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A STUDY OF THE SCHOLARLY PUBLICATION REVIEW PROCESS

Nancy L. Denton, Sarah E. Leach Purdue University

Abstract

Publication of reviewed or refereed articles is a common method of disseminating scholarly work. This paper explores the review processes in place for American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) publications, including conference proceedings, papers, journal articles, and Prism magazine. The effect of the peer review process on conference proceedings papers is considered, and suggestions for future actions to strengthen the process are included.

Introduction

Historically, the ASEE Annual Conference offered a venue for faculty to discuss their thoughts, opinions, and efforts toward improving engineering education in an open environment. Some papers were reviewed, others were published based on the content of their abstracts, and still others appeared as abstracts only, with copies of the paper hand-distributed at the conference. This variation in approaches led to concern that ASEE conference proceedings papers were viewed as having little scholarly value by academic institutions, and perhaps served as a core reason for the drop in ASEE membership by faculty at many engineering research universities. In the early 1990s, the leadership of ASEE adopted a policy that all of its divisions would establish a formal paper review process. By the late1990s, the publication process was streamlined so that all manuscript submissions met one consistent deadline for consideration for publication. The process has continued to be refined as ASEE introduced and revised the CAPS automated paper submission process so that currently, all abstracts and manuscripts are reviewed, and final paper acceptance requires program chair approval. These changes to the paper review process coincided with national efforts to enhance the level and acceptance of engineering education as a field of scholarship. Other evidence of the growth of engineering education as a discipline include significant funding from the National Science Foundation (engineering education coalitions, advanced technology education centers) and organizations such as the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, the reinstatement and growth of ASEE’s Journal of Engineering Education and the development of several new engineering education journals (International Journal of Engineering Education, International Journal of Modern Engineering, the Journal of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education), and the recent establishment of departments of engineering education at Carnegie I Research universities (e.g., Purdue University and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University).1-7

A key factor in developing the current peer review process for ASEE conference proceedings papers was the belief that the papers were not perceived to be at a high level of scholarship. A

“Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education”

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Denton, N., & Leach, S. (2005, June), A Study Of The Scholarly Publication Review Process Paper presented at 2005 Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--14724