Hello, AEA365 community! Liz DiLuzio here, Lead Curator of the blog. This week is Individuals Week, which means we take a break from our themed weeks and spotlight the Hot Tips, Cool Tricks, Rad Resources and Lessons Learned from any evaluator interested in sharing. Would you like to contribute to future individuals weeks? Email me at AEA365@eval.org with an idea or a draft and we will make it happen.
Greetings, AEA365 readers! I am Laura Peck, Co-Editor of the American Journal of Evaluation, recently appointed along with Rodney Hopson to serve a full three-year term leading our journal. Rodney and I are thrilled to have received a huge response to our invitation to engage in the journal’s leadership and work; and we are pleased to have appointed a new Editorial Team, including one returning and four new Associate Editors, and one returning and 12 new Section Editors, along with 14 returning and 34 new members of the Editorial Advisory Board. From among the applications, we have an additional 28 scholars and practitioners standing by to serve as reviewers, cite work in the journal, submit work to the journal, get published in the journal, and serve as advocates for the journal. This is not an exclusive team! Indeed, we look forward to bringing seasoned and new voices and perspectives together to advance our journal’s relevance and impact. We hope those of you interested in the journal will connect and join us in some way.
As we aimed to communicate across the recent AEA Conference, strengthening AJE benefits us all. For those of you who missed any of the AEA conference content related to the journal or simply want to reflect on it, I share a recap here:
- Journal leaders came together in a “Meet the Editors” session to introduce people not only to AJE but also other evaluation journals, including African Evaluation Journal, Canadian Journal of Evaluation, Evaluation & Program Planning, Journal of MultiDisciplinary, Evaluation, and New Directions for Evaluation. The journals’ editorial leaders reflected on their journal’s own focus or emphasis. Collectively, we aim to reflect high-quality scholarship that informs the theory, methods, and practice of evaluation.
- Second, along with me, the AJE Managing Editor, Dr. Shannon Hitchcock (Abt Associates), led a session on “Why & How to Be a Journal Reviewer.” As the name suggests, peer-reviewed journals rely on peer reviews! There are benefits to being a reviewer in that you get to be the first to consider leading-edge work in the field, and you get to help authors make their work the best it can be. It was a lively session with many people capturing the content on their phone cameras. We have offered the slides, so it you’re interested, please reach out to AJE.ManagingEditor@gmail.com to request them. Given demand, we expect to host additional webinars throughout the year to share this content and upskill reviewer-wanna-bes!
- Next, Allyson Oakley (Pact) facilitates a session on “Improving our Collective Story through Greater Inclusion in Publishing” that engaged various journal editorial leaders and attended in a discussion of standard journal practices and how we can disrupt those to ensure that a greater diversity of perspectives—and inclusive practices—are at the publishing table. We look forward to her report-back as a means to propelling us forward with clear action steps.
- Finally, at the AEA Awards Ceremony, I was pleased to be able to announce this year’s AJE Excellence in Reviewing Awards. With a certificate and $500 award, the Excellence in Reviewing Awards recognizes three reviewers for the volume, timeliness, and quality of their reviews for AJE. This year’s awardees were:
- Ayesha Boyce, Arizona State University
- Mark Seasons, University of Waterloo
- Bob Williams, New Zealand Government
Congratulations! Thank you for sharing your expertise with the journal’s submitting authors.
In closing, let me share three invitations:
- Submit your work to AJE. Please consider AJE as a venue for your own work! By submitting your work, you can help shape evaluation discourse and the field.
- Read and cite the work in AJE. It is important that the work we publish connects to scholars and practitioners; and one way to do so is by citing and sharing AJE’s articles, whether in your own articles or via your social networks. An AEA member benefit is subscription to AJE. Just login on the AEA website to gain access.
- Serve as a reviewer for AJE. If you are interested in serving as a reviewer for AJE, please create or update your reviewer profile here. When you do, please flag the update to Dr. Hitchcock (at AJE.ManagingEditor@gmail.com) so we can tap your expertise in reviewing submitted manuscripts in the future.
I enjoyed connecting to long-time and new colleagues at the conference, appreciate the enthusiasm and support you offered for our new editorial team, and look forward to building AJE together with you in the coming months and years.
Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org . aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators. The views and opinions expressed on the AEA365 blog are solely those of the original authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the American Evaluation Association, and/or any/all contributors to this site.