JOREL Highlights
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By Eric Frauman and Nate Furman
AORE Representatives to the JOREL Advisory Board
As AORE representatives and advisory board members of the Journal of Outdoor Recreation, Education, and Leadership (JOREL), we wanted to give you an update on how one of your AORE member benefits is doing and share some of the exciting changes you can expect this fall. In preparing the update, a special thanks goes to the JOREL editor-in-chief, Andrew Bobilya, and managing editor, Raymond Poff, for providing the information that informs this report.
As of August 31, 2015:
• There are currently 60 Institutional/University subscriptions and 23 Individual subscriptions (9 via AORE members, 5 via Wilderness Education Association [WEA] members, and 9 Unaffiliated) which equates to approximately $9,000 in revenue. This revenue has more than covered the costs associated in publishing the journal.
o Recently, Sagamore Publishing has taken over publishing and marketing of the JOREL. With over three decades of providing educational material for the park and recreation industry it is quite likely subscription numbers of all category types will grow, particularly in light of its current popularity and reach (see below).
• Fall 2015 Issue 7 (2) is slated to go to print September 5, 2015! This is much earlier than the usual mid to late October date for the fall issue. With the agreement with Sagamore this will be the first issue to be published by them. Sagamore is wanting to move to a September and January publication cycle for this year and then next year move to 4 issues per year versus two.
o While subscription rates for the journal will increase due to Sagamore’s presence, AORE and WEA members will continue to receive a subscription discount.
• This fall’s issue also marks the first print copy of the journal. We are not sure how many copies are going to be printed but Sagamore plans to send a paper copy in addition to subscriber’s having access to the usual online version.
• The community of folks interested in the JOREL outside of the US continues to grow. This fall’s issue has papers from research teams in Denmark, Norway, New Zealand and the United States! We hope this continues.
• We are still seeing most submissions in the “regular paper” category. The journal can benefit from the help of its Advisory Board, key members in AORE, WEA, and others, to promote the JOREL as a publication outlet for papers in the “research note” and “essays, practices and commentaries” categories. Click here for more information on submission categories.
o Note: Soon Sagamore Publishing will be hosting the journal website in full although much of the infrastructure is in place now. Click here to view.
• There are currently 27 manuscripts in the queue system at various stages of the review process not including 6 manuscripts being published in the fall 2015 issue.
o In general, approximately 6 articles are published each issue so we can say the JOREL has and continues to attract the attention of academics and practitioners around the world!
• Acceptance rate for the journal is at about 49% as of the last issue published 7(1). This does not include the abstracts that have been published throughout the journal’s existence from the WEA and AORE research symposia.
• A possible Special Issue of the journal is being discussed with Gen Marchand (AORE Research and Publications Committee Chair) and AORE staff. In light of the fact that the programs and services college and university outdoor programs offer are sometimes seen by college and university administrators and governing bodies as unnecessary or having little influence on participant college experience this Special Issue will be dedicated to dispelling those concerns. This Special Issue is on the agenda to be discussed at the September conference call of the JOREL Advisory Board. We are optimistic it will be approved and then we will identify who the Editor(s) for that Special Issue will be, finalize a call for papers and set a timeline toward a publication date.
Lastly, if you have any questions concerning the JOREL don’t hesitate to contact us. We would be glad to help.
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