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Keywords
readership survey
developmental disabilities
web-based surveys
intellectual disabilities
Abstract
The Ontario Association on Developmental Disabilities (OADD) has published the Journal on Developmental Disabilities (JoDD) since 1992. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the JoDD by conducting a readership survey. PhpESP (Easy survey package) was used to design, create, and deploy a web-based survey to staff working at Surrey Place Centre; OADD board members; authors who published manuscripts in JoDD; members of the OADD Research Special Interest Group; and, to general members of OADD. Eighty-seven of 667 questionnaires were received, giving a response rate of 13.0%. The results indicated that OADD members are regular readers of JoDD; the majority of the readers read JoDD on-line; the content of the JoDD is appropriate; the quality and format of JoDD are acceptable; and, manuscript submission and processing usually are being carried out efficiently. Nevertheless, there are some areas of the JoDD that could be improved.
The Journal on Developmental Disabilities (JoDD) is a publication of the Ontario Association on Developmental Disabilities (OADD). JoDD was established in 1992. Currently, JoDD is available in hard copy and, since 1995, it has also been freely available online on the OADD website (OADD Journal on Developmental Disabilities, 2005). In 2005, the Developmental Services Branch of the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services (MCSS) provided a grant to enable OADD to produce two special issues of JoDD. The first special issue was a clinician's guide for physical health issues of older persons with Down syndrome (Wallace & Dalton, 2006). The second consisted of reprints of outstanding articles from issues of JoDD published since its inception to honour the 20th anniversary of OADD (OADD 20th Anniversary Issue, 2006). Other objectives of the grant were to evaluate these two special issues as well as a regular issue of JoDD with a special focus on Down syndrome (Down Syndrome, 2005), and the effectiveness and operation of JoDD.
In order to evaluate the operation of JoDD, an online survey was placed on the journal site of the OADD website (OADD Journal on Developmental Disabilities Reader's Survey -2006 (2005)). However, as of January, 2006, only 19 persons had responded. Thus, in order to obtain representative information, the editorial committee of JoDD decided...