Call for Articles

Overview

As society becomes increasingly dependent on IT infrastructures to work correctly and the information within to be protected, so does our need to educate experts in the design and administration of computer systems and networks. The network and system administrator has become an essential part in how businesses can create value, how important Web sites can handle traffic surges, and how our data can be kept intact and secured. The education of system, network, and security administrators in higher education is relatively new but increasingly essential. Educators around the world are defining new courses and whole programs in order to prepare their students for a lifelong career in IT and system administration. Until now, there has been no place to collect the combined knowledge of educators and practitioners in order to collectively advance the profession through curriculum development and the education of future system, network, and security administrators.

JESA's core purpose is to foster educational innovation and excellence in the field of system, network, and security education. Through this publication and the Summit for Education in System Administration (SESA), held in conjunction with LISA16, we wish to:

• Advocate for system administration, security, and networking education and the development of new academic programs in system administration, security, and networking education
• Refine definitions of academic education and practical training with respect to system administration, security, and networking
• Foster accreditation of new academic programs
• Provide a forum for industry and academia to interact around shared needs and capabilities
• Provide a forum for the exchange of educational innovations and research in the area of system administration, security, and networking education

JESA and SESA

The Journal of Education in System Administration (JESA) and the Summit for Education in System Administration (SESA) are independent of each other in the sense that submissions to one do not have to be presented at the other to be accepted. However, as a young organization with substantial overlap between the Editorial Board of JESA and the Program Committee of SESA, our plan is to use JESA submissions as a source for invited talks at SESA. We are hopeful that by providing authors access to both a printed journal and an academic presentation venue offered in conjunction with one of the most popular and respected industry conferences in our field we will be able achieve a synergy that encourages authors to submit their best, most creative, and challenging work.

Paper Submission Process

All papers will have a two-round review process (longer than a conference, shorter than a journal). After the first round, authors will get anonymous feedback from the editors. Their manuscripts may be accepted without changes, accepted with minor required changes, rejected with major changes recommended, or simply rejected. Accepted papers will have a brief window to make any necessary changes and then will be subject to an additional round of reviews. By having regular submission deadlines with rapid reviewing, JESA promises to offer authors a rapid and predictable process. By having online open-access dissemination, JESA promises timely, free access to readers worldwide.

JESA authors pay nothing to submit manuscripts and JESA readers pay nothing to read accepted papers.

JESA Manuscript topics

Papers should contain original research in any area related to education in system administration. Example topics include but are not limited to:

• Teaching approaches
• Defining learning outcomes
• Teaching the soft skills needed by successful system administrators
• Traversing theory and practical work in classes
• Education programs
• Designing and managing lab environments
• Gamification of education
• Education in perspective to the profession
• How new developments in the profession are adapted in the education
• Student assessment and grading
• The relationship between technical training and education

Submissions will be judged on originality, relevance, correctness, and clarity.

Submission Instructions   

Papers for Volume 2, Number 1 must be received by 3:59 p.m. PDT on Friday, August 26, 2016. All deadlines are hard—no extensions will be given. All submissions will be electronic. Submissions should be finished, complete papers (not work in progress) and must be in PDF format, submitted via the Web submission form.

Paper submissions should be at most 16 typeset pages, excluding bibliography and well-marked appendices. Submissions should be in one-column format, using 10-point Times Roman type on 12-point leading, in a text block with 1.5-inch margins on U.S.-style 8.5" x 11" paper. There is no limit on the length of appendices, but reviewers are not required to read them. Once accepted, papers must fit in 20 pages—including bibliography and any appendices—in the same format. Authors' names and affiliations should not be included, per the anonymization policy that follows.

Final camera-ready papers should be formatted according to the specifications above. If you are using Microsoft Word or LaTeX, please make use of these templates and stylefiles.

Note that you should feel no obligation to use every available page. Shorter papers are encouraged. Because JESA accepts manuscripts from academics across many different disciplines, we wish to be flexible about formatting requirements. Generally speaking, we want papers to follow the font size and margins listed above, but beyond that, you're welcome to adopt the APA style or whatever other standard your academic area prefers.

Paper submissions must be anonymized: author names and author affiliations must be removed; acknowledgments and other clear markers of affiliation (e.g., "we used data from XXX University") should be removed or rewritten; self-citations should be rewritten to be neutral (e.g., "In previous work, Smith showed...").

Simultaneous submission of the same work to multiple venues, submission of previously published work, or plagiarism constitutes dishonesty or fraud. USENIX, like other scientific and technical conferences and journals, prohibits these practices and may take action against authors who have committed them. See the USENIX Conference Submissions Policy for details.

Authors uncertain whether their submission meets USENIX's guidelines should contact the chief editors, jesa_editors@usenix.org or the USENIX office, submissionspolicy@usenix.org.

Papers accompanied by nondisclosure agreement forms will not be considered. Accepted submissions will be treated as confidential prior to publication on the USENIX JESA Web site; rejected submissions will be permanently treated as confidential.

Authors will be notified on the dates described above. Each accepted submission may be assigned a member of the editorial board to act as its shepherd through the preparation of the final paper. The assigned member will act as a conduit for feedback from the full editorial board to the authors.

All JESA papers will be disseminated online, free of charge, to all readers. If you need to embargo your final publication for some reason, please notify production@usenix.org. Questions about submissions may be sent to the chief editors, jesa_editors@usenix.org.