Northern Institute - Learning Communities: International Journal of Learning in Social Contexts

The Learning Communities: International Journal of Learning in Social Contexts aims to publish articles which advance our knowledge and understanding of social contexts in Australia and internationally with an emphasis on the socio-cultural dimensions of learning in these different contexts and configurations.

We strive towards the publication of high-quality articles through the engagement of expert referees in a double-blind peer review process. This journal occupies a unique place in international publications by reporting research, makes research-to-practice connections, and examines the intersection of learning with the social contexts in which the learning occurs. Learning communities can be large or small groups of people, who learn together, often in pursuit of a common purpose. The learning which is the subject of this journal might be formal or informal, might occur in schools, post-compulsory settings, organisations (such as businesses, community groups, orchestras, art galleries or museums), other communities of place, regions or in other communities of practice such as professional associations and virtual or online communities. The journal accepts there are accountability issues related to learning in most contexts today: Accountability for outcomes, for impacts on the learning participants, outcomes for community, region or nation as a whole.

Editorial Board & Members Managing Editor - Professor Ruth Wallace, ruth.wallace@cdu.edu.au Guest Editors/Editorial Board - chosen from appropriate internal and external expertise for each edition. Contact information is provided with each edition.

Peer Review Statement - All research articles in this journal have undergone rigorous peer review, based on initial editor screening and anonymous double-blind refereeing by at least two referees.

Open Access - Open Access means making research publicly available to all on the internet, free of charge and without restriction. Open Access allows anybody to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, and cite full versions of texts without financial or technical barriers (other than those associated with access to the internet), and furthermore to use such texts in any other conceivable legal manner. The Learning Communities Journal contents are published open access and the journal does not charge authors for their submissions and subscription is not required. The Learning Communities Journal and associated articles are registered with the Directory of Open Access Journals, an online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals. The refereed journal articles metadata is also registered via the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) System. The DOI system provides a technical and social infrastructure for the registration and use of persistent interoperable identifiers, called DOIs, for use on digital networks.