Peer review of curricular materials on the Living Physics Portal

The Living Physics Portal is partnering with CourseSource to support our contributors in writing peer-reviewed journal articles about their Vetted Library contributions. CourseSource is a journal that publishes articles about research-based physics and biology teaching materials developed by faculty. You can write a CourseSource article about your Vetted Library contribution to get professional credit.

Reasons to publish about your Portal materials in CourseSource:

• You can list your CourseSource article as a peer-reviewed publication in promotion and tenure documents and job applications.
• CourseSource articles undergo a thorough peer-review process in which editors and peer reviewers provide feedback to help you improve your work and develop strong scientific and pedagogical content. 
• CourseSource makes it easy by providing a Word template with an outline of all the required sections for your article in the proper format, instructions about what to put in each section, and a rubric that explains how your article will be evaluated.
• Publication fees are waived for a limited number of submissions to CourseSource from the Living Physics Portal.

FAQ about publishing Living Physics Portal contributions in CourseSource:

What is CourseSource?

CourseSource is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes original articles about peer-reviewed biology and physics teaching and learning resources that:

• incorporate student-centered, evidence-based pedagogy,
• focus on professional society-developed learning goals and objectives,
• are organized and formatted so that transfer and use in other classrooms is easily done, and
• are based on evidence-based practices that are fully supported by research, but do not require data supporting the efficacy of the specific materials themselves.

Learn more about CourseSource.

How is CourseSource connected to the Living Physics Portal?

The Living Physics Portal has two levels of contribution, the Community Library, which any verified educator can contribute to, and the Vetted Library, which requires approval by the editorial team. We are partnering with the journal CourseSource to add a third level, the equivalent of a Peer-Reviewed Library, for contributors to further refine their Vetted Library contributions into a peer-reviewed journal article.

Should I contribute to both the Living Physics Portal and CourseSource?

Yes! We recommend a three-step process:

1. Contribute your materials to the Portal Community Library in a quick, easy process to get started sharing your materials and get feedback from other instructors.
2. Contribute them to the Portal Vetted Library to refine your materials and the descriptions of them and get feedback from our editorial team.
3. Use the CourseSource article templates to expand your writing about your materials into a journal article to submit for peer review on CourseSource. Refer to your Living Physics Portal contribution in your CourseSource article. Living Physics Portal and CourseSource use the same Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, so you can publish the same material on both.

Why should I publish in CourseSource after contributing to the Living Physics Portal?

The Living Physics Portal recognizes that teaching scholarship should be recognized and given professional credit in job applications and promotion and tenure documents. Vetted Library contributions on the Living Physics Portal can give faculty at some institutions professional credit, but other institutions may require peer-reviewed publications. We are partnering with CourseSource to help our community members publish peer-reviewed articles about their teaching to get professional credit. This opportunity is especially helpful for faculty at teaching-focused institutions and teaching-focused faculty at research institutions.

Publishing in CourseSource supports the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL), in which faculty apply an inquiry methodology to their teaching by generating questions, weighing evidence, making predictions, designing curriculum, testing/implementing, adapting/revising, and sharing for review, use and further development.

What is the difference between a Community or Vetted contribution to the Living Physics Portal and a peer-reviewed contribution CourseSource?

How do I submit an article to CourseSource about my Living Physics Portal resource?

Download the CourseSource lesson template and rubric (or the template and rubric for other types of articles). Use your answers to the instructor guide questions for the Vetted Library as starting points for your CourseSource article. For more details about how to submit an article to CourseSource, see their For Authors page.

Is there a cost associated with publishing on CourseSource?

For a limited time, publishing on CourseSource is free for Living Physics Portal contributors. CourseSource normally charges a $400 publication fee to help cover the costs of processing and hosting articles. However, thanks to an AIP Venture Fund grant, publication fees will be waived for the first 20 Living Physics Portal contributors who submit articles to CourseSource. After those funds are used, authors will need to pay the publication fee or request a waiver.

What are the different types of articles on CourseSource and how do they map to the different types of contributions on Living Physics Portal?

CourseSource has several different types of articles that map to different types of contributions on the Living Physics Portal. In most cases, we recommend that you start with a Lesson article. See the CourseSource For Authors page for detailed descriptions of each article type.

What do I do if I have a whole course or a long unit worth of materials that I want to share?

We encourage you to submit all of your materials to the Living Physics Portal Vetted Library. Then pick a lesson or two from your course that showcases the most interesting elements and write about these in a CourseSource Lesson article. Your article can then direct readers to your larger collection of materials on the Portal. After you have successfully published in CourseSource, you can consider writing a LessonPlus article describing your entire course.