Focus and Scope

Community Informatics (CI) is the study and the practice of enabling communities with Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs). CI seeks to work with communities towards the effective use of ICTs to improve their processes, achieve their objectives, overcome the "digital divides" that exist both within and between communities, and empower communities and citizens in the range of areas of ICT application including for health, cultural production, civic management, and e-governance, among others.

CI is concerned with how ICT can be useful to the range of traditionally excluded populations and communities, and how it can support local economic development, social justice and political empowerment using the Internet. CI is a point of convergence concerning the use of ICTs for diverse stakeholders, including community activists, nonprofit groups, policymakers, users/citizens, and the range of academics working across (and integrating) disciplines as diverse as Information Studies, Management, Computer Science, Social Work, Planning and Development Studies. Emerging issues within the CI field include: community access to the internet, community information, online civic participation and community service delivery, community and local economic development, training networks, telework, social cohesion, learning, e-health and e-governance.

The Journal of Community Informatics speaks to a network of academics, CI practitioners and national and multi-lateral policy makers. Each issue will contain a number of double blind peer-reviewed research articles as well as commentaries by leading CI practitioners and policy makers providing feedback on the significance and application of research for practice and policy development. The journal aims to provide its readership with useful, clearly-written, insightful and innovative content.

The online nature of the journal means that readership will be global. The editors will seek to ensure that the content of the journal is also global in scope, encouraging the submission of articles from the developing world. Articles incorporating the use of the diverse range of Internet accessible media are also encouraged.

Section Policies

Editorial

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Articles

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Reviews

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Case Studies

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Notes from the field

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Notes and cases from the field (practitioners)

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Reports

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

News and Notices

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Points of View

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

In Memoriam

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Special Section on Learning in Communities

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Peer Review Process

The Journal of Community Informatics accepts the submission of articles on any topic within the field of CI and from any geographic location and including Internet-enabled multimedia. Submitted articles are evaluated on the basis of their contribution to the knowledge and practice CI and on methodology, theoretical and empirical contribution, and style.

Submitted articles will in general be reviewed by two external reviewers chosen for their knowledge in specific sub-areas of CI. Peer reviewers will have four possible options, for each article:

1. accept without revision,
2. accept after revision without expecting to check those revisions,
3. neither accept nor reject until author(s) make revisions and resubmit,
4. reject because unsound, inappropriate or otherwise failing to make a contribution to the field.

Reviewers may ask for revisions with respect to the nature and content of the analysis, insufficient contextualization or contribution of the article in the field or to the field including the literature, theory and current practice, or inappropriate linking of results and conclusions among others. The Journal of Community Informatics normally allows authors a maximum of two revisions for each article. Peer reviewers are asked to comment concerning the clarity and style of the writing. In such cases authors are asked to revise the article, seeking, if necessary, the assistance of colleagues or a commercial editing service.

Our intention is to publish research as quickly as possible. Our electronic submission process is designed to facilitate rapid publication. Articles may at this time be submitted and will be peer reviewed in English, French, Spanish, and Russian. Abstracts in English must be provided for all articles.

Publication Frequency

The Journal of Community Informatics will be published three times a year.

Open Access Policy

The Journal of Community Informatics provides open access and an open archive for all of its content based on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Such access is associated with increased readership and increased citation of an author's work. For more information on this approach, see the Public Knowledge Project, which has designed this system to improve the scholarly and public quality of research, and which freely distributes the journal system as well as other software to support the open access publishing of scholarly resources.

Archiving

This journal utilizes the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration. More...

Notices

Visit the Community Informatics Research Network (CIRN) for information about CIRN's Inaugural Conference and Colloquium.