The international profile of Irish Educational Studies, the journal of the Educational Studies Association of Ireland, goes from strength to strength in its 40th Year

First published in 1981, Irish Educational Studies is now celebrating its 40^th year, and the publisher, Taylor & Francis/Routledge, the Editors and ESAI Executive are delighted to report that the international profile of the journal continues to go from strength to strength, as evidenced by phenomenal growth in the last year in the journal’s international publication metrics. The online readership downloads for the journal have increased by 252% when compared with the same period last year, and the journal’s impact factor has almost doubled to 1.017.  

In October of 2020, Irish Educational Studies issued a call for papers for a special issue of the journal, examining the impact of COVID-19 on all aspects of education, in Ireland and internationally. The call received an overwhelming response and in June 2021 the special issue was published with the title: “COVID-19 and Education: Positioning the Pandemic; Facing the Future”, https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/ries20/40/2?nav=tocList , and was jointly guest-edited by the editorial team, led by General Editor, Dr Tony Hall (NUI Galway), and Co-Editors: Dr Delma Byrne (Maynooth University), Dr Audrey Bryan (Dublin City University), Dr Karl Kitching (University of Birmingham), Dr Déirdre Ní Chróinín (Mary Immaculate College, Limerick), Dr. Catriona O’Toole (Maynooth University), and Joan Addley (Irish Educational Studies). 

Irish Educational Studies: Vol 40, No 2 ‘The green potion is the virus. The blue one is the corona test. The coloured one makes your wish come true’: Irish children’s changing perceptions of a scientist as a result of the onset of COVID-19 www.tandfonline.com

In significant part as a consequence of the COVID-19 issue, the largest-ever in IES’ history (32 research articles; 320 pages), there has been a remarkable growth in the journal’s readership figures this year and this quarter again, an increase of 252% in full-text downloads, when compared with the same period last year. Along with the near-doubling of the impact factor this year (now 1.017, the first time IES has achieved an IF above 1), this all indicates the strongly growing profile of the journal internationally. 

Furthermore, the current call for papers on ‘Digital Education Futures: Design for doing education differently’ has also had a remarkable response with over 50 proposals submitted, from Ireland and internationally. This issue will appear in early 2022, jointly guest edited by Dr Tony Hall (NUI Galway), Prof Rupert Wegerif (University of Cambridge), Prof Suzanna Loper (University of California, Berkeley), Dr Déirdre Ní Chróinín (Mary Immaculate College, Limerick), and Dr Emma O’Brien (Mary Immaculate College, Limerick).