The first academic journal for deafblindness in the world

On Thursday 19 November 2015, the first issue of the Journal of Deafblind Studies on Communication will be published on the initiative of Prof. Marleen Janssen of the University of Groningen. It is the first academic journal for deafblindness in the world, and will appear as an open access journal. The journal is intended for students and professionals and will contain theoretical articles, evidence-based methodologies and good practices.

Professional field has many questions

‘The professional field always has lots of questions about the research our Master’s students are doing’, says Marleen Janssen about the reasoning behind the journal. She is responsible for the journal, together with the DBI Working Group on Communication, an expert group within the international world organization in the field of deafblindness. The working group is also the editorial board of the journal. ‘It was the working group’s idea to have a journal, rather than write a book. And choosing open access makes the knowledge available to anyone, anywhere in the world’, explains Janssen. The journal is at the level of a Master’s student, so it is also accessible to practitioners and researchers from other fields who are conducting research on complex communication with people who have a communication disability.

1st issue to be launched on 19 November

The first issue of the Journal of Deafblind Studies on Communication will be launched on Thursday 19 November during a meeting of the DBI Working Group on Communication in Groningen. During the meeting, the group will also work on the preparations for the second issue, which will appear in 2016. In addition, the group will be preparing for the 10th anniversary conference of the Groningen Master’s in Communication and Deafblindness in November 2016. This unique Master’s programme was founded in 2006.

Collaboration with University of Groningen Library

The Journal of Deafblind Studies on Communication was developed in close collaboration with the University of Groningen Library. The technology making the journal accessible via open access is Open Journal Systems (OJS). It is a international journal management and publishing system that has been developed by the Public Knowledge Project through its federally funded efforts to expand and improve access to research.

Url: http://jdbsc.rug.nl/