Focus and Scope

Founded in 2001, the Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (JoSoTL) is published by Indiana University's Faculty Academy on Excellence in Teaching (FACET). JoSoTL aims to address contemporary issues bridging teaching and learning in higher education, philosophical approaches to teaching, current research, and praxis. The journal publishes empirical research, case studies, essays, critiques, and articles of a theoretical/conceptual nature that contribute to deeper understanding of the issues, problems, and research relevant to the community of reflective teacher-scholars.

Submissions must transcend disciplinary relevance as the journal's readership is interdisciplinary. Furthermore, unless reflecting on or analyzing SoTL itself as a construct, articles should address both teaching and the learning that takes place in higher education. Both undergraduate and graduate education are in scope. 

Article Types

  • Articles: data-driven formal research projects with appropriate analysis, formal hypotheses and their testing, etc. These studies are either with a quantitative or qualitative emphasis and authors should indicate the appropriate domain. Acceptable articles establish a research rigor that leads to significant new understanding in pedagogy. 
  • Case studies--a case study focuses on an intense analysis of a specific teaching situation or problem that led to a solution. Case studies should have the following components: description of the teaching situation or problem, which must be well-grounded in the literature, solution or solutions attempted, quantitative or qualitative analysis of the effectiveness of the solution, reflection on the implications and possible generalization to other settings or populations. 
  • Reflective essays: essays that are philosophical in nature and challenge current practice, encourage experimentation, or draw novel conclusions. These must be  well-grounded in the literature.
  • Critiques: a systematic and detailed assessment of a published empirical study, case study, or reflective essay. A critical evaluation should deconstruct the work, identify both strengths and weaknesses, and evaluate it in light of its purpose. 
  • Quick Hits: a Quick Hit is a brief contribution describing innovative teaching practices or an innovative use of a teaching or learning tool that has already been successfully implemented (1500 words or less). Each contribution should communicate enough literature to be credible. It should describe the practice or use of the tool as a step-by-step process and include sufficient detail to allow another educator to use the Quick Hit in his or her own course. 

ISSN 1527-9316

 

Peer Review Process

JoSoTL accepts submissions from anyone interested in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in higher education. All submissions go through a desk review process that takes up to a month depending on the volume of submissions. After desk review, manuscripts are either declined as out of scope or premature for review, or they are assigned to reviewers. The review of these submissions follows a double blind process where the authors do not know the identity of the reviewers and vice versa. Once a manuscript is assigned to reviewers, our goal is to issue a ruling within 150 days. The review forms reviewers use for each individual category can be found here. Please note: due to COVID-19, we are experiencing a longer than average delay in the review process.

Authors are encouraged to submit work in one of the following categories. Please carefully categorize your submission as that determines how we will review your manuscript. Open submission categories include:

  • Articles that are data-driven studies
  • Reflective essays that challenge current practice, encourage experimentation, or draw novel conclusions.
  • Critiques: a systematic and detailed assessment of a published empirical study, case study, or reflective essay.
  • Literature reviews: a meta-analysis of the literature that illuminates new relationships and understanding of contemporary issues bridging teaching and learning in higher education. 
  • Case studies illustrating SoTL and its applications
  • Quick Hits that make a brief contribution describing innovative teaching practices or an innovative use of a teaching or learning tool 

(Special issues will often have restricted categories as described in the relevant call.)


Reviewers

The journal has moved to a closed registration system for reviewers. Previously, anyone could sign up to be a reviewer and we believe this open system resulted in unanswered review solicitations, which consequently delayed the review process. 

If you are interested in becoming a reviewer, you may submit an application through this online form. We would like to know your experience with SoTL and other preferences.

Please note, authors will still be required to serve as a reviewer. You will complete a short form when submitting your manuscript that indicates your preferences, and then we will add the reviewer role to your account.  

 

Publication Frequency

The Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning is published four times per year. Special issues may be published in some years.


Open Access Policy

This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access. Authors do not pay any fee to publish manuscripts in this journal.


Policy on Authorship

If the Submission has multiple authors, the submitting Author warrants that he or she has the authority to act on behalf of all other authors and hereby agrees to the following: i. The submitting Author is solely responsible for determining authorship and the appropriate order in which co-authors’ names appear in articles that are submitted to the journal for publication. ii. The journal shall accept no responsibility for disputes over authorship, which should be addressed by the sponsoring institution of the submitting author or lead author, as appropriate, based on the policies established by that author’s sponsoring institution. iii. If the journal publishes a manuscript and is later informed in writing by the submitting author that there is an error regarding authorship, it will publish corrections or retractions only at the written request of the submitting author. iv. The journal shall have no obligation to remove, or attempt to remove, any electronic versions of a work it has published from any electronic repository or other site over which it does not exercise control.


Archiving Policy

As part of Indiana University’s participation in the CLOCKSS (Controlled Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) program, a distributed global archiving system, this journal’s contents are part of a secure and permanent archive. https://www.clockss.org/clockss/How_CLOCKSS_Works.

 

Indemnification

Author will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless IU, and IU’s officers, trustees, employees, agents, successors, and assigns, from and against all losses, liabilities, and costs including, without limitation, reasonable attorneys’ fees, expenses, penalties, judgments, claims and demands of every kind and character that IU or its officers, trustees, employees, agents, successors, or assigns may incur, suffer, or be required to pay arising out of, based upon, or by reason of: (a) the breach by Author of any of the representations or warranties made by Author under this Agreement; (b) Author’s use of the Submission prior to the date of this agreement; or (c) Author’s failure to perform his or her obligations under this agreement.

 

Acceptance Rate 2021

JoSoTL received 168 manuscripts in 2021. Of these 33 have been accepted and 105 have been declined. The acceptance rate for manuscripts during this time frame was approximately 24%.