IEJ: CP Review Report; Statement of Aims and Programs
Dear Readers of the IEJ: CP,
I, first, acknowledge the traditional Owners of the land from which I write, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, and pay my respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. I also note that these lands were never ceded.
I hope this message continues to find you and those close well, or as well as can be, during these times. We thank you for your patience in relation to this circulation of the final report from the IEJ: CP Review (download here: https://ocies.org/iejcp/), conducted last year, while it likely - and understandably - has not been prominent on your radar. We also thank everyone who responded to the survey, again, and appreciate the constructive nature and thoughtfulness of those responses.
The new Editorial Team and Board have been busy with changes to the journal content, management and site, and you’ll see that some are in direct response to the review findings. The latter includes the initiation of internship and partnering / mentoring programs - Selection Criteria and application details available here: https://ocies.org/iej-cp-internship-program-and-iej-cp-partnering-engagement-program/ – and please share with your own networks.
We will instate an annual IEJ: CP article award, and are also pursuing membership in global networks for free, open access publications, to engage in peer sharing and improve our reach and visibility. As a reminder, the main way to improve our position in journal rankings is by citing recent articles from the journal, and encouraging others to do so. Articles and issues will be circulated more frequently via social media; we would value having a Social Media officer on the team, so if anyone is interested please contact us at the email below. That said, survey respondents made it clear that the journal is valued well beyond its position in those measures, and we will channel our efforts into those other, most important areas of value, to which I now turn.
Other changes relate to reflections on our core aims and guiding principles for the future of the IEJ: CP, as the flagship of the OCIES, a comparative and international education society based in Oceania, and at this particular juncture in time. Through these changes, we seek to add to making manifest and promoting those values that have long driven OCIES and its members: diverse participation, equity, inclusivity and a commitment to scholarship of high quality. To that end, the Editorial Team and Board have been diversified and expanded, and a distributed leadership model has been adopted, as noted in my last communication. Our monthly Editorial Team meetings continue, as does the regular Editorial work of the journal, in addition to the changes noted above and described below. I acknowledge the voluntary efforts and time of all involved.
In terms of changing content, we seek to realize the principle of inclusivity by extending our publications beyond conventional academic articles, to share and value more ‘non-traditional’ processes and works; we will aim to consistently recognize and support the range of formats and knowledges that comprise our world, but that have been, until recently (and, yet, often are still) excluded from, not valued or side-lined in most mainstream practices in our area of academia and publishing, with notable exceptions. Our strategies for diversifying and decolonizing our work echo those transformations that have been taking place in the OCIES (see Coxon and McLaughlin (2017) and McCormick & Johansson Fua (2019), links below) over the past five years.
We are fortunate to have this free, open access platform that has been maintained and nurtured by prior teams, and we build on these collective efforts. You will see two new sections on our site, for Community Voices and Creative Works. These will be peer-reviewed, according to established practices. Contributions to the former are welcome from education stakeholders, including educators, education leaders, non-government colleagues, policy professionals and others with expertise in the issues that concern and motivate us all (including scholars wishing to write in various genres). Contributions to the latter may include a range of audio-visual and/ or written formats. We hope that you will please encourage submissions, and promote awareness among your colleagues and peers.
We also seek to publish a multilingual issue and aim, where possible, to include some multilingual content as an ongoing feature in each issue of the journal. Authors may choose and negotiate whether their pieces are translated or have an accompanying summary, or if publication of a piece only in its original format is preferred. We will soon circulate a specific Call for Submissions, but also welcome ongoing submissions through the usual channel on the site. We also have Book Reviews in train, and hope to feature reviews regularly; if anyone is keen, or willing, to join the team, we would love to take on a Book Reviews Editor so, again, please contact us.
We thank you, as ever, for your ongoing interest in and support of the IEJ: CP. We are excited and hopeful about the promise of these opportunities, and about what we can collectively create, share and support through our journal in harnessing them in the coming years.
All the best,
Alex
Senior Editor
Coxon, E. & McLAughlin, J. (2017)
https://eprints.qut.edu.au/114397/1/WVN%20paper%20_Coxon_McLaughlin.pdf
McCormick, A. & Johansson Fua, S. (2019): https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/S1479-367920190000036013/full/pdf?title=perspectives-on-comparative-and-international-education-in-oceania
