Brigette McConkey
IRRODL, Managing Editor
My first three months as the managing editor of IRRODL have been action-packed. In addition to preparing this general issue, the IRRODL team has steered papers for our upcoming Middle East issue, Bridge over Troubled Waters, through the peer review process, and we are progressing towards the peer review stage of another special issue, Trends and Issues in Open and Distance Learning in Africa. Also, after deliberating on a record number of proposals for our Openness and the Future of Higher Education issue, we are now awaiting completed papers. I look forward to publishing these special issues, under the direction of our guest editors, over the course of this year.
On the technical front, I have been working with the IRRODL team to customize Open Journal Systems (OJS) in order to realize the full value of this open source software. We are so impressed with the automated work flow that OJS facilitates and its ease of use and responsiveness to complex conditions that we now ask authors and reviewers to upload their proposals/papers/reviews to IRRODL’s OJS-powered Web site. The advantage for authors of registering with our site and submitting via OJS is the ability to log in and check the status of active submissions and to have a record of past submissions. For reviewers, OJS offers one-click access to the blinded paper as well as a guided step-by-step procedure to upload a peer review and to offer the editor(s) a specific recommendation. We encourage readers of IRRODL to register as reviewers and to provide a list of your reviewing interests and a brief biographical statement in your profile.
As well, IRRODL is seeking a book review editor. If you are interested in writing reviews of recent books published in the field of open and distance learning, please contact Terry Anderson at terrya@athabascau.ca. To learn more about this opportunity, click here.
Recently, we examined the activity on IRRODL’s Web site and compiled a list of the top 25 articles downloaded in 2008, which are presented below:
I am excited to be a part of IRRODL’s tradition of publishing articles that are referred to year after year as well as articles that are on the cutting-edge of open and distance learning, and I hope to be able to contribute to the innovation and openness that have led to its success. Please contact me if you have any questions or comments about IRRODL (brigettem@athabascau.ca).