Communication Matters Journal
The Communication Matters Journal offers a multidisciplinary perspective on AAC. It is published three times a year in the UK. Members of Communication Matters automatically receive the journal.
The Journal is a collection of articles by AAC users, parents and AAC practitioners – teachers, therapists, engineers, researchers and others – mostly from the UK. Each issue is usually around 40 pages, and typically has eight major articles (each 2-4 pages long). The articles are on a mixture of different topics, including both low and hi-tech AAC, covering use by both children and adults.
If you would like to contribute, we recommend you download some back issues of CM Journal to see what kind of articles we publish.
If you are interested in advertising in the Journal, please contact us.
If you are a Member of Communication Matters, the Journal is part of your membership package.
We actively welcome articles written by AAC users and their parents/families. As much as possible, we use photos, tables, graphs, symbols and other illustrations to complement articles.
Guidelines for submission
To be considered for publication, articles for the Communication Matters Journal should:
- be in Microsoft Word format.
- be a maximum of 2,000 words including references and appendices.
- be written in plain English. Even if your topic and content is specialist and you need to include professional terminology, the overall style of the journal aims to be inclusive and easy to read. Acronyms and abbreviations should only be used after they have first been fully spelled out. You should write in a direct and accessible style.
- include relevant photos and pictures, tables and figures – please supply these in a separate file, in high quality jpg or tif formats. Please also include Alternative Text for all your images. You may find these ‘how to write good alt text’ guidelines useful.
- contain no more than 10 references (unless the article is a literature review) – these should all be cited in the body of your article. You may find these university referencing guidelines useful.
- tell a unique story, report on a personal/clinical experience, or add new information or insight. At the editor’s discretion, we may accept reviews and critiques, for example on books and products.
- declare if there is a commercial interest associated with the article, as you may be asked to take out a paid advert instead.
- include the author(s) role, organisation (if applicable), and the main author’s email address at the top of the article, so that readers may contact you directly if they have any further questions.
We will not reprint articles in Communication Matters Journal that have already been published elsewhere, unless the author encloses formal written permission to reprint from the original publisher with their submission. The author may need to make substantial alterations, modifications and updates to the original.
If you require any further information, please contact us.
