Submit by April 30: Special Issues on ’Artificial Intelligence’ and ‘Networked Learning’

One of the most rewarding aspects of my academic writing journey has been organizing and contributing to  special issues. As the many different outlets for edtech research can feel overwhelming to readers and writers alike, the advantage of special issues lies in the curated collection around a theme. Special issues generally attract more attention than regular issues, decrease the time to publication and have greater influence (Olg & Griffith, 2004). Their topical focus allows the guest editors to invite authors from their professional network to submit quality contributions that fit the theme, and recruit reviewers who have passion and expertise for the topic. All in all, editing a special issue is an excellent opportunity to create community around your research interest and extend your network. Why should you contribute to a special issue as an author? An analysis by Conlon et al. (2006) for the field of management suggests that special issues enhance citation rates. However, the authors caution that results differed depending on the journal.

Last year, I had the opportunity to edit a special issue on design thinking in education for the open access journal DeGruyter Open Education Studies. We are currently conducting a series of interviews with the contributors for AACE Review:

• Making Pedagogic Sense of Design Thinking: Author Interview
• When Students Design University: An Interview with Alessandra Molinari & Andrea Alessandro Gasparini  

Current Calls for Contributions:

This year, Open Education Studies is again publishing several special issues. I want to highlight the following two, as they fit well with topics that we have tackled on AACE Review recently:

• Online Networked Learning Ecologies: Online networks have provided many opportunities in many areas, including teaching and learning. The topical issue seeks contributions that explain the current state of the art in online networked learning ecologies.
• AI Enhanced Human Learning: This special issue seeks research contributions as well as review articles that conceptually, theoretically and technically focus on the applications of Artificial Intelligence in the modern educational and pedagogical systems.

Deadline for article submission: April 30, 2020 (via journal submission system http://www.editorialmanager.com/openedu).

References

Conlon, D. E., Morgeson, F. P., McNamara, G., Wiseman, R. M., & Skilton, P. F. (2006). From the editors: Examining the impact and role of special issue and regular journal articles in the field of management. Academy of Management Journal, 49(5), 857-872.

Olk, P., & Griffith, T. L. (2004). Creating and disseminating knowledge among organizational scholars: The role of special issues. Organization Science, 15(1), 120-129.