AJAL Australian Journal of Adult Learning Presentation to the ALA - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

AJAL Australian Journal of Adult Learning Presentation to the ALA Board Melbourne 14 November 2014

Outline  Current state of the Journal & its contributors  Classifying content  AJAL’s Status  Changes in academic publishing ->Future

Some context  54 years. Reflecting the ‘field’ - AJAE; AJACE  2000 – AJAL became a ‘refereed’ journal (including both refereed & non-refereed)  Akin to the publications of NIACE ( Studies in the Education of Adults ) and the US ALA ( Adult Education Quarterly )  Now essentially a refereed journal  Different in purpose to other publications eg Quest.

General information 2012-15  The data here refers to the eight issues from 2013; 2014; and 2015 (first 2 issues which are not finalised yet) Note the November 2014 issue is due out this month and was a Special Issue on Lifelong Learning in the Asian Century

AJAL Contributions since 2013  8 Issues published (or in advanced state of preparation – 2013-2015) Articles Women Men Aust Oversea s 43 Refereed 61 26 71 16 7 Non-refereed 5 7 5 7 7 Invited reviews 3 4 7 - 4 Book Reviews 1 3 4 -

Acceptances & Rejections  Since 2013 the Journal has received 103 submissions for refereeing and 7 non-refereed submissions. Of those 103  43 – accepted & published (or pre-press)  38 – rejected or withdrawn 7 – returned and waiting for re-submission   15 – under review or recent submissions  This makes for a rejection rate of approximately 40%

Content & Topic Areas Reflects changing post-school education environment  Higher Education – bridging/enabling/pathway programs; pedagogies; diverse student groups; Indigenous studies; online technology & e-learning; assessment; teacher PLCs theory eg transformative learning & practices  Work based learning – VET in Community & Health services & professions; balancing study & work; research & HE pedagogy  Rural – mature age women; civic engagement; leadership programs; higher education; lifestyle (tree)changes  Literacy – workplace literacy; adults with development disabilities -> self advocacy  History (2) – Syd Uni tutorial classes; Uni Newcastle pathway programs  Community programs – personal development; against extremism  Environment – green skills low carbon economy  Asian century collection

Referees & AJAL  Extending the pool. Deliberate effort to increase number of international reviewers & leaders in their field to strengthen quality and increase AJAL ‘exposure’  Reviewers from 12 countries used – Canada, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Montenegro, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, UK and USA Year No Women Men Aust O/seas Uni Non- Uni 2013 34 21 13 28 6 33 1 2014 55 33 22 36 19 50 5

Journal Status Where does AJAL sit?  Ranking systems, and Databases  ERA (Excellence in Research for Australia) 2010-2012  Other measures include:  Impact Factor (a measure of the mean number of citations in all other Journals over a given period). See Thompson’s Web of Science  Scopus Journal Rankings (SJR). Includes ‘impact factor’ plus other metrics.  Rejection rates (more rejections = higher quality ??)  AJAL ranks highly on ERA, but less so on WoS and SJR

ERA Journal Rankings (2010) – [Excellence in Research for Australia] 5% - All articles ‘top quality’ A* – World’s Best A 15% - majority of articles ‘top quality’ (AJAL) B 30% - only a few expected to be top quality C 50% - d not meet the criteria of top tiers In Social Sciences & Humanities (SSH) >13,000 journals

Some challenges  Dilemma of broad approach reflecting ‘adult’ learning & lifewide – lifelong while retaining a focused journal space for communication, practice and exchange  Too ‘catholic’ ? Not focused enough?  Some misunderstanding of the Journal judging by ill-considered submissions  Practical challenges – operating an old-style system in a changing era eg very hands on, not computerised & not managed by large publishing houses (eg IJTR (AVETRA) -> Taylor and Francis from 1 January 2015.  Others offering quick online publication for a fee