Abstract: | Scientific journals are a key factor for the integration of a research discipline. For their integrative capacity it is mainly important how members of a discipline use these journals as readers and authors and how they assess them. To gain more insight into this topic, all members of the German Society for Journalism and Communication Science (DGPuK) were asked to take part in an online survey during the summer of 2015. Object of this survey were the three journals Publizistik, Medien & Kommunikationswissenschaft and Studies in Communication | Media. Participants were asked about the utilization of those journals, their fulfillment of general expectations towards journals in German communication science as well as about publication behavior and expectations towards the publication process. Using a cluster analysis, participants were split in five different groups, discriminant in terms of expectations, assessments and forms of utilization. Results show that the analyzed journals still do not use their full potential to create long-term commitment, especially among younger academics. |