News and Announcements

July 15, 2026

LAK27 Proceedings Announcement

Dear Colleagues,

There have been ongoing discussions regarding the future of LAK proceedings raised by SoLAR members not only during SoLAR’s Annual General Meetings in 2025 and 2026, but also via survey feedback and Institutional Member meetings as dissatisfaction continues with the complicated ACM process, template, and cost for open access publication. 

Following the 2026 AGM, SoLAR Executive took on board the strong desire from SoLAR members raised in 2025 and 2026 to trial publishing LAK long and short research papers as a special JLA issue and explored whether or not it was feasible, while at the same time carefully considering the potential impact on JLA’s quality, impact factor, workload, rankings and treatment of short papers by having a special issue(s) that includes all accepted LAK27 long and short research papers. 

It is getting increasingly difficult for academics to receive travel approval for conferences as journal publications are more highly valued than conference proceedings for many academics.  It is time to invest in the Society and for LAK research proceedings to be published for LAK27 as a trial in special JLA edition(s), this will:

• Increase conference submissions 
• Increase ranking of the LAK Conference 
• Support Academics in their careers and promotion 
• Increase visibility, exposure and sustainability of JLA

Emerging works have been published in JLA in the past and were called “Sparks” (Vol. 1, Issue 3, 2014) which is similar to how LAK short research papers can be treated. Sparks of the Learning Analytics Future was a special section published in Vol. 1, Issue 3 (2014) Widening the Field and Sparks of the Future of the Journal of Learning Analytics (JLA). It featured extended abstracts from doctoral students who participated in the second Learning Analytics Summer Institute (LASI 2014) at Harvard University. This special section showcased emerging global research and highlighted future trends.  Other examples of emerging papers published in JLA included – in 2016 (Vol. 3, No.3) a special section on Tutorials in learning analytics from LAK and LASI in 2014). It should be further noted that there have been 3 special editions of LAK papers and extended LAK papers published in special JLA editions 2014, 2015, and 2018 – from the 3rd, 5th and 8th LAKs. 

Many journals currently publish conference proceedings as special editions which allow for any differences in submission/review/acceptance processes. Please note that there will be no impact on regular JLA volumes in 2026 and 2027.  They will proceed JLA current processes of submission, review, revisions and publication.

The process for LAK27 long and short papers as JLA special edition(s) is the following:

• Submission via LAK27 EasyChair using single column JLA template
• Review and acceptance in EasyChair as per current LAK processes
• No copyediting as onus is on authors to ensure correct language, grammar, template are accurate and followed
• Camera ready version using same single column JLA template AND will be uploaded back into EasyChair 
• Papers will be published in one or more special issues
• Short papers in separate section noted as emerging works (Sparks) 
• LAK special edition(s) in JLA will be managed by the LAK proceedings team and will not impact workload of JLA editors. 

Evaluation of this trial will include input from past and current JLA editors, authors submitting to LAK, LAK authors, LAK reviewers/senior reviewers, LAK27 Program Chairs, SoLAR members, SoLAR Institutional Members, and the wider learning analytics community gathered through surveys and/or meetings.   

The evaluation will gather evidence on LAK submission rates, quality of LAK submissions, LAK author and reviewer feedback, LAK citation rates, JLA readership, JLA citation rates, JLA submission rates and JLA impact factor.  

Results from the evaluation will include all of the inputs and consultations noted above in order to determine whether the trial should be continued, modified or discontinued.