Editorial
The long path to journal viability
From time to time we compare AJET's development with some kindred journals, for example AJET Editorial 20(1) [1] compared AJET with three Australian based, not for profit journals in educational technology, under the criterion 'consistent sustainability'. Only one of those three, e-JIST, has sustained into this year's comparison, presented below in Table 1. Table 1 compares five Australian produced journals, including two recent startups [2], in an attempt to provide some insight into the question: How many years are required to attain a viable number of issues and articles per year? Table 2 explores this question further, using two prominent non-OA and two OA (open access, or 'free to the Internet') journals as illustrative examples.
Table 1: Numbers of issues and articles in five Australian journals, 1995-2005
| Year | HERD [3]
first issue 1982 | e-JIST [4]
first issue 1995 | JLD [5]
first issue 2005 | JUTLP [6]
first issue 2004 | AJET [7]
first issue 1985 |
| issues | artics | issues | artics | issues | artics | issues | artics | issues | artics |
| 1995-2000 | 16 | 129 | 9 | 22 | - | - | - | - | 14 | 79 |
| 2001 | 3 | 20 | 1 | 7 | - | - | - | - | 3 | 20 |
| 2002 | 3 | 21 | 1 | 8 | - | - | - | - | 3 | 23 |
| 2003 | 3 | 22 | 1 | 5 | - | - | - | - | 3 | 24 |
| 2004 | 4 | 25 | 2 | 13 | - | - | 2 | 8 | 3 | 21 |
| 2005 | 4 | 26 | 1* | 4* | 1* | 7* | 3 | 13 | 4 | 30 |
| Totals | 33
(95-05) | 243
(95-05) | 15
(95-05) | 59
(95-03) | 1*
(05) | 7*
(05) | 5
(04-05) | 21
(04-05) | 30
(95-05) | 197
(95-05) |
| * 2005 count is incomplete. Last updated 2 Dec 2005. |
The concept of 'viable number' is quite subjective, but if we supplement the data in Table 1 with comparable data for journals that are likely to be widely regarded internationally as viable journals (Table 2), the target for viability becomes more sharply defined at around 4 issues and 25 to 40 articles per year. The HERD, AJET and e-JIST records suggest that quite a number of years of growth may be required for attaining viable numbers. Of course, 'viable numbers' of issues and articles constitute only two of many measures that may be applied in evaluation of journal performance. Another measure of interest to authors is listing or 'indexing' by a well known abstracting service. Table 3, summarising AJET's experience with ERIC, ERA and CC and HWW indicates that the path towards this form of recognition may be quite lengthy.
Table 2: Numbers of issues and articles in five international journals, 2001-2005
| Year | BJET [8]
first issue 1970 | ETRD [9]
first issue 1953 | JALN [10]
first issue 1997 | JETS [11]
first issue 1998 | AJET [7]
first issue 1985 |
| issues | artics | issues | artics | issues | artics | issues | artics | issues | artics |
| 2001 | 5 | 41 | na | na | 2 | 17 | 4 | 41 | 3 | 20 |
| 2002 | 5 | 44 | 4 | 20 | 2 | 10 | 4 | 80 | 3 | 23 |
| 2003 | 5 | 41 | 4 | 21 | 3 | 23 | 4 | 43 | 3 | 24 |
| 2004 | 6 | 45 | 4 | 21 | 4 | 36 | 4 | 43 | 3 | 21 |
| 2005 | 6 | 59 | 4 | 21 | 3* | 24* | 4 | 69 | 4 | 30 |
| Tots | 27 | 230 | na | na | 14* | 110* | 20 | 276 | 16 | 118 |
| * 2005 count may be incomplete. Last updated 2 Dec 2005. |
Table 3: Progress towards securing AJET's listing by some abstracting services
| Abstracting service | Sub
US$ | No.
jnls (a) | Publisher | Date
init (b) | Status |
| Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) [12] | Not
applic | Not
avail | US Dept Education | 13 Nov 2000
(c) | Pending |
| Educational Research Abstracts (ERA) [13] | $4869 | 789 | Taylor & Francis | 6 Dec 2002 | Listed Oct 2005 |
| Current Contents/Social & Behavioral Sciences (CC) [14] | (d) | 1712 | ISI Thomson | 4 June 2004 | Pending |
| Education Index/ Abstracts/ Full Text (HWW) [15] | (d) | 623 (e) | H.W. Wilson
Databases | Publisher
initiated | Listed Jan 2005 |
- The number of journals abstracted (at 7 Oct 2005). A count of the number of journals currently abstracted by ERIC was not attempted for this table.
- Date initiated is the date of first communication between AJET (represented by the Production Editor) and the publisher of the service.
- ERIC was subjected to a major restructuring occupying several years of this period, which may have caused delays. [16]
- Publicly accessible information about subscription prices for 'electronic products' appears to be unavailable on the website (7 Oct 2005).
- An estimate made by the Production Editor.
Perhaps AJET has had a 'lucky', or 'unlucky' experience with abstracting services, or the Production Editor has not been sufficiently diligent in lobbying for attention? To investigate those possibilities, consider Table 4, which presents a 'status summary' for thirteen illustrative cases. The first ten rows of Table 4 (AJET to JIME) are the Production Editor's 'top
ten' OA (open access) journals [17, 18], in alpha order, whilst the last three rows are illustrative examples from commercial publishers. Needless to say, the 'top ten' is quite subjective and changes frequently. Some readers may feel that it strays too far away from edtech or even from education generally, and that some of the 'ten' are more like 'magazines' than research journals. We can revisit those topics later on; here it is sufficient to note that regardless of the possible influences of 'luck' and 'diligence', AJET is in a middling to good position, compared with a number of peers.
Table 4: Some abstracting service coverages for ten OA and three non-OA journals
| Abstracting service (data compiled October 2005) | CC | ERA | ERIC | HWW |
| Australasian Journal of Educational Technology [7] | no | yes | no | yes |
| Contemporary Issues in Technology & Teacher Ed[19] | no | no | no | no |
| EDUCAUSE Quarterly [20] | no | no | was | no |
| EDUCAUSE Review [21] | no | no | yes | yes |
| First Monday [22] | no | no | no | no |
| Innovate [23] | no | no | no | no |
| Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks [10] | no | no | no | yes |
| Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication [24] | no | no | no | no |
| Journal of Educational Technology & Society [11] | yes | yes | no | yes |
| Journal of Interactive Media in Education [25] | no | no | no | yes |
| Higher Education Research and Development [3] | no | yes | yes | no |
| British Journal of Educational Technology [8] | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Educational Technology Research & Development [9] | yes | yes | yes | yes |
Table 5 presents a list, also idiosyncratic, of recent startups we have noted for AJET editorial reference. Table 5 shows that the two recent startups noted in Table 1, JLD and JUTLP, have plenty of company as saplings in the great forest of scholarly journals.
Table 5: Some recent startups of open access journals
AJET review process outcomes
In AJET Editorial 21(2) we discussed AJET's review process outcomes, 2003-2005 [25], with particular reference to our increasing use of 'editorial rejections'. Table 6 below provides an update on the review process outcomes discussed in Editorial 21(2), this time to consider the number of articles in the 'pending' column. Currently (3 Dec 2005) at 34, the number 'pending' has barely changed since April 2005 (of course the composition of the 'pending' list changes continually). Whilst our goal is a three month 'turnaround time' for AJET's review process, Table 6's 'pending' column reflects the circumstance that we are 'not quite' or 'only just' approaching that target. Increased use of 'editorial rejections' is only a partial answer to the problem.
Table 6: Article review outcomes AJET 2003-2005
Year of
receipt | No.
rec'd | No. rejected
editorially (b) | No. reject
ext review (b) | No. with-
drawn (c) | No.
pending | No.
accept (d) | No. publ-
ished | % accep-
ted (e) |
| 2003 |
61 | 34 |
14 | 0 |
0 | 13 |
24 | 21.3% |
| 2004 |
97 | 51 |
13 | 2 |
0 | 31 |
21 | 32.0% |
| 2005(a) |
85 |
32 |
4 |
2 |
34 |
13 |
30 |
- |
- Data in columns 2-8 is at 3 Dec 2005. We expect to resolve the 34 year 2005 receivals that are pending at 3 Dec by mid-March 2006 (our goal is a three month maximum for the review process). The acceptance rate for a year cannot be finalised until after resolving all receivals in the pending category for that year.
- Some of the rejected articles may appear again as receivals in a subsequent year. The reasons for counting these instances as rejections are to enable a clearer cut off for each year's outcomes, and to align data collection with the editorial advice, used in a significant proportion of cases, 'Reject. Invite resubmission of a revised or expanded work for a new review process'.
- Withdrawn means withdrawn at the request of the authors.
- The number of articles accepted from a particular year's receivals does not correspond to the number published in each year, owing to time taken for review and revisions, and fluctuations in the speed of these processes. For example, AJET published 24 articles in 2003, the majority being 2002 receivals.
- % accepted is calculated from column 2 (No. rec'd) and column 7 (No. accepted).
During 2006 one of our most important tasks concerning the continuing growth of AJET will be an expansion of the editorial team. We will need an expanded team to consolidate the increase to four issues per year that has been initiated with this issue, 21(4). In particular, 'editorial rejections' is an area that warrants more resources. Whilst a small editorial team can decide relatively quickly on 'editorial reject' or 'send to reviewers', each case requires one of us to devote 1-3 hours to the preparation of formative advice to the authors. Again, we record our grateful appreciation of the work done by AJET's reviewers, who spend similar amounts of time per review [26].
Roger Atkinson and Catherine McLoughlin
AJET Production Editor and AJET Editor
Endnotes
- AJET Editorial 20(1). http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet20/editorial20-1.html
- For some details on the planning behind the new journals, see Godat, M. & Carter, H. (2005). University-based e-journal publishing: Getting up and running. Workshop summary. ASCILITE 2005 Conference, Brisbane, 4-7 Dec. [viewed 4 Oct 2005]
http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/brisbane05/workshop_godat_carter.doc
- HERD. Higher Education Research and Development.
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/07294360.asp
- e-JIST. e-Journal of Instructional Science and Technology. http://www.usq.edu.au/electpub/e-jist/
- JLD. Journal of Learning Design.
http://www.jld.qut.edu.au/
- JUTLP. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice. http://jutlp.uow.edu.au/
- AJET. http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/
- BJET. British Journal of Educational Technology.
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0007-1013&site=1
- ETRD. Educational Technology Research & Development. http://www.aect.org/ For an explanation of 'first issue 1953', see AECT (2001). AVCR.
http://www.aect.org/About/History/avcr1.htm [viewed 6 Oct 2005]
- JALN. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks. http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/jaln/index.asp
- JETS. Journal of Educational Technology & Society. http://www.ifets.info/
-
http://www.eric.ed.gov:80/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=JournalPage&logoutLink=true
-
http://www.tandf.co.uk/era/covered.asp
-
http://www.isinet.com/cgi-bin/jrnlst/jloptions.cgi?PC=B
-
http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/Journals/
- ERIC Overview. [viewed 7 Oct 2005]
http://www.eric.ed.gov:80/ERICWebPortal/resources/html/about/about_eric.html
- Directory of open access journals. Education [viewed 8 Oct 2005] http://www.doaj.org/ljbs?cpid=127
- McVeigh, M. E. (2004). Open access journals in the ISI citation databases: Analysis of impact factors and citation patterns. Thomson Scientific.
http://www.isinet.com/isihome/media/presentrep/essayspdf/openaccesscitations2.pdf
- Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education. http://www.citejournal.org/
- EDUCAUSE Quarterly.
http://www.educause.edu/apps/eq/
- EDUCAUSE Review.
http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/
- First Monday. http://firstmonday.org/
- Innovate. http://www.innovateonline.info/ (readers may be familiar with this journal's predecessor, The Technology Source, http://www.technologysource.org/ or
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://ts.mivu.org)
- Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/
- Atkinson, R. & McLoughlin, C. (2005). Editorial 21(2). AJET's review process: An outcomes summary. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 21(2), iii-vi. http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet21/editorial21-2.html
- AJET (2005). Panel of Reviewers 2004-05. http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/about/rev-panel-current.html
The Australasian Journal of Educational Technology is a refereed research journal published three times per year jointly by the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education and the Australian Society for Educational Technology. Prior to Volume 20, 2004, AJET's title was Australian Journal of Educational Technology. Members of ASET, ASCILITE and ISPI (Vic) receive AJET as a part of their membership benefits.
For details on submission of manuscripts, subscriptions and access to the AJET online archives, please see http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/
For review inquiries, contact the Editor, Associate Professor Catherine McLoughlin, School of Education (ACT), Australian Catholic University, PO Box 256, Dickson ACT 2602, Australia. Email: C.McLoughlin@signadou.acu.edu.au, Tel: +61 2 6209 1100 Fax +61 2 6209 1185. For production matters and subscriptions contact the Production Editor and Business Manager, Dr Roger Atkinson, 5/202 Coode Street, Como WA 6152, Australia. Email: rjatkinson@bigpond.com, Tel: +61 8 9367 1133.
AJET is managed by an Editorial Board nominated by ASCILITE and ASET. The 2005 Editorial Board comprises:
Catherine McLoughlin (Editor), Australian Catholic University
Roger Atkinson (Production Editor)
Trish Andrews, University of Queensland
Carolyn Dowling, Australian Catholic University
Mike Keppell, Hong Kong Institute of Education
Lori Lockyer, University of Wollongong
Mary Jane Mahony, University of Sydney
One appointment pending for ASET
Copyright in individual articles contained in Australasian Journal of Educational Technology and its predecessor title is vested in each of the authors in respect of his or her contributions. Copyright in AJET is vested in ASET (1985-86), AJET Publications (1987-1996), and ASCILITE and ASET (from 1997).
© 2005 All rights reserved. No part of this journal may be reprinted or reproduced without permission from the publishers. ISSN 1449-3098 (print) 1449-5554 (online).
HTML Editor: Roger Atkinson [
rjatkinson@bigpond.com]
This URL: http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet21/editorial21-4.html
Created 12 Dec 2005. Last correction: 12 Dec 2005.
