By Latifah Miles—
New Jersey City University’s peer reviewed journal, Transformations, continues to hold its place as the only peer reviewed journal among urban New Jersey universities, almost ten years after their first publication.
The journal has articles written by professors and graduate students across the country and internationally. These articles are reviewed and evaluated by peer professors.
Transformations offers the New Jersey City University community nationwide and international recognition. Dr. Jacqueline Ellis of NJCU’s Women Studies department said “I think that [the] journal is a way of letting other colleges and universities across the United States and internationally know about NJCU and the work that goes on here, especially academic work.”
The peer reviewed journal was originally founded by New Jersey Project, a state funded program. Once that program ended, NJCU’s Vice President of Academic Affairs Jo Bruno thought it would be beneficial to bring Transformations to NJCU. The journal has published an issue twice a year ever since.
Dr. Ellis also said that Transformations benefits the New Jersey City University community as well. “…Because Transformantions is a journal that focuses on writing about teaching, it is a way for NJCU to make a unique contribution to academic writing. Having a peer-reviewed journal adds a certain amount of prestige to the institution which is a good thing for everyone.”
New Jersey City University opened its doors in 1929. One of the schools original names was New Jersey State Teachers College at Jersey City. The school was accredited as a University and offered liberal arts degrees. Much like New Jersey City University’s early days, the journal focuses on the different perspectives of teaching.
Articles that the journal has published include “Teaching Feelings,” “Teaching Nation,” “Teaching Sex,” and their current issue “Teaching Food.”
Like other peer-reviewed journals, there is a process in order to be published in the journal. Dr. Ellis explains that “With each issue, we solicit articles around a special topic. We receive submissions, mostly from professors and grad students from across the country and internationally. The editors—myself and Ellen Garvey, sometimes working with a guest editor—make selections, we send those articles to be evaluated by other professors in the field. They will then recommend publication, or that we should reject the article, or that changes need to be made. Then the editors make final selections based on the evaluation and recommendations.”
Transformations can be accessed through a subscription as well as individual copies. The NJCU community is able to access the journal through the library database.
