Report to the Readership

Abstract

This issue marks the beginning of our sixth year as editors of Exceptional Children (EC). We are pleased to announce that EC has moved to a new portal site with Sage for submission of manuscripts (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ecx) and where online versions of accepted manuscripts will appear before the hard copy publication (http://ecx.sagepub.com/). This feature will allow much more rapid full access to all accepted manuscripts for the entire field. EC presently has an impact factor of 1.941, and a 5-year impact factor of 2.943, which makes it presently among the most widely cited special education print journals according to Thomson Reuters. This is an excellent rating for the journal, and we hope that EC will be able to continue to maintain a high level of visibility. Since the past Report to the Readership, EC has received 154 manuscript submissions via the portal site (predominantly, the site managed by BePress). Twenty-eight manuscripts were accepted and published in volume 80, yielding an 18.2% acceptance rate. The average number of days from initial receipt of a manuscript meeting publication guidelines to an initial decision was 65.5. All manuscripts that were accepted had initially received a decision of revise and resubmit. The time from initial decision to author resubmissions ranged from one month to more than a year. We are always interested in receiving additional submissions, particularly outstanding manuscripts that describe methods for improving the social and academic functioning of exceptional individuals. EC continues to publish articles representing diversity in topics, methodology, and populations. Volume 80 has maintained this tradition by including articles addressing social-behavioral functioning, reading, writing, math, language, and social studies, as well as other topics, including the combined areas of academics and behavioral functioning, teachers, placement, legal issues, attitudes, technology, response to intervention, general special education, and research issues. Figure 1 displays these main focus areas, and Figure 2 shows these areas collapsed across similar categories. A wide range of populations was addressed in Volume 80. Articles addressed populations who were at risk, autistic, or deaf and hard of hearing, as well as those who had mild disabilities, intellectual disabilities, learning disabilities, emotional disabilities, or behavioral disorders; articles further included teachers or administrators of special and general education (see Figure 3). Race and ethnicity were distributed among participants in the research, including White, African American, Hispanic American, Native American, and Asian American, as well as those of mixed race or ethnicity. Figure 4 provides information on participants' grade levels. Volume 80 of EC predominantly published research articles. Overall, articles included group experimental, quasi-experimental, and single-subject intervention research; qualitative and descriptive research; meta-analyses and review papers; and policy and assessment papers. Figure 5 displays the percentages by article type. …