Volume 6 Number 1
©The Author(s) 2004
Letter from the Editors
Dear Readers,
With volume 6, number 1, we are pleased to bring you the first fully bilingual issue of Early Childhood Research & Practice (ECRP).
In February 1999, when ECRP began publication, we were pleased to be able to launch the first peer-reviewed online journal in early childhood education, with support from the U.S. Department of Education through the ERIC program. At the time, the journal was innovative because we were able to offer our readers audio files, video clips, databases, hyperlinks, many graphics in the articles—and because there was no print counterpart.
With funding assured by ERIC from 1999 through 2002, we offered ECRP as an “open access” journal. Open access journals (journals that use a funding model that does not include charging readers or their institutions for access) are common in many disciplines. For a comprehensive listing of open access journals that have a quality control system in place (such as peer review), see the Directory of Open Access Journals Web site at https://doaj.org/home. This useful resource lists 75 open access journals in education alone.
For the past few years, as the need for high-quality materials in Spanish has become clear, we have wanted to make the journal fully bilingual in English and Spanish in order to better serve the Spanish-speaking population in the United States and the large numbers of our Spanish-speaking colleagues in other countries. In the past, as funding allowed, we included a few articles in both Spanish and English. We have been encouraged by the growing number of ECRP readers worldwide who have taken advantage of both the English and Spanish resources.
Fortunately, the Bernard van Leer Foundation (see http://www.bernardvanleer.org/) in the Netherlands has supported the endeavor of making ECRP fully bilingual by providing full funding for its first bilingual year (2004). The Bernard van Leer sponsorship enables us to further develop the infrastructure for the journal so that we can solicit original manuscripts in both English and Spanish, accommodate English and Spanish manuscripts through the review process, and provide high-quality translations of all accepted articles into either Spanish or English.
The Bernard van Leer Foundation sponsorship will cease at the end of 2004; however, the foundation’s generous support has provided us with a window of opportunity for identifying additional journal sponsors who share our commitment to open access to Early Childhood Research & Practice. We are now actively seeking sponsors for 2005 and beyond among organizations, agencies, commercial companies, individuals, and foundations active in early childhood education.
We have placed an invitation on the home page for online donations from readers who value the journal and wish to support its pioneering efforts in innovative technology use, open access, and sharing of information in both languages. You can help by reading the journal and letting others know about it, encouraging colleagues to submit manuscripts, and making a contribution to the University of Illinois Foundation earmarked for ECRP. We hope you will join us in securing the future of Early Childhood Research & Practice as an open access journal for a worldwide audience.
—Lilian G. Katz, Editor
—Dianne Rothenberg, Associate Editor
