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What is The Journal of Collaboration for Equitable Change (JCEC)?

The Journal of Collaboration for Equitable Change (JCEC) is an open access multimedia journal dedicated to exploring the role of collaboration in advancing equity and justice. Published by the Integrated Justice and Social Change Collaborative (IJSCC) at Southern Connecticut State University, JCEC brings together ideas, conversations, and formal inquiry on collaborative efforts toward equity. JCEC is committed to being broadly accessible and collaborative in its structures and processes.

JCEC’s Mission

JCEC seeks to elicit dialogue and prompt action through equity-focused growth and change at all levels: individual, group, organizational, institutional, and societal. We welcome scholarly manuscripts, creative works, policy and critique briefs, stories, and other contributions – any work that encourages connection and collaboration and offers strategies for collective approaches to justice and social change.

JCEC’s Readers & Contributors

JCEC’s contributors and readership are intentionally from a broad array of disciplines and backgrounds because the knowledges and practices needed to create equitable change come from different people, different places, and take many forms. Thus, JCEC seeks contributions and readers from the community as well as academic contributions and readers. The journal offers a unique forum for the expression of ideas that invites a much more diverse contributor and reader base than most journals. The result – as people contribute to, engage with, and put JCEC’s content into action – is new intellectual, interpersonal, and interorganizational connections that can further activate change.

Seeking Submissions
The Journal Connection for Change (JCC) is thrilled to invite submissions for our upcoming issues and seeks dynamic academic, creative, and multi-media submissions aimed at fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and promoting positive change. We welcome contributions from scholars, creative writers, activists, policymakers, and practitioners across various fields. JCEC’s focus is Collaboration for Equitable Change.

Collaboration has received significant attention as a key component of social justice and varied efforts for equitable change – particularly as a basis for transformation in interpersonal and interorganizational relations. There are many ways that collaboration can be conceptualized, inspired, initiated, enacted, supported, and evolved. By encouraging academic, artistic, and policy/advocacy-focused submissions, JCEC seeks to be a hub of innovative understandings of the complexities and possibilities of collaboration for a better future locally and globally.

Submission Areas:

• Academic Research: We welcome research articles based on original empirical, conceptual, reflective practice, or action research. We also welcome literature and various analytic reviews, case studies, and theoretical contributions. Submissions should adhere to academic standards and be accompanied by clear methodology and references.
• Creative Works: Creative works are an important form of analysis and pathway toward change. Share your creative vision through fiction, poetry, photography, multimedia, digital, or visual art. We encourage innovative storytelling from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines that explores themes of social change and personal transformation.
• Interviews: Many of our most innovative ideas and impactful actions come from intentional conversations with thought leaders, activists, and changemakers. JCEC invites creative approaches to interviewing that embrace the sharing of lived experience, ideas about trends and shifts related to equitable change, and discussions of shared leadership.We welcome interviews with people from across community locations whose voices and perspectives can be amplified to expand or deepen our understandings of collaboration.
• Policy Briefs: Policy shapes social structures and interactions in formal and informal ways and policy makers need good ideas to make good policy. We welcome concise, evidence-based policy briefs outlining key issues, recommendations, and implications for action. Policy briefs should include commentary on the many ways collaboration can be involved in the process.

When you submit, there are some things we would like you to address:

• How does this submission help promote equitable change?
• Who was engaged in the creation of this submission?
• What does this submission express about collaboration?
• What are you trying to convey, or what does this submission mean to you as the artist/author ?
• What is the connection to the journal?
• Use of ChatGPT or any other AI prose or image generator must be acknowledged.
• So that we can provide closed captioning for accessibility purposes, all audio or video submissions must include transcripts (please review for accuracy before submitting).

Publication Details:

• Selected works will be published in the open access Journal of Collaboration for Equitable Change (JCEC)
• All submissions remain the IP of the submitters or of whatever IP arrangement a submitter has made with another entity.

Submission Process:

Please submit your contributions via our ONLINE SUBMISSION PORTAL. Submissions should adhere to the formatting guidelines specified on our JCEC website. Authors may send an initial email query to the editors and are encouraged to include a brief bio and contact information with their submissions. Upload files with the following labeling convention: Last name_SubmissionTitle. Conventional file formats accepted.

Important Dates:

• Deadline for Submissions: Rolling submissions. You may submit work at any time, but Feb 1 and Aug 1 are the cut off dates for publication in the see the table below for cut-off dates for the May and November 15 issues.
• Review Process: Submissions of any kind go through a rigorous review process that is tailored to each type of submission.
• Notification of Acceptance: We strive to be responsive. Notification of acceptance depends upon reviewer comments and editor determinations. 2-3 months is a general guide for notification of acceptance.

General Publication Dates:

Contact Information:

For inquiries or further information, please contact our managing editors:
Dr. Sousan Arafeh, Ph.D. arafehs1@southerenct.edu
Dr. Angela Frusciante, Ph.D. akf@kd2change.com
Joan Weir, Ph.D., weirj3@southernct.edu
or our Arts/Interviews Editor:
Clarence McFerren II, Ed.D. clarencemcferren@gmail.com