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Publication Guidelines

EDUCAUSE Quarterly (EQ) is a practitioner's journal of EDUCAUSE, published four times a year (in early February, May, August, and November). Potential feature articles are reviewed by an editorial review committee, and those published in EQ are referenced in such indexing services as ERIC, Computer Literature Index, and Higher Education Abstracts. The review process usually takes from six to eight weeks; author revision and the editorial production cycle may take up to six 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 and faculty (including those who are not EDUCAUSE members) may submit unsolicited manuscripts for publication consideration in EQ. Corporate representatives who feel they have material that meets the content guidelines below are encouraged to solicit authorship by campus representatives to retain the magazine’s "peer-to-peer" approach and avoid promotional or commercial overtones. All material published in EDUCAUSE publications must be free from endorsement of specific hardware environments and/or proprietary software or services; corporate press releases about new products or product adoptions do not meet editorial standards. The magazine’s overarching goals are to provide a vehicle for practical content on broadly innovative, non-vendor–specific IT solutions and compelling technology-related issues in higher education and to foster dialogue between campus IT practitioners and managers.

Who Reads EQ?

EDUCAUSE is an international, nonprofit, professional association for managers and users of information resources on college and university campuses. The content of EQ relates to planning, managing, and using information resources (including technology, services, and information) in higher education, ranging from administrative, academic, library, and social computing to multimedia, telecommunications, and networking.

EQ readers are involved in diverse areas professionally on campus, including administrative computer services, information systems development, user services, telecommunications and networking, academic computer services, institutional research and planning, database administration, and instructional technology development and coordination. Most readers are central IT organization staff, but increasingly the readership includes individuals who work in campus and departmental libraries, research and planning offices, and administrative and academic offices.

Publication Content

The journal’s areas of interest are exemplified by the annual EDUCAUSE Current Issues Survey, which identifies the top-ten IT issues for the year. Please see the survey for guidance on 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 in both print and online. Authors are also asked to assign a Creative Commons (http://creativecommons.org/) 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

Articles in EQ fall into several categories. A Feature is an in-depth article ranging from 3,500 to 6,000 words. Research reported should include assessment, whether quantitative or qualitative, and recommendations. Other types of articles (800 to 3,000 words) include Current Issues, Viewpoints, Good Ideas, Recommended Reading, Research in Brief, and Professional Development.

A Current Issues article offers a brief overview of a timely issue facing the profession. Such an article puts the designated issue into perspective, offers insights, and usually proposes solutions or actions to take. (2,000 to 3,500 words)
A Viewpoint article expresses an author's opinion on a subject related to the field. (800 to 1,800 words)
A Good Ideas article briefly describes an application or management technique that has been successful on a campus and could be implemented by peers on other campuses. Alternatively, an author might present a project that failed and offer lessons learned to help others avoid similar problems. The approach varies from case studies to practical strategic advice. (2,000 to 3,000 words)
EQ also publishes book reviews in the Recommended Reading department. Although we solicit reviews from members with a known expertise on the book topic, anyone may volunteer to write a review of a book that he or she would recommend for professional reading. (800 to 1,500 words)
The Research in Brief department summarizes research that has not yet been applied but is relevant to readers. (800 to 2,000 words)
The Professional Development columns are invited by department editor Cynthia Golden, vice president of EDUCAUSE. Send proposals or submissions to Nancy Hays at eqeditor@educause.edu. (2,000 to 3,000 words)

Specifications for Submitting Articles for Publication Consideration

Papers should be submitted to Nancy Hays (eqeditor@educause.edu) electronically, as a word-processed file (preferably Microsoft Word). Figures and graphics can be submitted in the Word file for review purposes; for publication, they will be needed as separate files in their native formats. EDUCAUSE can accept documents in most word-processing formats. Page layout and presentation software (e.g., InDesign, Quark, and PowerPoint) are not acceptable, nor is PDF. If it is not possible to send your manuscript as an e-mail attachment, EDUCAUSE can accept CDs. Manuscripts should be accompanied by a letter (or e-mail message if being sent electronically) stating that the paper is to be considered for publication as a feature or specific department article in EQ. The message should include name, title, complete address, and phone number, as well as a fax number and e-mail address, for each author.

The Editorial Review Process

Articles under consideration for publication as feature articles in EQ are sent for blind review to all members of the editorial review committee (the members of the committee are listed on the inside front cover of each issue of the journal).

Reviewers evaluate the articles in five categories:

Overall quality of the article
Appropriateness of the topic
Author's knowledge and coverage of the topic
Coverage of “people” issues
Readability of the article

Reviewers also provide comments about the article and often make specific suggestions on how it could be improved that are shared with authors. (Even very well written articles are usually revised before publication.)

The following table summarizes what the editor and reviewers look for in articles submitted for publication in EQ. It suggests what your article should address and avoid, as well as how to present a feature-length case study or research study 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 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 the literature where other major elements are addressed?	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?	Writing on a subject that has been covered extensively in EQ, especially if your article adds nothing new from a practical standpoint but simply restates conventional wisdom.
Presenting a Case Study If your article 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.

For any kind of feature article, a list of suggested articles, books, and other publications on the same subject can be valuable, even if you have not used these references in the article text. They can be included in a “Further Reading” or “Other Resources” list. 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, at the EDUCAUSE office by phone at 303-939-0321 or e-mail eqeditor@educause.edu.

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EDUCAUSE and EQ are registered trademarks. Copyright © 2007 by EDUCAUSE. Materials may be photocopied for noncommercial use without written permission provided appropriate credit is given to both EQ and the author(s). Permission to republish must be sought in writing (contact eqeditor@educause.edu). Statements of fact or opinion are made on the responsibility of the authors alone and do not imply an opinion on the part of the EDUCAUSE Board of Directors, staff, or members. For more information about copyright, see www.educause.edu/copyright.