Publication Guidelines

EDUCAUSE is an international, nonprofit, professional association for managers and users of information resources on college and university campuses. EDUCAUSE Quarterly (EQ) is a practitioner's journal of EDUCAUSE, published online only. The content of EQ relates to practical applications of information resources (including technology, services, and information) in higher education, ranging from administrative, academic, library, and social computing to multimedia, telecommunications, and networking.

Potential articles are reviewed by the EQ Editor and EQ Reviewers. The evaluation process usually takes from one to two weeks; author revision and the editorial production cycle may take several months. EQ authors receive full editorial support and gain valuable exposure and recognition in a very visible professional forum. View author testimonials. Higher education IT professionals, corporate representatives, and faculty may submit unsolicited proposals, multimedia materials, and manuscripts for publication consideration in EQ. Authors do not need to be EDUCAUSE members.

Send submissions to eqeditor@educause.edu.

2010 Publishing Schedule

Issues of EQ scheduled for publication in 2010 focus on specific themes while welcoming articles of general interest. Authors are encouraged to communicate their ideas with non-text media to take advantage of online publication. Text should be concise and to the point, with articles between 500 words (if alternate media are used for the main ideas) and 5,000 words. Short opinion pieces should be from 800 to 2,000 words.

No. 1 EQ, The Future of Higher Education

How will higher education change in the coming decades? And how will technology enable new approaches to teaching and learning? Send submissions to eqeditor@educause.edu.

Key Dates

December 10: feature article submissions due

January 15: opinion pieces due

February 20: issue goes live on the web

No. 2 EQ, Cloud Computing

Share your campus’s practical experience with cloud services, from e-mail to virtualization to security and network issues. Send submissions to eqeditor@educause.edu.

Key Dates

February 15: feature article submissions due

April 15: opinion pieces due

June 5: issue goes live on the web

No. 3 EQ, Learning Environments

What new learning environments show promise in improving student achievement? Send submissions to eqeditor@educause.edu.

Key Dates

July 1: feature article submissions due

August 1: opinion pieces due

September 15: issue goes live on the web

No. 4 EQ, Theme to be determined

Nontheme articles welcome. Send submissions to eqeditor@educause.edu.

Key Dates

September 10: feature article submissions due

November 1: opinion pieces due

December 15: issue goes live on the web

Publication Content

The journal’s areas of interest are exemplified by the themes noted above plus four general topic areas:

Teaching and Learning: Using information technology to improve access to teaching and learning, learning effectiveness, student success, and learning outcomes
Managing the Enterprise: Helping EDUCAUSE members ensure that their institutions are managed efficiently and effectively and that information technology supports institutional priorities
E-Research and E-Scholarship: Developing techniques for using information technology to speed research, discovery, and innovation, as well as to enable collaborative intelligence and virtual organizations
Evolving Role of IT and Leadership: Exploring and monitoring changes in information technology and their relation to corresponding shifts in the expectations and responsibilities of IT professionals and leaders in higher education

See also the top-ten IT issues identified in the annual EDUCAUSE Current Issues Survey . Please see the survey for guidance on additional topics that would be appropriate for submission to EQ. Contact editor Nancy Hays at eqeditor@educause.edu with queries on topics or proposals for articles.

Copyright

Authors retain copyright of their work. Once material has been accepted for publication, authors are asked to sign an author agreement form verifying that they have the right to publish the material and that they grant permission to EDUCAUSE to publish their work online. Authors are also asked to assign a Creative Commons license to their work, with EDUCAUSE recommending the attribution-noncommercial-no derivative works license as a default option. In addition:

Authors retain the right to publish their material elsewhere, providing the original publication is acknowledged.
EDUCAUSE does not pay honoraria to authors.
EDUCAUSE has the right to edit the material to meet the association’s standards.

EQ Publication

Specifications for Submitting Articles for Publication Consideration

Materials should be submitted to Nancy Hays (eqeditor@educause.edu) electronically, as a word-processed file (preferably Microsoft Word); JPEG, TIFF, or other Photoshop-compatible format; MP3 files or podcasts; or web postings with URLs provided for evaluation purposes. Figures, graphics, audio files, and links can be submitted in the Word file for evaluation purposes; for publication, they will be needed as separate files in their native formats. If it is not possible to send your materials as e-mail attachments or accessible through a web link, EDUCAUSE can provide a URL for large file sharing or accept CDs. The proposal or submission message should include name, title, complete address, and phone number, as well as e-mail address, for each contributor.

To make your materials as widely accessible as possible when published online, see the Guidelines for Making Web Content Accessible to All Users, developed by the EDUCAUSE IT Accessibility Constituent Group.

The Editorial Evaluation Process

Articles under consideration for publication in EQ are sent for evaluation to members of the editorial committee.

Reviewers evaluate submissions in five categories:

Overall quality
Quality of the topic
Author's knowledge and coverage of the topic
Accessibility, including readability
Use of different media

Reviewers also provide comments and often make specific suggestions on how a submission could be improved, which are shared with authors.

The following table summarizes what the editor and reviewers look for in submissions to EQ. It suggests what authors should address and avoid, as well as how to present material for publication.

What to Address	What to Avoid
Is the information relevant? Will readers find it practical, applicable, and useful? Will it serve the needs of some segment of the readership?	Relating an experience that is unique to your campus and wouldn't work anywhere else.
Is the information readable? Is it easy to understand, clearly and cogently presented?	Using unnecessary jargon, or failing to explain the jargon you must use. Mixing chronological and how-to approaches. Using inconsistent verb tenses, passive voice, and stilted language—keep it straightforward and simple. Writing text that runs on without subdivisions or headings.
Is the subject appropriate for EQ readers? Does it take into account the expertise and interests of EDUCAUSE members? Has the topic been covered from a management and "people" perspective?	Writing about a subject that is not within the purview of EDUCAUSE. Relating only the technical aspects of the concepts or experience and failing to discuss the people and management issues.
Is the information comprehensive? Does it address the major elements of a situation or idea, or reference other sources if needed?	Taking a narrow view that doesn’t account for or acknowledge the experiences of others in the same area, or fails to draw on the published body of knowledge.
Does the information advance the reader's knowledge? Does it convey a new idea or deal with an old one from a fresh or innovative perspective?	Presenting a subject that has been covered extensively in EQ, especially if your submission adds nothing new from a practical standpoint but simply restates conventional wisdom.
Presenting a Case Study If your submission is essentially the presentation of a case study, it is important that you do more than simply tell "what we did on our campus." Case study experiences must be presented in a way that makes them generalizable to others. It is critical to reveal not only success factors but also problems encountered, to offer lessons learned so that others can benefit from your experience. It is also important to place the experience in a conceptual framework, relating it to the literature on the subject.

A list of recommended resources on the same subject can be valuable, whether as a "Further Reading" or "Other Resources" list. A list of three to four important points will help readers quickly comprehend the value in an article. These key takeaways are part of every published article and will be added before publication.

With online publication, it is critical to consider the optimal media for presenting different ideas. For example, a video interview with faculty or student users can communicate their reactions to a new implementation more effectively than text quotes. When text is the most appropriate medium, it can be organized by subheads and bullet lists or by topic-specific tables or “sidebars” (which might be actual sidebars, linked text, or pop-ups).

The EDUCAUSE Style Guide is online for your reference. EQ uses endnote style, with references and notes listed in the order they appear in the text. General endnote style for references includes all authors’ first and last names and middle initials if used in the original publication; title of work; title of book or periodical in which it appears if an article or chapter, or acknowledgment as a white paper, website, etc.; volume, number, month, and year of publication; publisher and publisher’s location for books; page numbers for books or periodicals; and URL if available (required for blogs and other web sources).

For further information about submitting articles to EQ, contact the editor, Nancy Hays, by phone at 303-939-0321 or e-mail eqeditor@educause.edu .