This summer 2005 issue is the thirty-second issue of Academic Exchange Quarterly,
a journal begun eight years ago at Chattanooga State College in Tennessee.  It is now 
published in New York and has grown significantly.

I first joined the editorial staff of AEQ in 1999, two years after its initial 
publication, and I am proud to be associated with it six years later.  I have the 
spring 1999 issue before me now, and it was a slender production containing some 
twenty brief articles within a space of eighty-six pages.  The first issue in the 
fall of 1997 was even shorter with most of the articles written by individuals from 
Chattanooga State.

Now the issues of AEQ contain approximately sixty articles within over three 
hundred pages.  Whereas the initial issues contained articles written by authors 
from only a few institutions, as of last count, there have been authors from 573 
colleges and universities around the world.  Those figures show a 200% increase in 
journal content and 248% increase in page numbers.

The readership base has increased significantly also.  When AEQ first began, the
readership numbered no more than a few hundred.  Now there are over 24,000
readers, a figure based on library and individual subscriptions.  In fact, this 
figure increases even more when one takes into account the online versions available 
on Gale Expanded Academic ASAP, Expanded Academic ASAP International, and Infotrac 
OneFile.  Most of AEQ’s readers are teachers in colleges and universities.  Many 
college libraries are paid subscribers, and even the prestigious British Library has 
a paid sub- scription.  

What accounts for this phenomenal growth?  It is because of the ingenious combination
of Internet and print publication.  Aspiring authors submit their articles via MS 
Word to AEQ’s New York office, whereupon the office staff puts the submissions onto 
an anonymous “track your submission” web page.  The members of the journal’s 
editorial staff, consisting of approximately forty academicians from the U.S., 
Canada, Taiwan, Spain, England, Israel, Finland, and Australia, engage in a 
double-blind review of the articles.  Authors may literally track the progress of 
their submissions as they are reviewed by checking at the “track your submission” 
web page. Whereas in traditional print journals news of acceptance or rejection of 
an article could have taken six months or longer, AEQ accomplishes this process 
within six to nine weeks.  It’s  transparent and prompt.

The thing that makes me most proud of my association with AEQ, however, is that many 
of the articles published are by young scholars, those who wish to see themselves
in print.  According to statistics on the AEQ website, 43% of AEQ’s readers are 
assistant professors.  Yet publication in this journal is not easy.  This summer 
issue, for example, contains articles from a 29% acceptance rate (as opposed to the 
very first issue of AEQ which had a 45% acceptance rate).  These scholars have a 
venue for their research, an activity along with teaching that AEQ encourages.  In 
addition, AEQ’s web-based features such as “Monthly Exchange” and “Editor’s Choice” 
offer authors feedback to their articles’ usefulness and popularity.

Finally, every three years, the best articles from AEQ are republished in a book 
format called Sound Instruction: Ready to Use Classroom Practice.  Volume One was 
published in 2002 (ISBN 0-9709895-0-4).  Volume Two is scheduled to be published 
next year. The aim of Volume Two will be similar to the first volume--to become a 
textbook for graduate-level courses in education and to be a reference book for 
every teacher interested in improving his or her own teaching.

These young scholars, the assistant professors and associate professors, are the 
lifeblood of the academic profession.  As I am in the final years of my own teaching 
career, I am impressed by the high quality of research and publication I see them 
submit to AEQ, and I know the profession will continue in good hands.  AEQ is part 
of a long tradition of academic journals that have started small and have grown in 
significance and influence.  This summer issue is one of the best yet, and AEQ will 
continue to grow and contribute to the march of mind.