Journal of Extension Articles about Scholarship

The Scholarship of Application (Article No. 2FEA8)

McGrath, Daniel M.

In the late 1990s, Oregon State University brought its Extension field faculty into academic departments where they are evaluated for promotion and tenure. This was intended to promote better collaboration and integration of research, teaching, and Extension. Research and teaching faculty, however, continue to respond to the traditional academic reward and recognition system. Newer faculty members are unclear about the meaning of our commitment to the threefold mission. Extension field faculty are frustrated by the apparently incongruent demands of scholarship and public service. This article provides a brief history of the engagement movement in higher education and describes current dilemmas.

A Diversified Portfolio of Scholarship: The Making of a Successful Extension Educator (Article No. 4COM2)

Adams, Roger G., Jr.; Harrell Reginal M.; Maddy, Deborah J.; Weigel, Dan

In today’s academic environment, universities expect that Extension educators will engage in scholarship. Academic leaders have attempted to define the scholarship of Extension for two decades, but confusion prevails about the specific accomplishments required to meet the expectations. The time has arrived for the Extension system to set the standard of excellence in scholarship as well as performance. This commentary proposes that a diversified portfolio of scholarship can assist in establishing and sustaining the standard for scholarship and advocates creating a culture for scholarship continuity and consistency across the system.

Scholarship: Shout About It

Smith, Keith L.

It’s not enough these days to merely “do good work.” We need to “shout about it.” We need to more thoroughly adopt a long-recognized and accepted method of “shouting about our work” in university circles: scholarship. We need to be seen as equal partners with our colleagues across our universities so that they can learn from us and we can learn from them. Together, we can meet local community needs more effectively, maximize our impact in communities, and expand our scholarship opportunities.

Co-Authoring Papers in Research Teams: Avoiding the Pitfalls

Enfield, Richard P.; Lee, Faye C. H.

In many states, both county-based and campus-based Extension staff are expected to conduct research and publish in both academic journals and practitioner publications. More Extension professionals are now experiencing the struggles associated with the sticky issues of authorship that faculty have long experienced. We set the stage with several true stories and present several points that can be used to avoid the common and difficult pitfalls of authorship that create ill will, even among close colleagues. By using the guidelines presented, it is possible to have professionally rewarding co-authoring experiences and to avoid the quagmire that results from either unthinking or unethical behavior.

Defining Scholarship for County Extension Agents

Schauber, Ann; Aldrich-Markham, Susan; Olsen, Jeff; Gredler, Gail; Olsen, Pamela; Reichenbach, Mike

With the privilege of academic rank, Oregon county Extension faculty have a responsibility to do scholarly work. In an effort to understand the meaning of scholarship as it relates to county Extension work, six agents met for a day to examine what scholarship meant to each of them. While scholarship has been traditionally defined as research, they explored how their primary job, teaching, could also be viewed as a scholarship when it develops new methods or integrates new knowledge leading to new understanding. They recognized that Extension faculty’s challenge is to demonstrate the value of these other forms of scholarship to more traditional, research-oriented faculty.


Journal of Extension Submission Guidelines

The Journal of Extension (JOE) is the official refereed publication of U.S. Cooperative Extension.

JOE expands and updates the research and knowledge base for U.S. Extension professionals and other outreach educators to improve their effectiveness. In addition, JOE serves as a forum for emerging and contemporary issues affecting U.S. Cooperative Extension education.

JOE is written, reviewed, edited, and published by U.S. Extension professionals, sharing with their colleague’s successful educational applications, original and applied research findings, scholarly opinions, educational resources, and challenges on issues of critical importance to U.S. Cooperative Extension.

Authors submitting articles to JOE must follow the guidelines in this document. Submissions that deviate from these guidelines will be returned to the corresponding authors for changes. Because the guidelines are updated as appropriate, authors should check them again before they submit their articles.

JOE is published on the World Wide Web. Authors should prepare their articles with the Web and on-screen reading in mind. This means, among other things, shorter paragraphs and more bullet and numbered lists than are conventional in more traditional, on-paper journals.

Visit the Journal of Extension website’s For Authors: Journal of Extension Submission Guidelines page for the full description and details about the submission guidelines.