2015
The editorial team of the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation (CJPE) is pleased to announce that volume 30(1) (abstracts for CES non-membres, full issue for CES members, and access to institutional members) is now published on-line. Reproduced below is the introduction to the issue.
Spring is in the air as this issue goes to press. And there is a definite spring in the feel of CJPE. We are about to launch two new initiatives to enrich the CJPE experience. Soon we will start online prepublications of articles as they successfully complete the review process. That means more rapid publication and more frequent opportunity to access new peer-reviewed contributions to evaluation knowledge and practice! We will also be launching an opportunity for readers to comment on articles and for civil discussions to take place on our website. The editorial team is excited about these opportunities, and we look forward to your participation and feedback.
The first issue of Volume 30 is characterized by thought-provoking articles, each of which has stimulated my thinking in diff erent ways. Shift s in Canadian governance provide the context for a groundbreaking conceptual piece by Jill Anne Chouinard and Peter Milley that examines implications for evaluation. Readers active at the federal level will be particularly interested in this article, although it has ramifications at all levels of government. In the second article, Shabnam Ziabakhsh develops the role of reflexivity in evaluation work and illustrates, through an evaluation of an Aboriginal women heart health promotion program, how examining oneself as an evaluator can enrich the evaluation endeavor. Rich Janzen and colleagues push our thinking in a careful study of the relative value of using inductive and deductive outcome measures. Together these three pieces broaden our horizons and focus our thinking on ecological influences on our work, important tools of our trade, and stepping outside (or is it inside) of ourselves to gain additional perspective.
Readers looking for even more practical knowledge will find a wealth of it in the Practice Notes section. Each of the three practice notes highlights creative perspectives on how to do important parts of our work. Chi Yan Lam opens our eyes to the developmental evaluator as servant-leader. Carol Hubberstey and colleagues illustrate the use of visual maps for building evaluation frameworks. And finally, Subha Ramanathan and Guy Faulkner treat us to an intelligent discussion on calculating outcome rates when using web surveys.
I hope that you too are stimulated by the content of this issue!
Robert Schwartz
Editor-in-chief