New Directions for Evaluation is the official journal of the American Evaluation Association. The journal is administered by Wiley Online Library, which oversees publications of more than 2000 journals. Wiley views the future of research as open access, open data and open practices. In practice, this means that the author pays a publication charge to make the article freely available. There is also a possibility to make the article hybrid open access, which means the author, institution or funder pays the article publication charge. To publish in the New Directions for Evaluation Journal, it costs $3,300USD + tax.

There seems to be much support offered by Wiley to assist authors in submitting their article for publication; by offering manuscript guidelines, editing services, data sharing and citation policies and advice on Search Engine Optimization, registering for an ORCID ID, licensing requirements etc. The lack of specific author guidelines for New Directions for Evaluation Journal implies a free format submission – authors submit manuscripts in the format of their choice and Wiley will update the formatting if it is accepted for publication. Information is provided on the types and lengths of the peer review process and notes that specific details vary by publication and available upon request to the journal.

I was impressed by the articles in New Directions for Evaluation because of the vast array of relevant research it provided to my own research. Its search function allows the reader to easily find related articles. As its title suggests, it focuses on evaluation topics, with an emphasis on innovations, emerging methods and new applications of evaluation. Many of the articles published by this journal advance concepts, points of view and theories that evaluators struggle in their daily work. To a lesser extent have I encountered published articles that discuss specific case studies or learning in particular contexts unless there is there is a unique aspect to the study, such as a new method or application.

The Managing Editor and Co-editors are based within a US university setting, however there is a good cross-section of representatives on the Board of Directors with several from private consulting, International organizations or international academic institutions. New Directions for Evaluation published 49 articles in 2024 from predominantly the US (73%), followed equally (4%) by Australia, Finland and New Zealand. Although the most readers originated from the US (40%), the UK (8%), Australia(8%) and Canada(7%) closely followed in its readership.

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The American Journal of Evaluation, conversely, is administered by Sage Journals. It focuses on theory, methods and the evaluation practice in society. It is organized in to seven sections: 1) Book Reviews 2) Economic Evaluation, 3) Ethics, Values and Culture, 4) Experimental Methodology, 5) International Developments in Evaluation, 6) Method Notes, 7) Teaching and Learning of Evaluation. Topics are often broad perspectives on evaluation issues related to education, public administration, behavioral sciences, human services, health sciences, sociology, criminology among others. The Editor, Associate Editors and Section Editors are predominantly based in American academic institutions, as well as some non-governmental institutions, international universities and private consulting firms, which is also consistent amongst the backgrounds of the Board of Directors.

Unlike the New Directions for Evaluation Journal, the American Journal of Evaluation amplifies the amount of time it commits to potential authors of its decision to accept articles for publication and shares that has a 20.5% acceptance rate. Despite these metrics, its support for prospective scholars is minimal, offering only some formatting guidelines and high-level descriptions of its focus preferences for each section, while offering editor contact details for prospective contributors to reach out directly.

Sage Journals does not offer as much explanation and clear support for open access to the same degree as the Wiley Online Library. Upon acceptance for publication, scholars can choose for the article to be open access or not. Hybid options allow for the author to either by themself or arrange a funder to pay the article processing charge. The cost to publish under the hybrid option (Sage Choice) for 2025 is $3,650 USD.

The articles in the American Journal of Evaluation are of good quality and is very broad in terms of the application of evaluation in various settings. This offers advantages by exploring evaluation from numerous perspectives and disciplines, but also disadvantages in that its breadth sacrifices its potential for depth and is not immediately clear how it may advance evaluation as a discipline or explore emerging topics that are relevant and needed by the evaluation community. I appreciated its continued publication of older articles, which provide for good foundational reading, as well as the podcast series and its inclusion of book sections and reviews.

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The Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, by contrast, is a smaller journal with fewer resources and is administered by the University of Toronto Press. It provides a good history of its editorial journey, which consists predominantly of editors from Canadian academia. Similar to its American counterparts, Board of Directors are mostly from academia, with some independents and likewise some external to Canada, however its two francophone editors are unique and speak to the bilingual character of the journal.

The Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation is an open-access journal, but does not provide readers more information about this in practice or offer its views on open scholarship. Instead, through the University of Toronto Press, scholars can publish their article as ‘gold open access’ for a $3,500 CAD article processing charge.

 Interestingly, the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation has some notable features: it distinguishes between its publications: full-length articles and practice notes, which shares practical knowledge, experiences and lessons learned; it contains a Roots and Relations section devoted to evaluation topics exploring Indigenous contexts, heritage and culture; and also provides a dedicated page for peer reviewers.

By way of submission, prospective authors are directed to language editing services and then to the Online peer review system, which manages the submission and peer review process. Specific submission details are not offered without signing up for an account on the system.

On average, two issues are published per year, with occasional thematic interest issues also published. The articles published by the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation are, unsurprisingly, more Canadian in context, but the contributors are also clearly more international. It reads as though written directly to the evaluation community and as though passing on its knowledge to the next generation of evaluators, is structured with opening editorial remarks, occasional tributes to evaluation practitioners and offers French language and Indigenous-themed articles in almost every issue. I find the content would be interesting and valuable to any evaluator, but the website is cumbersome as the site is not intuitive and does not allow the reader to easily identify articles of similar topics, authors or themes.