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Media & Society

New media coming of age

Nicholas Jankowski, Steve Jones and David Park
New Media Society 2012 14: 3
DOI: 10.1177/1461444812438758
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http://nms.sagepub.com/content/14/1/3

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438758
2012

NMS14110.1177/1461444812438758Editorialnew media & society

Editorial

New media coming

of age

new media & society

14(1) 36
The Author(s) 2012
Reprints and permission:
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DOI: 10.1177/1461444812438758
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The first issue of Volume 14 of New Media & Society (NM&S) provides opportunity to
reflect on what we published in 2011 and what is expected for the year underway.
Although we do not take opportunity for such reflection every year, we did compose an
editorial exactly one year ago and are using the framework of that text as basis for these
comments.
Perhaps a convenient place to start is with a few statistics and an updating of the tabular overview presented in the 13(1) editorial. As in 2010, the sheer volume of published
material is, by our standards, staggering: 1400 pages distributed across 8 issues, with 73
Research Articles, 7 Review Articles and 19 Book Reviews presented in those pages. As
in previous years, the breadth of this scholarship defies simple categorization. A cursory
glance through the contents of issues reflects that breadth, with articles addressing the
many forms of social and personal media (e.g., Twitter, YouTube, blogs), with studies
about online news and journalism, with special attention to youth and social media, with
examination of core concepts associated with new media (e.g., interactivity, public
sphere, digital divide, convergence), and with attention to emergence of new media
forms in Asia and particularly China.
NM&S published one theme issue in 2011, guest edited by Rich Ling and Heather
Horst, entitled Mobile Communication in the Global South. This issue, introduced with
a substantive article by its editors (Ling and Horst, 2011), can rightly be considered a
high point in the year for NM&S, and includes 8 focused studies on the uptake of mobile
phones among people in nation states commonly characterized as Third World. The
issue complements one prepared by Nancy Baron for NM&S in 2010 that addressed
mobile communication in mainly developed regions of the world (Baron, 2010).
Back to statistics, below is an updated version of the table that appeared in the Volume
13 NM&S editorial. This version includes a column of figures for 2011 and a few updates
for prior years. Once again, the number of submissions has increased, and is now about
450 manuscripts annually. The rate of acceptance has remained relatively constant, averaging about 19% per year. Note: the acceptance figure for 2011 of 9% is incomplete
because many manuscripts submitted in that year are still under consideration. The number of internal decisions regarding submissions, reflected in the row Peer Reviewed,
declined somewhat since 2010, but continues to show development of a more stringent
policy regarding internal review prior to soliciting external reviews for double blind
assessment of submissions.

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new media & society 14(1)

Table. Longitudinal overview of NM&S submission site statistics

Total Submissions
Peer Reviewed
Accept
Decline
Resubmit
Days to Review
Registered Users

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

448
217
19 (9%)
198 (91%)
55
82
4595

362
314
56 (18%)
258 (82%)
74
102
3469

281
254
54 (21%)
200 (79%)
3
92
2770

293
240
46 (19%)
194 (81%)
10
130
2235

236
200
39 (20%)
161 (81%)
11
169
1540

203
173
26 (15%)
147 (85%)
8
167
874

The number of requests to revise and resubmit manuscripts, shown in the row
Resubmit, has remained high since a dramatic jump in 2010; again, this reflects a more
rigorous editorial policy regarding acceptance of submissions. The amount of time
between submission and completion of the review process, shown in the row Days to
Review, indicates an average of about three months between date of submission and
final decision regarding publication, which often involves two and sometimes three
rounds of external review. While we would like to see this time period shortened, the
period is within our bounds of acceptability, particularly given NM&S policy to solicit
substantive reviews to be shared with the authors of submissions. Finally, the row
Registered Users in the table reflects the number of persons who have registered on the
journal Web site and who are, by and large, members of the pool of scholars from which
we solicit reviews of submissions. The figure for 2011 indicates almost 4600 persons in
this group.
We realize the limitations of such an overview in reflecting the richness of the scholarship published by NM&S. As suggested in earlier editorials, we hope this overview can
be expanded with a formal, longitudinal study of the emergence and trends of new media
scholarship, in NM&S as well as in other journals concerned with this scholarly domain.
Although no more than impressionistic, our sense as editors is that NM&S continues to
reflect a pluralistic approach regarding theoretical perspectives, methodological
approaches, and disciplinary background of authors. Above all, the articles published in
NM&S in 2011 (and in previous years, for that matter) reflect an overriding objective: to
publish the best scholarship available that contributes to understanding the societal
importance of new media developments.
In 2011 seven review articles were published and almost a score of individual book
reviews. The review articles were generally comparative essays that addressed three
recently published books. For 2012 NM&S Reviews Editor David Park has begun soliciting more extensive manuscripts that provide a panoramic examination of developments, much like those appearing in some annual publications and in PhD dissertations.
Several such extended reviews of the literature are in preparation and we expect to publish one or two in 2012.
One of the common measures that scholars use and misuse to judge and rank
journals is the Citation Rankings developed by the Thomson Reuters Institute for
Scientific Information (ISI). The most recent Impact Factor (IF) for NM&S (2011) is

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Editorial

1.091, and in that year the journal ranked 18th out of the 67 periodicals included in the
category Communication. The Impact Factor of a journal varies from year to year and for
that and other reasons the ranking should be used with care. Still, the reported rankings
across time suggest both an increase and, possibly, leveling off: 2003: 0.689, 2008:
0.821, 2010: 1.326, and 2011: 1.091. A safe conclusion from these figures is that the
position of NM&S within the broad field of journals in communication studies has
become firm and reflects high use by scholars.
Two other indicators of use are frequency of downloads from SAGE Journals Online
(SJO) and citations recorded in the SAGE database. The section of the SJO Web site for
NM&S provides information on the indicators, Most Read and Most Cited; see http://
nms.sagepub.com/. For both indicators, the top 50 articles are mentioned, showing rank
order for frequency of downloads (termed Most Read on the SAGE Web site) and for
Most Cited. Although only reporting rank order limits the utility of these lists, the information does suggest the popularity of NM&S articles across time. For January 2012, the
most frequently read article (based on full-text views) dates from almost four years ago:
an article by NM&S board member Sonia Livingstone (2008) on teenagers and social
networking sites. The most cited article is authored by another NM&S board member,
Zizi Papacharissi (2002), about the Internet and the public sphere, and was published a
decade ago. Among other things, these rankings suggest a long shelf life for NM&S
articles. More recently published articles are also noted in the rankings and include a
study by Alice Marwick and danah boyd (2011) on Twitter and one on Facebook by
Nicole Ellison et al. (2011).
Shelf life reflects the durability and quality of the scholarship published in NM&S,
and that is related to the emphasis we place on substantive reviewing of submissions.
Like many journals, NM&S exercises a double-blind peer review procedure, but we
also expect and generally receive extended and substantive comments from these
scholars. This exchange between persons unknown to each other, sometimes across
several rounds of manuscript revision, demonstrates a collective commitment to quality scholarship. We as editors of NM&S are impressed by the level of interaction in
this process, and appreciate the contribution of those involved, authors and reviewers,
to this time-consuming procedure. A special word of thanks to reviewers of submissions to NM&S during 2011 prefaces the list of reviewers published in the last pages
of this issue.
Several journal-related events are scheduled for 2012. We will, as usual, be publishing
individual articles, review articles and book reviews the staple of any issue of NM&S.
We will also be publishing two, possibly three, theme issues in 2012: on political communication and the Internet, on Internet studies, and on scholarly communication. These
issues are in preparation and will go into production around mid-2012. One of these
issues involves an experiment with open peer review, which is based on initiatives taken
by other authors and journals; see reflection on one such initiative involving Shakespeare
Quarterly (Rowe and Fitzpatrick, 2010). Although it is too early to tell what may develop
with the NM&S experiment in open peer review, we believe such reviewing may complement but will not replace the quality and thoroughness NM&S receives in its blind
reviewing procedures. The NM&S experiment in open peer review may be examined at:
http://nms-theme.ehumanities.nl/.

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new media & society 14(1)

It is fitting to mention in such an annual editorial changes in personnel that transpired

during the previous year. Editorial Assistant Maggie Griffith resigned from the Chicago
office in order to work full-time on her PhD dissertation. Maggie assured submissions
were processed efficiently during her many years of service, and we are very grateful.
Jenny Ungbha Korn has assumed the role of Editorial Assistant and we welcome her on
board. SAGE staff member Amit Panda took responsibility for the production of both
the online and print versions of NM&S in 2011 and we are appreciative of the detailed
attention given to these phases of the publishing process.
As 2012 begins, we welcome initiation of a series of journal-related events mentioned
above the experiment with open peer review, the publication of several theme issues,
and especially the inclusion of contributions in the new section of the journal called
Review Articles. We welcome the new editorial board members whose names will appear
in the second issue in 2012; equally important we wish to acknowledge our appreciation
for the contributions of those board members whose term of office has expired. Most of
all, we welcome a year of publishing quality scholarship about a domain of concern that
has come of age: new media and society.
Nicholas Jankowski & Steve Jones,
Editors
David Park,
Reviews Editor
References
Baron N (2010) Introduction to special section: Mobile phones in cross-cultural context: Sweden,
Estonia, the USA and Japan. New Media & Society 12(1): 311.
Ellison NB, Steinfield C and Lampe C (2011) Connection strategies: social capital implications of
Facebook-enabled communication practices. New Media & Society 13: 873892.
Ling R and Horst H (2011) Mobile communication in the global south. New Media & Society
13(3): 363374.
Livingstone S (2008) Taking risky opportunities in youthful content creation: Teenagers use of
social networking sites for intimacy, privacy and self-expression. New Media & Society 10:
393411.
Marwick AE and boyd d (2011) I tweet honestly, I tweet passionately: Twitter users, context
collapse, and the imagined audience. New Media & Society 13: 114133.
Papacharissi Z (2002) The virtual sphere: the Internet as a public sphere New Media & Society 4:
927.
Rowe K and Fitzpatrick K (2010) Keywords for open peer review. LOGOS: The Journal of the
World Book Community 21(34): 249257. Available at: http://works.bepress.com/katherine_
rowe/5

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