Quarterly Journal of Speech

Quarterly Journal of Speech
Title	Quarterly Journal of Speech
Discipline	Rhetoric; Communication Studies
Abbreviation	QJS
Publisher	University-affiliated press; professional association
History	1915–present
Frequency	Quarterly

Quarterly Journal of Speech is a peer-reviewed academic journal focusing on rhetoric and communication studies. It publishes scholarship on rhetorical theory, criticism, public address, and performance, engaging audiences in the United States and internationally. The journal has long-standing connections with university departments, scholarly societies, and professional conferences.

History

The journal was founded in the early 20th century amid shifts in higher education at institutions like Harvard University, Columbia University, University of Chicago, Yale University, and Princeton University. Early contributors and editors included scholars affiliated with Northwestern University, University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, University of Michigan, University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Indiana University Bloomington. Over decades the journal intersected with intellectual movements tied to figures at Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University, and University of Texas at Austin. Editorial changes reflected broader disciplinary transformations influenced by conferences such as the National Communication Association meetings, networks like the Rhetoric Society of America, and research programs at centers including the Folger Shakespeare Library and the Library of Congress. The journal's institutional affiliations and editorial offices moved through academic settings associated with University of Southern California, Pennsylvania State University, Duke University, University of Minnesota, and Rutgers University.

Scope and Content

The journal publishes theoretical and empirical work spanning classical traditions related to Aristotle, Cicero, Quintilian, and Plato as well as contemporary scholarship influenced by theorists connected to Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Jürgen Habermas, Kenneth Burke, and Chaim Perelman. Articles address rhetorical practices in contexts involving institutions such as the United Nations, European Union, NATO, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund, and in public events like the Lincoln–Douglas debates, the Watergate scandal, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Arab Spring. Case studies often engage texts and artifacts tied to figures and works including Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Winston Churchill, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, The Federalist Papers, Gettysburg Address, Common Sense (Paine), and The Communist Manifesto. The journal also treats rhetoric in cultural productions linked to William Shakespeare, Toni Morrison, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, James Baldwin, Virginia Woolf, and Langston Hughes, and examines media phenomena involving outlets such as The New York Times, BBC Television, CNN, The Guardian, and Al Jazeera.

Editorial Board and Peer Review

Editorial leadership has historically included scholars with appointments at research institutions like University of California, Los Angeles, Brown University, Cornell University, Columbia University, and Emory University. The editorial board typically comprises specialists from departments and centers at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Michigan State University, Ohio State University, University of Iowa, and George Mason University. Peer review follows norms practiced at journals associated with the Modern Language Association, the American Political Science Association, the American Historical Association, and the Social Science Research Council. Manuscripts undergo blind review by referees drawn from scholars at institutions including University of Washington, University of Florida, Vanderbilt University, Rice University, and University of Colorado Boulder.

Abstracting and Indexing

The journal is abstracted and indexed in major bibliographic services and databases maintained by organizations like ProQuest, EBSCO, Scopus, Web of Science, and JSTOR. It appears in subject-specific indexes used by libraries at Library of Congress, British Library, New York Public Library, Harvard Library, and Bodleian Library. Citation data feed into platforms operated by entities such as Clarivate, CrossRef, Google Scholar, WorldCat, and OCLC.

Impact and Reception

Scholarly reception has positioned the journal among outlets cited alongside publications from presses such as Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Routledge, University of Chicago Press, and Princeton University Press. Impact assessments reference citation metrics discussed in venues like Times Higher Education, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, and reports from research bodies such as National Science Foundation and National Endowment for the Humanities. The journal has influenced curricular programs at universities including Georgetown University, Boston University, Syracuse University, Arizona State University, and Temple University and is discussed at conferences hosted by American Council of Learned Societies, International Communication Association, and European Communication Research and Education Association.

Notable Articles and Contributions

Prominent articles have examined rhetorical strategies in moments associated with World War I, World War II, Vietnam War, Cold War, and 9/11 attacks and analyzed speeches by figures including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Margaret Thatcher. Other influential contributions explored feminist rhetorical frameworks connected to bell hooks, Judith Butler, Simone de Beauvoir, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Angela Davis, as well as race and rhetoric scholarship engaging scholars like Stuart Hall, W. E. B. Du Bois, Cornel West, Patricia Hill Collins, and Kwame Anthony Appiah. The journal has published work on rhetorical criticism of texts such as Uncle Tom's Cabin, Leaves of Grass, The Souls of Black Folk, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Their Eyes Were Watching God, and methodological essays referencing traditions from New Criticism, Structuralism, Post-structuralism, Phenomenology, and Queer theory.

Category:Rhetoric journals