In its first years, Policy & Practice was published in hard copy but then moved to an online format, which hugely increased its readership.  The Policy & Practice website has received increasing numbers of visitors each year, with nearly 200,000 visits in 2021.  Visitors from more than 100 countries have accessed Policy & Practice.  These web statistics reveal an initial level of impact, demonstrating that the journal consistently reaches a substantial readership. 

Delving deeper into the impact of the journal, CGE collects data on citations that have been generated by Policy & Practice.  Since 2005, over 3,000 citations have appeared in journals, books, dissertations and NGO publications.  The citations provide solid evidence of impact; a citation indicates that learning from the journal has been incorporated into the reader’s evidence base and that it has influenced their educational practice. In some ways, each citation can be viewed as an endorsement, demonstrating that the article is relevant and valuable. The citations database is updated annually and in recent years the pattern has been 500 - 600 new citations per annum.  The citations database also provides information about the type of journal or publication in which Policy & Practice is cited, making it a really rich way of looking at how the journal is being taken up and used.  CGE has found strong multi-disciplinary use of the journal, suggesting that the ‘net’ of DE is ever-widening.  CGE has used the citations database to brainstorm future themes for editions, especially in areas hitherto unexplored in Policy & Practice, such as the forthcoming issue (34) on DE and health. 

A few years ago, CGE introduced seminars to share the content of each new issue of the journal featuring three or four authors who published in the most recent issue.  Hosted by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Northern Ireland (NI) and Republic of Ireland (ROI), these seminars provide authors with the opportunity to present their research and also give students, lecturers, practitioners and donors the chance to engage directly with journal authors.  Delivered originally in a face-to-face format, the seminars migrated online when the Covid pandemic struck.  CGE believes that the online format brought advantages, including higher numbers of participants and overseas contributors.  The seminars enable knock-on impact from each edition of the journal, by opening up space for further debate and research on the issues, while also bringing people back to the journal’s website to read, or re-read, articles.  Interviews carried out in a 2021 evaluation of the journal suggest that the seminars have strengthened relationships between Policy & Practice and HEIs, and have increased the profile of DE in HE.     

Another impact of the journal is its support for connections and dialogue across geographies and communities. Policy & Practice has strengthened cross-border links; for example, the Editorial Group has members from NI and ROI, and the seminars are held in HEIs located in NI and ROI. With the support of GENE (Global Education Network Europe), Policy & Practice collaborates with DE journals in Portugal, Germany and England.  On a global scale, Policy & Practice actively seeks contributions from authors in the Global South.  This has been challenging, but there has been some progress with Southern contributors to recent issues and the journal is committed to increasing the proportion of authors from the Global South going forward. The wide and diverse range of voices showcased in Policy & Practice supports the Code of Good Practice for DE, most notably, enabling critical engagement with diverse and challenging perspectives from local and global contexts (Principles 1 and 4).   

Looking at the journal’s impact in a very long-term and broad sense, it is interesting to explore how Policy & Practice has evolved over time.  Initially, the journal was conceived as a means of addressing significant deficits in the DE landscape as set out in the 2002 Kenny-O’Malley Report, most notably communication gaps between DE practitioners (particularly cross-border), the lack of professional development opportunities for those working in DE, and the weak status of DE in Higher Education.  Over the years, these deficits have been addressed and Policy & Practice has pivoted towards a much more positive role in celebrating the achievement of the DE sector.  From a 2021 vantage point, editor Stephen McCloskey perceives the journal to be ‘a bellwether of trends and influences on both policy and practice, while continually advancing the boundaries of DE’.  Thus Policy & Practice is itself a valuable indicator of the progress and impact of DE on the island of Ireland.     

Image:

• Cover of the Policy & Practice Fifteenth Anniversary Special Edition. (main page and picture 1)

Credit: Centre for Global Education