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Who We Are and What We Do
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John W. Moore
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706-1396 |
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This issue is out of print. |
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JCE: Software is continually growing and maturing, as is the field of computer-enhanced learning. As a consequence of both factors, we need to stop every so often and examine what we are doing and how best to do it. Here are the results of one such self examination: a new version of our guidelines for submission of materials for publication. When JCE: Software published its first issue in 1988, we drew up a set of guidelines based upon our previous experience with Project SERAPHIM software. It is instructive to examine those guidelines now, because they give some indication of the tremendous advances that have taken place in the hardware and software available to chemistry teachers who want to create instructional materials for their students. In 1988 (1) we said, among other things: "Graphics should be used whenever possible. The author should ensure that when color is employed the program is still usable on monochrome systems."; "The program should be consistent in its use of the keyboard."; "Use upper and lower case letters and properly positioned superscripts and subscripts..." ; and "The screen should never appear `full' of text." Implicit in these guidelines was our experience at the time. Programs submitted were mainly text based, many users had monochrome monitors and could not display color graphics, users generally did not have a mouse or other pointing device and therefore had to use the keyboard for all input, typography used in chemical formulas and algebraic equations was not always available, and screen design was often given short shrift as an author created a program. It has been some time since we published author guidelines of the sort that appeared in 1988, because submissions to JCE: Software have become far more sophisticated. As the SIRs in this issue attest, today even IBM DOS programs can be designed to use medium-to-high resolution graphics and a mouse-driven interface effectively. In 1989 we began publishing Macintosh software, which was graphics based and mouse driven; since 1989 Mac programs have progressed from monochrome to color graphics. In 1992 we published our first Windows software and also our last Apple II issue. (The guidelines quoted above were based mainly on Apple II and the very similar IBM DOS software that Project SERAPHIM distributed.) During the past two years both submissions and distribution of Macintosh and Windows software have increased relative to DOS programs--another reflection of our increasingly sophisticated authors and users. The Guide for Submissions was created by our new Technical Editor, Nancy Gettys, based on input from our entire editorial staff. It provides a much more accurate picture of how we currently handle submission, review, and publication than did the previous guidelines (2). Many things have changed, and a few have stayed the same. One constant is our editorial objective: to provide for teachers materials that will enhance student learning and to provide for authors professional recognition for the new instructional materials they have created and tested. Another constant is that we are looking for materials that help students learn a topic in ways that could not be accomplished as effectively using print or other non-electronic media. These have not changed during our first six years, and we do not expect them to change in the next six either. One thing that has changed is that we have expanded our horizons beyond software programs. In addition to many conventional programs, JCE: Software has published within the past year two digital electronic documents with built-in calculations and animations, several video laserdiscs with original video material, a collection of solid-state structures together with a shareware program for manipulating and displaying them, a computer-interfaced laboratory experiment, computerized indexes to the Journal of Chemical Education for both IBM and Mac, and multimedia environmental and history-based simulations. It is important to realize that JCE: Software is interested in publishing new technology-based learning tools for chemistry, regardless of the medium or combination of media in which these are expressed. Another important change that we have expressed explicitly in the new Guide for Submissions is that we do not necessarily expect that a submission to JCE: Software will be in final form, ready to publish. We spend a good deal of time working with authors to improve and enhance their creations before a submission is sent to peer reviewers, and we spend more time after reviews are received, helping authors to put finishing touches on their work. We have found this to be an essential part of our editorial process, because electronic media are new and complicated and many of our authors do not have time to keep up with such a rapidly growing field. Our technical staff and our reviewers can provide the help needed to convert a good idea into a good instructional tool. Finally, the process by which we evaluate submissions has also evolved as we have learned more about electronic media. We now provide within a month or two a preliminary evaluation of a submission, indicating how suitable we think it is for publication and what kinds of revisions would be required. In many cases little revision is needed before a submission goes to peer reviewers, but in others a great deal of preliminary work must be done. Once peer review has been completed there may be additional modifications before a submission is ready to be published, and so the process requires varying amounts of time. We are interested in submissions at any time. As a peer-reviewed software journal, we depend on authors to supply us with materials to publish. If you have such materials, or are currently working on creating them, we are interested in hearing from you. Contact us, by regular mail:
JCE: Software or e-mail: jcesoft@chem.wisc.edu. We'd love to hear from you! Literature Cited |
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Last Updated: April 26, 2001 Created: December 3, 1996 |
Created by: J. L. Holmes Comments to: jceonline@chem.wisc.edu |
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| © 1997 Division of Chemical Education, Inc., American Chemical Society. All rights reserved. | |