National Science Council (NSC) has requested the editorial board of the Journal of Educational Media & Library Sciences (JEMLS) that is published by TKU to be the designated reviewer for manuscripts of books in the field of library and information sciences. This authorization has made this journal the first among TKU publications and the only journal of this discipline in Taiwan to have this honor. Song Sheue-fang, the Chair of the Department of Information and Library Science, is very happy and proud of this new role. She said, “We are the wild card in this field.”

As a measure of safeguarding the quality of books in the social sciences and humanities that get published each year in Taiwan, NSC contacted JEMLS, a quarterly international journal, last December to review manuscripts that intend to be published as academic books in their discipline. Chiu Jeong-yeou, the chief editor of the journal, explained that authors can enter a particular webpage on NSC website to fill out necessary forms. Once acknowledged by the journal, authors can then send off manuscripts to TKU. When reviews are favorable, the JEMLS will issue a statement for verify that. With this, authors can contact any publishers for printing. This reviewing process serves both authors and publishers well as they can benefit greatly from this “quality assurance.”

According to Chiu Jeong-yeou, JEMLS was inaugurated in March, 1970, with editorial board consisting of scholars from the US, UK, China, and Hong Kong. Because of its excellent reputation, submissions have come from all continents even though the journal is published mainly in Chinese. It is so popular that they have to reject half of the submitted papers, Chiu said apologetically. Furthermore, Chiu points out, it is one of the few journals in Taiwan that allows on-line submission and review.

It is expanding its international presence. Since last year all papers in Chinese have been asked to provide an abstract of 1500 words in English so that they can be accessed internationally. Many articles in the journal have been collected in internationally well-established databases such as DOAJ, Scopus, and Lista. Chiu provided quite a humorous analogy to explain their success by comparing JEMLS with Hyundai cars made in Korea. “These cars may not have as high quality as many European and American cars; they are nonetheless popular and have a brand name stature in their own right. Our journal is like that,” he said. He also vowed to apply stringent process and professional spirit to give responsible reviews. ( ~Ying-hsueh Hu )

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