About the Journal

About the Journal

Focus and Scope

MediaEducation (MedienPädagogik) is an academic open-access online-journal addressed to scholars and practicioners who focus on questions about the mediation between people and media in educational contexts (Media Education). Amongst others, this includes disciplines from Educational Sciences, Communication and Media Studies and Psychology (ISSN 1424-3636).

MedienPädagogik

  • provides a forum for discussing the theory and practice of media education,
  • offers a perspective on the current state of discourse in the field,
  • publishes contributions to empirical media research,
  • furnishes a platform for discussing educational and scientific methods.

The journal is edited by the Division Media Education of the German Educational Research Association (GERA), is supported by the Zurich University of Teacher Education (PH Zürich), and is hosted and published by the OAPublishing Collective Cooperative. The journal's procedures, policies and ethics are inline with and informed by the "principles of transparency and best practice for scholarly publications" of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

 

Governing Bodies of the journal MedienPädagogik

Publication of the journal MedienPädagogik

The journal MedienPädagogik is published by the Department Media Education of the German Educational Research Association (GERA / DGfE).

Management and administrative bodies of the journal MedienPädagogik (governing bodies)

Managing editor (management; Editor-in-Chief)

The journal MedienPädagogik is managed by a managing editor / Editor-in-Chief as the highest governing body. The managing Editor-in-Chief manages all business of the journal in compliance with its principles. The Editor-in-Chief organises and coordinates the management and administrative bodies of the journal.

The managing editor / Editor-in-Chief

  • oversees all articles in the journal, from submissions in progress to those published to rejected and archived articles;
  • organises the production process in cooperation with the respective journal editors (submission, review, revision, editing, typesetting, publication);
  • enforces compliance with the quality criteria;
  • actively supports magazine editors and provides 1st-level support for users;
  • represents the magazine internally and externally.

Other tasks include, in collaboration with the editors, the acquisition of new calls for papers, issues and contributions, the strategic dissemination of the journal, its contributions and associated metadata, organisation of technical implementation, including strategic further development.

The Editor-in-Chief is a member of the German Educational Research Association (GERA / DGfE) and is involved in the Department Media Education. The Editor-in-Chief is elected / confirmed every two years by the board of the Department Media Education.

Editors of the journal MedienPädagogik

The managing body of the journal's editors consists of a total of five people:

  • two people from the Media Education section,
  • one person from the board of the Media Education section and
  • one person in qualification phases.

These representatives are recognised in the learned society of Media Education. They are members of the German Educational Research Association (GERA / DGfE) and are recognised in the learned society of Media Education as proactively acting on behalf of the community.

The editors from the Department Media Education, the Board of the Department Media Education and persons in qualification phases are elected or confirmed for a period of three years by the members of the Department Media Education.

Persons in qualification phases can relinquish their function after one year. Re-election is possible. The general task of the editors is active collaboration, active quality assurance management and the supervision of the scientific advisory board. As a rule, the editors do not provide expert opinions so as not to intervene powerfully in decision-making processes.

The tasks of the editors are in particular

  • Appointment of the managing editor in agreement with the board of the Section for Media Education by means of an election,
  • constant monitoring and active revision of the processes (workflows, quality criteria and policies of the journal (e.g. editors revise policies): Editors revise policies of the journal and send revisions in German and English to the management),
  • Supervision of the journal's scientific advisory board (e.g. formulation, coordination and monitoring of tasks),
  • Acquisition of thematic issues and contacting journal editors,
  • Representing the journal internally, e.g. in the media education section, and externally, e.g. to the scientific public.
  • Proactive, binding and independent assumption of individual development tasks of the journal.

Editors of the journal MedienPädagogik

The editorial teams for the sections Occasional Papers and Reviews process submissions largely independently. The editorial teams are supported by the Editor-in-Chief as required.

They are currently staffed as follows:

  • Occasional Papers: Tilman-Mathies Klar (University of Paderborn)
  • Reviews: Thorsten Junge (Ludwigsburg University of Education), Claudia Helene Schumacher (RWTH Aachen University)

Scientific Advisory Board

The scientific advisory board is put together in such a way that a plurality with regard to scientific-theoretical orientation, represented disciplines and safeguarding of national and international developments is taken into account. Persons in qualification phases can be included in the advisory board. The editors decide on the selection and admission to the advisory board. The advisory board meets once a year at the invitation of the editors and discusses the further development of the journal.

The tasks of the scientific advisory board include

  • Submission of content proposals for the further development of the journal
  • Discussing the further development of the journal in general
  • Supporting the review process
  • Acquiring themed issues and approaching journal editors
  • General commitment to the journal
  • Participation in the annual advisory board meeting

 

Submission process and contributions

All contributions to the journal MediaEducation (MedienPädagogik) are submitted via the tool https://www.medienpaed.com/about/submissions. The "Submission Preparation Checklist" and "Author Guidelines" at https://www.medienpaed.com/about/submissions apply to submissions of contributions. By submitting contributions authors agree to the terms of this Copyright Notice. For enquiries, feedback and notifications of errors or bugs please refer to the contacts of the journal.

 

Peer-Review Process

All contributions to the sections "Special Issues", "Occasional Papers", and to the series "Jahrbuch Medienpädagogik" are being peer-reviewed in a double-blind process by experienced colleagues from the field of Media Education. Contributions to Special Issues are usually based upon Calls for Papers. The respective editors of Special Issues are responsible for the review and publication process of their Special Issues. All submitted contributions are being counter-checked against the publication check list. In case of a positive evaluation contributions are handed over to the review process: contributions will be anonymised and being sent to two independent external reviewers (double-blind). If one of the reviews suggests to "reject", a third review is obtained. If both reviews recommend rejection, the contribution is rejected.

Peer-Review Policy

  • Originality and topicality of the question:
    Is it a question that is of interest to the journal? Is a central question of the professional discourse addressed in a personal position statement or is a clarification achieved?
  • Scientific character and scientific references:
    Is the contribution up to date in the professional discourse, and are empirical parts methodically well presented?
  • Coherence and logical structure of the contribution:
    Are the main lines of argumentation in the structure of the contribution comprehensible, and are central terms clearly defined and consistently used?
  • Formal linguistic level:
    Is the contribution understandable and correctly written, and does the style follow a scientific (explanatory and argumentative) diction?

 

Evaluation options for reviewers:

  • Accept
  • Accept with reservations / conditional approval
  • Reject contribution

Preview the review form

In case of rejection, reviewers must state the main reasons; in case of approval with reservations, conditions for revision must be specified. Concrete and constructive conditions for revision help authors to revise their contributions. The tone of the reviews is always collegial, constructive and respectful !

 

Instructions for Editors of Special Issues

The editors of the journal are responsible for the content of the journal. Editors of special issues can submit their topic and issue proposals via the managing editor or one of the co-editors **Link** and coordinate topics with the magazine editors.

Editors of Special Issues formulate a Call for Papers, which they distribute via appropriate channels. In a framework concept, editors of Special Issues determine the concept of the Special Issue and the working method between the team of editors, the authors and the editorial staff.

Submissions for Special Issues must be submitted in accordance with the Call for Papers. After formal and content-related evaluation and, if necessary, consultation by the editors of the Special Issue, the submissions are reviewed by two external reviewers (double-blind peer review) and released for production to the editorial staff upon acceptance or after revision. The aim is for the editors of a Special Issue to organise the entire process of submission, peer review and editing themselves. If necessary, editors of a Special Issue will submit the finished articles, bundled as a booklet, in manuscript form to the editorial office for final production and publication. In special cases, the editorial staff can take over parts of these tasks.

Tasks of editors of Special Issues

  • Editors of a Special Issue write a Call for Papers (with dates, modalities and formats of submission).
  • Editors of a Special Issue present a framework concept in which they define the concept of the Special Issue and the working method between the editorial team, the authors and the editorial staff (quality assurance strategies).
  • Editors of a Special Issue check the form and content of the articles and, if necessary, advise the authors. They organise the double-blind peer review. Scientific contributions must be reviewed by two external reviewers. Contributions in additional categories determined by the editors of the Special Issue in the framework concept may deviate from this rule. Guidelines for these additional categories will be published later together with the issue.
  • To the attention of the editorial staff, they prepare an overview of the planned contributions with contact details of the authors and regularly inform the editorial staff about the progress of the journal.
  • Finished articles that have been reviewed, accepted and edited by the editors go to the editorial office for final production and publication.
    In the peer review, the contributions are evaluated under the following aspects: Originality and topicality of the question; scientific character and scientific references; coherence and (factual) logical structure of the contribution; formal linguistic level.
  • The editors create a definitive table of contents with the desired order of contributions and write an editorial.

 

Open Access Policy

We follow the Platinum Open Access way in journal publishing. This means that our journal provides immediate open access for readers to all articles on this website. The readers, therefore, are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, link to the full texts or use them for any other lawful purpose. This journal provides free access (Open Access) to its contents, given the primary notion that free public accessibility of scientific content is a benefit for the worldwide exchange of knowledge. We define Open Access as free access to our contents as well as free access for authors. No APC (article processing charges) will be charged.

 

Technical implementation of the journal

MedienPädagogik is provided by double redundant Linux servers of the company Metanet (location of the data centres is Zurich) and by Open Journal Systems (OJS). Open source software is used as far as possible in the provision and production of the open access journal, articles and books.

The full texts of the articles appear as open PDF documents. Abstracts and references appear on the landing page of the articles. Posters in PDF format and summaries as videos (video abstracts) can be processed as additional files. Other formats are possible by arrangement. The system supports versioning. Changes to the originals are indicated by new versions.

The presentation of full texts on the landing page is a development goal of the journal. This means the additional formatting of the articles as NISO JATS 1.1 XML and then also offers the possibility of dynamic integration of research data and raw material (Open Data). The full texts in JATS format are distributed together with the metadata.

 

Production process

Usually contributions are submitted on the basis of a Call for Papers. Contributions in the sections "Individual Contributions" and "Reviews" are exempt from this. Dissertations are processed by arrangement. Authors may submit contributions in the formats *.pdf, *.doc, *.docx and *.odt. After the anonymisation check and the review (including feedback), authors submit a revised version together with a comprehensible documentation of the changes. If no new review is planned, authors submit camera-ready and de-anonymised versions in *.docx or *.odt format. These MUST follow the guidelines for authors, the literature MUST follow the Chicago Manual of Style 17th ed. (author-date), and figures (except photographs) must be submitted as original files or vector graphics. Bibliographies may be submitted in machine-readable formats such as *.bibtex, *.ris or Zotero *.rdf. The insistence on vector formats or original files and the insistence on precise and complete references is one of the quality features of MedienPädagogik. After proofreading, which is usually organised by the editors, the contributions are typeset in Abobe InDesign. This means that documents are imported into a template file and then formatted paragraph by paragraph. Illustrations and diagrams are "placed" as vector graphics. The text and especially the bibliography are strictly controlled in this process and can be taken from the machine-readable formats. A galley proof is then produced as a *.pdf and sent to the authors for revision. Once the returned changes have been accepted, a final *.pdf is produced and published together with the revised metadata of the contributions.

 

Distribution of the metadata

The metadata of the contributions will be distributed under the Creative Commons (CC-BY) licence (Open Metadata). The metadata are available in the OAI-PMH format at the interface https://www.medienpaed.com/oai.

The metadata of the articles are actively distributed to:

Especially at the OAI-PMH interface, metadata is regularly obtained automatically from the following:

 

Availability and long-term archiving

The full texts of MedienPädagogik have been constantly available for over 20 years. Server-related downtimes are limited to less than 0.01% in that time. The operation and provision of the full texts is guaranteed for at least the next five years. The registration of metadata and URLs as DOI at Crossref ensures medium-term access and provision.

Long-term archiving is secured through automated delivery to the PKP-PLN (LOCKSS) (Indexed by: THE KEEPERS), the delivery of the contributions to the German National Library (dnb) is in planning.

 

Production costs

Costs are incurred for the production of Special Issues. Editors of Special Issues are encouraged to contact the Open Access funds of their respective universities in order to acquire appropriate funding. In this case, Special Issues in MedienPädagogik are treated in the same way as edited volumes.

The journal MedienPädagogik is committed to Diamond Open Access / Platinum Open Access. Therefore, there are no Article Processing Charges (APC). In this sense, authors should not be forced to pay fees for the publication of their manuscripts.

However, voluntary support contributions - if this is possible in individual cases - are very welcome.

Costs are covered transparently and on a not-for-profit basis.

 

Journal History

MediaEducation is publishing since 2000 about two special issues per year, numerous occasional papers and reviews.