submitting your manuscript online

Author accounts

To submit a manuscript to Rapid Review, you will first need to establish an author account on the system. To do this, point your browser to Rapid Review and log on as an author to The Review of Communication site. If you do not already have an account on the system, you will see a box with a link inviting you to create an account.
Click on the image.
The system will guide you through this process; you will need to enter your name, your university affiliation, e-mail address, phone, and postal address. You will be asked to choose a username and password; we suggest a username consisting of your first initial and last name, for example tbenson; the password can be anything you choose. Once you have an author account, you can use it for all future submissions to The Review of Communication, and, eventually, to other journals of the National Communication Association, as well as to the annual conference.

Submitting the Manuscript

These instructions assume that you have prepared your review in either Word Perfect or Microsoft Word on either a Mac or a PC and that the file of that review is accessible on either your hard drive or a removable disk (floppy, zip, etc). It is also assumed that you have Internet access. You will start the process by connecting your browser (Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer) to the Internet.

Log on to Rapid Review as an author

In the frame at the left of your screen, click on "Submit New MS"

From the pull-down menu, select The Review of Communication

You will see a new window titled Submit New MS

Fill in the text boxes as appropriate; any box marked with * is required by the system. You will need a title, your name, keywords, a standard cover letter to the editor, an abstract (we won't actually need an abstract for book reviews, but the system requires something; a sentence will do. If this is a review of literature or research essay, do provide a standard 100 word abstract for publication, and type or copy-and-paste it in this box).

At the bottom of this screen, there are two blue buttons -- Attach Files and Submit MS by Mail. Select Attach Files. The Review of Communication does not accept manuscripts by mail.

You will now see a new page allowing you to attach the file of your manuscript. Scroll down in this page to the box that says BROWSE and click on BROWSE. You will then be able to browse through the files on your computer to select the manuscript you want to submit. If your manuscript is on a floppy disk, be sure that the disk is in your machine. When you have selected the file, text showing the path to the document will appear in the text window next to BROWSE. Just below the BROWSE box is a blue button -- ATTACH. Click on ATTACH.

A box pops up. Click on the box next to "reviewing purposes only" and then click CONTINUE.

Another box pops up. If this is a book review or any other single word processing document, just click NO and then CONTINUE.

A new box pops up. Your file will almost certainly be MS-WORD or WORDPERFECT; just choose the one that is appropriate and then click CONTINUE. (note: if your file is in Microsoft WORKS, you should click on the button for MS-WORD)

A new box pops up -- File Description. Since this is almost certainly "Full Text of Paper," type those words (or whatever applies) in the text box and click CONTINUE.

A new box appears, asking you to "please wait as we process your file"; just click OK.

This brings you back to the Submit New MS page. Go to the bottom of this page and click on the blue button that says SUBMIT MANUSCRIPT ONLINE.

A box pops up saying "You are about to complete . . ." Click YES.

You should now see a screen that says you have successfully submitted your manuscript. Print a copy of this screen for your own records (hit Ctrl-P and then the Enter key). Then click OK at the bottom of this screen.

You will be returned to the My Manuscripts page. The Rapid Review system will convert your word processing file to a "pdf" file, which can be read by those who are involved in the editorial review of your manuscript and by you. From the My Manuscripts page you can view the newly created PDF file of your manuscript and check its status in the editorial process.

To view your PDF file, you will need a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available as a free download from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readermain.html

When you look at your PDF file, you may discover that you want to make some changes in your manuscript. Please DO NOT simply send a new version, as that will create a separate entry in our system. Let us know if you wish to submit a revised version and we will change the status of your manuscript from "under review" to "accept with revisions," which will allow you to submit a new version of the manuscript under the same entry.