In researching open access journals in the field of program evaluation, I came across two: Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation (PARE) and Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation (JMDE). Since the PARE website appears more developed than the JMDE one (there is a Mission tab, but no statement), I chose to explore PARE further. This open access journal is edited and reviewed by volunteers from various universities and evaluation organizations and is completely electronic. According to the PARE website, "its purpose is to provide access to refereed articles that can have a positive impact on assessment, research, evaluation, and teaching practice. Manuscripts published in Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation are scholarly syntheses of research and ideas about methodological issues and practices. They are designed to help members of the community keep up-to-date with effective methods, trends, and research developments from a variety of settings."
Although the site does not explicitly express the rhetoric of the open access movement, I think it does refer to it in its aforementioned description (i.e., "to provide access..."). PARE publishes overviews, methods how-to's, fact sheets, issue papers, practice applications, research findings, and summaries of synthesis papers. Interestingly, the site states that there are "two key questions in the review will be whether the results generalize and whether the results are likely to alter someone's practice. Thus, PARE does not accept evaluations of local programs. We also do not accept validity studies of test instruments. We are not interested in derivations, but rather practical applications."
I am impressed by the diversity of publication types, from theoretical to practical. I think this is a major strength of the PARE journal and speaks to its position as an open access journal. Although I was initially disappointed that they did not publish evaluations of local programs, I could see how that could be overwhelming for an open access journal, with limited impact for the field's knowledge about evaluation at large. It also aligns with the journal's mission to collect knowledge that will impact evaluators' practice. Considering the practical, applied nature of evaluation, I think open access journals are important to the field. I will definitely consider submitting to PARE or another evaluation open access journal in the near future.
Although the site does not explicitly express the rhetoric of the open access movement, I think it does refer to it in its aforementioned description (i.e., "to provide access..."). PARE publishes overviews, methods how-to's, fact sheets, issue papers, practice applications, research findings, and summaries of synthesis papers. Interestingly, the site states that there are "two key questions in the review will be whether the results generalize and whether the results are likely to alter someone's practice. Thus, PARE does not accept evaluations of local programs. We also do not accept validity studies of test instruments. We are not interested in derivations, but rather practical applications."
I am impressed by the diversity of publication types, from theoretical to practical. I think this is a major strength of the PARE journal and speaks to its position as an open access journal. Although I was initially disappointed that they did not publish evaluations of local programs, I could see how that could be overwhelming for an open access journal, with limited impact for the field's knowledge about evaluation at large. It also aligns with the journal's mission to collect knowledge that will impact evaluators' practice. Considering the practical, applied nature of evaluation, I think open access journals are important to the field. I will definitely consider submitting to PARE or another evaluation open access journal in the near future.