Factors Influencing SoTL-Active Family Scientists’ Target Journal Decisions

This exploratory study investigated the factors that influence family science SoTL scholars’ decisions regarding where to submit their FS-SoTL work for publication consideration, contributing to ISSOTL’s Grand Challenge #5. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 12 SoTL-active family science faculty members. The results of the quantitative analyses revealed that the majority of the participants rated Helpfulness of peer reviews in improving the work, the Cost (or lack of cost) to publish, Has a readership/audience that I want to reach, and Journal/source publishes similar SoTL research as “Very important” or higher. Recursive thematic analysis of written open-ended responses yielded three themes: paucity of FS-SoTL, no home in largest disciplinary journals, as well as reach and publication processes. Collectively, the results provide valuable insight into not only the factors that influence family science SoTL scholars’ decisions regarding where to submit their FS-SoTL work for publication consideration, but also illuminate how these determinations may deviate from decisions related to submitting non-SoTL FS research for publication. Preliminary findings suggest that SoTL-active family scientists’ target journal decisions are influenced by some factors significantly different from those that typically influence disciplinary scholarship, yet that are also consistent with some patterns of SoTL scholarship across disciplines. Consequently, the reach of FS-SoTL scholars’ work may be limited by some of the complex contextual factors identified in this exploratory study. Implications for the discipline of family science, recommendations for supporting FS-SoTL scholars, and future research are discussed.