THE EDITORIAL
Dear authors and readers of our journal! Congratulations on the upcoming new academic year!
The September issue of the journal is a thematic issue on the problem of the academic literacy formation and the development of academic writing in the domestic education system. The issue was prepared in collaboration with the editorial journal board and the Academic Writing Center teachers in Petrozavodsk State University.
The inclusion of publication activity in university performance indicators has led to an increase in the number of academic staff and students publications. However, it is impossible not to notice the negative sides of this process: an increase in the number of publications does not mean the same increase in their quality. The phenomenon called «academic fraud» is being developed in various forms: ghostwriting, scientific texts compilation, the «copy paste» phenomenon, artificial techniques to increase the originality of texts, research dishonesty, etc. One of the reasons for this situation is the lack of attention to the formation of academic literacy and academic writing skills of participants in the educational process both in the education system as a whole and in higher education in particular. As a result, academic communication is being hampered, and this is a serious failure, as the academic communication is vital for the scientific knowledge development and the educational process improvement. Academic writing centers operating in a number of Russian universities play an important role in solving the above mentioned problems, which, based on research in the field of theory and methodology of teaching to the scientific-style texts creation, provide practical training for participants in academic communications.
The September issue of the journal (as well as last year) includes a selection of articles on various aspects of the problem of the academic literacy formation in the education system. The issue opens with an article by one of the leading experts in the field of academic writing in Russia, Head of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANERA) Center for Academic Writing and Communication. The article is covers the academic writing issues for scientific and publication purposes in online learning. Another publication written by the teachers of the Center for Academic Writing of Petrozavodsk State University presents the results of a survey of the main participants in the pedagogical process (administration representatives, teaching staff, students) aimed at identifying problems and real prospects for the development of academic writing in a regional university. Some of the articles highlight the technological and methodological foundations of writing scientific articles by students in Russian and English, step-by-step preparation of oral scientific reports by students in English, teaching punctuation in texts in English to students of non-linguistic areas of training. Other articles consider the organizational and pedagogical conditions for conducting academic essay contests in English for students and schoolchildren, the fraud problem in academic writing, and the methodology for studying the concept of «academic friendship». The range of issues raised by the authors of the articles shows the multidimensional nature of the problem for building up academic literacy in the system of lifelong education, the need for its further study and practical implementation of research results. The journal editorial board plans to promote publications on relevant topics.
The September issue of the journal also includes several publications on other issues. The article by our Belarusian colleague presents post-non-classical pedagogy as an object of transdisciplinary and methodological reflection. The Russian authors draw attention to the problems of continuity of secondary and higher education (meta-subjects and meta-disciplines), as well as clarifying the features of educational design in schools.
The editorial board draws the attention of potential authors to the need of complying with the requirements of the journal on the issues and design of articles. We wish all our authors and readers every success in the field of lifelong education and in putting the results of scientific research into practice.
The editorial board
