The "Notes" section of BRJ Online may contain several items. In this issue there are three items worth special mention. The first describes the online version of the BRJ, BRJ Online. The second is a note on date discrepancies. The third item is a call for papers. You may click on the item you wish to read or read them seriatum.

Emergence of E-journals and BRJ Online

As we gain more experience with BRJ Online the strengths and weaknesses of the technology become clearer. The positive aspects are obvious and numerous, but a serious problem remains: inadequate bandwidth. This manifests itself as the inability by the Web to accommodate thousands, or millions, of users simultaneously without losing efficiency and speed. Experts claim that the Web is the most revolutionary innovation since the printing press. That may be true, but it means that the earliest electronic journals “printed” on the Web must suffer the inconveniences of all early innovations. The early printing presses no doubt had comparable problems.

The greatest inconvenience of the Web is the slow download speed for pages with numerous graphics or with large graphics such as the masthead on our Table of Contents page. With this issue we give you the option of reading BRJ Online with or without graphics. If you choose the “Text Version” you will get optimum download speed but you will not see the opening masthead or the graphic icons or buttons. Any graphics embedded in the articles may also be lost. If you are accessing BRJ Online via modem you may want to try the “Text Version”, especially if you are pressed for time. If your computer is connected directly to a local area network, graphic downloads are usually not a problem and you may want to stay with the “Graphics Option." Either way, the functionality and text content remains the same. Try both options and see what works best for you.

As a future project we hope to make the journal available in CD-ROM format as well as online. If the bandwidth problem is not resolved soon, a CD-ROM version of BRJ will reduce the problem of download time.

As we weigh the future of BRJ Online, please make your needs and suggestions known for making BRJ Online more user friendly.

In the fall of 1998, a new editorial team based at the Center for Bilingual Education and Research, Arizona State University, assumed responsibility for the Bilingual Research Journal. At the time this change occurred BRJ was several issues in arrears. While the new team expects to bring the journal into currency, this will take time. Until the journal becomes current readers should note that certain articles may contain bibliographic references or allusions to events that took place sometime after the date and issue line. Hence, differences in date, issue, or volume numbers are due to the editors' decision to maintain an uninterrupted numeration and date sequence.

Call for papers

Statement of Purpose

In the increasingly global and ethnically diverse society in which we find ourselves immersed at the turn of the century, few question either the value of testing as the way to measure academic achievement or the need to go beyond test scores as a measure of educational success. Recognizing and encouraging the diversity of our multi-linguistic populace is often overlooked in defining educational "success." Some schools, however, have embraced both the challenges of achieving academic success as well as using English and another language for instruction. The purpose of this special edition of the Bilingual Research Journal is to recognize flourishing bilingual education programs and to highlight their achievements for the purpose of informing the educational and academic community. Therefore, this call for papers is geared toward research studies on successful bilingual programs/schools representing different models. Papers may examine the areas of curriculum, instruction, student outcomes, school or program outcomes, and community response to the school/program.

Topics

This issue will highlight feature research articles exhibiting the following content:

• Case studies of successful bilingual programs/schools

• Administrative perspectives on achieving/maintaining successful bilingual programs/schools

• Criteria for defining bilingual educational success

In addition, the issue will also feature shorter manuscripts that contain the following:

• Personal narratives detailing experiences with bilingual education programs

• Parental perspectives/experiences with bilingual programs

• Bilingual program descriptions

Finally, the issue welcomes relevant book reviews.

Submission Guidelines

The guest editors request that manuscripts submitted as feature articles be a Maximum of 30 computer-produced pages, double spaced, in 12-point type, using 8.5 by 11 inch paper, with one inch margins all around. Manuscripts for other sections may be shorter. Authors must follow the style manual of the American Psychological Association (4th edition), submit a title page, and, on a separate page, a one paragraph abstract. The full name of the author(s), conventional mail and e-mail addresses, and telephone and fax numbers must appear only on the title page.

Deadlines

The closing date for receipt of manuscripts is March 15, 2001. Generally, submissions are based on original work that has not been previously published. On an exceptional basis, contributions of high merit, interest, or significance may be reprinted at the discretion of the editors. All submissions will be peer reviewed. Send manuscripts directly to:

Maria Estela Brisk
Professor, Lynch School of Education
Boston College
140 Commonwealth Ave.
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
Fax: 617-552-1840
Email: brisk@bc.edu