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Call for Papers for volume 6, n° 1(11)/ 2013

ESSACHESS – Journal for Communication Studies
www.essachess.com

Experimental Methods in Communication

Coordinators:
Françoise BERNARD (University of Provence, France) and Vincent MEYER (University of Lorraine, France)

Experimental methods are increasingly employed in Information and Communication Sciences (ICS). The coordinators of Essachess – Journal of Communication Studies want to offer in this issue a progress report on “Experimental methods in communication”. Indeed, in a set of relevant disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences, the epistemological interest for these approaches and their complementary input is widely recognized. We want to address the question extremely important for ICS, especially within the French setting: In what theoretical frameworks, for which subjects, and under what conditions are these methods employed and do they prove relevant?

This issue intends to present and bring to light – in their diversity of implementation and of subjects dealt with – issues, challenges, and specific methodological contributions of ICS research. These methods allow for a new approach and open new perspectives on info-communicational phenomena (Courbet, 2010). They also provide answers to public and social demands (including call for proposal) who are increasingly concerned about the administration of evidence and proofs. Moreover, they allow for a participatory research and/or action research. Finally, this issue could help bring together the work of researchers using this approach within ICS both in France as well as internationally.

The expected contributions will, by an international comparison, fit into four research directions:
– Question the experimental situation from different angles: How experimental approaches make it possible to specify and describe certain components and characteristics of information and communication? How can they make possible the replication of the results? What can we “replicate” as part of the reality? How to develop hypotheses in relation to a field or a theory? How is the diversity of the experimental situations defined: as a natural context or as a controlled context?
– Describe the procedures employed in different fields and engage in discussions on specific procedures and tools, for example: technical procedures like the one known as “real time responses" (RTR) used to measure the expression of feelings and opinions about media contents (Maier, Maier, Maurer, Reineman and Meyer, 2009); devising communication procedures used in specific areas (publicity, environment, public health, etc.); the study of receptivity according to socio-cognitive and behavioral effects (Bernard, Courbet, Falkowicz-Halimi, 2010).
– Address the issue of selection, status, and place of the experimental subjects. The experimental method can be presented as a case study or as a specific situation, isolated sequences with different meanings for the participants but in theory, controlled by the researcher. How do researchers challenge such research practices?
– – Provide an account of the relationship between methods and, more broadly, of the practices of methodological pluralism: How can the experimental methods be articulated with other methods as part of research projects ? Within the variety of experimental methods, to what degree are they associated with distinct approaches – for example, the approach ‘quasi-experimental’ to what degree refers to methodological pluralism ? What are the questions asked in the context of these inter-methods ? Is the opposition between the traditional hermeneutic-interpretive method versus the experimental method outdated?

Important Deadlines

– November 1st, 2012: submission of the proposition of article in the form of a summary of 400-500 words. The proposal must include a list of recent references;
– December 15, 2012: acceptance of the proposal;
– April 15, 2013: full paper submission;
– June 1st, 2013: full paper acceptance.

Papers should be between 6,000-10,000 words in length. Papers can be submitted in English or French. The abstracts should be in English and French, max. 200-250 words followed by 5 keywords. Please provide the full names, affiliations, and e-mail addresses of all authors, indicating the contact author. Papers, and any queries, should be sent to:

essachess@gmail.com

Authors of the accepted papers will be notified by e-mail. The journal will be published in July 2013.