TOJDE: Electronic Publishing and a Review of 10 Years’ Experience in Turkey

Electronic publishing has been broadly defined as nonprint material that is produced digitally. Electronic publishing is an encompassing term for a variety of digitally produced materials (Jones & Cook, 2000) such as bulletin boards, newsgroups, mailing lists, CD-ROM-based media, and websites (Ludwick & Glazer, 2000). Material produced electronically can be classified into two major categories that are not mutually exclusive: communication and information management. CD-ROMs and websites are often categorized as information management, while others like newsgroups/forums and mailing lists can be grouped as a means of communication. Electronic publishing can be defined as distributing and archiving of full text professional articles via computer based storage technology such as magnetic or optical discs (Schauder, 1994).

It should be emphasized that electronic publishing can be grouped in two main categories from point of view of management: communication and information. As the use of the Internet becomes more and more embedded in scholarly communication in many forms, scholars will face more complex choices in managing communications through electronic media. In an electronic format the resources can be hyperlinked and reachable in every part of the world. Users can easily search by author, keyword, title, journal, year, and see the results on the screen.

Forums and chat rooms are also a means of communication. They are web-based and often developed and sustained for their constituents. Forums are like newsgroups in that the messages are often “threaded” or organized by a theme. Forums are also like e-mail, mailing lists, and newsgroups as they are asynchronous, exchanging information at different times. Chat rooms, which have exploded in the commercial sector, allow “real time” or synchronous text posting and have been used primarily for socializing or for commercial purposes such as book promotions (Ludwick & Glazer, 2000). Another way to classify electronic publishing is as: e-bulletins, e-magazines, webpages, news archives, discussion lists, and e-journals.

Electronic publishing has these advantages:

• accessible to all users regardless of geographic location;

• more acceptance of e-publishing within the scientific community;

• possibility to get print out, to store in file, or download from Internet the long texts like an article;

• possibility of instant communication between editor/author;

• possibility of to read whenever or how much you want;

• possibility of cheaper publishing or cost effective publishing;

• possibility of easier production and distribution of large volume study materials (Ludwick & Glazer, 2000; Tonta, 1997); and

• possibility of easier and quicker reach to huge numbers of readers.

Electronic publishing may have these disadvantages:

• user-unfriendliness (Bishop, 1995);

• cost dimension of Internet and computer;

• time spent using and waiting for pages.

• technical difficulties reaching electronic materials;

• misconduct and security issues, piracy, and plagiarism;

• copy the entire document, or change the actual article, image, or data (Tenopir, 1995);

• destroying copyright (Rosenberg, 1994);

• lack of widespread acceptance within the scientific community;

• decreasing of access speed because of huge volume; and

• sounds and pictures (Ludwick & Glazer, 2000; Tonta, 1997).

You are asked to submit a manuscript to an electronic journal, or perhaps as a reader of an electronic journal, you are moved to write a letter to the editor about a topic. As you contemplate writing either the article or the letter, you may experience some anxiety and uncertainty. How are letters and manuscripts are reviewed and is the journal peer reviewed? Do I submit my work electronically and how will the editorial staff communicate with me? Who will read my work? Underlying these questions are ethical issues about quality, security, and access. Let's now examine how these ethical issues could manifest themselves.

Quality is closely related to the ethical principle of “do no harm” and to the virtues of honesty and integrity. The ethical issue about the quality of electronic publishing that is raised most often is whether articles submitted to electronic journals are peer reviewed or not.

Security is closely related to the ethical tenets of privacy and confidentiality. Electronic journal editors carry the responsibility to their authors to guarantee confidentiality and to their readers be sensitive to privacy issues in many of the same ways that print journal editors must.

Access is related to the ethical principle of justice. For an electronic journal to be successful, it must not only have a loyal readership but also a readership that has the means by which to access the information.

How is the publication disseminated? Is the journal a dual publication (i.e., print and journal)? Is the publication free? Is registration required if the journal is free? Is the journal subscription based? Is the journal benefits open only to members? (Alptekin-Oğuzertem, 2000; Cipriano & Ruth, 2000).

What is an electronic scholarly journal? We might simply define it as a digital periodical dedicated to publishing, on the Internet, articles, essays, and analyses that have been read and commented upon initially by a select group of editors and reviewers, to meet a certain arbitrary standard of excellence (as determined by the editors) for a given discipline addressed by the journal itself. The diversity of electronic journals in the past 5 years has led some to predict the extinction of traditional academic journals, that a new paradigm is sweeping scholarship.

A closer examination of the ways in which digital and printed scholarly journals are developed clearly indicates that most electronic journals are not all that different in their fundamental editorial processes than print (Valauskas, 1997).

An electronic publication has been defined as a document distributed primarily through electronic media or nonprint material that is produced digitally. An article posted on a web page (under a variety of restrictions or conditions), an article distributed via e-mail, or via an e-mail-based distribution list are all electronic publication (Kling & McKim, 1999). Material produced electronically can be classified into two major categories that are not mutually exclusive: communication and information management. CD-ROMs and websites are often categorized as information management, while others like newsgroups/forums and mailing lists can be grouped as a means of communication (Demiray, 2003). With the development of the Internet the characteristics of communication have changed. Electronic publishing, which is a nonprint digitally distributed material across the network, became more popular. As the use of the Internet becomes more and more embedded in scholarly communication in many forms, scholars will face more complex choices in managing communications through electronic media. In an electronic format the resources can be hyperlinked and reachable every part of the World. Users can easily search by author, keyword, title, journal, year, and see the results on the screen.

AJDE is the internationally recognized journal of research and scholarship in the field of American distance education, established with the mission of disseminating information about research and scholarship in the Americas. It was founded in 1987 by Michael Grahame Moore. From 1987 until 2001 AJDE was published at The Pennsylvania State University College of Education; following that it was published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates until 2006. AJDE is now published by Taylor & Francis.

AJDE offers a solid foundation of valuable research-based knowledge about all aspects of the pedagogy of the field. Peer reviewed articles provide reports on the latest findings in such areas as: building and sustaining effective delivery systems, course design and application of instructional design theories, facilitating interaction between students and with instructors, factors influencing student achievement and satisfaction, the changing roles of faculty and changes in institutional culture, and administrative and policy issues including cost-effectiveness and copyright.

The Asian Journal of Distance Education, established in 2002, aims to disseminate scholarly works and information useful to researchers and practitioners in the growing field of distance education in Asia. AsianJDE publishes peer reviewed articles and other information for researchers and others interested in open learning and distance education in Asia. This journal also aims to provide a forum for discussions within and directly relating to Asia, and so elicits Asian local theoretical and practical solutions to address local concerns. The AsianJDE has a specific focus on the Asian context and publishes double-peer reviewed scholarly articles, plus other papers such as focus reports on a bounded region or an institution, and works-in-progress. Other items include a detailed calendar of conferences and events in Asia, comments (a moderated discussion forum on previously published articles), Asian abstracts, and others.

Distance Education is the official journal of the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia, Inc. (ODLAA). It is published by Routledge Electronic. Copies of papers from Volume 23 are available through Informaworld for those who have purchased an individual or organizational subscription to the journal, outside of their ODLAA membership. Distance Education is a peer-reviewed international journal that publishes research and scholarly material in the fields of distance, open, and flexible education. Distance Education was one of the first journals published to focus exclusively on this area of educational practice. ODLAA connects professionals in order to share experiences and disseminate information with respect to open and distance learning. Its members come from all educational sectors plus commercial training providers and training units in the corporate sector. They are involved in management, administration, design, development, research and teaching in multiple modes that may best be described as “outside the traditional classroom.” ODLAA is a nonprofit organization managed by an elected executive committee of members who donate their time to conduct the business of the association.

EURODL, established in 1995 and supported by EDEN—the European Distance and E-learning Network presents scholarly work and solid information about open, distance, and e-learning as well as new dimensions of technology-enhanced learning and contributes to the open content movement.

It publishes accounts of research, development, and teaching for Europe in its most inclusive definition, exploring the potential of electronic publishing. Furthermore, EURODL presents scholarly work and solid information about open, distance, and e-learning, education through telematics, multimedia, online learning, and cooperation. The language of publication is English, with an abstract in the author's chosen language. Additionally, there is an option to publish the originally submitted paper's identical copy in another language; however, this latter contribution is not refereed.

The journal allows all the languages of Europe to appear, as the abstract and/or the optional contribution will be in the chosen language of the authors and will therefore extend e.g., from Lithuanian to German. The journal has a section of refereed articles that can be found on the “Current Issue” page and in the EURODL archive. Full papers in English meeting basic requirements that are comparable to publishing in printed journals are published in this section.

There is also a “Brief Items” section, which is not refereed and which acts as a more accessible and informative section of project reports, work in progress, nonEnglish contributions, and the like. This supports communication within the EDEN membership as well as the European area.

The Global E-Journal of Open, Flexible & Distance Education aims at providing a forum for exchange, between the developed and the developing worlds, of ideas, innovations, research outcomes, best practices, development in print and nonprint resource materials, and information on national/regional/international seminars/workshops/conferences in areas of open, distance, flexible, lifelong and e-learning at all levels of education. GEJOFEDE has four sections: conceptual and research papers, cases and innovations, print and software review, conferences and events. It is guided by an international advisory board, and is edited by a group of professionals from the field. It is published in February, June, and October every year by the Society for Advancement of Flexible & Distance Education & Development (SAFED) (a not-for-profit society), Bhopal-India. The focus is largely on, but not restricted to, planning and management, innovations and change, and research and development in these fields. This internationally referred, contributed, and abstracted journal is available mainly in electronic form. However, it is also available in paperback print form.

The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning (IRRODL) is a refereed, open access e-journal that disseminates original research, theory, and best practice in open and distance learning worldwide. It is published by the Canadian Institute of Distance Education Research at Athabasca University. IRRODL is available free of charge to anyone with access to the Internet. The purpose of this refereed, interactive, online journal is to contribute and disseminate to practitioners and scholars worldwide scholarly knowledge in each of three areas: theory, research, and best practice in open and distance learning. In harmony with the open learning philosophy that distance education should serve to remote barriers to those who, given their geographical location, previous level of schooling, or other life circumstances would otherwise not be able to access distance education opportunities, subscriptions are free to individuals.

The Journal of Distance Education is an international publication of the Canadian Network for Innovation in Education (CNIE). Its aims are to promote and encourage Canadian scholarly work in distance education and provide a forum for the dissemination of international scholarship. The aim of the Journal of Distance Education is to promote and encourage Canadian scholarly work in distance education and provide a forum for the dissemination of international scholarship. It is published at least three times a year by the Canadian Network for Innovation in Education (CNIE). Original material in either English or French is invited in three broad categories: scholarly articles and research papers that focus on issues related to distance education; reports that highlight unique solutions to critical problems, short descriptions of work underlying new or innovative programs or contemporary events, and brief notes on research in progress; and dialogues devoted to the discussion or debate of issues in distance education that may arouse controversy. Also included here will be papers written in reply to articles published in earlier issues of the journal.

The Malaysian Journal of Distance Education (MJDE) is devoted to the dissemination of information on the research and practices of distance education. MJDE was launched in 1999 with an initial contribution from the academic staff members of the School of Distance Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia. The Journal is published biannually (June and December) by the Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia, the publishing house of the Universiti Sains Malaysia.

The Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education (TOJDE) is a peer reviewed electronic scholarly journal published in English by Anadolu University, Eskisehir, Turkey, since 2000. For its first 2 years it was published biannually. Since 2002 it has been published quarterly. TOJDE focuses on the issues and challenges of providing theory, research, and information services to students.

For this research study the Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education (TOJDE) was selected. TOJDE is a quarterly, peer-reviewed international electronic journal that can be accessed online from the address http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr

In this study, content analysis and website analytics were employed. First, content analysis was used in this study to investigate documents. There are two basic types of content analysis: conceptual (looking to quantify and categorize objects) and semantic (looking to find and predict meaning) in the set of objects (Murphy & Ciszewska-Carr, 2005). The main goal of this conceptual content analysis was to find answers to following question: What are the publishing activities (research topics, methods, instruments, statistical methods, author numbers and their institutional affiliation) of TOJDE?

Data for this study were obtained from the articles published in the first 11 volumes (in the years 2001-2011) of the Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education. The articles are reviewed according to the selected criteria, and then these data were categorized according to existing or emerging themes. Most parts of the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and presented with tables and figures.

This study also examined the performance of TOJDE website by using website analytics. Website analytics measures visitors’ traffic, visitors’ behavior, and how this behavior compares to the expected behavior (Ferrini & Mohr, 2009).

Fields addressed by TOJDE are economic, social and cultural dimension of DE, pedagogical, political, philosophical, legal, ethical reflections in DE organization in DE, needs assessment, staff training in DE, program and material development in DE, professional experiences in DE, financial planning in DE, learning resources in DE, digital libraries and virtual universities, guidance and counseling, communication, multimedia software, Web technology, Internet, network software, feedback mechanisms, measurement, quality control and evaluation in DE, production of quality in DE, performance evaluation, interaction, DE in the future, DE and globalization, dynamism and dimensions of DE in the 21st century, virtual reality and electronic publishing in DE.

TOJDE's Editorial Board has 69 members, representing a team of worldwide experts in open and distance education. It was established by Turkish and foreign academicians who are expert in their field. Table 1 shows the number of editorial board members per country in TOJDE 2010.

The TOJDE site (http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr) contains several research articles, a detailed description of the editorial board, and links to past issues. There is also a call for papers, information about conferences, a listserv subscription opportunity, as well as an opportunity to provide feedback to the writers of the journal.

TOJDE consists of articles, reviews, and news sections. It particularly strives to meet the continuing education needs of practitioners and educators by providing a forum for the discussion of extended learning strategies, policies and practices, and trends in information technology as they impact the delivery of any kind of the student support services for distance learners and faculties.

Articles may be theoretical, philosophical, and/or quantitative analyses of distance education/open learning and teaching issues, and may take the form of case studies, research studies, or general interest reports. Book reviews, conference reports, literature reviews, news items, editor's note, announcements of conferences and publications, and letters to the editor etc. are also published.

The publishing values of TOJDE are as follows:

Readers’ Needs: Readers’ needs are paramount. We will not forget who we serve.

Quality Articles: The TOJDE will always try to provide not only quality articles to its readers, but also tries to meet readers’ expectations.

Quality Journal Staff: The TOJDE will always value and prize those editors, reviewers, and staff who have shown a willingness to provide the quality publishing through their various levels of expertise.

Community Share Service: The TOJDE must try to show the community its commitment by sharing to its overall betterment. By committing to the previous three values, meeting this fourth value becomes a matter of record.

TOJDE is abstracted, indexed, and cited by the following databases from around the world:

• The AERA SIG Communication of Research;

• Australian Education Index-AEI;

• The Directory of Open Access Journals-DOAJ;

• The Education Resources Information Center-ERIC;

• Education Network Australia-EdNA;

• Elsevier ScienceDirect;

• The Government Education Portal;

• Higher Education Research Data Collection-HERDC;

• Index Copernicus;

• Ulrich's Periodicals Directory; and

• Vocational Education and Training Research Database-VOCED.

If the web performance of an institution is below the expected position according to their academic excellence, university authorities should reconsider their web policy, promoting substantial increases of the volume and quality of their electronic publication. Since 2004, the Ranking Web is published twice a year (January and July), covering more than 20,000 higher education institutions worldwide (Webometrics Ranking of World Universities, 2011). Rank of universities of Turkey is presented in Table 2.

Webometrics bases its ranking of institutional websites on four indicators: Visibility (V, 50%): the total number of unique external links received (inlinks) by a site can be only confidently obtained from Yahoo Search, Live Search and Exalead. Size (S, 20%): number of pages recovered from four engines: Google, Yahoo, Live Search and Exalead. Rich Files (R, 15%): after evaluation of their relevance to academic and publication activities and considering the volume of the different file formats, the following were selected: Adobe Acrobat (.pdf), Adobe PostScript (.ps), Microsoft Word (.doc) and Microsoft Powerpoint (.ppt). These data were extracted using Google, Yahoo Search, Live Search and Exalead. Scholar (Sc, 15%): Google Scholar provides the number of papers and citations for each academic domain. These results from the Scholar database represent papers, reports and other academic items.

Because an online journal has many inlinks and has many references in Google Scholar, it helps promoting the ranking. For instance, number of inlinks to major websites of Anadolu University reveals such a situation as can be seen on the Table 3. Almost 11% of the inlinks come from TOJDE as of July 2010.

Impact of publications reached from websites for webometrics ranking measures of Anadolu University are listed in Table 4. TOJDE's own website is the biggest impact for reaching to the publications.

Table 5 shows visibility rank of web pages hosted by Anadolu University. All web pages offer online services to users. TOJDE website that provides 0.4% visibility rank to reach for Anadolu University.

Index Copernicus (IC) is a journal indexing, ranking, and abstracting site. This service accepts peer review and tracks manuscripts online and builds up relations with authors, reviewers, and readers as well as increasing the international awareness of a journal. For journals indexed in Current Contents Index Copernicus Value (ICV) calculations are based on the following formula: Base Points (BP) are converted into 10 points Total Basic Score (TBS), then: 9+[(TBS)×(IF)] (where IF=impact factor value). This formula ensures that the journals indexed at Current Contents have a minimum ICV of 9 points. For the rest of journals which are not indexed in Current Contents TBS=ICV (Index Copernicus, 2011). Table 6 shows Index Copernicus Value of TOJDE.

Number of published articles types by year is presented in Table 7, number of published articles by year, volume and number in Table 8, number of authors per article in Table 9, number of authors per articles types, year, volume, and number in Table 10, and number of countries per year in Table 11 are presented. A total 422 articles, 56 notes for editors, and 104 reviews were published during the years 2000-2010. As can be seen in Table 7, total article numbers appear to be increasing in recent years. Tuncay, Keser, and Uzunboylu (2010) also stated that publishing documents numbers increased over the years in TOJDE.

Over a 10-year period from 2000-2010, single authored articles have the biggest part—232 (55%)—of published articles.

Table 8 revealed author numbers per articles in TOJDE.

Number of countries contributed to publications per year in 2000-2010 is shown in Table 9. Most of the article sub-missions come from Turkey, and USA, India, Nigeria, Malaysia, Pakistan, Australia, Canada, UK, Bangladesh, Greece, and Iran, respectively. USA is in second place in the table. The reason is Turkish graduate students continue to study in American universities and send to TOJDE articles on behalf of their own universities.

Table 10 shows authors’ country/institutional affiliation, which indicates that most studies published by TOJDE are carried out at universities whose research field is open and distance education.

The published studies’ topics are listed in Table 11. This study used some parts of Zawacki-Richter's (2009) classification of research areas in DE. Inductive coding was employed to identify patterns in the data and establish categories. After close readings of studies and consideration of the multiple meanings that are inherent in the studies, topics of studies are added to the category where they are relevant. Learner and instructor experiences of online learning environment; information about the system and programme; economic, social and cultural dimension of DE, and pedagogical, political, philosophical, legal, ethical reflections in DE are the top four research topics in TOJDE.

The studies are reviewed for their research paradigm. Numbers of research paradigms used in studies are given in Table 12. The analysis indicated that most of the studies are quantitative research paradigm in distance education studies.

The studies are also reviewed for their research instruments. Numbers of instruments used in studies published are listed in Table 13. Some articles identified more than one data collection tool, so they were listed under different multiple headings. Most of the studies collect data by document analysis. In addition, survey, scale, and interview are preferred instruments in distance education studies.

Numbers of statistical methods used in studies published are listed in Table 14. Descriptive statistics are the most used statistical analysis in distance education studies. Content analysis (13,7%), variance analysis (9,8%), and t test (6,8%) are also used in published studies.

The Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education website, located at http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr, contains several research articles, a detailed description of the editorial board, links to past issues, a call for papers, information about conferences, a listserv subscription opportunity, and an opportunity to provide feedback to the writers of the journal. It is well laid out and organized into logical sections with easy navigation. The website received 823,129 hits August 2010-February 2011 from 31,498 visitors around the world.

This report answers the question: how long do users stay on site? It is calculated for all people visiting more than one web page. The TOJDE website received an average 4000 hits daily. It received between 800-1000 users per day, and has taken over 800 daily requests. Users preferred to visit TOJDE website in weekdays, with activity tending to peak at Thursdays.

User profile here is defined as set of unique pages visited in one time. Most Common User Paths display most popular paths of users on TOJDE presented Table 15.

Visitors to TOJDE website come from all over the world as stated in study of Reddy Y (2005). Table 16 presents over 31,498 peo-of DE; and pedagogical, political, philosophical, legal, ethical reflections in DE are dominant in recent years in TOJDE. Research in the areas of virtual reality, electronic publishing, digital libraries, programme and material development, and problems and challenges in DE appear to be less common. More than three fourths of the articles employed a quantitative research paradigm as their methodology. Furthermore, half of the articles used document analysis, 20% of articles used survey as their data collection tools, and half of the articles used descriptive statistics as their statistical methods. A review of research methodology used in DE research for four journals (The American Journal of Distance Education (United States), Distance Education (Australia), the Journal of Distance Education (Canada), and Open Learning (United Kingdom) in the years 1990 to 1999 found that three fourths of the articles used descriptive research (Berge & Mrozowski, 2001).

Most of the article submissions come from Turkey, the USA, India, Nigeria, Malaysia, Pakistan, Australia, Canada, the UK, Bangladesh, Greece, and Iran. Although single-authored articles are prevalent, collaborative studies have increased in recent years. Zawacki-Richter, Bäcker, and Vogt (2009) found that there is a significant positive trend for multiple author articles.

After website analysis, the most popular paths of users of TOJDE are the TOJDE homepage, TOJDE's editorial board, and TOJDE volume 11, number 4. Visitors to the TOJDE website come from all over the world. Most hits come from Turkey, but a large number of users visited from the USA, China, India, France, and the UK.

This kind of review can be used to increase the quality of future research studies and the results may affect research areas in DE in the future. For instance, virtual reality, digital libraries and programme development, and problems and challenges can be examined in further studies. In addition, this analysis can be useful for seeing the full picture of TOJDE and prospective researchers can use the results to identify priority areas and to explore potential research directions.