Learning and Instruction 14 (2004) 1–2www.elsevier.com/locate/learninstruc

Editorial

Learning and Instruction started as the flagship journal of the European Associ-ation for Research on Learning and Instruction in 1991. The journal became thenunder its founding editor, Erik De Corte, and his successors, Roger Sa¨ljo and NeilMercer, an internationally well recognised forum for the exchange of theoreticalconcepts and empirical research findings on learning and development related toteaching or instructional guidance. As the association grew with a membership froman increasing number of countries,Learning and Instruction found as an internationalEuropean journal a growing readership around the world and received articles sub-mitted from an increasing number of European and Non-European countries.

The successful publishing policy of the former editors was continued when theeditorial responsibility was passed over from Neil Mercer to the present editor atthe beginning of 2002.Learning and Instruction publishes original empirical research(which includes also replications or extensions of previous research), theoretical ormethodological papers as well as review articles which synthesise existing work andshow new perspectives for further research. The field of interest comprises learningand instruction at all age levels, from infants to old adults, and it includes a largevariety of educational settings ranging from kindergarten and classroom learning inschools to vocational training, distance education, special education and to informaleducational settings.

As a multidisciplinary journal,Learning and Instruction has no preferences forthe perspectives of specific disciplines, nor does it emphasize specific theoreticalviews or methodologies. The scope of the journal includes quantitative and qualitat-ive research, experimental, quasi-experimental and field studies as well as case stud-ies resulting in new theoretical views that stimulate further empirical research. Theessential requirement is only that the research contributes to a deeper understandingof learning and instruction as a basis for improvements in teaching and learning. Ofcourse, the research needs to meet the international standards of conceptual andargumentative clarity as well as methodological and technical quality.

From the beginning of the journal, a rigorous peer review process of submittedpapers has been considered as essential in order to ensure high quality. Accordingto this principle, the number of reviewers per manuscript has been increased in 2002.Each manuscript that enters the review procedure is sent to three experts from differ-ent countries to comment on the quality of the article. These comments are the basisfor the editor or and assistant editor or associate editors to give each author anextensive, detailed and constructive feedback on the strengths and weaknesses ofhis/her manuscript in order to improve its quality.

0959-4752/$ - see front matter 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.doi:10.1016/j.learninstruc.2003.12.001

2 Editorial / Learning and Instruction 14 (2004) 1–2

Some changes within the associate editors were required for a good balance ofexpertise in the Editorial Board. Anastasia Efklides and Wolff-Michael Roth replacedClotilde Pontecorvo and Peter Reimann, who took over other responsibilities. Dueto the growing readership from an increasingly broad number of countries, the Inter-national Advisory Board has also become larger with the aim to ensure a goodbalance of expertise from a broad range of research fields and from a larger numberof countries.

The articles in the 12th and 13th volume in 2002 and 2003 were still publishedunder the editorial responsibility of the former editor, Neil Mercer. The articles ofthe new 14th volume are published now under the new editorship. The editorial workduring the last two years would not have been possible without the support of MariaBannert, who acts as assistant editor, and the help of Andrea Heiss and ThorstenRasch, who serve as editorial assistants. We hope that our team will be able to furthercontribute to the development of Learning and Instruction as an internationallyacknowledged journal of high quality publications in this exciting research area.

Wolfgang Schnotz,University of Koblenz-Landau, Department of General and Educational

Psychology, Thomas-Nast-Str. 44, 76829 Landau, GermanyE-mail address: schnotz@uni-landau.de