Evidence-based Communication Assessment and Intervention (EBCAI) is a peer-reviewed journal published quarterly by Informa Healthcare. The primary aims of EBCAI are to (1) promote evidence-based practice (EBP) in communication assessment and intervention; (2) appraise the latest evidence in order to facilitate the use of research findings in clinical and educational practice; (3) provide a forum for discussions that advance EBP; and (4) disseminate research on EBP. EBCAI brings together professionals who work in clinical and educational practice as well as researchers from all disciplines concerned with people with communication impairments.
To this end, the journal develops the following resources. First, the journal commissions value-added structured abstracts in which research evidence from original studies and reviews are summarized, critically appraised, and contextualized in terms of implications and application in clinical or educational practice. Studies related to diagnosis, assessment, intervention, and prognosis will be appraised. To identify articles for inclusion, our team scans 60-plus professional journals in speech-language pathology and related fields. To be included, an article must meet predefined relevancy and quality criteria. These value-added structured abstracts afford the practitioner a single source to stay on top of the latest research findings in order to facilitate evidence-based clinical decision-making. Researchers and university professors will benefit from access to cutting-edge and clinically relevant studies for pursuing further in teaching and research.
Selection Procedures for Structured Abstracts
In addition to commissioning value-added structured abstracts of empirical studies and systematic reviews, EBCAI also seeks to publish unsolicited original manuscripts of the following types:
1. Tutorials, Discussion, and Synthesis Articles (full peer review): This type of manuscript provides a synthesis, discussion or tutorial on any topic pertaining to the EBP process: including (a) development of a well-built research question, (b) search for evidence, (c) appraisal and synthesis of evidence, (d) application of the evidence (i.e., integrating the appraised evidence with relevant stakeholder perspectives & clinical/educational expertise), (e) evaluation of the application of evidence, and (f) dissemination of findings. The focus of a Tutorial, Discussion or Synthesis article may be on any one or a combination of the corner stones of EBP: research evidence, stakeholder perspectives, and clinical/educational expertise. Articles relating to methodological issues (e.g., grading evidence), implementation issues (e.g., knowledge translation), or conceptual considerations (e.g., EBP as a construct) will also be considered for publication. Articles accepted in this category will appear in the EBP Advancement Corner.
2. Research Articles (full peer review): The journal will publish articles that report the results of original empirical research concerning issues or methodologies related to EBP. Similarly, translational research into the effectiveness of knowledge translation strategies affecting professionals as well as people with communication impairments will be considered for publication. EBCAI welcomes quantitative, qualitative, and studies involving mixed methodologies. Quantitative research designs may include group designs, single-case experimental designs, and controlled case studies. Articles accepted in this category will appear in the EBP Advancement Corner.
3. Critically Appraised Topics (full peer review): EBCAI also seeks to publish original and exemplary Critically Appraised Topics (CATs). CATs include summaries and a critical appraisal of the literature relevant to a well-built clinical question pertaining to a specific individual client. To be published, CATs must meet criteria for content, currency of information, attribution, and documentation. Individuals interested in preparing a CAT for submission may find our criteria helpful. CATs will appear in the EBP Advancement Corner.
4. Experiential Accounts (abbreviated peer review): EBCAI seeks to publish brief (2000 words) experiential accounts by practitioners, relevant stakeholders, or researchers engaged in the EBP process. These articles may be anecdotes, reflections, or case studies. The Brief articles will undergo an abbreviated peer-review. Accepted experiential accounts will appear in the EBP Speakers Corner.
Manuscript Preparation
Submission: Submissions to EBCAI should be accompanied by a cover letter with the following information: (a) a request that the manuscript be considered for publication, (b) a statement that the manuscript has not been published elsewhere and is not currently submitted elsewhere, and (c) a statement that appropriate ethical procedures have been followed and the standards governing research involving human participants in force in the country in which the research has been conducted have been met (note that The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) represents a minimal requirement). Electronic submission is preferred. For electronic submissions (i.e., via email attachment), manuscripts (including tables and appendices) should be saved as Microsoft Word files (version 6.0 or later) and figures should be saved as PowerPoint, Word or Excel documents and emailed to the editors.
Submissions from Europe, North America, and South America should be submitted to Professor Ralf Schlosser (r.schlosser@neu.edu); submissions from Africa, Asia, and the Australia/New Zealand region should be sent to Professor Jeff Sigafoos (Jeff.Sigafoos@vuw.ac.nz).
Declaration of interest
It is the policy of all Informa Healthcare to adhere in principle to the Conflict of Interest policy recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE, http://www.icmje.org/index.html#conflict).
All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organisations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. It is the sole responsibility of authors to disclose any affiliation with any organisation with a financial interest, direct or indirect, in the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript (such as consultancies, employment, paid expert testimony, honoraria, speakers' bureaus, retainers, stock options or ownership, patents or patent applications or travel grants) that may affect the conduct or reporting of the work submitted. All sources of funding for research are to be explicitly stated. If uncertain as to what might be considered a potential conflict of interest, authors should err on the side of full disclosure.
All submissions to the journal must include full disclosure of all relationships that could be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest. If there are no conflicts of interest, authors should state that there are none. This must be stated at the point of submission (within the manuscript after the main text under a subheading "Declaration of interest"). This may be made available to reviewers and will appear in the published article at the discretion of the Editors or Publisher.
If no conflict is declared, the following statement will be attached to all articles:
Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.
The intent of this policy is not to prevent authors with these relationships from publishing work, but rather to adopt transparency such that readers can make objective judgements on conclusions drawn.
Format: To conform with the APA
Publications Manual, fifth edition, references should be alphabetized at the end of the manuscript text, in the following formats:
Kozlowski, L. T., Henningfield, J. E., & Brigham, J. (2001).
Cigarettes, nicotine, and health. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Perkins, K. A., Donny, E., & Caggiula, A. R. (1999). Sex differences in nicotine effects and self-administration: Review of human and animal evidence.
Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 1, 301-315.
Weinstein, N. (2001). Smokers' recognition of their vulnerability to harm. In P. Slovic (Ed.),
Smoking, risk, perception, & policy (pp. 81-96). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Manuscript Length and Terminology: Submissions should be no more than 25 pages, excluding including references, tables, figures, appendices, and acknowledgements. Manuscripts also should conform to first person terminology (e.g., person who stutters rather than stutterer). In preparing their manuscripts, authors may find the glossary helpful. The glossary defines key terms as used by EBCAI .
Review and Processing
Review: Articles are assigned to an Associate Editor and reviewed by two to three Reviewers for relevance, logic, and (if applicable) design, and implementation (but not on philosophical positions taken). The review process requires 2 to 3 months from date of receipt. The review procedure is anonymous; therefore, author identification must not appear on the manuscript except for the title page or cover sheet. Reviewers' comments will be returned to the author.
Revisions/Corrections: The Editors reserve the right to return to author(s) manuscripts that do not meet requirements; to make minor editorial changes that do not materially affect meaning of text; or, on advice of reviewers to offer to accept articles contingent upon revision stated.
Edited Manuscript: Manuscripts that have been accepted for publication and have gone through the EBCAI editing process are sent to Informa Healthcare Ltd. for addition of printers' instructions, final grammatical and style consistency, and technical editing. Prior to publication, the publisher will send by email a portable data file (PDF) proof of an article along with instructions and guidelines to the corresponding author for review. Corrections and alterations should be returned by email within 48 hours of receipt. Authors shall be responsible for the accuracy of references and statistical computations.
NOTE: If, during the proofing phase, authors notice problems that are beyond typographical and other minor errors (e.g., a table or figure is missing), they should contact the Editorial Office immediately. The office will work with the publisher to correct the errors, after which another proof will be issued.
Copyright Assignment: It is a condition of publication that authors vest copyright in their articles to Informa Healthcare. When an author's work is accepted for publication by EBCAI the author(s) will be asked to sign a Copyright Assignment and Agreement conveying all copyright ownership to Informa Healthcare. This enables us to ensure full copyright protection and to disseminate the article, and the journal, to the widest possible readership in print and electronic formats as appropriate. Copyright will be managed by Informa Healthcare. Authors may use their article elsewhere after publication without prior permission from Informa Healthcare provided that acknowledgement is given to the Journal as the original source of publication and that Informa Healthcare is notified so that records show that its use is properly authorized. For all other use, permission from Informa Healthcare is required.
Offprints:
Once your article is available online you will be granted access to the article. If you do not have a username, one is created for you, and an email will be sent to you containing your login details. On informaworldTM, you can access both HTML and PDF versions of your article. You may download a PDF version, which will contain a watermark noting this is an author copy. You are free to circulate this PDF to up to 50 colleagues by email, or make 50 printed copies and circulate by mail. This acceptable use policy does NOT permit distribution to more than 50 individuals of the PDF by authors or editors without express permission from the publisher. Prohibited uses include the distribution of the PDF via professional or personal listservs or posting to personal, organizational, or institutional websites in a format that would allow downloading or printing. Copies of the Journal can be purchased at the author's preferential rate of 
15/$25 per copy.
Color figures: a. Any figure submitted as a color original will appear in color in the journal's online edition free of charge and can be downloaded.
b. Paper copy color reproduction will only be considered on condition that authors contribute to the associated costs. Charges are:
500/US$1030 for the first color page and
250/US$515 for each color page after per article. (Color costs will be waived for invited Review Articles.)
NIH Public Access Policy:
In consideration of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy, Informa Healthcare acknowledges that the broad and open dissemination of NIH-funded-research results may benefit future scientific and medical research. Because we value the current and future contributions our journals make to the scientific body of knowledge, we have made certain that our policies accommodate those authors who wish to submit to PubMed Central.
Informa Healthcare's position with respect to public access to NIH-funded work published in Informa Healthcare journals is as follows:
- Informa Healthcare authors may voluntarily submit their funded work to PubMed Central after a 12-month embargo period;
- “funded work” shall be defined as the final, peer-reviewed manuscript that is accepted by the Editor in Chief of the journal. This manuscript must not be altered by Publisher's copyediting and typesetting services; and
- this embargo period begins the day the work is published online at www.informaworld.com.
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