Report of the 2008-09 Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education Editor
Chetan Sankar
November 20, 2008
SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS:
[Please use a Capital letter (A, B, C, etc.) to indicate each of the recommendations regarding a charge.]
Charge 1: Work with the Strategic Planning for International Affairs Committee to increase the internationalization of the DSJIE.
- A. Recruit individuals from other countries to participate in the editorial review board.
- B. Coordinate with the International Affairs Committee
Charge 2: Work with the Publications Committee to enhance the DSJIE.
- A. Publish 516 pages for each year starting 2009. This will ensure that most articles that are accepted by DSJIE will be published within a year of their acceptance
- B. Increase the number of issues to four per year starting 2010 (172 pages per issue).
- C. Recruit more Associate Editors
- D. Get DSJIE listed in the Web of Sciences.
Charge 3: Develop interdisciplinary platforms for special interest groups.
- A. Publish special issues: a special issue on “Qualitative and case-based research in innovative education,” has been already released.
Other recommendations to the Board or Home Office:
SUMMARY OF SUPPORT FOR RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS:
Charge 1: Work with the Strategic Planning for International Affairs Committee to increase the internationalization of the DSJIE.
Four faculty members from Australia, Germany, Korea, China, and Taiwan have been recruited to the editorial review board. They have agreed to help in the internationalization efforts. Based on their performance on the editorial review board, I am planning to appoint a few of these editorial review board members as Associate Editors during the 2010 DSI conference.
Charge 2: Work with the Publications Committee to enhance the DSJIE.
- A. I have been working with the Thomson-Reuter Editor, Social Sciences, to get DSJIE listed in the ISI Web of Knowledge. The issues for 2008 have been submitted to them and she has informed me that they will conclude the evaluation of the journal by middle of 2009 once they have reviewed the issues of the journal for 2009.
- B. I have already obtained a page allocation of 516 pages for each year from Blackwell Publishers. This will ensure that most articles that are accepted by DSJIE will be published within a year of their acceptance
When I took over the editorship of the journal during Jan. 2008, there was a one-year backlog of research articles and two-year backlog of teaching briefs waiting to be published. Since the teaching briefs deal with educational innovations, two-year waiting time is not reasonable. Therefore, I worked to eliminate this backlog to the extent possible by publishing two bumper volumes (Volume 6, Issue 2 and proposed Volume 7, Issue 1). During 2008, a total of 550 pages were used by DSJIE. I have already planned to publish 8 research articles and 16 teaching briefs in the Vol. 7(1) January 2009 issue. There are nine accepted articles waiting to be published in the July 2009 issue.
B. Increase the number of issues to four per year starting 2010 (176 pages per issue):
this will help obtain favorable ratings to be included in the Web of Knowledge since most journals publish on a four issue per year basis. With a relatively modest increase in the number of pages (176 pages per issue), DSJIE can be published four times a year starting 2010. Given the increased number of articles that are being submitted to DSJIE (we had 94 new submissions so far in 2008), I expect that we will be able to publish four issues per year.
The table below shows the growth in the number of articles that are submitted to the journal. Please note that the statistics for 2007-2008 include Dec. 1, 2007 to Nov.15, 2008. I have received 94 new articles since Jan. 2008 for possible publication.
| Disposition |
2007-08 |
2006-07 |
2005-06 |
2004-05 |
2003-04 |
| Accepted
|
30 (27.0%) |
27 (23.8%) |
11 (15%) |
13 (18%) |
22 (27%) |
| Rejected
|
38 (34.2%) |
40 (35.3%) |
19 (25%) |
27 (38%) |
20 (24%) |
| Under Review |
12 (10.8%) |
9 (7.9%) |
38 (52%) |
27 (38%) |
33(40%) |
| With author for revision |
31 (27.9%) |
37 (32.7%) |
6 (8%) |
5 (7%) |
7 (9%) |
| TOTAL |
111 |
113 |
74 |
72 |
82 |
Table 1: Disposition of Articles
The mix of manuscripts submitted is equally weighted towards teaching briefs (47.7%), and empirical research manuscripts (46.8%). There are a much smaller number of manuscripts that are classified as research cases or conceptual/theoretical manuscripts (5.5%).
Implementation of the ScholarOne online manuscript management system has been very successful. The average manuscript review time is 32 days, compared to 29 days in 2007, 66.1 days in 2006, 79.3 days in 2005, 87 days in 2004 and 2003, and 101 days in 2002. The average time from submission to final decision, which includes the authors’ revision time, is 78 days.
C. Use of Associate Editor Team:
The associate editor team (Drs. Barbara Price, Grandon Gill, Ceyhun Ozgur, and Christine Kydd) has been dynamic in coming up with many new initiatives. There will be two special sessions during the DSI conference chaired by Dr. Ozgur. The first is a session to recognize the three best papers published in Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education during 2008. The second session is a hands-on session to demonstrate the innovations highlighted in some of the teaching briefs published in Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education during 2008. Dr. Kydd is organizing a tutorial on Importance of Teaching from the Dean's Perspective. Dr. Price is leading the Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education Workshop for Interested Authors and http://dsi.byu.edu/dsis/view.pl?ses=PD5 Dialogue with the Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education Editorial Board sessions. Dr. Gill has issued a call for a special topic forum on “Qualitative and case-based research in innovative education.” Dr. Patrick McMullen served as an associate editor for the first six months of 2008 and withdrew due to his other commitments. The associate editors have been tremendously helpful in finding the appropriate reviewers, getting articles reviewed, and then providing a recommendation. I held an appreciation dinner for the Associate Editors during the DSI Conference at Baltimore.
I have already recruited five more Associate Editors during the DSI 2008 conference. They are: J. Wayne Patterson, Clemson University; John Jensen, University of Southern Maine; David Chou, Eastern Michigan University, Vernon E. Francis, University of Dallas, and Susan Williams, University of Northern Arizona. The addition of Associate Editors will help to efficiently process the increased number of manuscripts that are being submitted to DSJIE.
Charge 3: Develop interdisciplinary platforms for special interest groups.
- A. Publish Special issues: DSJIE is interdisciplinary in nature given that its focus is on educational and pedagogical research. Special issues are being planned in order to encourage special interest groups to publish articles in the journal.