90 days. Manuscripts determined by the editor to be outside the journal’s scope will be rejected as quickly as possible by the editor before they are assigned to Editorial Board members. All other manuscripts are each sent to three reviewers, which normally will be Editorial Board members. Reviewers advise the editor and provide comments to authors. The editor, based on reviewers' ratings and comments, often recommends changes and suggests areas of revision. Many manuscripts require a rewrite.
Acceptance—Upon acceptance, authors are required to submit a final version as an email attachment. The article will appear in publication up to one year after the manuscript is accepted and the revised manuscript is received. Dated material might not be published, so authors who do not revise their manuscript in a timely manner run the risk of not being published. The editor reserves the right to determine when material is dated.
Book Reviews—Every issue of NRJ critically reviews relevant books. Solicited and unsolicited copies of books for review, and suggestions for book reviews should be sent to the Book Review Editor.
Publication Ethics—Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.
Plagiarism—NRJ and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. When an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized other work or included third-party copyrighted material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgment, or when authorship of an article is contested, NRJ and Sage reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; notifying the department chair/head and/or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
Do not use your word processing software's automatic system for references or endnotes.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
For more information, please refer to the Sage Manuscript Submission Guidelines.