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Publication Guidelines

EDUCAUSE Quarterly (EQ) is a practitioner's journal of EDUCAUSE, published online only beginning in 2009. Potential articles are reviewed by the EQ Editor and members of the EQ Editorial Committee. The evaluation process usually takes from one to two weeks; author revision and the editorial production cycle may take one to two 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 proposals, multimedia materials, and 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 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.

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 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 four general topic areas:

Evolving role of the CIO
Cyberinfrastructure and cyberscholarship
Managing the enterprise
Teaching and learning

along with 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 accept CDs. The proposal or submission message should include name, title, complete address, and phone number, as well as a fax number and e-mail address, for each contributor.

The Editorial Evaluation Process

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

Reviewers evaluate submissions in five categories:

Overall quality
Appropriateness of the topic
Author's knowledge and coverage of the topic
Coverage of "people" issues
Readability/usefulness of the material

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 you should address and avoid, as well as how to present your 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. An executive summary and/or list of important points will help readers quickly comprehend the value in your article and should be included.

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.

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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.