IIER Editorial 35(2): (i) IIER's 2023 review outcomes; (ii) Miscellanea

Atkinson, Roger; McBeath, Clare

Issues in Educational Research, 2025, Vol 35(2), ii-v.
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IIER Editorial 35(2): (i) IIER's 2024 review outcomes; (ii) Miscellanea

Roger Atkinson and Clare McBeath
IIER Co-Editors, Australia

This Editorial provides IIER's tenth annual presentation of the details of article review outcomes, now covering the years, 2015 to 2024 (Table 1). This Editorial's second section continues the 'Editorial miscellanea' that we initiated in IIER Editorial 34(1).

(i) IIER's 2024 review outcomes

Year of receipt	No. rec'd	No. rejected editorially (a)	No. reject ext review (b)	No. with- drawn (c)	No. accept (d)	No. publ- ished (e)	% accep- ted (f)	Date fin- alised (g)
2024	810	697 (86.0%)	19 (2.3%)	4 (0.6%)	90	84	11.1%	20/04/25
2023	827	697 (84.3%)	40 (4.8%)	6 (0.7%)	84	83	10.2%	18/04/24
2022	645	525 (81.4%)	43 (6.7%)	6 (0.9%)	71	82	11.0%	17/04/23
2021	662	531 (80.2%)	39 (5.9%)	6 (0.9%)	86	73	13.0%	30/05/22
2020	670	556 (83.0%)	40 (6.0%)	2 (0.3%)	72	80	10.7%	13/04/21
2019	475	365 (76.8%)	48 (10.1%)	7 (1.5%)	55	71	11.6%	03/04/20
2018	469	349 (74.4%)	44 (9.4%)	6 (1.3%)	70	60	14.9%	20/05/19
2017	306	205 (67.0%)	33 (10.8%)	3 (1.0%)	65	50	21.2%	24/04/18
2016	196	116 (59.2%)	28 (14.3%)	5 (2.5%)	47	40	24.0%	17/04/17
2015	124	75 (60.5%)	2 (1.6%)	4 (3.2%)	43	31	34.7%	22/04/16
Review advice composed by IIER editorial staff. Review advice composed by IIER's external review process. Note that for both categories a. and b. some of the rejected articles may appear again as receivals later in the same year or in a subsequent year. The reasons for counting these instances as rejections are to enable a clearer cut off for each year's outcomes, and to align data collection with the editorial advice, used in a small but important proportion of cases, 'Reject. Invite resubmission of a revised or expanded work for a new review process', or similar. Withdrawn means withdrawn at the request of the authors. The number of articles accepted from a particular year's receivals (d) does not correspond to the number published in each year (e), owing to time taken for review and revisions, and fluctuations in the speed of these processes. The number published in a calendar year. % accepted = (No. accepted) x 100/(No. received) Date of completion of author advice on rejection or acceptance.

In Editorial 34(2)'s musing about our 2023 review outcomes [1] we expressed a pessimistic perspective:

... our very tentative glimpse of a "steady state" was obliterated during 2023. Instead of "about 660" we recorded 827 submissions, averaging 68.9 per month, much above the hoped-for average of 55.0 per month. December 2023 set a new record with 95 submissions. Our 2024 experience has continued to be difficult, with an average of 60.2 per month for January to May. [1]

However, our 2024 outcomes in Table 1 above renew a very tentative glimpse of a "steady state". Submissions per year may be staying in the "low 800s", with the 2024 monthly average being 67.5, similar to the monthly average for the first six months of 2025 being 68.0. However, being cautious, we note receiving 408 submissions for the first 6 months of 2025, compared with only 369 for the same period in 2024. Will July to December submissions be so high as to again "obliterate" the current tentative glimpse of a "steady state"? Hopefully, that will not happen, because we have 'used up' the main options for adapting to sustained high rates of submission.

To summarise and review briefly the main options we have 'used up', we can note:

Our 2024 draft revision of IIER's briefing for reviewers [1]. "The main purpose underlying this revision ... is reducing the time demands we impose upon reviewers, thereby reducing the amount of time Duty Editor external reviews has to devote to finding reviewers and 'chasing up' returns of reviews."
Increasing the proportion of submissions placed in "rejected editorially". This is illustrated above in Table 1's most recent years. One consequence from a decreasing proportion being placed with external reviewers is a decreasing proportion in the column "No. reject ext review".
Markedly reducing the amount of advice accompanying a "rejected editorially" [2]. We need to reconsider the appearance of the word "temporarily" in the template phrase "... we have temporarily suspended our providing of the formative advice from IIER editorial staff that usually accompanies IIER's 'initial assessment' advice". The phrase "... resumption may take some months..." [2] may need revision to many months.
We continue to hope for the emergence of "... a good number of emulators of IIER, featuring open access; no article publishing charge ("APC"); high quality mentoring and copy editing support; a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion; able to sustain high standards in academic merit; and having strong local or regional societal connections [4].
Foreshadowing that Editorial and reviewer time for mentoring unsuccessful authors (Table 1's two columns for number rejected) has to be more severely rationed, and therefore many promising opportunities to develop an acceptable article may be lost. [5]
Continuing to implement a broad suite of recent actions [6]. Perhaps, upon reviewing that list of 10 "actions" composed in 2020 we could be more optimistic in these times of widespread pessimism. Replace 'used up' with 'continue to implement'. After all, IIER does enjoy ample support from authors, as the numbers in Table 1's "No. rec'd" column can reassure us.

(ii) Miscellanea

i. Guest editorial 35(2) deferred
Invited guest editorials have featured in each issue of IIER since the first guest editorial appeared in 34(1), 2024 [7]. Early in May 2025 we commissioned the sixth guest editorial for 35(2) from an eminent Iranian EFL teacher and researcher. Unfortunately, our invitee's home city of Tehran became subjected to aerial attacks by Israel, so we advised our invitee to defer the guest editorial until 35(3) in September or 35(4) in December. Therefore we do not have a guest editorial for 35(2). However, that is the most miniscule of inconveniences, compared with the tragedies occurring to lives and living places in so much of the Middle Eastern region of the world.

References

Atkinson, R. & McBeath, C. (2024). IIER Editorial 34(2): (i) IIER's 2023 review outcomes; (ii) Revision of briefing for reviewers; (iii) Miscellanea. Issues in Educational Research, 34(2), ii-vi. http://www.iier.org.au/iier34/editorial34-2.html
Atkinson, R. & McBeath, C. (2024). IIER Editorial 34(4): (i) "... Could not be evaluated ..."; (ii) Editorial miscellanea. Issues in Educational Research, 34(4), ii-vii. http://www.iier.org.au/iier34/editorial34-4.html
Atkinson, R. (2023). Editorial 33(2): (i) IIER's 2022 review outcomes; (ii) Approaching IIER's first one third of a century. Issues in Educational Research, 33(2), ii-iv. http://www.iier.org.au/iier33/editorial33-2.html
Atkinson, R. (2022). Editorial 32(2): Editorial 32(2): (i) IIER's 2021 review outcomes; (ii) Diversions from core tasks. Issues in Educational Research, 32(2), ii-x. http://www.iier.org.au/iier32/editorial32-2.html
Atkinson, R. (2021). Editorial 31(2): (i) IIER's 2020 review outcomes; (ii) Text-to-speech, and other diversions. Issues in Educational Research, 31(2), ii-vi. http://www.iier.org.au/iier31/editorial31-2.html
Atkinson, R. (2020). Editorial 30(2): (i) IIER's 2019 review outcomes; (ii) Unprecedented. Issues in Educational Research, 30(2), ii-ix. http://www.iier.org.au/iier30/editorial30-2.html
Previous guest editorials are:

Authors: Dr Roger Atkinson and Dr Clare McBeath are two of IIER's current Co-editors.

Please cite as: Atkinson, R. & McBeath, C. (2025). IIER Editorial 35(2): (i) IIER's 2024 review outcomes; (ii) Miscellanea. Issues in Educational Research, 35(2), ii-v. http://www.iier.org.au/iier35/editorial35-2.html

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