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Jackson Pollock Number 8, 1949 (detail)

REVIEW CRITERIA

All submissions are done electronically and there are two stages to the reviewing process.

The first stage is normally accomplished within one to two weeks of receiving a manuscript. This involves an initial screening of the submission by the editor-in-chief and the associate editors. The three possible outcomes of this step are:

Rejection (e.g., the submission has an inappropriate focus,
it is badly executed, out of date, etc.);
Request for revisions before formal review;
Move to formal review.

The second stage consists of a formal peer review process and we would normally ask reviewers to complete a review within four weeks. The reviews are returned to the editor in chief who then consults with the associate editors to make a joint decision on the paper. The recommendations at this stage are either:

accept as-is:
accept with minor revisions;
revise and resubmit for further review;
reject.

If the result is revise and resubmit, decisions on how to handle the resubmission are made collectively by the editorial team (editor, associate editors and members of the community of reviewers).

Although the initial abstract circulation will not name the author, we do not use a "double blind" review approach for Complicity. Unless otherwise requested by an author, the author's details are provided for the reviewer. This is not the case for authors, for whom reviewers remain anonymous unless a reviewer specifically asks us to reveal their identity to the author. Owing to the small size of the complexity-and-education community, we ask that reviewers who feel uncomfortable or compromised in knowing the author personally, please let us know.

As a guide we would suggest that, in reviewing the paper, reviewers might consider the following:
Relevance for the journal, including clear connection to both
education and complexity
Appropriate grounding in scholarly literature and theory
Appropriate scholarly writing style
Logic and clarity of argument
Accessibility and interest to readers of Complicity
Length of article

Complicity uses a "community" approach to reviewing which is relatively novel. The title and abstract of the paper are e-mailed to a community of reviewers which is made up of academics and practitioners who are actively engaged with complexity and education. Members of the panel who have a particular background or interest relevant to the paper will then volunteer or “bid” to review the submitted paper. This process ensures that the paper has a faster turn-around-time, since reviewers will only volunteer when they know they are able to undertake the review.

The community of reviewers receives notification whenever a paper is available for review. Those who feel appropriately qualified are welcome to volunteer to review it. If you believe you are appropriately qualified in a particular complexity genre to review papers for this journal and would like to be considered as a member of Complicity’s community of reviewers please contact Deborah Osberg with a short description – max.80 words – of your current position/role.

The community of reviewers is currently comprised of the following members:

Betsy Burris has taught at a number of colleges and universities, the latest being Bennington College in Vermont. She specializes in teacher education and the teaching of writing and her research focuses on complexity as it applies to teacher knowledge and action and on understanding the transformative power of relationships in the classroom.

Derek Cabrera is from Cornell University researching the challenges of complex systems thinking. He is a National Science Foundation/IGERT Fellow in Nonlinear Systems and was recently invited as a Visiting Researcher at the Santa Fe Institute.

Michael Caley is currently self-employed, and has published widely in the area of complexity science.

Steve Collins is an instructor at University of British Columbia, teaching in Social Studies Methods and a teacher at Maple Grove Elementary in Vancouver. Complexity theory is a central tenet of his teaching and research.

Brent Davis is David Robitaille Chair in Mathematics, Science, & Technology Education Department of Curriculum Studies, UBC. His research is informed by developments in ecology, cognitive science, and complexity science and he has authored and co-authored a number of books and many articles in the areas of mathematics learning and teaching, curriculum theory, teacher education, and action research.

Kate Eccles is the Chief Creative Director and head of Advancement for the Royal Conservatory of Music's Learning through the Arts program, an arts-based public education initiative spanning 300 Canadian schools.

M. Jayne Fleener is the E.B. "Ted" Robert Professor and Dean of the College of Education at Louisiana State University. Her teaching and research have been in the areas of philosophy, complexity sciences in education, computer science, mathematics, mathematics education, gender issues in mathematics and engineering, and curriculum theory. She has over forty national and international publications including her recent books Curriculum Dynamics: Recreating Heart and Chaos, Complexity, Curriculum, and Culture: A Conversation (edited with Doll, Trueit, and St. Julien).

Donald Gilstrap is an Associate Professor and Associate Dean of Libraries for Technical Services at the University of Oklahoma. His main areas of research and scholarship focus on complexity theory in leadership and organizational dynamics, as well as nonlinear change in educational settings.

Barbara Graves is an Associate Professor of Education at the University of Ottawa. Her current research, which draws on complexity science, is focused on the social nature of human thought, in particular how the concept of the mediated mind contributes to understanding how humans make meaning, develop identities, and learn.

Stewart Hase is a psychologist and Associate Professor at Southern Cross University in Australia. He is interested broadly in individual and organisational adaptation, informed by complexity. He also has a keen interest in techniques that address complexity issues such as action research, action learning, and various psychotherapeutic methods.

Ton Jörg is a Researcher at the IVLOS Institute of Education of the Utrecht University in the Netherlands. His research is currently focused on developing a trans-disciplinary science of learning through peer interaction from a complexity perspective, which will have consequences for rethinking the ‘Learning Organization.’

Monica Kennedy is a doctoral candidate from the School of Education and Community Services, University of Canberra, Australia. Her research is focused on learning and knowing in organisations. Monica is a lecturer in educational leadership and has a background in organisational communication and adult learning.

Kathy Kubota-Zarivnij is currently, Program Coordinator of Mathematics at the Toronto Catholic District School Board and works with the Ontario Ministry of Education, Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat, focusing on K to 6 mathematics professional development for the province. She draws on complexity theory to inform these activities and her respective research.

Warren Linds, is Assistant Professor in Human Systems Intervention, Department of Applied Human Science, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada where he teaches courses on diversity, small group leadership and ethical approaches to group and community development.

Rebecca Luce-Kapler is an Associate Professor, Language and Literacy Curriculum at Queen's University, Canada. Her research interests include writing processes and technologies, curriculum theory, literacies, and teacher education all, of course, with a complexity sensibility.

Robb MacKay is a music teacher who is currently conducting research at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. His research employs feminist critical theories and complexity theory to examine and combat restrictive notions of gendered musical performance.

Imaculate Kizito Namukasa is an Assistant Professor in mathematics education at the University of Western Ontario and she is conducting doctoral research at the University of Alberta. Her research is focused on a dynamic view of students' mathematical attentiveness and layered observing as a methodological framework.

Charles Nelson is Assistant Professor of ESL Writing at Kean University, Union, NJ, USA, and teaches first-composition to ESL students. Using complexity theory as the framework, he researches the writing practices of ESL students, attempting to build a model (that includes psychological, social, and cultural processes) of how students learn to write in a second language.

Renata Phelps is a lecturer at Southern Cross University, Australia. She is particularly interested in the connections between complexity theory and the potential of technology to support primary, secondary and adult education, as well as the role of action learning and reflection in supporting complexity-based learning and teaching.

Jerome Proulx is a doctoral student at the University of Alberta, Canada. His research interests and expertise are situated in mathematics education (specifically in teacher education), and in theories of learning, particularly biological discourses such as radical constructivism, enactivism and complexity science.

Bernard Ricca is currently an Assistant Professor of Education at Dominican University and has worked with nonlinear/complex systems, both in and out of education, for a number of years.

Elaine Simmt is Chair of the Department of Secondary Education at the University of Alberta. Her research interests include: using complexity science to frame studies of mathematics knowing. Most of her work is classroom-based and asks the broad question, what are the implications of mathematics knowing in the context of the secondary classroom and the teacher education classroom.

Darren Stanley is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Windsor, Canada. He is interested in emerging understandings of healthy learning organizations through non-linear dynamics, paying special attention to notions of stress, burnout and phenomenological understandings of uncertainty and surprise.

Rena Upitis is Professor of Arts Education and former Dean of Education at Queen's University, Kingston, Canada. She is presently serving as National Research Co-director for Learning Through the Arts, a multi-year project involving over 100,000 students. Her research interests include teacher, artist, and student transformation through the arts, electronic games in mathematics education and how complexity might inform school architecture.

Elaine Young is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi. Her research is focused on the role of complexity theory in mathematics education.