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Journal of Special Education and Rehabilitation from Scientific Periphery to Relevant Scientific Journal

Journal of Special Education and Rehabilitation from Scientific Periphery to Relevant Scientific... This describes the growth of the Journal of Special Education and Rehabilitation in the last 18 years since it began to be published. Although it began as a local and specialized, it managed to develop into an international and scientific and to attract a large number of authors from over 30 countries around the world. Currently, the journal is indexed in 65 databases worldwide. Macedonia is a tough periphery in the world of science. But, this does not prevent the journal to become more visible and significant in scientific areas that the field of special education and rehabilitation covers. In our country there are many factors that hinder the way for the creation of high quality scientific journal. These are discussed in detail in the paper. To reach higher relevance of the journal, a great dedication of the people working in the publishing offices is necessary. Corresponding address Vladimir TRAJKOVSKI Journal of Special Education and Rehabilitation "Ss Cyril and Methodius" University Faculty of Philosophy Institute of Special Education and Rehabilitation Bull. Goce Delchev 9A, 1000 Skopje Republic of Macedonia Email: vladotra@fzf.ukim.edu.mk . . , . . . : , , , The editors of small journals of the region need to exchange their experiences. The teams of smaller journals have to gather experience from major journals. They need to put more effort into increasing the visibility of the journal online, and they can do this by sharing the labor of the social media. The competent Ministry of Education and Science should allocate a greater percentage of the gross domestic product for publishing as small journals could become more relevant in the world of science. The conclusion is that small journals may contribute in the world of science with relevant scientific information. Key words: Journal of Special Education and Rehabilitation, scientific periphery, scientific journal, quality of journal . . , . 1997 ( 18 ) . , 2004 , , , . , Introduction In the world of science the communication is carried through the publication of scientific journals. The publishing of scientific papers is a duty and obligation of every scientific and academic worker. Scientific journals are only one tool in meeting the goals of science, and that is availability of the scientific work to a larger circle of readers and increase of its visibility. The Journal of Special Education and Rehabilitation began its bumpy path in science in 1997 (18 years ago) as a specialized journal more nationally oriented with objectives to satisfy the appetites of special educators from the Republic of Macedonia. But, in 2004 with the arrival of the author of these lines to a deputy chief editor, higher goals were set, the English was introduced for the goals of the journal, not only for the summary, and a strategy for greater indexation in global databases and its internationalization in general was adopted. Any journal that wants to publish scientific papers and become a scientific journal must follow and accept the international standards for scientific publication and thus equally participate in the exchange of scientific information and JOURNAL OF SPECIAL EDUCATION AND REHABILITATION . 65 68 . education to young professionals. At the moment our journal is indexed in 65 databases worldwide and it can be found as a link in 68 university libraries in the world. . . 1000 , (1). Web of Science, PubMed, PubMed Central, Scopus, SCImago Google Scholar (2). . , (3). , , , . . , (4). . , , Macedonia ­ Scientific periphery Unfortunately we have to accept the fact that Macedonia is a tough periphery in the world of science. This can be determined by several parameters. None of our universities is on the list of top 1 000 world universities, for example on the list of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (1). A small number of scientific journals of Macedonia are included in the global database and only two are included in the Web of Science, one in PubMed, one in PubMed Central, six in Scopus, six in SCImago and six in Google Scholar (2). In the last three bases, the Journal of Special Education and Rehabilitation is included. According to Spiroski and Gogushev, the Macedonian medical journals have very limited scientific impact and their boards are required to improve the quality of the published papers and to adhere to the international standards for publication, and therefore could be expected to increase their scientific impact (3). In small scientific areas such as Macedonia, the publishing, editing and publishing scientific papers is a Sisyphean task. There are many factors that stand in the way to create high quality scientific journal. Small journals can not produce enough quality manuscripts that could be published because there is no critical number of scientists who could produce significant scientific results (4). In our country a huge problem is the lack of material and financial resources for publishing a quality journal. The Ministry of Education and Science for a long time disclaims any funding for the journals, which can not be said for the Balkan states Serbia and Croatia, which have serious scientific journals with impact in the world of science because of the serious approach of their authorities and they have Web of Science. , . 111.000 - . . . . , , 2-3 40-50 . , 270 - . . . 1997 2004 , . , . 30 . 2004 , 8 more journals indexed in the database Web of Science. The private business sector now can not find their interest in sponsoring and donating to publicist activity, probably due to the small readership despite our numerous attempts and offering advertising space for consideration. Their interest remains small even when they know the fact that the journal has free internet access and for six years, it has 111.000 visits to the website. There is no serious subscription as that in major journals of the big states. The fact remains that so far only the first publisher the Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje is interested in financing, that is not always enough. Another but big problem is finding relevant and objective reviewers who will review it promptly and without financial compensation. We are sometimes witnesses of long reviews, ignoring emails and in order to get 2-3 reviewers we often have to send 40-50 emails to the potential reviewers. Despite all these problems, the editor in the last seven years since he has become editor, provided 270 independent and impartial reviewers which are published on the list on the website of the journal. The existence of a review process is a basic standard the scientific journals must adopt and strictly adhere to it. In our journal, the review procedure uses a double blind method and it is indicated in the electronic version of the journal. In the period from 1997 to 2004 when the journal was published only in Macedonian language with a summary in English, the journal was more expert than a scientific and it was more local than international. If the journal claims to be international it should attract authors from other countries, not only from its own local scientific circles. So, in our journal in the past period, authors representing more than 30 countries worldwide can be met. It is clear that in the world of science English is Esperanto and because of this, from 2004 onwards the journal has seen a massive growth in the visibility and availability to more readers JOURNAL OF SPECIAL EDUCATION AND REHABILITATION , 0 1997 2004, 65 2005 - 2015. , , (5) . , . . and potential authors, and increased indexation in bibliographic databases which ranges from 0 for the period 1997-2004 to 65 for 2005-2015. On the other hand, the tendency to publish only in English in a country where English is not the official language, exposes the problem of imperfection and difficulties with language editing (5) and the problem of ignorance of the English language, especially older professionals in our country. All these problems and deficiencies cause low visibility, low citation and scarce relevance to small journals from small countries who act frustrating and demotivating to the offices and boards of the Macedonian journals. This in turn leads to lower quality of scientific journals and a problem with their sustainability in the long run. , ? . , , , , . , , , . , . , . 70% , , , . How to improve quality, increased visibility and relevance of journals? It takes a lot of dedication of people working in the publishing offices. To become a scientific journal in the true sense of the word, or a journal which is visible, which challenges the scientific readership, a journal that will be useful and accessible to as many readers, we have to work on improving all of the above problems and disadvantages. The editors must make a huge effort to improve the publishing standards, for example improving the quality of the paper that the journal is printed on, although this is not the determining factor. They should work on the regular and exact publication of all editions during the year, that is to provide frequency. The journal must have a characteristic by which it will be recognized in the scientific circles, to contain international board. In our case, 70% of the members of the board are internationally recognized experts in the field of special education, rehabilitation, medicine, psychology and other related disciplines. These members . , , , , ¢ . (Science Citation Index Current Contents). , 10% (6). , , . . . : , , (6). . - . should actively strive to attract authors and to increase the visibility of the journal. Cumulatively speaking, enough quoted international members of the board, objective, constructive and loyal reviewers, good financial support, understandable and correct language and writing style and good visibility of the journal guarantee success. All this provides excellent conditions for inclusion in the journal in more bibliographic databases, among which the most important bases are Thomson Reuters (Science Citation Index and Current Contents). But, it should be known that this company index only 10% of scientific publications in the world (6). This edition and the next two editions of this journal will be re-submitted for re-evaluation at Thomson Reuters databases and the members of the publishing office sincerely hope that this third attempt will be successful. According to Marusic A. and Marusic M. the bibliographic databases make a selection of journals based on four criteria including: basic standards of publishing, content, international diversity, and citation of the authors and editors (6). Editors should always be patient and should help authors to improve the quality of their work. In particular we do this when we advise authors to improve the methodological and statistical and technical shaping of their papers at the stage before the review and thereby we reduce the possibility of a negative review. Croatian Medical Journal ­ Croatian Medical Journal ( ) . (7). 10 The example of the Croatian Medical Journal - a good indicator of relevant journal The experience of a small journal Croatian Medical Journal from a small country Croatia (twice the size of ours) is an example of how a journal should be managed in order to reach the top achievements with little financial resources. The first issue was released when the war was raging in Croatia JOURNAL OF SPECIAL EDUCATION AND REHABILITATION ( ), - , , , . 24 . 0.431 2014 1.305 (8). (7). With hard work and education of the authors and students (potential authors), educating the principles of ethics in scientific research, access to literature and citation databases, practical application of medical statistics and principles of scientific writing achieved great results. This journal in the last 24 years has grown into top biomedical journal in the region. For first time, after 10 years of existence, it gets an impact factor, and it was 0,431 and in 2014 it increased in value and it is 1,305 (8). . . . . , . . . . (WAME), (COPE). . , , , Recommendations for improving the quality of journals It requires hard and only hard work of the boards and publishing offices of journals. A big commitment and perseverance in publishing is essential. The editors of small journals of the region need to exchange their experiences. The teams of smaller journals have to gather experience from major journals. They need to put more effort into increasing the visibility of the journal online, and they can do it by sharing the labor of the social media. This increases the possibility of citation of papers. It would be nice if electronic versions of journals would have a program for registering article level metrics. The competent Ministry of Education and Science should allocate a greater percentage of the gross domestic product for publishing as small journals could become more relevant in the world of science. There is a need for subscription of biomedical journals in the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), something that has been done by us and the Committee on Ethics in publishing (COPE). The purpose of this is to promote high scientific and ethical standards in the journals. Electronic publishing is not a substitute for print journals and maybe can not solve the problems of small journals, but it can maintain high quality standards, English language, commercial interests and at the same time : (-) (4). could add new problems: a need for new experts (web administrators) who know the problems and the need for better infrastructure (4). / http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Special Education and Rehabilitation de Gruyter

Journal of Special Education and Rehabilitation from Scientific Periphery to Relevant Scientific Journal

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Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 by the
ISSN
1857-663X
eISSN
1857-663X
DOI
10.1515/jser-2015-0008
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

This describes the growth of the Journal of Special Education and Rehabilitation in the last 18 years since it began to be published. Although it began as a local and specialized, it managed to develop into an international and scientific and to attract a large number of authors from over 30 countries around the world. Currently, the journal is indexed in 65 databases worldwide. Macedonia is a tough periphery in the world of science. But, this does not prevent the journal to become more visible and significant in scientific areas that the field of special education and rehabilitation covers. In our country there are many factors that hinder the way for the creation of high quality scientific journal. These are discussed in detail in the paper. To reach higher relevance of the journal, a great dedication of the people working in the publishing offices is necessary. Corresponding address Vladimir TRAJKOVSKI Journal of Special Education and Rehabilitation "Ss Cyril and Methodius" University Faculty of Philosophy Institute of Special Education and Rehabilitation Bull. Goce Delchev 9A, 1000 Skopje Republic of Macedonia Email: vladotra@fzf.ukim.edu.mk . . , . . . : , , , The editors of small journals of the region need to exchange their experiences. The teams of smaller journals have to gather experience from major journals. They need to put more effort into increasing the visibility of the journal online, and they can do this by sharing the labor of the social media. The competent Ministry of Education and Science should allocate a greater percentage of the gross domestic product for publishing as small journals could become more relevant in the world of science. The conclusion is that small journals may contribute in the world of science with relevant scientific information. Key words: Journal of Special Education and Rehabilitation, scientific periphery, scientific journal, quality of journal . . , . 1997 ( 18 ) . , 2004 , , , . , Introduction In the world of science the communication is carried through the publication of scientific journals. The publishing of scientific papers is a duty and obligation of every scientific and academic worker. Scientific journals are only one tool in meeting the goals of science, and that is availability of the scientific work to a larger circle of readers and increase of its visibility. The Journal of Special Education and Rehabilitation began its bumpy path in science in 1997 (18 years ago) as a specialized journal more nationally oriented with objectives to satisfy the appetites of special educators from the Republic of Macedonia. But, in 2004 with the arrival of the author of these lines to a deputy chief editor, higher goals were set, the English was introduced for the goals of the journal, not only for the summary, and a strategy for greater indexation in global databases and its internationalization in general was adopted. Any journal that wants to publish scientific papers and become a scientific journal must follow and accept the international standards for scientific publication and thus equally participate in the exchange of scientific information and JOURNAL OF SPECIAL EDUCATION AND REHABILITATION . 65 68 . education to young professionals. At the moment our journal is indexed in 65 databases worldwide and it can be found as a link in 68 university libraries in the world. . . 1000 , (1). Web of Science, PubMed, PubMed Central, Scopus, SCImago Google Scholar (2). . , (3). , , , . . , (4). . , , Macedonia ­ Scientific periphery Unfortunately we have to accept the fact that Macedonia is a tough periphery in the world of science. This can be determined by several parameters. None of our universities is on the list of top 1 000 world universities, for example on the list of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (1). A small number of scientific journals of Macedonia are included in the global database and only two are included in the Web of Science, one in PubMed, one in PubMed Central, six in Scopus, six in SCImago and six in Google Scholar (2). In the last three bases, the Journal of Special Education and Rehabilitation is included. According to Spiroski and Gogushev, the Macedonian medical journals have very limited scientific impact and their boards are required to improve the quality of the published papers and to adhere to the international standards for publication, and therefore could be expected to increase their scientific impact (3). In small scientific areas such as Macedonia, the publishing, editing and publishing scientific papers is a Sisyphean task. There are many factors that stand in the way to create high quality scientific journal. Small journals can not produce enough quality manuscripts that could be published because there is no critical number of scientists who could produce significant scientific results (4). In our country a huge problem is the lack of material and financial resources for publishing a quality journal. The Ministry of Education and Science for a long time disclaims any funding for the journals, which can not be said for the Balkan states Serbia and Croatia, which have serious scientific journals with impact in the world of science because of the serious approach of their authorities and they have Web of Science. , . 111.000 - . . . . , , 2-3 40-50 . , 270 - . . . 1997 2004 , . , . 30 . 2004 , 8 more journals indexed in the database Web of Science. The private business sector now can not find their interest in sponsoring and donating to publicist activity, probably due to the small readership despite our numerous attempts and offering advertising space for consideration. Their interest remains small even when they know the fact that the journal has free internet access and for six years, it has 111.000 visits to the website. There is no serious subscription as that in major journals of the big states. The fact remains that so far only the first publisher the Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje is interested in financing, that is not always enough. Another but big problem is finding relevant and objective reviewers who will review it promptly and without financial compensation. We are sometimes witnesses of long reviews, ignoring emails and in order to get 2-3 reviewers we often have to send 40-50 emails to the potential reviewers. Despite all these problems, the editor in the last seven years since he has become editor, provided 270 independent and impartial reviewers which are published on the list on the website of the journal. The existence of a review process is a basic standard the scientific journals must adopt and strictly adhere to it. In our journal, the review procedure uses a double blind method and it is indicated in the electronic version of the journal. In the period from 1997 to 2004 when the journal was published only in Macedonian language with a summary in English, the journal was more expert than a scientific and it was more local than international. If the journal claims to be international it should attract authors from other countries, not only from its own local scientific circles. So, in our journal in the past period, authors representing more than 30 countries worldwide can be met. It is clear that in the world of science English is Esperanto and because of this, from 2004 onwards the journal has seen a massive growth in the visibility and availability to more readers JOURNAL OF SPECIAL EDUCATION AND REHABILITATION , 0 1997 2004, 65 2005 - 2015. , , (5) . , . . and potential authors, and increased indexation in bibliographic databases which ranges from 0 for the period 1997-2004 to 65 for 2005-2015. On the other hand, the tendency to publish only in English in a country where English is not the official language, exposes the problem of imperfection and difficulties with language editing (5) and the problem of ignorance of the English language, especially older professionals in our country. All these problems and deficiencies cause low visibility, low citation and scarce relevance to small journals from small countries who act frustrating and demotivating to the offices and boards of the Macedonian journals. This in turn leads to lower quality of scientific journals and a problem with their sustainability in the long run. , ? . , , , , . , , , . , . , . 70% , , , . How to improve quality, increased visibility and relevance of journals? It takes a lot of dedication of people working in the publishing offices. To become a scientific journal in the true sense of the word, or a journal which is visible, which challenges the scientific readership, a journal that will be useful and accessible to as many readers, we have to work on improving all of the above problems and disadvantages. The editors must make a huge effort to improve the publishing standards, for example improving the quality of the paper that the journal is printed on, although this is not the determining factor. They should work on the regular and exact publication of all editions during the year, that is to provide frequency. The journal must have a characteristic by which it will be recognized in the scientific circles, to contain international board. In our case, 70% of the members of the board are internationally recognized experts in the field of special education, rehabilitation, medicine, psychology and other related disciplines. These members . , , , , ¢ . (Science Citation Index Current Contents). , 10% (6). , , . . . : , , (6). . - . should actively strive to attract authors and to increase the visibility of the journal. Cumulatively speaking, enough quoted international members of the board, objective, constructive and loyal reviewers, good financial support, understandable and correct language and writing style and good visibility of the journal guarantee success. All this provides excellent conditions for inclusion in the journal in more bibliographic databases, among which the most important bases are Thomson Reuters (Science Citation Index and Current Contents). But, it should be known that this company index only 10% of scientific publications in the world (6). This edition and the next two editions of this journal will be re-submitted for re-evaluation at Thomson Reuters databases and the members of the publishing office sincerely hope that this third attempt will be successful. According to Marusic A. and Marusic M. the bibliographic databases make a selection of journals based on four criteria including: basic standards of publishing, content, international diversity, and citation of the authors and editors (6). Editors should always be patient and should help authors to improve the quality of their work. In particular we do this when we advise authors to improve the methodological and statistical and technical shaping of their papers at the stage before the review and thereby we reduce the possibility of a negative review. Croatian Medical Journal ­ Croatian Medical Journal ( ) . (7). 10 The example of the Croatian Medical Journal - a good indicator of relevant journal The experience of a small journal Croatian Medical Journal from a small country Croatia (twice the size of ours) is an example of how a journal should be managed in order to reach the top achievements with little financial resources. The first issue was released when the war was raging in Croatia JOURNAL OF SPECIAL EDUCATION AND REHABILITATION ( ), - , , , . 24 . 0.431 2014 1.305 (8). (7). With hard work and education of the authors and students (potential authors), educating the principles of ethics in scientific research, access to literature and citation databases, practical application of medical statistics and principles of scientific writing achieved great results. This journal in the last 24 years has grown into top biomedical journal in the region. For first time, after 10 years of existence, it gets an impact factor, and it was 0,431 and in 2014 it increased in value and it is 1,305 (8). . . . . , . . . . (WAME), (COPE). . , , , Recommendations for improving the quality of journals It requires hard and only hard work of the boards and publishing offices of journals. A big commitment and perseverance in publishing is essential. The editors of small journals of the region need to exchange their experiences. The teams of smaller journals have to gather experience from major journals. They need to put more effort into increasing the visibility of the journal online, and they can do it by sharing the labor of the social media. This increases the possibility of citation of papers. It would be nice if electronic versions of journals would have a program for registering article level metrics. The competent Ministry of Education and Science should allocate a greater percentage of the gross domestic product for publishing as small journals could become more relevant in the world of science. There is a need for subscription of biomedical journals in the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), something that has been done by us and the Committee on Ethics in publishing (COPE). The purpose of this is to promote high scientific and ethical standards in the journals. Electronic publishing is not a substitute for print journals and maybe can not solve the problems of small journals, but it can maintain high quality standards, English language, commercial interests and at the same time : (-) (4). could add new problems: a need for new experts (web administrators) who know the problems and the need for better infrastructure (4). /

Journal

Journal of Special Education and Rehabilitationde Gruyter

Published: Sep 1, 2015

References