Figure 1: Institutional subscription rates, 1997-2008 (GST not included)
Figure 2: Personal subscription rates, 1997-2008 (GST not included)
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Thanks for the update. I am glad to hear you are addressing issues in the review process. A six month turn around time does make it challenging to address deficiencies and resubmit or submit to another journal as the study becomes more and more outdated. [3]
| Year of receipt | No. rec'd | No. rejected editorially (b) | No. reject ext review (b) | No. with- drawn (c) | No. pending | No. accepted (d) | No. published | % accepted (e) |
| 2003 | 61 | 34 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 24 | 21.3% |
| 2004 | 97 | 51 | 13 | 2 | 0 | 31 | 21 | 32.0% |
| 2005 | 91 | 47 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 30 | 30 | 33.0% |
| 2006 | 100 | 59 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 29 | 28 | 29.0% |
| 2007 | 119 | 67 | 14 | 4 | 0 | 34 | 30 | 28.6% |
| 2008(a) | 49 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 3 | 24 | - |
| ||||||||
Subject: Outcome Elsevier Database Evaluation 2008Coincidentally, the rejection advice concerning Scopus [6] arrived at about the same time as a letter [7] (a traditional hardcopy letter) arrived from Thomson Scientific asking us to select an option for delivery of AJET, commencing with volume 23, 2007, to initiate their coverage, which we noted in Editorial 23(2) [8]. Thus we were able to provide a helpful reply to Elsevier's Dr Mason [9]:
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:14:01 +0200
From: "BD Source Collection Management" <bd-scm@elsevier.com>
To: <rjatkinson@bigpond.com>Re: Australasian Journal of Educational Technology
Dear Dr. Roger Atkinson, Production Editor,
Thank you for suggesting the above title for inclusion in one or more of
our databases. The title has been evaluated for Scopus but will be
covered by none of our databases.Although the publication has been examined with interest by our
Journals' Advisory Committee, and there can be no doubt that your
journal represents a valuable contribution in its field, our present
coverage policy prevents us from acquiring further publications this
year within this subject area. The title will be reevaluated for Scopus
in 2009.We apologise for not having been able to contact you earlier regarding
the outcome of our evaluation.Thank you again for your interest in our bibliographic databases.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Jaqui Mason,
General Manager BD Operations
bd-scm@elsevier.com
The 2009 evaluation of Australasian Journal of Educational Technology that you refer to may be assisted by knowing that Thomson Scientific have included AJET for indexing and abstracting in their products, Social Sciences Citation Index, Social Scisearch and Journal Citation Reports/Social Sciences Edition, commencing with Vol 23(1), 2007.
Figure 1: Institutional subscription rates, 1997-2008 (GST not included)
Figure 2: Personal subscription rates, 1997-2008 (GST not included)
| Data sources: Rates quoted in printed copies of the journals and the publisher's website (GST not included). Prices include Internet access from an institutional local area network in the cases of HERD and DE institutional subscriptions (from 2008, AJET is open access, online only, no paid subscriptions). | |
| HERD | Higher Education Research and Development. http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/07294360.asp |
| DE | Distance Education. http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/01587919.asp |
| AJET | Australasian Journal of Educational Technology. http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ |
| Item | IEJ to IEJ: CP changes 2007 to 2008 | AJET changes 2007 to 2008 | ||
| Printed version | No print, online only | Print first, online later (i.e. an unspecified embargo period) | Print and online (with 3 month embargo) | No print, online only |
| Open access | Yes. | Partial (not to DOAJ standard; listing lost) | Partial (not to DOAJ standard) | Yes (DOAJ listing regained) |
| Subscriptions | No. | Yes (Au$60 individuals, Au$250 institutions) | Yes (Au$35 [c]) | No. |
| Timely issues | Yes. | Uncertain? [b] | Yes. | Yes. |
| No. of issues/yr | Increasing | Decreasing? [b] | Static | Increasing |
| Review process promptness | (no information) | (no information available) | Becoming problematic [d] | Improving (time saving from print retirement) |
| Copyright owners | Authors | Authors retain limited rights, not full ownership | Authors | Authors |
| Notes: | a. | Sources: Websites for IEJ [12], IEJ:CP {13], AJET and DOAJ [14] |
| b. | Website indicates no issues published for 2008, to date [viewed 22 May 2008]. | |
| c. | For both members and institutions (Au$45 for overseas institutions). A proposal to increase rates in 2008 was withdrawn in favour of print retirement. | |
| d. | Currently AJET is recording four months maximum for the review process for 2008 submissions. Our recovery from the poorer picture which prevailed with 2007 submissions is being helped by time savings due to print retirement. |
The new direction for IEJ: CP, as summarised briefly in Table 2, contrasts sharply with the policy and strategies for IEJ, in particular as discussed in detail by John Keeves, IEJ's Chief Editor, and Katherine Dix, Managing Director of Shannon Research Press, less than one year before the "migration" to ANZCIES. In a notable editorial for IEJ 7(7), 2006, titled Back to the future [15], Keeves and Dix outlined key principles for IEJ, including their rationale for open access, online only publication:
... a concern for work in education and for research into educational issues in developing countries, particularly, but not exclusively, in the Asia-Pacific Region has led to the establishment of a firmly held policy not to charge for the publication of articles, or for the submission of articles, or for access to the journal on-line, and not to market hard-copy annual or issue based copies of the journal, even to libraries.[15, p.874]Keeves and Dix expressed critical views about academic publishing activities:
Many journals not only require an exorbitant subscription fee to access articles but also charge authors a review fee, regardless of whether the article is published or not. This challenge is further compounded by the growing competition between authors to have their work published in a finite resource, in which there are only a small number of appropriate reputable journals with only a limited number of spaces.... [15, p.877]We have not found any published discussion about the reasons for IEJ's transfer to another publisher, or for the pronounced change in its publishing policies. However, we can surmise that the major issues were related to the "measures of success" that Keeves and Dix identified in their editorial. These included "the level of IEJ's web presence, the number of visitors, frequency of article intake [number of submissions], and the number of articles published" [15, p.880]. They presented histograms showing number of submissions and number of articles published, 1999-2006, observing that:... there is enormous pressure from above for researchers to have their work published. Yet the researcher is also faced with resistance from below in trying to get their work published. Often they receive knock-back after knock-back, either from publishing houses that reject the work on poor marketability, or from journals, because there just are not enough spaces and the standards are raised so high that unless you have 'Professor' in front of your name, you don't stand a chance. [15, p.877]
... in 2007 the intake of articles may top 300 submissions and the website will have been viewed by well over 150,000 people. [15, p.881]Very likely, we may surmise, the core of the problem was identified by two cryptic phrases in the preceding quotation, containing in a ten page article the only references to editorial workload problems: put a cap on and the sheer workload.Although the editors have had to put a cap on the number of published papers, due to the sheer workload involved, 2006 is one of the busiest years yet, with the publication of over 80 papers from around the world in seven issues. [15, p.881]
Although, sadly in our view, the sharp change of direction for IEJ was less than a year in the future, John Keeves and Katherine Dix concluded their editorial with a very positive summative assessment:
The intention of this editorial is to present a model of practice that appears to be unique in the global research community. The success and effectiveness of a close-knit academic community, such as FUIIE, in partnership with an entity like SRP has shown to be, over the last eight years, a potent combination. The service and intrinsic value that such an undertaking provides not only to the immediate academic community and university, but also to the broader research community, are numerous. On these measures, this model of practice is a resounding success. [15, p.882]The original IEJ website [12] remains, with advice about the address for the new IEJ:CP website by ANZCIES [13], and some poignant reminders such as a new heading, IEJ as it was, inserted by the "IEJ Past Online Editor". IEJ's advice to authors is still online, including, for example, this unusual, pertinent advice:
We all remember the first time we published, and that it can be intimidating sometimes. Accordingly, much of the information presented at IEJ is aimed at making the scholarly publishing process accessible to a wide audience...True to our name, we believe in the value of authors from a wide range of nationalities, cultures and contexts. Although we only currently publish in the English language we encourage contributions from around the world, particularly from the Asian countries... Furthermore, we do not discriminate against authors from non-English speaking backgrounds. On the contrary, we offer an Editorial Service to improve poorly written papers. [12, 'Why write for us']
Roger Atkinson and Catherine McLoughlin
AJET Production Editor and AJET Editor
| Conferences advertised in AJET 24(2) |
 30 Nov - 3 Dec 2008 at Deakin University Burwood Campus, Melbourne http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/melbourne08/ | ||
|  |
Engaging Communities http://conference.herdsa.org.au/2008/ Rotorua, 1-4 July 2008 |
 |
ALT-C 2008: Rethinking the Digital Divide Leeds, UK, 9-11 September 2008 http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2008/ |
 |
Australian Computers in Education Conference ACEC '08, 29 Sep - 2 Oct 2008 Canberra ACT 2600 Australia http://acec2008.info/ |
 |
Moodle Moot AU 08 e-Learning Conference Brisbane, 2-3 October 2008 http://moodlemootau.org/ |
|
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36th Annual Conference Meeting of Comparative Minds: Education in all its forms Curtin University, Perth, 24-27 Nov 2008 http://www.anzcies.org/conference.php |
The Australasian Journal of Educational Technology (AJET) is a refereed research journal published four times per year by the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ascilite). AJET retired its printed version (ISSN 1449-3098) at the end of Volume 23, 2007, and from Volume 24, 2008, the journal is open access, online only (ISSN 1449-5554), and does not have paid subscriptions.
© 2008 Authors retain copyright in their individual articles, whilst copyright in AJET as a compilation is retained by the publisher. Except for authors reproducing their own articles, no part of this journal may be reprinted or reproduced without permission. For further details, and for details on submission of manuscripts and open access to all issues of AJET published since the journal's foundation in 1985, please see http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/
For editorial 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 review process, production and business matters, 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. Desktop publishing (PDF versions) and HTML by Roger Atkinson.
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