Increasing the scope of Access Microbiology
Posted on April 24, 2019 by Microbiology Society
Following feedback from our members, we have increased the scope of our new, open access journal, Access Microbiology to include papers that discuss pedagogy, the science of teaching.
Ahead of Annual Conference 2019, the Society’s Professional Development Committee hosted a symposium on teaching microbiology in higher education. Our goal was to give attendees the opportunity to discuss and share teaching practices and hear from those who have demonstrated excellence in teaching microbiology, building a network of people teaching microbiology in higher education.
Over the course of the day we heard about innovative teaching practices, considered opportunities for developments within degree design, learned about potential opportunities for teaching microbiology in schools and on outreach activities and evaluated ways to develop independence within our graduate students. Importantly, there was an opportunity to share our thoughts with others present at the symposium, and it became clear that there were consistent themes being raised by a large number of those present. One of these was that teachers of microbiology are experimenting with new ways of educating students, but that there is limited opportunity for them to share the results of this work. The Society’s professional development and publishing teams decided that our new journal, Access Microbiology, offers the perfect opportunity to redress the balance, and we are delighted to announce that the journal’s scope has therefore been extended to include pedagogy papers.
Dr Nicola Crewe, who is a member of the Microbiology Society’s Professional Development Committee, has joined the Access Microbiology Editorial Board with particular responsibility for education papers.
"A wealth of experience and expertise was on display at the symposium and discussions during the day showed the depth of enthusiasm for learning from shared good practice, especially with the increasing importance of high-quality teaching at Higher Education establishments. The opportunity to publish pedagogical papers containing microbiology related teaching practice within a like-minded community is a wonderful way in which to learn and develop together, and I am honoured to be a part of that process." - Dr Nicola Crewe
“We are dedicated to supporting our members in building relationships across different communities and increasing knowledge exchange. The teaching symposium, held in this format for the second time this year, was designed to allow members the opportunity to share experiences and examples of teaching innovation and excellence. We asked attendees how the Society could support them and publishing their pedagogy papers was high on the agenda; it is fantastic that we can be responsive to the community and provide a forum for continuing to share best practices outside of the physical meeting.” - Dr Tadhg O Croinin, Chair of the Professional Development Committee
“Access Microbiology was designed to reflect the needs of our members. We weren’t originally aware that there was an appetite to publish education papers, but one of the great things about being a society publisher is that we can respond quickly to embrace new opportunities.” - Tasha Mellins-Cohen, Director of Publishing