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

Presentation to the ALA Board Melbourne 14 November 2014

AJAL

Australian Journal of Adult Learning

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

• f 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 43 – accepted & published (or pre-press)  38 – rejected or withdrawn 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

• ther 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] A*

5% -All articles ‘top quality’ – World’s Best

A

(AJAL) 15% - majority of articles ‘top quality’

B

30% - only a few expected to be top quality

C

In Social Sciences & 50% - d not meet the criteria of top tiers 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