Journal History

The development of an academic journal was a significant motivation for the establishment of NCA in 1914. The Quarterly Journal of Public Speaking (currently The Quarterly Journal of Speech) was first published in 1915 at The University of Chicago Press. By 1919, the journal was being published by the Association.

The Association also began publishing

	Communication Monographs (formerly Speech Monographs in 1934,
	Communication Education (formerly The Speech Teacher) in 1952,
	Critical Studies in Media Communication in 1984 (previously named Critical Studies in Mass Communication),
	Text and Performance Quarterly in 1989 (previously named Literature in Performance
	Journal of Applied Communication Research in 1991 (founded in 1973).
	The Review of Communication in 2001.

The journals are important to NCA and its members in at least three ways.

First, the journals constitute a defining feature of the nature of NCA and the field of communication itself. The publication of a journal results in a conception of what NCA seeks to promote as scholarship and ultimately how the field is understood.

Second, the journals provide a means of promoting, disseminating, and preserving research scholarship. The facilitation of such scholarship is important to the production and application of knowledge relating to communication.

Third, subscription to one or more of NCA's journals is a primary benefit of membership in the association.

The journal program is described below:

	*The Quarterly Journal of Speech, published in February, May, August and November, includes articles, research reports, and book reviews of interest to persons across a broad spectrum of the communication arts. QJS* tends to be humanistic in its orientation.
	*Communication Monographs*, published in March, June, September, and December, tends to include research on communication from a social science perspective.
	*Communication Education*, published in January, April, July, and October, focuses its attention on research on instructional communication.
	*Critical Studies in Media Communication*, publishes research on media of all varieties from a critical or cultural perspective.

Text and Performance Quarterly, published in January, April, July and October, focuses on the history, theory, and criticism of any type of text realized in performance.

	Journal of Applied Communication Research, published in February, May, August, and November, focuses on applied settings and real-world concerns. This quarterly journal deals with explorations of problems and situations from a communicative orientation.
	Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, published in March, June, September, and December, publishes scholarship for an international readership on communication as a theory, practice, technology, and discipline of power.
	Communication Teacher, a 16page quarterly, includes practical teaching exercises and resources for college and high school communication instructors. Tested in the classroom, the exercises represent the dedication of "teachers who care about better speaking, listening, and relating, and share their ideas." Routledge will begin publishing in 2004.