About this Journal
The Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning (IJPBL) publishes relevant, interesting, and challenging articles of research, analysis, or promising practice related to all aspects of implementing problem-based learning (PBL) in K–12 and post-secondary classrooms.
IJPBL is an Open Access journal. This means that it uses a funding model that does not charge readers or their institutions for access. Readers may freely read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles. The publication of the journal is currently made possible by generous support from The Teaching Academy at Purdue University (http://www.teachingacademy.purdue.edu/).
IJPBL is indexed in the American Psychological Association's PsycINFO; EBSCO's Education Research Complete and TOC Premier (Table of Contents); H.W. Wilson's Education Abstracts, Education Full Text, Education Index, OmniFile Full Text Mega, and OmniFile Full Text Select; and OCLC's Education Abstracts and Education Index.
For over 40 years, researchers have lacked an outlet for sharing their findings with other educators and scholars who were interested in problem-based learning (PBL) as a pedagogical method. In the past, when educational journals published problem-based learning research, they did so with a single focus on the use of PBL in the specific discipline they represented. The Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning (IJPBL) remedies this problem by offering a forum for all PBL research across disciplines. This scholarly journal publishes relevant information about problem based learning pedagogy and is the first, and only, journal of its kind. Furthermore, it is not “owned” by a professional organization which helps to assure that it will continue to serve a variety of audiences, across disciplines.
IJPBL was launched in 2006 as a joint venture between Purdue Libraries and the College of Education. Originally co-edited by Professor Peggy Ertmer, College of Education, and Alexius Macklin, assistant professor in the Libraries, Dr. Ertmer assumed full editorship in Fall 2008. She was joined by Dr. Michael Grant of the University of Memphis in 2010. The journal is an online, peer-reviewed publication, offered to the educational community as an open-access journal. The entire submission and review process is completed online using an electronic editorial system.
Our current list of reviewers includes almost 100 scholars from institutions around the world including the United States, Canada, Australia, South Korea, England, the Netherlands, and Singapore, among others. Subscribers to the table of contents alerting service include readers from Turkey, Peru, Brazil, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, Great Britain, South Africa, New Zealand, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, and Finland. Their e-mail addresses reveal that, while many are at academic institutions, readers also include teachers, public education officials, vendors of educational services, publishers, as well as individual members of the public.
Manuscripts are reviewed first by the editorial board. Those that are deemed appropriate for the journal are sent to at least two experts in PBL scholarship, particularly in the primary author’s discipline or content area. All reviews are “blind,” that is, without identifying the author(s) to the reviewers. On the basis of the reviewers’ recommendations, the IJPBL editor(s) will decide to publish the manuscript as submitted, to request a significant revision and resubmission, or to reject the manuscript for publication. In all cases, the author will be notified of the decision, and a copy of the reviewers’ comments will be provided. The review process is expected to take between 2-4 months.
The journal receives over 45,000 full-text downloads annually. Average acceptance rates are between 10 - 20%.
