Thursday 19 November 2015

Five wonderful Open Access journals to read and write for

Getting published has multiple benefits: you reflect while writing, you get feedback from peers on the paper/research that you are writing, and your novel opinion/idea/research/insight can be picked up by hundreds if not thousands of your peers. At the same time reading up on wonderfully rich and open access journals or magazines makes my day. Especially when I have a day of data crunching behind me and I am looking for some food for thought that might ignite my online learning mind. 

These are 5 of my favorite resources that I love to read and are always happy to submit an article for (no logical order, simply listing them as they come to mind):

IRRODL or the International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning: a Canadian based journal, but with a clear willingness and action to include global research. It is peer reviewed and each one of its published issues is packed with interesting articles (I do review articles for them, always a pleasure). 

JOLT or the Journal of Online Learning and Teaching: it is a peer-reviewed, open-access, online publication that aims to promote scholarship in the use of the Internet and web-based multimedia resources in higher education. The first issue appeared online in July 2005 and included a number of invited papers from various disciplines. The journal is now published quarterly in March, June, September, and December.

Learning Solutions Magazine: a wonderful  publication of The eLearning Guild since 2002, it is the eLearning industry’s oldest and trusted source for practical information on the strategies, tools, technologies, services, and best practices for the management, design, development, and implementation of enterprise-wide eLearning programs. Learning Solutions Magazine offers feature articles, case studies, reviews, interviews, spotlights, columns, snippets, tips, and news that you can use with confidence while making critical decisions to ensure your organization’s success with eLearning. 

eLearning Papers (EU): eLearning Papers looks at the exchange of information on open education, OER and ICT in education in Europe and stimulates research. As such, the articles provide views regarding the current situation and trends in different communities: schools, universities, companies, civil society and institutions. Through these articles, the journal promotes the use of Open Educational Resources and new technologies for lifelong learning in Europe. eLearning Papers issues include an editorial article, plus articles, interviews and/or reviews, and are usually published four or five times a year.

Open Praxis: is a peer-reviewed open access scholarly journal focusing on research and innovation in open, distance and flexible education. It is published by the International Council for Open and Distance Education - ICDE Open Praxis welcomes contributions which demonstrate creative and innovative research, and which highlight challenges, lessons and achievements in the practice of distance and e-learning from all over the world. An article may present research or surveys of recent work, describe original work, or discuss new technology and its possibilities, implications and/or other related issues. And the most fabulous guideline is that you need to put in at least 25% international references! Really working towards a global research community.