Student Success:  A journal exploring the experiences of students in tertiary education

The Student Success Journal is an international, open-access, peer-reviewed, scholarly publication exploring the experiences of students in tertiary education.  The Journal provides the opportunity to disseminate current research and innovative good practice about students’ tertiary learning experiences, which are supported by evidence.  

Researchers, tertiary and university teachers and educators and professional staff who are advancing student learning, success and retention are encouraged to submit.

The Journal themes align with the STARS ethos (Students, Transitions, Achievement, Retention and Success):

Students – Who are they?  What are their needs?  What works for different cohorts?  Strategies for broader social inclusion and increasing participation in tertiary education; participation of first nation peoples

Transitions – Pathways to tertiary education, transitions into (the first year experience), during (work integrated learning) and from tertiary education, including graduate employability and capstone experiences

Achievement – Strategies promoting student achievement including curricular and co-curricular reform, employability, gamification and simulation enhanced learning

Retention – Program, discipline, whole of institution, inter-institutional and sector collaborations designed to improve student retention, threshold skills and concepts

Success – Student engagement, technology enhanced learning, understanding students expectations and realities, psychological wellbeing, application of learning analytics

 

Student Success publishes three issues per year with one issue linked to the STARS Conference.

There will be three types of submissions in the journal: scholarly papers, practice-based innovations and 'features' which may include interviews or invited papers with key scholars and practitioners.

 Journal History

The Journal was first published in July 2010 on a bi-annual basis with one issue linked to the annual International (formally Pacific Rim) First Year in Higher Education Conference.

From 2010-2015 the Journal’s original  title was the International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education and was primarily aimed at academic and professional staff involved in first year and transition programs as well as senior managers with responsibility for first year policies and strategies.  2015 saw the launch of a new international conference known as STARS that provided the opportunity to disseminate and discuss current research, good practice, emerging initiatives and leading edge ideas that are aimed at enhancing students’ tertiary learning experiences.

To align the Journal to this conference and reflect a broader view of student engagement and success the Journal was renamed Student Success in mid-2015.

 

Peer Review Process

Student Success considers multiple types of submissions in the journal:  Articles (peer-reviewed scholarly papers); Practice Reports (practice-based innovations) and;  Features (which may include interviews or invited papers with key scholars and practitioners).

All submitted papers should be original, unpublished, and not in consideration for publication elsewhere at the time of submission to Student Success.

All articles will be refereed in a double-blind review process by at least two reviewers with expertise in the relevant subject area.

All practice reports will be reviewed and considered by the editorial team prior to being selected for publication (and are not subject to peer review)

Suspected plagiarism in a submission:

Student Success uses iThenticate - plagiarism detection software -  and may utilise the software if the editorial team or the reviewer/s have concerns about original content.

Student Success's Peer Review process can be found here

 

Publication Frequency

From 2018 Student Success (previously titled the International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education) will publish three issues per year, with one issue linked to the annual STARS Conference

Issue 1 – Open Issue.  Call for submissions August/September.  Published February/March following year

Issue 2 – STARS Conference Issue.  Published July/August

Issue 3 – Special Issue.  Call for submissions March/April.  Published November/December same year.

There may be early release of articles published at any time.

Download the Student Success Author Guidelines for more information on submissions

To enquire about hosting a special issue please contact journal@unistars.org

Article Processing Charges (APCs):  There are no submission or processing costs associated with the Journal.

Please register your details with this journal to receive notifications of the 'Call for Submissions'.

 

Student Success is listed in the following indexes, aggregators and databases:

  • China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) - the largest and most-used academic online library in China
  • DOAJ – an online directory that indexes and provides access to quality open access, peer-reviewed journals
  • EBSCO – EBSCOhost Research Databases
  • Gale Cengage Learning – is a leading publisher and aggregator of educational content, tools, services and other resources for libraries
  • Google Scholar – a database that indexes websites and files of a scholarly nature
  • Informit (A+ Education) – Australasian aggregator of bibliographic databases and journals
  • Paperity – a multidisciplinary aggregator of open access journals and papers
  • ProQuest – world’s largest, multidisciplinary full-text database
  • ScienceOpen - is a professional networking platform for scholars to enhance their research in the open, make an impact, and receive credit for it
  • Trove (National Library of Australia) - an aggregation of metadata, and a growing repository of full text digital resources originally published and made publicly available in Australia
  • Ulrichsweb  - Ulrich's™ is an authoritative source of bibliographic and publisher information on more than 300,00 periodicals of all types academic and scholarly journals
  • Web of Science (Emerging Sources Citation Index) - the world's largest collection of research data, publications, and patents.