Thoughts from the editor’s office / Editorial 8

Editorial

Czech version/Česká verze

Thoughts from the editor’s office

Dear Readers,

You are about to read the third monothematic issue of the Journal of Social Pedagogy dealing with

the serious topic of the positions of Social Pedagogy and Social Work. Before we proceed to their

delimitation, we would like to introduce several bits of news and observations from the current

publication of our journal.

Even though the current website is satisfactory for both the editors and readers, we decided to begin

an extensive content reconstruction. The structure of information remains unchanged,

but a complete English version – a copy of the Czech one – is being added. The impulse for

communication in English is not only increasing the opportunities for being registered by

international scholarly databases but also attracting the attention of a growing number of

international authors and readers. In providing an English version, we are trying to offer an equal

influx of high quality information. Furthermore, opening the journal to the international scientific

community directly and positively influences the quality of published texts. Until now, we included

English versions in the titles of the contributions, abstracts, keywords, the table of contents and

author affiliations. Taking another step forward, we will start publishing full texts in English, German

or possibly other world languages, with the coming monothematic issue being a good example.

Moreover, the fall issue of 2016, currently under preparation, will be our first English-only issue. This

step is being taken to gradually increase international visibility for the journal and its authors.

In our future editorial plans, we count on English-written texts in combination with Czech, Slovak or

German texts. However, some conditions must be met. Primarily, we want high-quality and well-

written contributions that help advance the field of Social Pedagogy. Thus, even if an article passes

review, the editors reserve the right of rejection for failing to meet our stringent language

requirements, especially in English. For this reason, we plan to introduce on our website an English

dictionary of specialized terms in the field of Social Pedagogy that will help English language authors

properly orient themselves in the terminology.

Another problem area seems to be the lack of appropriateness for the specialized field.

We constantly see the ongoing search for the delimitation of the field of Social Pedagogy, which

often results in receiving contributions that are thematically too distant or content inappropriate

from the point of view of Social Pedagogy. It can be argued that this is the exact reason why a journal

like this exists; however, we would appreciate more thorough authorial deliberation on the focus of

the journal. In other words, texts directly focused on the discipline of Social Pedagogy and connected

practices are highly valued, unlike texts written for other disciplines. Geographical and thematic

diversity remain much appreciated.

The other novelty is offering a wider variety of formats in which the published texts are available.

A PDF (containing metadata) will be available along with HTML and MOBI versions. Checking for

plagiarism and self-citations remain unchanged (self-citations at the maximum level of 20%). As we

are interested in the most user-friendly journal web presentation (especially shortening the

information search), we decided to implement the widened search options located in a search line in

the top right corner of the screen. Now searching for contributions is quick and easy by title, key

words or author name. We also implemented a new audio-visual dimension of the journal by

launching a YouTube channel. The published recordings can be viewed via a Journal Videos link in the

first slide of the journal web presentation. See and judge for yourself by visiting www.soced.cz.

The editors wish you pleasant reading.