Editorial

As I near the end of my fourth year as Editor-in-Chief, I would like to renew my thanks to the editorial team for their outstanding service to Educational Studies in Mathematics: associate editors Luis Radford, Angel Gutierrez, Elizabeth de Freitas, Arthur Bakker, Vilma Mesa, Wim Van Dooren, and David Wagner, and book review editor Gail FitzSimons. I know that the expert advice and guidance they offer to authors is much appreciated. I am grateful also for the excellent support provided by our Editorial Board members and reviewers, and the thoroughness and attention to detail of the Journal Editorial Office, Production Coordinator, and my Editorial Assistant Bronwyn Lacken. This dedicated team, although scattered around the globe, works in remarkable harmony to maintain the journal’s high standards with respect to content and presentation.

In 2016, there were 281 manuscripts submitted to ESM, and at the time of writing this editorial (early December), 300 manuscripts had been submitted since the start of 2017. This is nearly double the annual total of 115 manuscripts ten years ago. While the high rate of manuscript submissions attests to the journal’s standing, it also places considerable demands on the time and energies of its editors.

A further indication of the journal’s standing is the annual Impact Factor, which is a measure of the frequency with which the “average article” in a journal has been cited in a particular year. The 2016 Impact Factor, announced on 27 June 2017, was 0.959—our best ever result that continues the upward trend of the past three years (Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports® 2017). The total number of citations also increased from 1622 in 2015 to 1795 in 2016. Of course, citations alone do not tell the whole story, and it has been interesting to observe recent scholarly debates on the relative value of quantitative indicators and the qualitative judgments of international experts in our field. By both kinds of measures, ESM continues to be recognized as one of the very best research journals in mathematics education.

The geographical reach of the journal remains impressive. In 2016, manuscripts were received from 53 countries, with the greatest numbers of submissions coming from the USA, Turkey, UK, Spain, Canada, Poland, the UK, and Israel. Manuscripts accepted for publication in 2016 came from 25 countries, including Serbia, Slovakia, Turkey, Peru, Colombia, Japan, China, and Lebanon. ESM’s editors are conscious of the challenges faced by authors from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, and in 2018, we will be presenting workshops at conferences in South America and Taiwan to support colleagues in publishing mathematics education research in English language journals.

Only one Special Issue was published in 2017: Research-based interventions in the area of proof, guest edited by Gabriel Stylianides and Andreas Stylianides and published as Volume 96, issue 2. An innovative feature of the Special Issue was its open call for extended abstracts from which prospective contributions were selected. Special issues currently in progress have the following tentative titles:

• Scaling up innovative approaches to teaching mathematics

• Rituals and explorations in mathematical teaching and learning

• Affect and mathematics in young children.

The journal’s editors have formulated guidelines for proposing a Special Issue of Educational Studies in Mathematics, which are reproduced below.

The Editor-in-Chief of Educational Studies in Mathematics welcomes proposals for Special Issues addressing topics that are clearly within the journal’s scope. Proposals for Special Issues may be emailed to the Editor-in-Chief at any time, but no more than one Special Issue will be published in each Volume of the journal. Special Issues will normally have two or three Guest Editors, with an Editorial that introduces the topic and the articles, and a concluding commentary on the articles written by an expert on the chosen topic. The length of a Special Issue should be about the same as a regular issue of ESM—between 120 and 140 pages, comprising six to eight articles.

Proposals should include the following:

• 1. A title for the Special Issue that clearly and succinctly conveys its focus

• 2. The names, affiliations, and email addresses of the Guest Editors

• 3. Evidence of the Guest Editors’ previous editorial experience and familiarity with the scope and standards of ESM (e.g., journal editing, membership of editorial boards, relevant publications)

• 4. A convincing rationale for the Special Issue

• 5. A description of, and justification for, the approach to be taken for soliciting manuscripts. This may take the form of a list of abstracts and authors for invited contributions, an open call for extended abstracts from which prospective contributions would be selected, or some other approach that would arguably deliver a high-quality set of manuscripts. Whatever approach is taken, the Guest Editors should make it clear that submission of a manuscript does not guarantee its publication in the Special Issue.

• 6. A timeline for publication that includes:

  • A date for submission of extended abstracts, if an open call is made;

  • A date for acceptance or rejection of extended abstracts, if an open call is made;

  • A date for submission of first drafts of manuscripts to the Guest Editors;

  • A date for completion of an internal review process (about 2 months later);

  • A date for revisions to be submitted to the Editorial Manager for the ESM reviewing process (about 6 weeks later);

  • A date for completion of reviewing and acceptance or rejection decisions (about 6 months later);

  • A possible publication date.

Special Issue proposals are reviewed by the ESM Advisory Editors, with comments also invited from the Associate Editors. Guest Editors may be asked to revise proposals based on this feedback.

Educational Studies in Mathematics continues to publish high-quality articles that reveal the diversity of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches in our field, with an emphasis on “high-level articles that go beyond local or national interest” (see the online journal description at http://link.springer.com/journal/10649). I urge prospective authors to keep these requirements in mind, and to make clear how their study advances knowledge in mathematics education.