The Music Education Editors' Circle is a global community of current and former editors across the full spectrum of peer-reviewed music education journals — from specialized research journals to practitioner-scholar journals. We share knowledge, mentor the next generation of editors and reviewers, and keep an open record of our field's scholarly journals.
We are editors looking after a shared scholarly commons.
Mission. The Circle brings together current and former editors from across the full spectrum of peer-reviewed music education journals to strengthen the integrity, transparency, and quality of scholarly publishing, and to support the people who make it possible — editors, reviewers, and authors. We provide mentoring and shared resources, maintain an open record of our journals and their editorial leadership, and partner with professional societies to onboard new editors and reviewers.
Vision. A music education publishing ecosystem that is ethical, equitable, multilingual, and globally connected — where editorial knowledge is shared rather than siloed, and where new editors and reviewers are mentored into the role with confidence.
"A community of editors, caring together for the craft and ethics of the work."
Editors and former editors from music education research journals worldwide.
The Circle is an informal, collegial network. Our first gathering was the inaugural panel symposium of music education journal editors at the ISME World Conference; we continue to meet at ISME and other venues, including the editor session at the ISME World Conference in July 2026. We are independent of any single journal or publisher, and we welcome editors across languages, regions, publishing models, and the full spectrum from specialized research journals to practitioner-scholar journals.
Editors-in-chief, co-editors, associate, assistant, managing, and production editors — past and present.
We partner with professional societies — such as ISME and SEMPRE, among others — to support new editors and reviewers.
English-, Spanish-, Portuguese-, Chinese-, Nordic-, and other language journals are all part of the conversation.
An open reference for the field's journals, their policies, and key publications.
A searchable global directory of peer-reviewed music education journals — scope, publisher, region, indexing, and direct links to each journal's submission guidelines and publication-ethics statements.
An open record of journal editorship — names, roles, terms, affiliations, and sources, from founding to present. Built to be corrected and extended as editors reach out.
Recent editorials on policy and ethics, and the Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education (MayDay Group) special issue on publishing ethics co-edited by Roger Mantie and S. Alex Ruthmann.
Open to all current, incoming, and past editors, associate/section editors, and editorial board members.
The Circle keeps in touch through a simple email list for announcements and general queries — calls for papers, editorial openings, and meeting notices. You can join with any email address.