Interactions is an eScholarship initiative of the California Digital Library, edited and managed by graduate students, and published twice yearly with funding provided by the UCLA Graduate Students Association and the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies (GSE&IS). Founded in 2004 by doctoral students from the UCLA GSE&IS, Interactions is a peer-reviewed, open access journal committed to the promotion of interdisciplinary and inclusive scholarship. The journal brings together senior and emerging scholars, activists, educators, and professionals whose work covers a broad range of theory and practice. Our publication’s authors foster an open and critical dialogue with readers and colleagues through applying diverse social justice frameworks to the discussion of pressing issues in the fields of education and information.

Critical and Inclusive Perspectives

Education and the stewardship of information are enduring considerations in the construction of a just and inclusive society. We believe that critical thinking is an everyday practice that necessitates both challenging traditional approaches and suggesting new directions for researching the purposes, practices, and organization of education and information. Interactions critiques the inequities and dominant norms within societies, education systems, and academia, which perpetuate the marginalization of populations and the exclusion of their knowledge while maintaining unjust policies and systems.

Aims and Scope

Interactions encourages contributions that utilize inclusive and critical frameworks in politically engaged ways. We encourage authors to think creatively about what constitutes a "critical" and “inclusive” approach in order to advance progressive analyses and research. Submissions may draw upon traditional areas of inquiry within the fields of education and information studies (e.g., public policy, systems design) or from newer interdisciplinary perspectives (e.g., queer studies, critical race theory, poststructuralism).

Ideal articles for Interactions

• Theory and philosophy of measurement and evaluation in education and information systems
• Education, information, research and theorizing in postcolonial contexts
• Translation and application of diversity frameworks (e.g., critical race theory, community archives) in new contexts and disciplines
• Instructional practices in K-12, post-secondary, and nonformal education spaces and their relationships to equity and social change
• Information access and educational support for special needs students that affirms diverse abilities and identities
• Studies of new information phenomena
• Digital technologies and their uses in learning, work and play
• The emergence of digital documents and the enactment of ideologies
• New theories of information
• Digital humanities tools and methods
• Science and technology studies of information practices within communities
• The transformation of libraries, archives, and information institutions in the digital age

Submissions may draw upon traditional areas of inquiry within the fields of education, information studies, and interdisciplinary perspectives such as: women's studies, science and technology studies, ethnic and cultural studies, queer studies, disability studies, critical race theory, postcolonial theory, critical pedagogy, and infrastructure studies.

The publication process

Upon online submission of a manuscript, the editorial board reviews the text to determine its appropriateness and quality for publication in Interactions. After passing initial editorial review, the article is assigned to a managing editor and sent out for blind peer review. Interactions reviewers are from the UCLA community and are selected based on their training, expertise and commitment to the journal’s mission. Reviewers spend approximately one month with the manuscript and review it with specific guidelines to ensure the review’s comprehensiveness and alignment to the aims and rigor of the journal. Once peer reviews have been received, the managing editor combines reviewer comments with her own editorial comments pertaining to the submission’s publication or revision. The review process approximately takes 6-10 weeks depending on the fullness of the manuscript pipeline, reviewer availability, and the time of year. Authors can expect to receive an editorial decision letter with comments within 12 weeks of submission.

If the manuscript is rendered “resubmit for review,” the author will receive specific feedback for how to substantially modify and improve the text for resubmission and subsequent reconsideration for future publication. If the decision rendered is “revisions required” then the manuscript is preliminarily accepted on contingency of addressing the reviewer comments and suggested revisions detailed in the editorial decision letter and any accompanying documents, such as a manuscript draft with in-text revisions. Authors are given approximately 1-4 months to revise or resubmit within a preferred deadline. Pending editorial or peer review of the manuscript’s revisions, manuscripts are published in one of two yearly issues (winter and spring). From time of submission, review and revision, manuscript publication takes approximately 4-12 months provided that the author addresses reviews adequately. The journal is closed during the summer for two months in July and August.

Scholarly Development Orientation

Interactions reaches out to graduate student editors and scholars beyond GSE&IS, by hosting and participating in professional development-oriented events on a spectrum of publication-related issues, including open access publishing, the scholarly publication timeline, the revision of longer texts, and the conversion of term papers and other texts to academic articles. Education and information increasingly serve as the common ground where the social sciences and the humanities can meet, Interactions provides a forum for these interdisciplinary encounters between researchers, activists and professionals.

Interactions partners with other graduate student-run journals and regularly participates in activities pertaining to peer journal development. Specifically, we host and participate in journal workgroups and collaboratives, while supporting other open access publications at international conferences, symposiums, and other academia-related events.