Volume 2, Issue 3 (2017)

Happy New Year from the editorial staff for the Journal of Research Initiatives (JRI). When the journal was launched in 2013, I was both excited and scared. I was excited to have this opportunity to establish a new avenue for scholarly publishing, and it is a big responsibility. My major motivation was and will always be to provide the education community with a powerful tool to publish open access online research. I am thrilled to announce that the journal has published more than 75 articles within our fourth year of existence.

JRI was accepted to the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) in 2015 and the journal has a 2.3 IBI Factor for the year 2016 calculated by InfoBase Index (IBI). The journal attracts authors who are dedicated and committed to sharing their research and best practices to their friends and colleagues in the field of education. The development of this issue of the Journal of Research Initiatives was surely a collaborative effort. I would like to thank the authors, editorial review board members, faculty, and doctoral editorial reviewers for their dedication to ensure the quality of the journal. It is a pleasure to serve as editor-in-chief and it is indeed a pleasure to work with everyone on the journal and on the upcoming conference, July 21, 2017. Please visit the conference website at http://digitalcommons.uncfsu.edu/jric/ for additional information. We welcome your research locally, nationally, and internationally. Enjoy the first issue for 2017.

Linda Wilson-Jones, Editor-in-Chief