Perspectives in applied academic practice: development of a cross-institutional open access journal to support early career academics

Engagement in the scholarship of learning and teaching contributes to the enrichment and enhancement of academic practice. One method of engagement is through contributing to the scholarly discourse by publishing in academic journals. The publication process however can be daunting for the uninitiated, with high levels of competition and equally high rates of rejection. Project work produced by academic developers or students on postgraduate education programmes as part fulfilment of their academic programmes of study are often of publishable standard, yet publication rates from such scholarly outputs remain relatively low. The paper outlines a collaborative initiative developed by staff from Edinburgh Napier University, Aston University and the University of Dundee to implement an alternative publishing route designed to support staff new to academic publishing, and students on postgraduate programmes in education, to publish their work in a supportive environment as part of their first steps to becoming a published scholar.