Since 2007, the IARTEM e-journal has occupied a singular place in the field of research on textbooks and educational media. Thanks to the impulsion of the late Mike Horsley and the contributions of many others, it has become a major reference in this international research field, open to several research traditions and languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, thus anchoring the journal in several research cultures.
Unfortunately, Mike passed away in 2016. Over the following 3 years, the e-journal kept on publishing, reorganizing itself under the care of a group of committed persons, among whom Aurélie Beauné (France), Eric Bruillard (France), Tania Braga Garcia (Brazil), Guilherme Romanelli (Brazil), Jesús Rodríguez Rodríguez (Spain), Zuzana Sikorova (Czech Republic) and Andy Smart (United Kingdom).
In 2019, the IARTEM board decided to move forward and to relaunch the e-journal, with a new team, working on a voluntary basis, and a new OJS platform financed by the OA-initiative of University of South-Eastern Norway. It has been a few months since the IARTEM board decided to relaunch the IARTEM journal. Several technical challenges have arisen and thankfully solved, a difficult task for academics with limited technical support. Contemporary platforms offer very powerful functionalities, but they must first to be tamed.
The new OJS platform allows for better referencing of the published papers and a more user-friendly interface with better search capabilities. Another difference must also be mentioned: from now on, the new platform will publish the articles one by one as soon as they are ready for publication.
What does this mean for the review and validation process? Nothing has changed or will change much in the short term. Reviews are made on a double-blind principle with anonymized texts. Exceptionally, members of the editorial committee may also be solicited. The paper then undergoes a review with one double-blind and one-single blind review.
Now, things have moved forward and we are quite satisfied that we are able to offer a first set of new articles that have been accepted by the editorial board. We are grateful to all the people and institutions who helped us, in particular the University of South-eastern Norway.
Looking backwards, we will likely notice an evolution in the contents of the journal: for some time now, textbooks have been part of a changing systemic educational offer which includes online resources and software instruments that do not pose quite the same problems as textbooks; it is logical that more contributions be devoted to the design and use of educational digital media.
Regarding long term perspectives, nothing has been planned in detail and so much the better. It is safe to surmise that the e-journal will keep publishing unique contributions about how educational resources intervene for teaching and learning all around the world.
To sum up, several decades after its creation, the IARTEM has become an internationally visible association of researchers, open to innovation. What is important is that the main orientations set up by the first pioneers are still valid and the journal continues to serve as connection between several research cultures.
So Long live the IARTEM e-journal!
Georges-Louis Baron, Editor in
Chief
Guilherme Gabriel Ballande Romanelli, Deputy Editor in Chief
Iben Brinch Jørgensen, Deputy Editor in Chief
Andrea Tucker, Editorial secretary
Ommund Carsten Vareberg, Special editorial adviser