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Session Submission Summary

The Journal of Global Higher Education: Insight from the First Issue of an Independent, Open-Access, and Community-run Scholarly Journal

Sun, March 29, 9:45 to 11:00am, Hilton, Floor: Sixth Floor - Tower 3, Nob Hill 6&7

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

The purpose of this panel is to highlight scholarly work published in the first issue of the Journal of Global Higher Education. The Journal of Global Higher Education is an open-access, independent, community-run, peer-reviewed scholarly journal focused on global higher education and the opportunities, issues, and challenges that international and global engagement presents. The journal represents a scholarly collective that aims to purposely disrupt traditional, hierarchical models of journal publication and management, and is open to experimentation. Through this panel, we hope to showcase how we can bridge a divided world by creating intentional and ethical processes to open up the publishing space for more equitable ways of connecting around the world.

Conversations about founding the Journal of Global Higher Education started in late 2023 and emerged from a desire among the four founding editors, including Dr. Melissa Whatley, this proposed panel’s organizer, and Dr. Charles Mathies, this proposed panel’s chair, to establish and expand the kind of scholarly community where we wanted to belong. Academia can be a cold, harsh, and overly competitive space, and we wanted to see what would happen if we created a supportive community that takes a developmental approach to scholarship and to scholars themselves, to foster scholarship that pushes boundaries against the rigid, normative frameworks that are so often prevalent in the academy.

The journal’s values and vision include the following key points:

-Representation of voices from the larger global community researching higher education;
-Open access space for scholarship to be developed, published, and supported;
-Criticality, rigor, and a diverse use of theories, method, and perspectives to further expand our collective understanding of what higher education across the globe is;
-Partnership with like-minded groups and individuals to contribute to the understanding of higher education, a partnership that promotes the values and respects the work done by people across the globe in an effort to learn from one another.

The journal adopts a broad definition of higher education to include all forms of tertiary and postsecondary education and/or vocational/technical education. We use 'global' to refer broadly to an awareness of the wider world, including the processes of global engagement, globalization, internationalization, and international mobilities, among institutions and systems of higher education. While there are many national contexts from which research can derive, too often what is seen and “counted” in established journals and policies resides in studies from Western and Global Minority sites of research and perspectives.

Open access is key to advancing our vision of the journal. This publishing model means that research is freely available to publish and access. Too often, scholarship is hidden behind paywalls that limit its accessibility, though the research is often supported through public finances. Open access promotes the development of higher education research from around the world and supports the diffusion of ideas across borders. As the journal’s founding editors, we are committed to publishing the journal without article processing charges to authors and without costs to readers to access, read, and use the work that we publish. This open access model promotes equitable and fair access to publishing outlets for scholars and the diffusion of new knowledge, regardless of where one is located, one’s career stage, or the resources backing one’s research.

Our understanding of ‘critical’ work means that we encourage work of a critical disposition, not necessarily aligned specifically with critical theory. Work that we publish interrogates, rather than accepts, the assumptions of previous literature, challenges policy and practice, and explores new perspectives that add value to scholarship. By criticality, we do not mean ‘being negative’ or focusing solely on problems or flaws. Rather, the journal aims to interrogate why certain assumptions, norms, and trends exist in global higher education and who benefits from them.

We, the founding editors, see this journal as an extension of a larger, active, and vibrant scholarly community. The journal is community-owned and developed and seeks to disrupt the gatekeeping that can result from normative framing and practices that limit participation in scholarly communities and, in turn, our understanding of higher education globally. The journal is not tied to any publishing firm and our intention is that it never will be. There is a planned rotation of editorship that ensures that the journal will live beyond the founding editors. We have also established a mentorship and developmental avenue for publication focused on early career scholars so that new voices are consistently joining the field.

Three publications from the journal’s first issue are represented in this formal panel proposal and illustrate three of the four types of submissions that the journal accepts, listed here in alphabetical order, not in order of preference, prestige, or importance. The first paper on the panel is a Critical Reflection. Critical Reflection submissions focus on critical conceptual or methodological issues that evaluate or challenge existing research and/or practice. The next paper is a Letter to the Editor, which engages in the application of scholarly work to global higher education more broadly and adopts a conversational tone. Third is a Practice Article. Practice Articles are grounded in practice in global higher education and highlight innovative, ethical, and/or critical approaches to working practices in global higher education. The journal also accepts Research Articles, and Drs. Whatley and Mathies will be able to share more information about this submission type with audience members.

This panel will begin with a general overview of the journal followed by short presentations from each author about their publication in the first issue. These presentations will help audience members understand the kinds of submissions that the journal seeks and the expected level of quality and rigor. During the final portion of the panel, audience members will have the opportunity to ask questions of the co-editors and authors about the journal and the submission process, in addition to questions about the scholarly work itself.

Sub Unit

Organizer

Chair

Individual Presentations