Selected List of Professional Journals
Professional journals are compilations of peer-reviewed articles about original topics and research pertaining to a specific field. Professional journals can also include news and new technology related to the field. For a journal to be considered professional, the articles contained in the journal must be peer-reviewed by other scholars in the field to maintain a high-level of professionalism, standards, and validity for the field.
Contributing to professional journals not only benefits you but also the profession and your peers. Sharing the wealth of knowledge and experiences, good and bad, through the use of professional journals also brings validity to the information shared and can provide a community of support. Through a community of support, best practices can also emerge and be available to those directly and indirectly related to the profession.
Journals that are particularly useful for technical communicators include:
- ACM Journal of Computer Documentation: this journal is part of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Digital Library
- Association of Medical Writers Journal: Published by the Association of Medical Writers
- Business Communication Quarterly: Published by SAGE Journals, this journal is devoted to teaching communication in the workplace and is a part of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
- International Journal of Business Communication: Published by the Association for Business Communication, this journal is a part of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
- Journal of Business and Technical Communication: Published by SAGE Journals, this journal is a part of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
- Journal of Usability Studies: Published by User Experience Professionals Association
- Technical Communication: Published by the Society for Technical Communication (note: this journal requires STC membership)
- Technical Communication Quarterly: Published by the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing