If I am a faculty member and need credit for publishing, will this journal provide it?

Studies in Vocation and Calling will include a double-blind peer reviewed section of articles. This is the common standard for providing faculty members with credit for scholarly publication. We invite traditional academic articles that engage questions of vocation using theoretical frameworks from a range of disciplines. Articles may focus on theory or practice, and should engage with the emerging scholarly literature on vocation.

Can I write about the vocation-related work being carried out on our campus?

Yes. We invite professionals from across campus to write about concrete practices that help develop and strengthen the vocational capacities of their students. What has and has not worked in your curriculum or programming? What theoretical frameworks or conversations are informing your program or curricular development? What are you observing, experimenting with, and learning? Contributions can be used to join (or start) a conversation about the practices that encourage vocational exploration and discernment among students, whether through narrative descriptions, case studies, qualitative or quantitative research, interviews, or any other format that helps readers understand what is working (and what isn’t) in the realm of vocational exploration and discernment.

I just want to write about my own perspective on vocation. Is that an option?

Yes. Vocational reflection takes many forms, and there is space for personal perspectives in Studies in Vocation and Calling. We invite essays, poetry, fiction, and other genres that highlight themes related to calling and vocation, with a particular focus on the role that these concepts play in higher education, especially at the undergraduate level. These contributions are reviewed by the journal’s editors (i.e., they are not peer-reviewed). Feel free to submit material via the portal, or—if you want to talk through an idea—contact Managing Editor Krista Hughes at khughes@cic.edu to discuss your project.

What background do I need, in order to write?

If you have been involved in vocation-related projects on your campus, you probably already have some good raw material with which to work. In addition, a wide variety of resources are available to support the work of vocation and calling—not only books and articles, but also films, podcasts, television shows, documentaries, and more. We encourage you to use these resources, where appropriate, as you write. In addition, we are always looking for new resources to provide to the NetVUE community and beyond. What have you encountered that enriched your thinking about vocation and would support other professionals in the network? If you have a good idea, reach out to Book and Resource Review Editor Erin VanLaningham at evanlaningham@cic.edu.

Yes, I am interested! Where can I learn more?

The submission portal is scheduled to open in late March 2025. Submissions will be considered on a rolling basis. However, for full consideration to be included in an early issue, authors should plan to submit completed work no later than August 1, 2025.

If you have questions or would like to explore an idea for development, contact Krista Hughes, NetVUE director of resource development and managing editor of the journal, at khughes@cic.edu.

For a taste of Studies in Vocation and Calling, we encourage you to check out the Summer 2023 issue of Christian Scholar’s Review, focused on the theme of vocation and guest edited by NetVUE’s executive director, David S. Cunningham. While Studies in Vocation and Calling will differ in significant ways from that issue, it was designed as something of a pilot for this project, and it will give you a small taste of what we have in mind.