Scholars’ Perceptions of Open Access Journals in Educational TechnologyPreliminary Analysis

Ross A. Perkins, Ph.D.Patrick R. Lowenthal, Ph.D.

Dept. of Educational TechnologyBoise State University

Outline of Presentation

Recent Literature

Goals of Study Method Selected

Results

OAJs in Recent Literature

Ritzhaupt, Sessums, & Johnson (2012)• Examined 59 peer-reviewed journals in EdTech, 22 were OAJs• 4 OAJs made the “Top 20”• n = 79; recruited from listservs• Results suggest OAJs are not as highly valued as the closed journals

Zawacki-Richter & Anderson (2012)• Examined 12 distance education publications (6 open & 6 closed)• Surveyed editorial boards of both and examined number of

citations • Found the editors did not perceive the OAJs as either more or less

prestigious than closed journals

OAJs in Recent Literature

Veletsianos & Kimmons (2012)• Identified the assumptions of the open scholarship movement• Highlighted challenges to the movement’s aspirations of broadening

access

Anderson (2013)• Considers the concept of using OAJs as open educational resources

Bohannon (2013)• “Sting” operation targeting poor peer review practices of open

access science journals

Goals of the Research

What do EdTech professionals really think about open access journals?

1. Learn which characteristics of OAJs are the most important

2. Understand which OAJs scholars find to be the most influential

Survey Overview

Survey Layout

Part 11 - 20 questions (“Want to know”)

Part 212 additional questions (“Nice to know”)

Survey Deployment

Phase 1Authors of select OAJ

Phase 2Listservs & Social Media

Phase 1: Survey Administration

Ended 10/25/2013

233 Completions11.2% of sample

Step One (Find OAJ authors)• Identified OAJs related to EdTech• Found 1,500+ articles in 22 OAJs related to

EdTech between 2011-2013• Used Mechanical Turk to find email addresses

of up to three authors for each article (n ~ 2,800)

Step Two (Clean Data)• Eliminate duplicates; yielded 2, 208 unique

authors• Represents 1,236 articles in 22 open journals.

Step Three (Deploy Survey)• Emailed authors directly via Qualtrics• 2,081 valid addresses

Phase 1: Authors published in• Australasian Journal of Educational

Technology (AJET)• Canadian Journal of Learning & Technology

(CJLT)• Contemporary Issues in Technology &

Teacher Education (CITE Journal)• Design & Technology Education (DATE)• Digital Culture & Education (DCE)• Educational Technology & Society (ETS)• EDUCAUSE Quarterly / Review (EDUCAUSE)• Electronic Journal of e-Learning (EJEL)• European Journal of Open & Distance

Learning (EURODL)• First Monday• Journal of Distance Education (JDE)• Journal of e-Learning & Knowledge Society

(Je-LKS)

• Journal of Information Technology Education (JITE)

• Journal of Interactive Online Learning (JIOL)

• Journal of Learning Design (JLD)• Journal of Open, Flexible & Distance

Learning (DEANZ)• Journal of Technology Education (JTE)• Online Journal of Distance Learning

Administration (OJDLA)• Research in Learning Technology (ALT-J)• The Journal of Educators Online (JEO)• Turkish Online Journal of Distance

Education (TOJDE)• Turkish Online Journal of Educational

Technology (TOJET)

Phase 2: Survey Administration

Social Media• Facebook• Authors’ pages• AECT Division pages• AERA SIG page

• LinkedIn• AECT, ASTD, ISPI

ISTE, SLOAN-C, eLearning Guild, others

• Twitter

Listservs• AECT (3 Divisions)• AERA • Blended Learning (Educause)• DEOS (PSU)• EdTech (MSU)• Instructional Tech (Educause)• IT Forum (UNT)

As of 10/30/2013

149 Completions

Research Participants

“Educational Technology” or closely related field

Instructional Personnel(all ranks)

Years of Experience

> 3 pubs. since 2010

OAJ pubs since 2010

From Part 1 completers

Phase 2 (Listserv/SM)

n = 149

38.6% 64.5%

60.2% 60.4%

12.4 years (SD = 8.7) 11.5 years (SD = 8.9)

Phase 1 (OAJ Authors)

n = 233

83.2% 54.4%

217 61

Research Participants

RegionPhase 1

OAJ AuthorsPhase 2Lists/SM

AFRICA 5.58% 4.03%

AMERICAS (South/Central/Carr.) 6.01% 6.71%

NORTH AMERICA 51.93% 87.92%

ASIA (South/SouthEastern/Eastern) 18.45% 12.75%

ASIA (Central/Western/Middle East/Eurasia) 9.87% 7.38%

EUROPE 45.49% 20.13%

OCEANIA 18.03% 3.36%

Mean of regions selected 1.66 1.44

From Part 1 completers

Role with any OAJPhase 1

OAJ AuthorsPhase 2

Lists / SM Main Editor 30 17

Editorial Board 45 19

Frequent Reviewer 52 20

Occasional Reviewer 92 43

Regular Contributor 25 9

Author or Co-Author 200 63

None n/a 68

Research ParticipantsFrom Part 1 completers

Important traits for any journal

TRAITPhase 1

OAJ AuthorsPhase 2

Lists / SM Refereed 1.03 1.10

Journal Purpose 1.07 1.08

Abstracted 1.15 1.24

Speed of Publication 1.24 1.48

Impact Factor 1.28 1.43

Number of readers 1.31 1.50

Open access 1.44 1.63

Acceptance rate 1.56 1.59

Pay to publish 1.84 1.83

1 = Very Important / 3 = Not Important

Desirability of…

Highly Desirable Not Desirable1 4

Consistent pubs over timeAbstractedFrequently citedNo Fee Required

Prof Org / Univ. AffiliationRecognized Editorial BoardProfessional WebsiteHigh ReadershipSSCI

DOAJUlrichsCabells

High Volume of PubsPrint Edition

Low Volume of Pubs

Fee Required

1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0

Likelihood to Publish in OAJ

ROLE WITH ANY OAJPhase 1

OAJ AuthorsPhase 2

Lists / SM

Definitely will do so 33.2% 23.6%

Highly likely to do so 41.8% 23.6%

Somewhat likely to do so 19.8% 35.8%

Unlikely to do so 3.9% 12.8%

No Intention whatsoever 0.0% 4.1%

No Response 1.3% 0.0%

within next 18 months

Future Changes to OAJ

CHANGE TOPhase 1

OAJ AuthorsPhase 2

Lists / SM

Total Number of OAJs 4.06 4.16

Strength of Review Process 3.66 3.90

Acceptance by Community 3.98 4.07

Primary Outlet for Scholarship 3.74 3.68

Impact on Scholarship 3.97 4.03

1 = Great Decrease / 5 = Great Increase

Importance of impact factor to colleagues

CHOICEPhase 1

OAJ AuthorsPhase 2

Lists / SM

Very Important 43.9% 33.7%

Important 37.8% 29.5%

Unimportant 8.5% 31.6%

Very Unimportant 7.9% 5.3%

Unknown 0% 0%

Missing 1.8% 0.0%

Importance of a printed versions

CHOICEPhase 1

OAJ AuthorsPhase 2

Lists / SM

Very Important 11.0% 14.9%

Important 28.0% 24.5%

Unimportant 26.2% 40.4%

Very Unimportant 26.8% 10.6%

Unknown 6.1% 9.6%

Missing 1.8% 0.0%

Peer trust of OAJ content

CHOICEPhase 1

OAJ AuthorsPhase 2

Lists / SM

High level of trust 25.3% 22.1%

Some degree of trust 54.3% 45.3%

Not as much trust 10.5% 18.9%

Little or no trust 2.5% 5.3%

Unknown 5.6% 8.4%

Missing 1.9% 0.0%

Recommend submitting to OAJ

CHOICEPhase 1

OAJ AuthorsPhase 2

Lists / SM

Highly recommend 34.4% 17.9%

Recommend 42.5% 42.1%

Neither recommend nor fail to recommend 17.5% 33.7%

Not at all recommend 3.8% 6.3%

Missing 1.9% 0.0%

to a pre-tenured colleague

Top Journals (Phase 1 & 2) Australasian Journal of Educational Technology (AJET)*

Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology (CJLT)*

Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education (CITE Journal)*

Design and Technology Education (DATE)*

Educational Technology & Society (ETS)*

EDUCAUSE Quarterly / Review (EDUCAUSE)*

eLearning Papers (eL Papers)

Electronic Journal of e-Learning (EJEL)*

European Journal of Open and Distance Learning (EURODL)*

First Monday*

International Journal of Educational Research and Technology (IJERT)

International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning (IRRODL)

Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks (JALN)

Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (JCMC)

Journal of Distance Education (JDE)*

Journal of Interactive Online Learning (JIOL)

Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT)

Journal of Technology Education (JTE)*

Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration (OJDLA)*

Selected top 30 of the “Top 5 Most Influential Journals” (Part 1 of survey)

* = authors from these OAJs were solicited in Phase 1

Top Journals (Phase 1)

EDUCAUSE Quarterly / Review (EDUCAUSE) 89

Australasian Journal of Educational Technology (AJET) 68

Educational Technology & Society (ETS) 58

First Monday 56

International Review of Research in Open & Distance Learning (IRRODL) 51

Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education (CITE Journal) 45

European Journal of Open and Distance Learning (EURODL) 44

Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology (CJLT) 31

Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT) 28

Journal of Distance Education (JDE) 26

Top Journals (Phase 2)

EDUCAUSE Quarterly / Review (EDUCAUSE) 86

Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT) 36

Educational Technology & Society (ETS) 35

International Review of Research in Open & Distance Learning (IRRODL) 32

Australasian Journal of Educational Technology (AJET) 26

THE Journal: Transforming Education through Technology (THE Journal) 25

Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education (CITE Journal) 24

Journal of Distance Education (JDE) 22

Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks (JALN) 21

Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology (CJLT) 19

QUESTIONS & DISCUSSIONNote: Final results and paper coming soon!