Editor's Page

JOE Is Here to Stay

When you visit the copyright page on the JOE site, you'll find the following policy statement.

The Journal of Extension is a professional, refereed journal, and, as such, its back issues are preserved in their entirety. The intent of Extension Journal, Inc. is to maintain all issues of the Journal of Extension in a readily available form. Multiple archives are maintained to ensure content security, information integrity, and long-term access.

JOE authors who are preparing P&T materials might need to include our policy statement in their materials. (If you are a Penn State author, I know you do.)

JOE is a "real" journal, as real as it was when it was published on paper and as real as any other peer-reviewed, refereed journal, regardless of publishing medium. We intend to continue to make every effort to ensure its permanence and availability.

This should reassure JOE authors and readers, alike.

Read Any Good Books Lately?

I've gotten a couple of questions recently asking whether or not JOE published book reviews. We sure do.

For proof, see "Participatory Workshops: A Book Review," in this issue, and "Building Inclusive Communities: A User-Friendly Handbook for Those Who Care About Self and Others," in the June 2002 issue.

If you consult the JOE Submission Guidelines, you'll see Tools of the Trade articles described as articles that report "on specific materials, books, techniques, and technologies useful to U.S. Extension professionals." The Lev and Morris articles certainly fill that bill.

Note that neither author has written a "book report." Both do more than simply recount contents. They explain why U.S. Extension professionals should read "their" books.

However, while JOE publishes--indeed welcomes--book reviews, we do not accept books for review and solicit reviewers. We just don't have the staffing for that.

But if you have read a good book lately, one that you feel has direct relevance for a broad Extension audience, please make a case for it in a Tools of the Trade article. If you do not feel comfortable reviewing it yourself, do your own reviewer soliciting.

I'd love to see more book reviews in JOE. I'm unreconstructed enough to believe that books are still useful and important tools of our trade.

August 2003 JOE

The August JOE is a little "green." I count three Features and four Research in Brief articles dealing in one way or another with land use, natural resources, and/or the environment. Almost half of the Features. More than half of the Research in Brief articles. Seven out of 24. That says something.

Then there is the issue of disasters and how we prepare for them.

The timely "GIS and GPS Emergency Response Lessons Learned from the Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster" alludes to "the new emphasis on homeland security" as a funding opportunity for increased GPS training and uniform mapping standards. And "Intergenerational Programming in Extension: Needs Assessment as Planning Tool" suggests in its conclusion that "the line between natural and 'unnatural' disasters is in some ways becoming a thin one" and that "there has been renewed attention to preparing for disasters of all kinds."

This, too, "says something," and I suspect that more JOE authors will be speaking to the subject as they report the results of their research.

What else? A great deal. Too much to do justice to here.

Laura Hoelscher, Editor
joe-ed@joe.org