Editorial

What are the most significant options for enhancing the production and distribution of AJET? After our consolidation with Volume 14 last year, the question is topical because we may now respond to new opportunities:

1. Scope for three issues per year. Since the Societies assumed publication responsibility in mid 1997, the number of submissions has increased significantly, with 34 received in 1998. AJET has only two issues per year, but we are now filling these much earlier than the nominal "winter" and "summer" cut off dates.

2. Increased use of AJET online. Accesses to the web version have increased rapidly, with AJET's home page logging 13533 "hits" between 11 Dec 1996 and 1 Apr 1999, and attaining a current rate of over 200 hits per week. The hit counts at 1 April 1999 for Volumes 13 and 14 home pages were 3183 and 4029 respectively.

The increase in accesses to AJET online provides further encouragement to undertake enhancements. Increased frequency of AJET issue is readily implementable, with very little increase in costs. Economical publicity has been obtained by submitting AJET's web address to major search engines (Yahoo, Excite and others) and to university and national libraries. Another enhancement made recently is an AJET search facility, located at http://cleo.murdoch.edu.au/ajet/about/ajetsearch.html

Many "web only, free to the Internet" journals have appeared in recent years, for example in areas related to educational technology:

Compute-Ed [ http://www.education.uts.edu.au/projects/comped/ ]
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication [ http://jcmc.huji.ac.il/ ]
Interpersonal Computing and Technology Journal [ http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~ipct-j/ ]

Some of these new journals have sought to derive synergy from complementary kinds of publication activities, for example JCMC Newsletter [http://www.arch.usyd.edu.au/~fay/jcmcn/]. Open University's Journal of Interactive Media in Education [http://www-jime.open.ac.uk/] provides an online process of review and commentary. However, in AJET's case there are existing complementary avenues, including ASCILITE's email list, ASET's edtech-aus@cleo list, and Graeme Hart's Online-Ed newsletter [http://www.edfac.unimelb.edu.au/online-ed/]. Working in a complementary manner with existing channels is likely to be the most effective strategy for AJET, and thus, as indicated by Rob Phillips in Editorial 14(1) [http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet14/editorial14-1.html], we have no plans to add discussion channels specifically for AJET.

Many publishers, both commercial and non profit associations, provide a limited online service to complement the production and distribution of printed copies. Typically, the online presence is web publication of tables of contents and abstracts, whilst some sites provide subscribers with password controlled access to full text. Examples include journals by the AACE (Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education) [http://www.aace.org/pubs/], Carfax Ltd UK [http://www.carfax.co.uk/], Blackwell [http://www.blackwellpublishers.co.uk/] and many others (eg, one list is given at ASET's http://cleo.murdoch.edu.au/aset/edtech_pubs.html). Two Australian based societies, HERDSA (Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia) and ATEM (Association for Tertiary Education Management) have developed in this direction, by "outsourcing" and "internationalising" their journals (Higher Education Research & Development, and Journal of Higher Education and Policy Management) to Carfax Publishing Ltd.

Should AJET move in similar directions? Certainly the longer term potential exists, especially in the current "free to the Internet" direction, encouraged by the recent upsurge in accesses to AJET online. However, we need more experience with the particular combination of print and online we have adopted since mid 1997. It has served members of our Societies well to date, and established a significant online presence, although the number of print subscribers other than members is relatively small, numbering 48 in 1998. The present model has enabled us to consider a modest, near future goal of increasing to three issues per year as the most significant, readily feasible enhancement for AJET.

Roger Atkinson
AJET Production Editor

The Australian Journal of Educational Technology is published twice a year jointly by the Australian Society for Educational Technology and the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education. Members of ASET, ASCILITE and International Society for Performance Improvement, Melbourne Chapter receive AJET as a part of their membership benefits. AJET's 1999 Editorial Board, nominated by ASET and ASCILITE is:

Ron Oliver (Editor), Edith Cowan University
Roger Atkinson (Production Editor), Murdoch University
Cathy Gunn, University of Auckland
Barry Harper, University of Wollongong
Mary Jane Mahony, University of Sydney
Clare McBeath, Curtin University of Technology
Sue McNamara, Monash University
Rod Sims, Southern Cross University

For details on submission of manuscripts, subscriptions and access to the AJET online archives, please see:

http://cleo.murdoch.edu.au/ajet/ajet.html

© 1999 All rights reserved. No part of this journal may be reprinted or reproduced without permission from the publishers. ISSN 0814-673X.