Editorial

Citation

Bell, M.P. (2006), "Editorial", Equal Opportunities International, Vol. 25 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/eoi.2006.03025eae.001

Editorial

Instructions for authors, and submission guidelines

In this issue, we include a conference report by Ellen Kuhlmann, who discusses the international debate on gender studies in changing societies and new demands on academic research. Kuhlmann's interesting and enticing report made me wish I had attended the conference and indeed highlights the importance of reports of conferences relevant to our field. Issues of "race, class, and gender" and "the professions and gender" are two of the focal issues of Kuhlmann's report.

I would like to invite authors to submit items, including conference reports, for consideration for inclusion in Professional Insights. Professional Insights includes interviews and conference reports, as described below. Professional Insights may also include reports on community work, collaboration with industry, teaching, and other areas contributing to social inclusion and social justice. We are open to multiple perspectives on professional insights relevant to equality, diversity, and inclusion.

Interviews

Professional Insights seeks proposals for submissions focusing on the professional insights and output generated from the field of equality, diversity, and inclusion. One aspect of Professional Insights includes interviews with eminent scholars, activists, and leaders who have made substantial contributions to the field. Professional Insights helps disseminate work done worldwide to advance the field of equality, diversity, and inclusion, which is broadly interpreted.

1. 1.

   Questions of interviewees and focal issues for each interview will, of course, vary. Some potential focal areas of the interviews include, but are not limited to:

2. 2.

   What factors, events, or people contributed to their development in the field and to their continued commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion?

3. 3.

   What are some of the barriers they faced?

4. 4.

   What monumental events stand out in their mind as critical or pivotal to equality, diversity, and inclusion?

5. 5.

   What recommendations would they make to budding scholars, activists, or leaders in the field?

6. 6.

   What are their perceptions of the future of the field and issues of increasing importance?

Because the journal is an international journal, interviewees may not be well-known worldwide, but their contributions should, nonetheless, be clearly recognizable as substantial. Professional Insights seeks to contribute to international knowledge and’recognition of contributors from around the world. Interviews of scholars, activists, and leaders who have done work relevant to special issue topics are strongly’encouraged. Authors interested in conducting interviews for special issues should contact the special issue editor within appropriate submission timeframes for the issue.

Interviews should generally be between 2,000 and 3,000 words and should include full references as appropriate.

Conference reports

In recognition that many insights and output are generated from conferences that may take years to be widely disseminated (if ever), brief reports from conferences (including tracks of conferences) are another source of contributions to Professional Insights. The conferences may be of any size and in any locale, but should be focused on issues relevant to the journal, and should be from conferences that are academic in nature. Some relevant questions that may be covered in the report include:

1. 1.

   When and where was the conference held?

2. 2.

   What was the purpose and primary theme of the conference (or conference track)?

3. 3.

   What types of attendees were targeted (e.g. academics, practitioners, etc.)?

4. 4.

   Who were keynote speakers and what were their topics of discussion?

5. 5.

   What relevant insights resulted from the sessions and conference events?

Conference reports should generally be between 1,000 and 3,000 words, depending on the size of the conference and focus of the report. For very large conferences, authors should choose specific focal areas or papers and limit their discussions given the space limitations of Professional Insights.

As one purpose of the reports is to disseminate information about conferences in a timely manner, reports should, ideally, be submitted within two to four weeks after the conference. Reports submitted considerably later may not be published. The rapid turnaround is useful for readers and for authors of submissions. Full references for papers discussed should be included in each report.

Review and editorial process

Both interviews and conference reports will be reviewed by the editor(s) and edited as appropriate to fit the section requirements. Authors will be consulted regarding proposed changes to submissions. Decisions about publications of submissions to Professional Insights will be made based on the contribution of the submission, its interest to readers, and appropriateness of the conference or interview given the focus of the journal.

For questions or queries about proposed submissions to the journal, contact Myrtle P. Bell, Professional Insights Editor, at mpbell@uta.edu.

Both interviews and conference reports should be submitted as using the JADE system, at http://jade.emeraldinsight.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Emerald/LoginPage

Myrtle P. Bell