Call for Co-Editors: DEC Monograph Series – Issue 1

Call for Co-Editors: DEC Monograph Series – Issue 1

February 2025 - September 2026

Children’s Behaviors That Adults Perceive as Challenging 

The Division for Early Childhood (DEC) Monograph Series began as the Young Exceptional Children (YEC) Monograph Series in 1999. It has historically been a collection of new and relevant information not found in standard publications on a particular subject to support young children birth to age 8 with disabilities, their families and caregivers, and the professionals who work alongside them. In the relaunching of the DEC Monograph Series, this mission remains along with a commitment to developing new policies and practices within the monograph production process, content, and practices to implement DEC’s Racial Equity Point of View (RE POV). 

DEC is recruiting co-editors to share their talents and the work necessary to relaunch the DEC Monograph Series starting with Issue 1. The focus of Issue 1 will be on children’s behaviors that adults perceive as challenging. Co-editors will serve an approximate 18-month term beginning February 2025. Co-editor positions are available as part-time roles, either 50% or 25% of a traditional time commitment for co-editors.

DEC is committed to developing new approaches to publishing monographs that result in a more just, equitable, inclusive, and diverse process and product. A monograph advisory group, consisting of DEC committee members and journal editors, is committed to collaborating with Issue 1 co-editors to achieve these aims. Additional resources provided to Issue 1 co-editors include: 1) copy-editing assistance, 2) support from the DEC Executive Office, 3) an automated system to facilitate reminders to authors and reviewers, and 4) support from an editorial fellow. 

Preferred Co-Editor Qualifications

• Lived disability experience.

• Lived experience as a family member or caregiver of a child with a disability (Birth - age 8) within three years of receiving Early Intervention or Early Childhood Special Education (EI/ECSE) or Special Education services.

• Currently working on behalf of young children, birth – age 8, (e.g., educator, service provider, local or state administrator, technical assistance/professional development provider, coach) and their caregivers in EI/ECSE or early elementary contexts.

  
  

Solo and team submissions are welcome. For team submissions, each member is required to submit their own Letter of Interest. Please see below for further details required for editorial team submissions.

DEC Membership

• You do not need to be a current member to apply but you must be/become a CEC/DEC member if selected.

Successful Letters of Interest

Successful Letters of Interest will include: 

• A self-reflective explanation of personal background, experiences, and identities (such as disability status, race, gender), and how they may inform your work as co-editor.

• Your strengths in collaborating with or mentoring others.     

• Using the list below, consider the tasks of co-editors. Identify which tasks most align with your strengths and interests:

  • Setting the direction for the monograph through the perspective of a: 1) family member, 2)  disabled individual, 3) professional working in the field, and/or 4) administrator.

  • Developing the Call for Articles. 

  • Attracting article submissions and sharing the Call for Articles. 

  • Recruiting reviewers.

  • Assigning articles to reviewers and ensuring timely feedback.

  • Weighing reviewer feedback and making decisions about article acceptance, revision, or rejection.

  • Emailing and communicating decisions with authors.

  • Overseeing revisions of articles.

  • Overseeing visual elements included in the monograph.

  • Designing the monograph’s cover.

  • Raising visibility of the published monograph and sharing about it within your circles of influence.

  • Managing the publication process and communications with the DEC Executive Office.

  • Directly mentoring and creating assignments for the editorial fellow.     

For applicants holding doctoral degrees in EI/ECSE, Special Education, or related fields, please also include:

• A proposed monograph title for Issue 1 on children’s behaviors that adults perceive as challenging and an abbreviated Call for Articles (150 – 250 words) that represents your vision for Issue 1. For team submissions, the title and call may be identical across letters.

• An articulation of scholarship, conceptual frameworks, and/or theoretical lenses that informs your approach to editing Issue 1. 

• Ideas for implementing the DEC RE POV within the monograph’s policies and practices as well as ideas for new ways to make sure the monograph addresses: equitable content, inequities in scholarship/research, diverse community engagement (e.g. in roles of authors, reviewers, readers), and more inclusive and equitable publishing experiences.

For all other applicants please also include:

• A proposed monograph title for Issue 1 on children’s behaviors that adults perceive as challenging and a description of your vision for Issue 1.

Other Details

• All applicants will be asked to submit a resume/CV or a summary of lived experiences that are relevant to this work. 

• Non-doctoral degree holders may submit their responses in a video-format in place of a written Letter of Interest.

Submission Deadline & Proposed Timeline

Please complete this form by Thursday, February 27th, 2025, 11:59 PM Eastern Time.

If you have questions or need support crafting and submitting your paper, please contact Lori Erbrederis Meyer, PhD: Lori.Meyer@uvm.edu

Proposed Timeline: The editorial team will be determined two weeks after submissions close. The proposed rollout of the DEC Monograph Series Issue 1 is September 2026.