Leading the Way for Open Access Research

"Language Learning & Technology" ("LLT") was launched in the mid-1990s out of a collaboration between the University of Hawai'i National Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC) and the Michigan State University Center for Language Education Research (CLEAR). Like other online journals started in the 1990s, "LLT" sought to enhance the speed of publication and the accessibility of published research. Yet "LLT" had an additional goal: to raise the rigor of published research in its targeted area. Thus, rather than seeking to be defined principally by its mode or style of publication, "LLT" sought to be the highest quality journal in an emerging area of inquiry. This sounds like an obvious goal, but "LLT" was going against the grain. By the time the first issue of "LLT" appeared in 1997, there was already a popular notion of a dichotomy between print journals (which alone printed rigorous peer reviewed research) and online journals (which were accessible but not rigorously reviewed). Indeed, at the time, many academics refused to submit work to online journals, believing (or knowing) that their institutions would fail to recognize articles published in online venues. To break out of this stereotype, "LLT" recruited a top notch editorial board, including leading applied linguistics from around the world. For its inaugural issue in July 1997, the journal invited internationally recognized applied linguistics to submit papers on the topic Language Learning & Technology: Defining the Research Agenda. The resources of the NFLRC and CLEAR were used to achieve broad publicity. "LLT" quickly gathered broad attention. With questions of funding, peer review, and other matters still under debate, the future of academic journal publishing is very much in flux. When the history of the transition from print to online publishing is written, the important role of "LLT" should be noted as one of the first journals to demonstrate that publishing exclusively on the Internet was fully compatible with being among the best academic journals in the world.