Middle Grades Collaborative Partners with UVM Press; Migrates Middle Grades Review

BURLINGTON, Vt. (September 2, 2025)—The University of Vermont (UVM) Press and the Middle Grades Collaborative have partnered to migrate Middle Grades Review (MGR), the Collaborative’s diamond open access journal, to a new, open-source scholarly publishing platform. Readers and prospective authors can access all of the journal’s published content at its new URL, https://journals.uvm.edu/mgr. The journal remains entirely free for authors and readers.

MGR is a peer-reviewed, diamond open access journal for scholars and practitioners who wish to broaden the discourse of middle grades education by challenging conventional wisdom. It provides a provocative forum for debate within the field of middle grades education. Inviting a critical perspective, MGR seeks pieces that explore three themes: Democratic Education, Innovation, and Social Justice in relation to middle grades education and young adolescents. Dr. James Nagle (St. Michael’s College) and Dr. Kathleen Brinegar (University of Vermont) serve as the journal’s co-editors. The journal is abstracted/indexed in Cabell’s, Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).

This partnership allows MGR, now in its 11th year of publication, to publish on a rolling schedule and enhance its digital accessibility. The journal now publishes new content on acceptance, making it available to readers sooner. By publishing articles in both HTML and downloadable PDF formats, MGR is more compatible with assistive technologies like screen readers, improving access for people with disabilities.

MGR’s new publishing platform, Janeway, is a sustainable scholarly publishing tool developed and maintained by the Open Library of Humanities, a part of Birkbeck, University of London. It is made available through an agreement between UVM Press and Michigan Publishing.

MGR was published by the University of Vermont Libraries on ScholarWorks, the institutional repository for the University of Vermont, from April 2015 to December 2024.

About the University of Vermont Press

Established in 2023, the University of Vermont Press is a new scholarly publisher of peer-reviewed books and journals that improve the health of humans, society, and our planet. The UVM Press is committed to bringing new opportunities and greater equity to scholarly publishing through its diamond open access publishing model, which ensures free readership, free authorship, and immediate online, global access to all its published titles. It is fully funded by the University of Vermont, the state’s flagship public research university. http://press.uvm.edu/

About the Middle Grades Collaborative

Middle Grades Collaborative (MGC), a collaboration of colleges and universities specializing in professional development for aspiring and practicing middle school educators, is committed to improving education for young adolescents ages 10 to 15. It publishes* Middle Grades Review*, a diamond open access journal for scholars and practitioners, in partnership with the University of Vermont press; presents a week-long summer Middle Grades Institute and an accompanying day-long winter conference; hosts monthly Middle Grades Conversations on current teaching practices; and offers online modules for self-paced and collaborative learning about effective middle grades teaching practices. middlegradescollaborative.org

For more information, contact:

Aimee Diehl, Editorial Director–Journals, UVM Press
adiehl[at]uvm[dot]edu

Dr. James Nagle, Co-Editor, Middle Grades Review
Jnagle2[at]smcvt[dot]edu

Dr. Kathleen Brinegar, Co-Editor, Middle Grades Review
kathleen.brinegarl[at]uvm[dot]edu