SAGE strengthens education journal portfolio following acquisition of Symposium Journals

Los Angeles, CA - SAGE, one of the world’s leading independent and academic publishers, has today announced the purchase of education journals publisher, Symposium Journals Limited. The sale was announced jointly by Roger Osborn-King of Symposium Journals and Ziyad Marar, SAGE’s Global Publishing Director.

With a journals publishing career spanning nearly 40 years, Roger founded Symposium Journals 12 years ago in which period he has established a high quality portfolio of education journals publishing international research within the field of education for researchers and professionals. Symposium’s journal portfolio includes leading academic journals within childhood studies, educational policy, contemporary educational practice, international education and teaching assessment, as well as the flagship journal of one of the prominent educational societies, European Educational Research Association. The acquisition results in Symposium’s entire journal portfolio of nine titles becoming a part of SAGE’s journal program, including all of the following titles:

• Citizenship, Social and Economics Education (CSEE) – a focus for scholarly and professional studies in the fields of education, socialisation, curriculum development and aspects of economics, sociology, politics and social psychology.
• Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood (CIEC) – forum for researchers and professionals who are exploring new and alternative perspectives in their work with young children and their families.
• E-Learning and Digital Media (ELDM) – explores the ways that different disciplines and alternative approaches can shed light on the study of technically mediated education.
• European Educational Research Journal (EERJ) – publishes aspects of educational research which illuminate the cases and contents of the emerging borderless space of European educational research.
• Global Studies of Childhood (GSC) – provides an opportunity for researchers, university and college students and professionals who are interested in issues associated with childhood in education, family, and community contexts from a global perspective to present, share and discuss their work.
• Policy Futures in Education (PFE) – promotes debate in education among university academics, practicing policy analysts in government and local government, national and international policy advisors, politicians, members of policy think-tanks and world policy agencies such as the World Bank, OECD and the European Union.
• Power and Education (PE) – promotes critical studies of contemporary educational practice and challenging the complicit practices and assumptions of mainstream educational research.
• Psychology Learning & Teaching (PLT) – devoted to enhancing knowledge of how to improve learning and teaching of psychology.
• Research in Comparative & International Education (RCIE) – concerned with research and its methods. It seeks to publish new research in the field of comparative and international education, broadly defined, or which address theoretical and methodological issues in comparative and international education with clear research relevance.

Speaking of the acquisition, Ziyad Marar, SAGE’s Global Publishing Director commented:

“We are delighted to welcome the highly regarded education journals of Symposium publishing to SAGE. The nine titles, including the flagship journal of the European Educational Research Association, represent an international range of well-regarded research and complement our strong presence in education publishing extremely well. We look forward to working with the impressive array of editors and authors on each journal and to using SAGE’s global reach and international sales and marketing presence to substantially increase the profile, visibility and accessibility of these important titles.”

Commenting on the transfer of its publishing program to SAGE, founder Roger Osborn-King remarked:

“I am delighted to be handing my journals publishing business to SAGE, a publisher that has impressed me by their company vision, their social science and humanities specialism, and our shared values. I am confident SAGE will continue to nurture the academic growth of the editorial and research base of these journals, and to open up for them many exciting new opportunities. SAGE has the foresight, market presence and infrastructure to ensure this, and I look forward to seeing their continuing development and impact on the field of educational research.”

Roger will continue work with SAGE to support the transition and will continue to publish each journal through to the end of 2014 following which all production, editorial, marketing and sales of the journals will move to SAGE. Roger will continue to wholly own and run his long-established book publishing company, Symposium Books Ltd. Further information on the acquisition and information for subscribers can be found here: http://www.uk.sagepub.com/symposium.sp