Accessing articles | Downloading difficulties | Accessing the tracker | Acceptance rate | Likelihood of publication | Submitting to another journal | Hard-copy version | Institutional affiliation

Accessing articles

Question: My colleague and I are keen to have our work published in your journal. We wish to view various articles but require a password. Can you please oblige?

Reply: The site contains no restrictions. Articles should be freely accessible. We have not had any other requests of this nature, so I suspect it may be a problem your end. Please check with your University service provider if the problem persists otherwise let me know which papers you would like to view and I will email them direct. 

Downloading difficulties

Question: Are you having difficulty downloading the PDF version of an article? 

Reply: Then we can send it to you! Just email the online editor with the volume, number and author of the article. Alternatively, you can just copy the information from the alphabetical listing and paste it into the email. There are no restrictions on downloading or printing single copies.

Accessing the tracker 

Question: I have been trying to track the article that  I submitted with the code given in the Subject column. Being a total ICT zombie, whatever combination of words or letters I use is not allowing me to access the reviews or the threads. At the moment I am being patient and have not verbally abused my computer in a Clease-like manner, but it is a bit frustrating. What am I doing wrong? Is there a trick or knack to accessing the data? Or, does my computer really not like me?

Reply: I'm sure it's not personal, your computer just needs some TLC (tender loving care). All you need to do when you get to the tracker page (link http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/education/iej/articles/tracking.htm)  is find your code. The list is getting pretty long so it might be easier to do a "find" [CTRL][F] using your code that was sent to you via email. The code is an active link (it will be underlined) to the tracking entries for your article. So just click on your code and it will open a new page which will list brief comments as to what stage your article is at. You don't need to click on anything else and there are no other details about  feedback or anything. There are no passwords so anyone can look at your article's activities, and that's why we have them coded.

Acceptance rate

Question: Could you please tell me what is the current acceptance rate by your journal?

Reply: Our current acceptance rate is 40 per cent.

Likelihood of publication

Question: Is it possible to view messages on the tracker to find out the probability of publication?

Reply: No, that would require us to digitise the Chief Editor's (CE) brain and put it online. However, you can get some idea, by whether it has gone out for review or not. Basically if it makes it to step 3 below, then there is a fair chance it will be published. This process usually takes about six to nine months, depending on the celerity of the reviewer and the imminence of the next issue. Once you send in your article to the online editor as an attached word document in correct format using the IEJ template, you should receive within two weeks, a return email that provides the tracking code, consisting of the main author’s initials, the date of receipt and a key word from the title. For purposes of confidentiality, each article is coded so that only the author and IEJ Editors know whose article it is. The basic review process involves the following steps (in computer speak).
1. Evaluation by plagiarism detection software: 
    IF Not plagiarised   THEN goto #2    ELSE Reject
2. Initial evaluation by CE to determine worthiness of review:
    IF worthy of review   THEN Reviewer selected, goto #3    ELSE Reject
3. Sent to reviewer:
    IF paper is reviewed  THEN Report returned to CE, goto #4  ELSE New reviewer, goto #3
4. Evaluation of reviewer's report by CE:
    IF Publishable   THEN Provisional accepted, goto #5    ELSE goto#3 for second opinion or Reject
5. Thorough review by CE:
    IF  Needs major revision  THEN Returned to author, goto #6   ELSE Accepted, goto #7
6. Revised paper re-submitted to CE for final consideration:
    IF Requires further revision   THEN sent to ESL Editor or goto #5    ELSE Accepted, goto #7
7. Prepared for publication by Online Editor and author notified for final proof read
    IF Minor changes required   THEN Revised by OE, Publish    ELSE Publish 

Submitting to more than one journal

Question: I am a first time author and curious about the selection process for articles. If a submitted article does not receive a posting on the IEJ tracker forum for a certain number of months, can it be assumed to be of little interest? Is there a point at which an author should submit to another journal or is it in violation of submission policies to have an article submitted in two places even if one journal does not want the article? 

Reply:  The posting frequency for articles bears no relation to the importance of the article or its likelihood of publication. It more likely reflects how back-logged the Chief Editor or tardy the reviewer is. We do not support you sending your paper to another journal simultaneously as it potentially wastes valuable reviewer time. Unfortunately the whole review process just requires a bit of patience.

Hard-copy version of the journal

Question: One of my paper has been published in IEJ and I would like to have a paper-based version. Could you please let me know where I can get it?

Reply:  There is nothing better than seeing your work in print, and I agree, being able to hold it in your hands in hard-copy form is much nicer that just viewing on a screen. As we are a FREE online journal, we only do a limited number of hard copies to keep costs down. By limited number, I mean 10 copies, which are sent to libraries and collections for cataloging purposes. With such a small print run, they are done on the cheap and have none of the glossy appeal of mass-market magazines. So why don't you do what we do, simply download the complete issue (PDF file), which includes the cover and contents page, find a nice laser printer and print yourself a copy, at virtually no cost. The download is found at the bottom of the contents page of each issue. If you want it to look more authentic, then print the first two pages (the cover) on thicker paper or card using a colour printer. Then print the rest of the volume using a laser printer and print the pages back to back (print odd pages first, put them back in the feeder track and then print even pages on the backs). Get it bound by using thermal, coil, ring or fabric binding (we get it professional bound using blue fabric binding) and it will look like the real thing, which, for all intensive purposes, it is! Best of all, this solutions imposes a minimal cost to you and no cost to us and is the fastest service you'll find.

Institutional affiliation and DEST

Question: I would like to submit an article for possible publication and have reached the point of composing the title page. I am a doctoral student with an Australian university who is residing in the Middle East and working for a higher education institution. I do not wish to use this institution as my affiliation as I have resigned in order to further my career in Australia. How do I complete this field?

Reply:  Technically speaking, the affiliation should be to the institution under which the research and resulting paper were conducted. The thinking being that in Australia DEST research money can then be rewarded back to the institution in which the resources to do the research were used. So if you put down a non-Australian institution, the DEST money can't be claimed. Furthermore, your email doesn't necessarily have to match the institution, as authors do move from one place to another during the period from doing the research to having it published, and a contact current at the time of publication is important.