The interest in open science continues to grow and although educational research (including research into educational technology) is lagging behind STEM subjects, BJET and many other journals in the area now offer hybrid open access.

Funding agencies, in the UK, North America and Australasia increasing require researchers to make their data available to others through repositories.  BJET is actively encouraging authors to make data available and asking for statements as to where and under what conditions data will be available. Educational technology (and much of broader educational research) is characterised by small sample research and this limits the significance of the results.  We need to move away from this situation and one solution is to support open data.  Making data sets available to others makes it possible for others to repeat experiments with the aim of checking results, to build on the work of others, and to combine small data sets so that advanced statistical techniques can draw new and more significant conclusions.

This exciting special issue represents a new departure for BJET.  Edited by Nick Rushby and scheduled for mid-2015, it will give authors the opportunity of making their data sets more discoverable through the publication of a peer reviewed description in an major journal.  These data papers complement the formal research paper that contains the novel analyses or ground breaking conclusions of your work.  The benefits for authors will be:

• An additional citable reference from your work leading to increased citations

• Greater discoverability for your work

• Opportunities for future collaboration with others who wish to extend your work.

Key dates

Initial submission of manuscripts: 31st October 2014

Final versions to be received by: 1st Match 2015

Publication in print form: 1st July 2015

Note that all submissions will be subject to peer review.

Read the full call for papers on the BJET website here.

More information from Nick Rushby (bjeteditor@wiley.com)