Introducing Educate~ online

Abstract

In 2001, the first issue of a new journal was published that focused on disseminating the work of postgraduate researchers at the Institute of Education. This new journal was called: Educate ~ The London Journal of Doctoral Research in Education. It offered a new opportunity to the community of postgraduate researchers, whether full-time and part-time, home or international, undertaking professional doctorates or MPhil/PhD research, to publish and disseminate their research. Educate~ offers a publication outlet for this sizable and diverse group of doctoral researchers, enabling the publication of work-in-progress as well as fully-fledged papers. It also offers a starting point for conversations between the Institute’s postgraduate researchers and its established academic staff, allowing each to learn from the other, thereby developing the Institute’s research community. These conversations have continued to develop with the biannual Doctoral School conferences, now a well-established feature here at the Institute. Indeed, the abstracts for the Summer Conference are included in this issue of Educate~. The inaugural Editorial, back in 2001, stated that “our success will depend on the continuing willingness of potential contributors to provide us with interesting, thought provoking and engaging material” and I encourage readers to look back through the online archives to see how successful Educate~ has been. The development of software to enable academic journals to appear online and, importantly, to manage the entire editorial process electronically, presented an opportunity for Educate~ that could not be missed. Educate~ has now successfully moved to an online format. Doing so allows Educate~ to integrate photographic materials, audio files and audiovisual files and even podcasts - like this one, into what it publishes. Indeed, Educate~ does not just contain abstracts from this year’s Summer Conference, but also podcasts of a number of the presentations that will be streamed during the conference. Eduacate~’s electronic presence also allows users of the site to post comments on the published work and for the authors to respond, making the journal a focus of the research community in the Institute. In that first Educate~ editorial, the Editorial Board expressed a hope that “in time, [it would] include doctoral students and established academics who are not necessarily based here at the Institute”. That vision has now been realised through Educate~’s move online, involving a name change that drops ‘London’ from its title, so that it is now simply: Educate ~ The Journal of Doctoral Research in Education. Already, in this issue you can see published abstracts from this year’s Annual Kaleidoscope Postgraduate Symposium in Education organised by the postgraduate researchers of the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge. Future editions of Educate~ will feature postgraduate researchers’ work from other institutions, but they will also be involved electronically in the editorial process, as reviewers and editors. Educate~s inaugural Editorial ended by expressing the wish that “Educate~ will be able to take its place amongst the best journals of education research.” In a similar vein, I end by expressing a hope that Educate~ will not simply be The Journal of Doctoral Research in Education, but will become The Journal of Doctoral Research in Education.