America’s low levels of civic knowledge have been repeatedly documented. The Journal of Civic Literacy is a project of the Center for Civic Literacy at IUPUI. It is a new open-access, online interdisciplinary journal focused upon publishing high-quality, peer-reviewed research on issues of American civic literacy, defined as that level of public knowledge necessary for informed civic participation.

Civic literacy for our purposes encompasses an acquaintance with:
• American history, both episodic and intellectual;
• An understanding of the nation’s constituent documents, their roots and their
subsequent amendment and interpretation, and;
• Sufficient familiarity with and comprehension of basic:
o Economic,
o Scientific and
o Public Policy terminology to permit the formation of informed opinions on
matters of policy disputation.

We are interested in:
• The causes and consequences of low levels of literacy,
• The role of public education, the comparative efficacy of available curricula
and programs (what is working? why and how?),
• The connections between the current media environment and deficient civic
understandings
• The role of civic literacy in defining ethical and trustworthy public service, and
• Theoretical submissions that consider the role of civic knowledge in American
political and religious life.

The Journal’s editorial leadership recognizes that practitioners, community members, academics, prominent citizens and others add much value to the ongoing conversation of civic literacy and its effects on our democracy. Therefore, this journal invites research going well beyond simple measurements of the above elements of civic literacy, in order to inform the practices of community leaders, teachers, citizens, policy and change makers. In order to encourage an informative dialogue between these individuals, we welcome contributions from the following audiences:
• Citizen—contributions from practitioners, prominent citizens.
• Scholarly—traditional academic research/papers.
• Continuing conversation—content primarily generated by editor-in-chief/associate
editor.

Categories of Articles:
• Educational Action-based research
• Summaries of best practices and recommendations for applications across fields
or disciplines
• Community-based participatory action research
• Case studies/ Narratives from the field
• Reviews of newly published books with recommendation for how it can be applied
across fields or disciplines
• Narratives from the field

Please start your submission process here: http://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/civiclit

The journal will initially be published twice a year by the Center for Civic Literacy at IUPUI. Its editorial board includes scholars representing a wide range of disciplines: political science, public administration, education, science, religious studies and business. The inaugural Editor-in-Chief is Sheila Suess Kennedy, Professor of Law and Public Policy at the School for Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI; Associate Editor is Robert Dion of Evansville University.