Turning a corner: The future of New Horizons in Adult Education and Human Resource Development

New Horizons in Adult Education and Human Resource Development (NHAEHRD) is embarking on another chapter in its long and distinguished history. Beginning in January 2013, the journal will be published by Wiley On-Line. This unfortunately ends the journal's tenure as an open source journal. The editors of NHAEHRD regret the necessity for this decision because we believe strongly in the principle of free information that built the foundation for the journal back in 1987, but we look forward to building the journal's reputation and research with the assistance of Wiley On-Line. The journal will still be guided by other principles articulated by the original editors of New Horizons in Adult Education. These principles are:

To facilitate the exchange of information and learning using the very latest technologies… [and] (a) provide a means of disseminating, via computer, current thinking within the field of adult education; (b) develop new avenues for connecting adult educators worldwide; and (c) generate dialogue among researchers and practitioners. (Hugo & Newell, 1991, p.77)

The current editorial team honored these principles through our work to improve the journal. We improved the ease of access to the journal by creating a web site to house it. We expanded the scope of the journal to include the related field of human resource development. We added departments for perspectives pieces from both adult education and human resource development fields on teaching, research, people and practice, a department where scholars can reflect on writing, and special issues. With each issue, we strive to generate dialogue by disseminating work that stimulates research and practice.

In order for the journal to be maintained and grow, it needs the support and resources an established publishing company can provide. The journal will have a new look, Scholar One (the computer based review system) and a new managing editor will increase efficiency, and Wiley On-Line will provide exposure to a broader audience. Wiley will bundle NHAEHRD with other journals and sell the package to libraries throughout the world. Wiley will manage individual subscriptions and article sales. Florida International University, which now owns the journal along with the editors, will receive royalty checks that will help defray the costs associated with the journal. The journal's departments will remain the same. Hopefully submissions will increase as we work to decrease the time a manuscript is in review and modernize the review process.

These changes and the journal's growth are part of its amazing history: a history of perseverance. In 1987, when the journal was first published the debate was raging about whether open source journals online were viable, credible, and worthwhile, many scholars believed that a journal that was not published using paper and ink could not be academic or ever taken seriously. Few open source journals, which began close to the advent of the internet, are still published. This adult education project had the support of the Kellogg Foundation. In 1987, the first volume produced one issue of New Horizons in Adult Education and contained one article, “Adult education in Nicaragua: Adapting and growing in a changing reality” by Samuel Simpson. It was published by Syracuse University and edited by Michael Ehringhaus and Bird Stasz. The second volume grew to two issues each with three articles and a forum. Under Syracuse's guidance, publication varied from one to two issues per year, and editors and editorial board members frequently changed. In 1994, NOVA Southeastern took over publication of the journal with Nancy Gadbow as editor, producing one to four issues a year. In 2004, NHAE was handed over to Florida International University (FIU) where the editorial team has had its own struggles with publishing four issues a year and on time. This will change.

Once responsibility for New Horizons in Adult Education was assumed by the editorial team at FIU we made some strategic decisions. We secured support from the dean, who has provided funding for a graduate assistant to act as managing editor. To align the journal with the program, we modified the name to correspond with the academic program and the fields of the editors, and the journal became New Horizons in Adult Education and Human Resource Development. We added a new logo, a web page, processes and procedures for securing editorial board members, a review system, and expanded the journals departments, among other things. All the while, we have remained committed to the principles of providing a location for future scholars to receive developmental feedback and encouragement and to publish edgy pieces that might not fit the scope of the traditionally published and produced journals in the fields of adult education and human resource development.

This first issue published by Wiley On-Line is a good example of an issue that is an original work. Holly Hutchins decided to engage students in her adult learning class in a project to be published. She has an interest in media and asked her students to reflect on the adult learning and development that occurred in a movie that the student selected. She tried to get the issue published in a traditional journal, which didn't work out. While the student pieces could not be published alone because they are simply good class papers and not at the level of a publishable manuscript, they do provide an example of the possibilities that exist in teaching. Dr. Hutchins and some of her colleagues have shared insights on using popular media in teaching and the struggles with improving writing of students. We hope other faculty might consider projects with students and work with NHAEHRD towards publication and as these students become scholars they submit edgy scholarly pieces which generate dialogue and contribute to the growing quality of the journal.

New Horizons in Adult Education and Human Resource Development is turning a corner. We are accepting manuscripts and proposals for special issues. With the help of the editorial board, reviewers, and the editorial team, we will return to publishing four issues a year on line. We look forward to submissions that are creative, edgy, and “generate dialogue” among adult educators and human resource development practitioners and scholars.