JONED, a new online free-access journal open in the field of neuroeducation

Building bridges between the science and education communities to contribute and improve the current didactic experiences is the goal of the Journal of Neuroeducation (JONED), a new online free-access journal open to the scientific community at a national and international level promoted by the Chair of Neuroeducation of the University of Barcelona ( Edu1st), created in 2019 and pioneer in Spain, led by the lecturer David Bueno, from the Faculty of Biology, with Anna Forés, lecturer from the Faculty of Education of the UB, as assistant director.

The new online journal -the first neuroeducation research journal in Spain- will be published semi-annually and will publish science articles in Catalan, Spanish and English. It results from an innovative proposal to join two disciplines which used to be separated from each other -neurosciences and education- and create a place for scientific dissemination -accessible to the national and international research community.

The editing committee -led by Marcel Ruiz (UPF), David Bueno (UB) and Anna Forés (UB)- counts on the participation of a distinguished group of national and international experts from centers such as the UPF, UAB, Educación Activa Foundation, University of Oakland (United States), University of Cambridge (United Kingdom) and the Saxion University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands), among other institutions.

According to Marcel Ruiz, editor in chief of the journal, “we want to provide with new evidence in the field of applied neurosciences in education through research studies, experiences and online reviews, among other content. The journal aims to encourage lecturers, professors and scientists to find places such as this journal to share their knowledge and get young students closer to science and education”.

The disseminating activity of the publication “aims to contribute to inform the people on the only way in which education is developing in our society. In a broader sense, it has a dual aim: inform people and contribute to build a learning culture from the earliest stages of life”, notes David Bueno, lecturer at the Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics of the Faculty of Biology and assistant editor in chief of the new science journal.

The Journal of Neuroeducation aims to become a meeting point to establish synergies between different areas of knowledge which aim to optimize educational processes. “We believe that society will benefit from the culture of education and learning, non-segregated and interdisciplinary, since the wellbeing and cohesion of people should be one of the goals of any emerging activity in society”, notes Anna Forés, lecturer at the Department of Didactics and Educational Planning of the UB, and assistant editor in chief of the journal.

With a clear disseminating vocation, the articles from the neuroscience and educational research fields in the journal “have to be written with a strict terminology but they have to allow a total comprehension of the texts”, notes Anna Forés. The section “Neuromads”, aimed at the young research collective, will publish articles from this profile in an accessible language and aimed at the audience interested in the content on neuroeducation.

With the same view on internationalization as the Chair Edu1st had, unfolding courses and content in Catalan, Spanish and English, this open-access journal “advocates for the necessary and essential internationalization of knowledge, without leaving the immediate environment aside”, notes Marcel Ruiz.

“We seek the máximum transfer -he continues- to enrich the fields of our competence. This is why the journal accepts articles in the three languages -although they all need an abstract in English- in order to bring closer these works to the collectives that are interested in this fields of research”.

In a pedagogical context, neuroeducation is a discipline which gives scientific rigour to the educational practice, “by giving evidence from an academic discipline that complements pedagogy to promote a more efficient learning”, notes David Bueno.

“However -he continues-, neuroeducation does not try to replace pedagogy nor education sciences, which are essential in the development and analysis of new didactic experiences in the social environment and its dynamics”.

Neuroeducation brings new tools to increase self-awareness on our learning process, “and it enables the activation of new areas of the brain which are related to pleasure, which would be essential to understand how we learn”, reveals David Bueno.

In the institutional context, initiatives such as the Chair of Neuroeducation UB (Edu1st) and the Journal of Neuroeducation are a “a key step to increase the value of education in our society”, concludes Forés.

The first issue of the journal will be available in July. All members of the research collective who want to publish their studies according to the avaluation criteria and scientific assessment of this initiative can contact the editing team via website until next June 15.

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