A scholarly journal on media, communication, education and gamification — read the latest research, follow the peer-review process, and submit your manuscript.
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The Journal for Media, Communications and Gamification Research is an international, peer-reviewed venue for research on how media and communication shape society, how people learn and engage through games and play, and how the two fields meet. It welcomes theoretical, empirical and practice-based work from researchers, educators and practitioners.
The Journal aims to connect scholarship across media studies, communication, education and game studies; to give equal weight to rigorous methods, clear writing and real-world relevance; and to make research openly available to readers everywhere.
Outside scope: purely technical game-engineering papers without a communication, media or learning question; promotional or commercial material; and papers with no research component.
Word counts include the abstract, notes and references. to confirm
| Type | Length | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Original research article | 6,000–8,000 words | Empirical or theoretical work with a clear contribution, using qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods. |
| Review article | 7,000–9,000 words | Systematic reviews, scoping reviews, meta-analyses and critical literature reviews. |
| Research note | 3,000–4,000 words | Short reports of focused studies, pilot studies, replications and methodological notes. |
| Practice and design case | 3,000–5,000 words | Reports on teaching practice, a game or gamified design, or a communication campaign, with reflection and evidence. |
| Viewpoint / commentary | 1,500–2,500 words | Short, argued pieces on current issues. Reviewed by the editors, and sometimes by an external expert. |
| Book, game and media review | 1,000–1,500 words | Critical reviews of recent books, games or media productions. Contact the editors before writing. |
| Special issue / proceedings | As agreed | Themed collections and selected conference papers (such as IIMCS). Proposals go to the editorial office. |
The Journal uses double-anonymous peer review: the identities of authors and reviewers are hidden from each other. Every research article is read by the editors and, if it passes screening, assessed by at least two independent experts before a decision is made. to confirm
The editorial office checks that the files are complete, the manuscript is anonymised and the paper meets basic requirements. A similarity check is run.
The editor-in-chief or an associate editor reads the paper for fit with scope, originality and quality. Papers that are clearly unsuitable are declined at this stage with a brief explanation.
An editor invites at least two reviewers with relevant expertise. Reviewers assess the paper against the published criteria and make a recommendation.
The handling editor considers the reports and decides: accept, minor revisions, major revisions or reject. Authors receive the anonymised reviewer comments.
Authors submit a revised manuscript with a response letter that answers each point. Revised papers may be sent back to the original reviewers.
Once the editor is satisfied, the paper is accepted and passes to production.
Editors do not handle manuscripts where they have a conflict of interest. Papers by editors or by members of the editorial board are handled by an independent editor.
Authors who believe a decision was based on a factual error or bias may appeal in writing to the editor-in-chief, with specific reasons. Appeals are considered by an editor who was not involved in the original decision.
Special issues and conference-proceeding collections, such as selected papers from IIMCS, follow the same peer-review standards as regular submissions.
Read these before you submit. Following them helps your paper move through review faster.
Check that your paper fits the Journal's aims and scope. Submissions must be original, must not have been published elsewhere in substantially the same form, and must not be under consideration by another journal. Posting a preprint is permitted; please mention it in your cover letter.
Everyone listed as an author must have made a substantial contribution to the work, approved the final version and agree to be accountable for it. Contributors who do not meet these criteria belong in the acknowledgements. Adding, removing or reordering authors after submission requires written agreement from all authors. Authors are encouraged to provide an ORCID iD.
Studies involving people (surveys, interviews, experiments, classroom or game-based interventions, analysis of identifiable social-media data) must state that they received approval from an ethics committee or a documented exemption, and that participants gave informed consent. Extra care applies to research with children and young people; explain how consent, assent and data protection were handled.
Declare any financial or personal relationship that could be seen to influence the work, including ties to game studios, media organisations or platforms you evaluate. Name every funder, or state that there was none.
Include a data availability statement. Share data, code or game materials where possible; where sharing is restricted (for example, identifiable qualitative data), explain why.
AI tools cannot be listed as authors. If generative AI was used in the research or the writing (beyond basic spelling and grammar checks), describe the tool and how it was used in the Methods or Acknowledgements. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy and originality of their manuscript.
Give a concise title, an abstract of 150–250 words and 4–6 keywords. Use up to three levels of headings. Empirical papers normally include Introduction, Literature review, Methods, Findings, Discussion, Limitations and Conclusion.
Write in clear, well-organised English, using British or American spelling consistently. Authors who would like help with language are encouraged to use a professional editing service before submission.
Follow the APA 7th edition style for in-text citations and the reference list, and include DOIs where available. Every citation must appear in the reference list and vice versa.
Number and caption all tables and figures, and refer to each in the text. Tables should be editable; images should be at least 300 dpi with descriptive alt text. Obtain and document permission for any third-party material.
For papers about games, gamified systems or interactive media, describe the design in enough detail for readers to understand it (mechanics, rules, audience, platform). Include screenshots and, where possible, an anonymised link to a playable prototype or repository for reviewers.
Authors retain copyright. Articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) licence, so they can be read, shared and reused with credit to the authors.
Accepted papers are copyedited, typeset and sent to the corresponding author as proofs. Please return corrections within 48 hours. Each article receives a DOI and is published online, then included in the next issue.
If you find an error after publication, contact the editorial office. The Journal publishes corrections where needed and retracts articles in cases of serious error or misconduct.
There is no article processing charge and no submission fee. Publishing in the Journal is free for authors, and reading is free for everyone.
Thank you for giving your time. Careful, constructive reviews are what make a journal.
Consider whether the paper:
| Recommendation | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Accept | Ready for publication with, at most, editorial polishing. |
| Minor revisions | Sound work that needs small changes the editor can check. |
| Major revisions | Potentially publishable, but needs substantial changes. The paper will normally return to reviewers. |
| Reject | Significant flaws or a poor fit that revision is unlikely to resolve. |
Reviewers receive a certificate on request through the platform and are acknowledged annually in the Journal. Where possible, reviews can also be recorded in your ORCID profile. To join the reviewer pool, write to the editorial office.
Target times for a typical research article. They are goals, not guarantees. to confirm
Files and anonymisation checked; similarity screening.
Fit, originality and quality; desk decision.
At least two reviewers; reports of 3–4 weeks.
Target from submission to first decision.
Minor revisions 2 weeks; major revisions 4 weeks.
Editor checks, or reviewers re-assess, the revision.
Copyediting, typesetting and author proofs (48 hours).
Online with a DOI within four weeks of acceptance.
From submission to online publication, most papers should take roughly four to five months, depending on the number of revision rounds.
We will publish these figures openly and update them each year.
As a new journal, we will report this after the first full volume.
Actual median will be reported once enough decisions are made.
Median for accepted papers, reported yearly.
We will list databases and directories here as they accept the Journal.
The Journal expects the highest standards from authors, reviewers and editors, and follows the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). to confirm
Submissions are screened for similarity. Plagiarism, duplicate submission and text recycling are not accepted.
Fabricated or manipulated data and images, and undisclosed conflicts of interest, are treated as serious misconduct.
Research must have ethical approval or a documented exemption, informed consent and appropriate data protection.
AI tools cannot be authors. Their use must be disclosed, and reviewers must not put manuscripts into public AI tools.
Errors are corrected openly. Articles may be retracted for serious error or misconduct, with a public notice explaining why.
Concerns about a paper, a decision or an editor can be sent to the editor-in-chief through the contact address.
The Journal is fully open access: every article is free to read and download immediately on publication. Authors keep the copyright to their work and license it under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0), which lets others share and adapt the article with credit to the authors. Authors may deposit any version of their paper in institutional or subject repositories. There are no article processing charges.
Appointments will be announced here.
To be announced
To be announced
Media & communication · Gamification & games · Education
International scholars and practitioners. To be announced.
