A New Role

Such is the pace of life at the moment that major life events (well, major in my life anyway) pass by undocumented. In January I became Editor of the journal Chemistry Education Research and Practice, or as I like to call it “Chemistry Education Research and Practice – Free to Access“. CERP is the Royal Society of Chemistry’s education journal.

I love CERP. I’m not just saying this now – here I am writing in 2011 about it. The fact that a learned Society such as the RSC gives its support to the journal speaks volumes about the high value the Society places on education, much more than strategy documents or long monologic committee meetings might do. The RSC through its Education Division supports CERP so that it is free to access. CERP and its predecessor U. Chem. Ed. has given voice to generations of chemists who want to say: education is important – here is why. Many of those chemists are the leading lights of chemistry education past and present.

The first editorial

One of the first tasks in the new role was to consider where we take the journal. I’m very firmly in it for this sense of voice. Work with MICER and elsewhere has demonstrated a swell of interest in CER, and CERP is a natural home for such work. In our first editorial we did a few things. The first is that it is a joint editorial, written by me and the three Associate Editors; Ajda Kahveci, Scott Lewis, and our newest AE, Gwen Lawrie. As CERP grows, so do the layers and range of expertise needed to edit it. I felt a joint editorial would be a useful way to express this, and set out the interests of all editors.

Secondly, we talked through the typical considerations necessary for a journal article in CERP. Many of these are obvious to experts in the area, but if this is unfamiliar, we intended to demystify what actually makes for an education paper, especially to those coming from a scientific background. We included a generic article structure, along with the kinds of things that should be included along the way. A lot of this was drawn from our experience as editors, and we hope that this headline guidance will be useful to authors. The table from the editorial is shown below.

Typical structure for research article in CERP and guidance for what should be included in each section
Typical structure for research article in CERP and guidance for what should be included in each section

Finally, we talked about what actually happens when a manuscript is submitted. Who looks at it; how do we select reviewers; how do we evaluate their commentary? The purpose again here is to make it clearer about the journey a manuscript goes on, and where our processes might differ from other journals. A particular value of the culture at CERP is the role the editors play in offering commentary on the manuscript that draws together main reviewing comments. Authors regularly comment on the value of reviewer and editor commentary and how it can be helpful in improving their work.

CERP will always be evolving and I look forward to conversations and debates about its continuing journey. The editorial team interests covers the full range from research to practice, from university to school. We are of the field, and in the field, and want to hear from contributors and readers about how we can continue to develop and grow this fantastic journal.