About the Journal

Focus and Scope

The Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation is published three times a year by the Canadian Evaluaiton Society (CES) (under the international standard serial number ISSN 0834-1516). It seeks to promote the theory and practice of program evaluation in Canada by publishing:

Articles on all aspects of the theory and practice of evaluation, including methodology, evaluation standards, implementation of evaluations, reporting and use of studies, and the audit or metaevaluation of evaluation.
Research and Practice Notes that provide practical examples of the applications of particular methodologies or procedures within the context of a particular study or group of studies.
Roots and Relations (R&R) Section to honour the lineage, grow the kinship, and sustain the intergenerational legacies of Indigenous wisdom and practices in evaluation.
Book Reviews of relevance to the practice in Canada.

Peer Review Process for articles and practice notes

All submitted manuscripts will be subject to a double blind peer review by up to four expert members of the evaluation research community. Authors are required to ensure that all clues to their identity are removed from manuscripts submitted for potential publication. Copies of the reviewers’ comments will be sent to authors with identities withheld.

The Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation judges a submission's suitability for publication in the journal (using the ranking scale: not applicable, excellent, good adequate, marginal, poor) as based on these criteria:

•Significance of topic

•Literature review

•Conceptualization

•Methodology

•Data analyses

•Interpretation

•Clarity of presentation

•Validity of conclusions

•Reader interest

Recommendation: (Please indicate your choice in the drop down menu above.

1. Excellent: accept as is

2. Accept: Needs minor revisions

3. Has worth, but reject as is: suggest major revisions and resubmission

4. Reject: definitely not possible

5. Not appropriate to the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation; suggest submission to: ___________________.

The review will also provide a list of recommendations to the author.

Peer Review Process for the R&R Section

For the R&R section, a ranking will be provided on which guidelines are most met by the submission :

Addressing Indigenous traditional knowledge, language, culture, theories, methods, and celebrating traditional ways of knowing, being and doing, and/or or contemporary lifestyles.
Contributing to reconciliation, Nation-to-Nation, Indigenous data sovereignty, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, or other First Nations and/or Indigenous-developed policy and/or governance frameworks.
Engaging authentically with communities on issues that Indigenous community members, Indigenous governments, or Indigenous organizations want investigated (e.g., education, community wellness, justice, impact of climate change).
Providing communities with solutions to current and upcoming concerns.
Speaking to issues of equity, diversity, inclusion, and sustainability.
Influencing public debate and helping to shape or impact public policy.

Recommendation:

Ancestor Tree: This submission is ready for publication
Adult Tree: This submission needs light editorial support and minor modifications in order to be ready for a second review and future publication
Sapling Tree: This submission needs strong editorial support, may benefit from a little mentoring with an Elder, and would require moderate changes in structure and/or content in order to be ready for a second review and future publication.
Seedling Tree: This submission strong and caring editorial and Elder mentoring supports for helping to bring clarity, structure, and/or content inputs into the submission in order to be ready for a second review and future publication.

Publication Frequency

Currently, the journal is published three times a year including a theme based special edition.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Journal Description and Outline of Strategic Direction

The Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation (CJPE) was founded in 1986 under the auspices of the Canadian Evaluation Society (CES) and has received generous financial support from SSHRC over the years. As a testament to its continuity and coherence the Journal has had a remarkably small number of editors over its 23 year history. The founding editor (Joe Hudson, University of Calgary) handed off the Journal to Richard M.Grinnell (University of Calgary) in 1988, who served as Editor-in-chief until 1993. Robert V. Segworth (Laurentien University) took up this role in the period 1994-2002 at which point J. Bradley Cousins (University of Ottawa) assumed the leadership from 2002-2010. The current Editor-in-Chief is Robert Schwartz whose initial term in thisposition will continue until 2014.

The Editorial Board of the Journal, currently numbering 32, is made up primarily of university-based academics but with a healthy mix of members of the evaluation community of practice. Most of the Board members are affiliated with Canadian organizations although members from the US, and Europe have joined the Board over the years. In addition to the Editor-in chief he editorial team for the Journal includes two Associate Editors (one francophone) a Book Review Editors and an Editorial Assistant.

The mission of the Journal is to advance the academic and professional knowledge base of ‘program evaluation’ an interdisciplinary, applied domain of inquiry and practice. CES is one of the longest standing professional associations in the field and the CJPE is globally among the first peer-reviewed outlets devoted to evaluation.

The Journal publishes feature length articles and research and practice notes which are often shorter pieces concerning knowledge transfer and exchange or issues of practical import such as innovative methods and tools. Articles published in the Journal are almost exclusively peer reviewed, the exception being the occasional interview with luminaries in the field or keynote addresses. Reviews of important books in the field are also published routinely in CJPE.

Since its inception, CJPE has published at least two issues per year but in 1997 under Robert Segsworth a third issue – a theme based special edition – was published. Currently, the journal is published three times a year including a theme based special edition.

Theme issues are often published under guest editorship but sometimes they are edited by the CJPE editorial staff. In 2005 the Editorial Board supported a decision to publish ‘theme segments’ within regular issues of CJPE. Theme segments are collections of theme-based articles, usually 3 to 5, that are either guest-edited or edited by the editorial team. Proposals for special editions and thematic segments are reviewed and approved by members of the Editorial Board. Once approved, guest-edited thematic collections can be either exclusively edited by the guest or they can be supported by managing editorial services of the editorial team. In the latter case, the peer-review process is handled by the CJPE editorial team whereas the role of the guest editor is limited to substantive/content editing and communications with authors concerning peer reviews, expectations forrevisions, and so forth.

In 2005 a 20-year anniversary issue of CJPE was published under the guest editorship of Joe Hudson (founding editor). That issue included two independent content analyses of the Journal over its 20 year history (Addison & Amo, 2005; Birch & Jacob, 2005). The articles served to verify the breadth and scope of the Journal by confirming its commitment to interdisciplinarity – with articles published in mental health, government, health, education, criminology/justice and several other areas – and to the application of knowledge and theory within the community of practice. Trends in publishing revealed a recent increase in empirical research being published in the Journal and a minimization of published summaries of evaluation. These trends are consistent with the strategic direction of the current Editor and Editorial Board.

References

Addison, E., & Amo, C. (2005). Two decades of the Canadian Journal of Program

Evaluation: A content analysis.

Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 20(3), 17-

40.

Birch, L. M., & Jacob, S. (2005). Program evaluation in CANADA seen through the

articles published in CJPE.

Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 20(3), 1-6.

Licence Terms

Terms of Use

Welcome to the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation. All content published in the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation and made available on this website (the “Content”) is the property of the Canadian Evaluation Society or its licensors and is protected under Canadian and foreign copyright, trademark and other laws.

The following are the Terms of Use for the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation. By accessing the Content, you agree to these Terms of Use.

Definitions

1. These Terms of Use have the following meanings:

“Back Issues” means those volumes of the Journal that were published prior to the Current Issues.

“Current Issues” means the three (3) most recent published issues of the Journal.

“Individual Member” means an individual that has applied and has been accepted for individual membership in the Canadian Evaluation Society.

“Institutional Member” means a library that has applied and has been accepted for institutional membership in the Canadian Evaluation Society.

“The Journal” means the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation.

Permitted Uses for All Users: Back Issues

4. The Canadian Evaluation Society hereby grants you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, revocable, non-assignable and non-transferable licence to:

a. reproduce and share the Content in the Back Issues, in whole or in part, for your own personal or educational and non-commercial use by:

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Permitted Uses for Individual Members and Institutional Members: Current Issues

5. The Canadian Evaluation Society hereby grants any Individual Member and any Institutional Member, a limited, personal, non-exclusive, revocable, non-assignable and non-transferable licence to:

a. reproduce and share the Content in the Current Issues, in whole or in part, for your own personal or educational and non-commercial use by:

i. downloading, displaying, using and saving the Content on your computer or other electronic access device;

ii. printing a hard copy of the Content;

iii. copying the Content and compiling it with other works for educational use in a paper coursepack, which, if sold, may only be sold for the cost of making such copies;

v. copying, projecting and displaying the Content for a presentation; and

vi. linking or hyperlinking to the Content hosted on The Canadian Evaluation Society’s website

provided that the Individual Member or Institutional Member does not alter or modify the Content, maintains the integrity of the Content, maintains all copyright and other proprietary notices and the member retains identification of the author(s) and publisher of the Content and any others designated to receive attribution.

Additional Permitted Uses: Libraries

6. In addition to the above permitted uses, a library may supply a single paper or digital copy of an article in the Journal to another library that has requested it for the purposes of a patron’s research or private study, provided that, if the copy is provided in digital form, the requesting library takes measures to prevent the patron from making any further reproduction of the digital copy other than printing one copy, from communicating the digital copy to another person and from using the digital copy for more than five (5) business days.

Limitations on Use

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f. allow the Content to be stored or accessed by an unauthorized user.

8. All rights not expressly granted under these terms and conditions are otherwise reserved. Users must seek permission from The Canadian Evaluation Society Secretariat before making any other use of the Content.

Term and Termination

9. These Terms of Use apply for the term of the copyright and similar rights licensed hereunder. The Canadian Evaluation Society reserves the right to withdraw access to the Content in the event of a breach of these conditions by any user. If you fail to comply with these Terms of Use, then your rights under these Terms of Use will terminate automatically.

Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liability

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Interpretation

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15. The Canadian Evaluation Society may amend these Terms of Use at any time. Any revised version will be effective immediately when it is displayed on this website.

Sources of Support

SHHRC

Journal History

Since 1986, the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation has had a remarkably small number of editors and book review editors, and support staff. This page is meant to recognize their contribution.

Editors

2022-present: Jill Chouinard, University of Victoria

2017-2022: Isabelle Bourgeois, University of Ottawa

2010-2017: Robert Schwartz, University of Toronto

2002-2010: J. Bradley Cousins, Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa

1994-2002: Robert V. Segsworth, Department of Political Science, Laurentian University

1988-1993: Richard M. Grinnell, Faculty of Social Welfare, The University of Calgary

1986-1988: Joe Hudson, Faculty of Social Work, The University of Calgary

Associate Editors

2022- : Leslie Fierro, McGill University, Max Bell School of Public Policy (articles in English); Jane Whynot, Partner atGoss Gilroy Inc. (Practice Notes in English); Naïma Bentayeb, École nationale d’administration publique and McGill University, Social Work School (Articles and Practice Notes in French).

2021- : Larry Bremner, MA, CE, President, Proactive Information Services Inc. & Nicole Bowman / Waapalaneexkweew (Lunaape/Mohican), University of WI-Madison and Bowman Performance Consulting for the Roots and Relations (R&R) Section

2015-2021: Jill Chouinard, University of Victoria (Practice Notes)

2003-2011: Christian Dagenais, Centre de liaison sur l'intervention et la prévention psycho-sociale, Montréal

2002-2003: Céline Mercier, Centre de réadaptation Lisette Dupras, Lachine

Editorial Assistants

2019-present: Stéphanie Maltais, University of Ottawa

2011-2019: Emily Taylor

2009-2010: Vincent Lahey, Graduate Student, University of Ottawa

2005-2009: Courtney Amo, Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada

2002-2005: Jennifer Carey, Department of Health and Social Services, Northwest Territories

Book Review Editors

2022 - : Tiffany Tovey, Department of Educational Research Methodology, Office of Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Services, Greensboro, NC

2019-2021: Jane Whynot, Partner atGoss Gilroy Inc.

2005-2008: Isabelle Bourgeois, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

2002-2005: Lynette Harper, Consultant, Nanaimo

1997-2002: D. Jackson McCready, Department of Business and Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University

1990-1997: Joe Hudson, Faculty of Social Work, The University of Calgary

1989-1990: François Lacasse, Université du Québec à Hull

1988-1989: André Côté, Office of the Auditor General of Canada

1986-1987: Nancy Soper, Office of the Auditor General of Canada