Preamble

NYSTJ’S CONSTITUTION was written to ensure that the journal is not politicized. It should serve as a pedagogical and research vehicle based on its initial role. In 2012, the Advisory Board, together with the three founding co-editors, specified the journal structure, mission and policies. NYS TESOL Journal, as it was named at that time, was set up in collaboration with the NYS TESOL Executive Board, as a scholarly journal that publishes high scholarship and has an open-access academic format. The Journal’s primary role was set up to be for the promotion and facilitation of scholarly publications of NYS scholars, educators and researchers. There was a strong need for a credible, reputable journal in which junior scholars and doctoral students can find a welcoming and accepting home. The Journal was in part earmarked as a mentoring journal that would provide nurturing support to young scholars.

Articles

Article 1
NYS TESOL Journal (from now onwards NYSTJ for short) is a publishing house that is run following the scholarly organizational structure of peers who are self-governed.

Article 2
NYST J peers, in full editorial and advisory board positions, hold doctorates in TESOL or related areas. They are also typically, though not always, on professorship lines. They are expected to have an extensive publishing record and experience with regard to scholarly publishing. Ideally, editorial peers have significant editorial skills.

Article 3
NYSTJ is an official publication of the NYS TESOL Association. Although the Journal is housed under NYS TESOL, a volunteer-run association of TESOL educators, the Journal itself is an independent scholarly body. All scholarly publications act as independent scholarly bodies. This system ensures academic freedom of expression and self-governance without any special interests or undue influences.

Article 4
The Journal’s Editorial Board and Advisory Board have a consultative relationship with the NYS TESOL Executive Board and can make joint decisions.

Article 5
In order to secure scholarship integrity, the Editorial Board (EB) and the Advisory Board (AB) technically oversee the Journal and make all the decisions related to the Journal.

Article 6
The Editors and Advisory Board have voting rights: one member equals one vote.

Article 7
For any suggested change, be it internally, or externally, that requires altering the current system (e.g., term length, position descriptions, editorial workflow, etc.) the vote needed must be unanimous. In other words, both the sitting editors and the AB members must vote unanimously for a particular proposal.

Postscript/Rationale
The Articles are created in order to preserve the structural and editorial integrity of the Journal. Academic journals are stable entities. They cannot be subject to annual change in NYS TESOL Association presidents who may each wish to make changes each year. Such changes can interfere with the integrity, validity and reliability of the Journal processes.