The Southwest Education Council for Journalism and Mass Communication (SWECJMC) cordially invites you to submit a paper, abstract, or pedagogy best practice to be considered for presentation at the 2024 Southwest Symposium to be held at Texas State University in Round Rock, Texas, on October 25 and 26, 2024. Submissions must be received by 11:59 p.m. Central time on Sunday, July 14, 2024. Authors will be advised on paper selections by Sunday, August 18, 2024. Submit papers, abstracts and pedagogy practice papers at this link: https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/SWECJMC2024 (you’ll need to register first).
Faculty and graduate students are invited to submit English-language-only, completed research papers on any topic related to journalism and mass communication. To encourage graduate student scholarship, we will once again present an award for the top graduate student paper. All scholarly methodologies are welcome, quantitative and qualitative. Authors whose papers are accepted will be invited to present at the 2024 Symposium. All papers will be refereed, and the top six complete research papers will be honored with awards and are eligible for publication in the Southwestern Mass Communication Journal spring edition without additional review.
As we did in 2023, SWECJMC will also accept extended abstracts for the 2024 Symposium. Extended abstracts should be 750-1,500 words in length, and they should summarize completed or in-progress research projects. The top paper abstract will be honored with an award at the conference.
Additionally, we encourage faculty to submit pedagogy tips for SWECJMC’s Pedagogy Best Practices session. For this session, submit no more than two pages, double spaced, detailing your best practice teaching tip. Address how you discovered the approach, how you implemented it, and the outcome of the implementation.
DEADLINE:
Sunday, July 14, 2024, 11:59 p.m. CST
Additional Requirements for Papers:
Submissions are restricted to faculty members and graduate students of academic institutions in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Wyoming. You must use your University email address to register at the conference paper submission site. Co-authors from schools in other states are acceptable.
Accepted papers, extended abstracts, and pedagogy papers must be presented at the Symposium by the author or co-author. All presenters and panelists MUST pre-register and attend in person to present. Presenters and panelists who fail to PRE-REGISTER will be removed from the program.
Authors’ names, academic institutions, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses will be entered into our online system. Please do NOT include a title page on your manuscript.
Complete papers, extended abstracts, and pedagogy best practice papers must be prepared for blind review. Remove any identifying marks in the document submitted. Manuscripts with identifying marks will be rejected immediately.
Authors are strongly urged to observe the publication guidelines of the Southwestern Mass Communication Journal (see: Submission Guidelines). Typically, no more than five tables will be published in a single manuscript. The journal requires adherence to APA 7th edition guidelines.
No completed paper, including tables, graphs, figures and citations, should exceed 30 pages. Papers selected from the fall Symposium for the Conference Edition of the journal must be made to conform to this length requirement during final modifications before publication.
Extended abstracts should be 750 – 1,500 words maximum, not including references or tables; and abstracts should include a list of references. Extended abstracts should summarize the study’s purpose, literature, methodology, results or expected results, and discussion. In addition, extended abstracts should clearly indicate the progress of the study, including how much data collection and analysis remains. References, tables, and figures should not be included in the word count. Authors whose abstracts are selected for presentation must submit their completed, full paper to their assigned discussant by Sunday, October 13, 2024.
To be considered for the top graduate student paper, submissions must have been authored by only graduate students; even having a faculty co-author excludes consideration for top graduate student paper award, but studies co-authored by students and faculty will be eligible for top six paper consideration. The top extended abstract will not be eligible for publication in the Southwestern Mass Communication Journal.
Papers and extended abstracts submitted for consideration should not be submitted elsewhere until after the conference ends. If it is submitted elsewhere, the authors must withdraw the submission from other considerations if the paper is selected for presentation.
Attendees whose universities or organizations are institutional members of SWECJMC will receive a $10 discount when registering online. Please encourage your university to support scholarship and professional development by joining SWECJMC through a nominal $100 annual contribution. Visit https://swecjmc.wp.txstate.edu/membership/ to sign up your institution or contact SWECJMC treasurer T. Phillip Madison (phillip.madison@louisiana.edu) to join.
For more information about submitting to the conference, contact vice president and research chair Mohammad Yousuf at myousuf@unm.edu. For questions about this year’s conference, contact president Kelly Kaufhold at kellykaufhold@txstate.edu.