4. Consensus Reviews of Journals in the Group
4.1 Education General
4.1.4 Journal of Educational Studies
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Report on Grouped Peer Review of Scholarly Journals in Education
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At least three peer reviewers are usually approached for each submitted manuscript. Selection is based on reviewers’ fields of specialisation. The journal uses a ‘blind’ peer review process.
After peer review, these papers are presented to the full board for scrutiny and accepted manuscripts are returned to authors for corrections. Peer reviewers do receive follow-up information.
Reviewer performance is assessed by the editorial board and information captured in a database.
The reviewers who are not performing are removed from the database. The database has 155 reviewers of whom 18 are from outside the country. All peer review reports are filed accessibly.
The average period between receipt of a manuscript and its publication in print is at least six months and immediate for online publication after the print version is out. The editor-in-chief has held the position for over seven years. The appointment was made according to university policy which is linked to deanship of the School of Education. The period of appointment is for five years but the appointment is renewable. The editorial board manages peer review and provides advice on editorial policies and practices. The editorial board (management committee) has been in office for at least five years and the editorial advisory board (editorial board) for at least eight years. Appointments to the committee/
board are made on the advice of the Dean, the journal’s editorial management committee, the research director and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (DVC) of the university. The period of appointment is five years. Members are appointed from both inside and outside the country. Educational expertise is considered.
The journal has editorial guidelines, but they are not yet aligned with ASSAf’s Code of Best Practice in Scholarly Journal Publishing, Editing and Peer Review. The journal has no formal policy for conflict- of-interest but addresses this through ‘blind’ peer review and reviewers who do not review papers of colleagues in the same institution. Authors are informed of errors but there is no formal policy for managing errata. The journal encourages value-adding features such as book reviews and correspondence but responses from authors are very low. Each entire issue represents peer-reviewed original material.
Content
(Quality, focus, spread within domain, sample of best work in South Africa, enrichment features)
Consensus review: The quality of the articles varies, but the overall standard is average, with some good articles. It was noted by one reviewer that the submissions for the special issue were of a higher quality and better theorised. Considering the resources available, the journal manages to publish an adequate number of articles annually. The work could not be described as a good sample of the best work done in the country in the field of Education. The articles are strongly focussed on local issues by authors from South African universities but there are very few articles published by international scholars. It was noticed by one reviewer that the journal contributes to local research and offers valuable insights to emerging researchers and practitioners. Useful additional scholarly features like editorials, topical reviews, book reviews, etc. are not included and this area could do with more attention.
Essential technical features
(English abstracts, errata, citation practice, presentation)
Consensus review: All articles include proper English-language abstracts. No errata were observed in the volumes under review. Citation is consistent and applies acceptable practice. The articles are well-presented, and the design, layout and style are good. The copy-editing appears to be done efficiently and the images are illustrative, clear and used in an ethical manner.
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Usefulness in capacity development, and international comparability
Consensus review: The journal reflects suitability as a general ongoing stimulus for local graduate students, especially for young and upcoming researchers in the field of education, as the articles are very practice-based and often offer recommendations for practice.
The quality of this journal is comparable with some other DHET listed journals, but it cannot yet be compared with international journals.
Business aspects
(Business-related criteria; Bibliometric assessments)
The School of Education of the University of Venda owns and publishes the journal. The regular print run (number of copies) was not specified. Production is done in-house, and distribution of print copies is outsourced. The journal does not usually carry advertising, but this is permissible in terms of the journal policy. There is no financial sponsorship but there are subscription fees and publication page fees. All the subscribers are institutional libraries. Page charges are R300.00 per page and authors are encouraged to limit word count to 8000 words. Management of editorial workflow is done via an online management system and loading of articles onto the web which is managed by Sabinet;
Manual systems are managed by the journal editorial secretariat of three members. The journal is online with limited access managed by Sabinet and through subscription for full access through Sabinet. The journal has not received offers to purchase from multi-national publishers.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically, photocopying or otherwise without the prior permission of the journal’s editorial board. See: https://reference.sabinet.co.za/documents/journal_documents/
editorial_information/1680-7456_628.pdf
The journal is not indexed and there is no impact factor. Altmetric indicators are available through Sabinet. The ‘front details’ for papers and English abstracts are included and are mandatory. This is the journal’s first independent peer review.
Suggested improvements
Consensus review: The journal should reconsider the automatic appointment of the Dean of the School of Education as editor-in-chief. The editor should seriously consider the recommendation of addressing the diversity of the editorial board.
The guidelines need to be brought in line with international best practice and made readily available on the journal’s website. There needs to be a conflict of interest policy, and an erratum policy.
The journal should work on attracting articles by experienced international scholars and expand the reviewer database with more international reviewers.
The journal should broaden its scope to include more articles beyond South Africa and the African continent. The journal should also consider accepting more articles pertaining to the tertiary sector, to better balance the current emphasis on educational issues pertaining to the school sector.
Special issues tend to draw articles from a wider spread of universities across the country so inclusion of one special issue per annum is recommended.
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The publication of issues seems to be delayed and publication frequency thus needs to be addressed.
The appointment of a full-time administration might assist in this regard.
It is recommended that the journal include an editorial with every issue and encourage additional features such as book reviews and correspondence.
Panel’s consensus view
i. The journal should not continue to be listed on the DHET accredited list.
ii. The journal should not be invited to join the SciELO SA platform.
iii. The editor should seriously consider the suggested recommendations for improvement.