This was an exciting week for IPED – as we were able to launch our first issue. The idea for the journal came from some unhelpful experiences with the peer review process (some of which were featured on Buzzfeed). We first began discussing the journal in 2011, gradually building an editorial board, a web presence and now publishing our first issue. The team wanted to set up a journal where all content is free to access, there are no charges for submission or publishing. Research should not be held behind paywalls, and open access offers a chance for anyone to submit and access research.

Our first issue can be found here and features research exploring Asperger Syndrome (full paper) in the workplace, apprenticeships (student essay), the experiences of international PhD students (full paper) and equality and diversity managers in higher education (research note). We are also fortunate to include a book review and a commentary from Professor Jo Brewis.

Bringing this 1st issue together has been hard work, but rewarding. We hope IPED will provide a forum for publishing innovative research which challenges the status quo. If you have any ideas for unusual research approaches, teaching ideas or other material you think would be of interest please drop us an email (k.sang@hw.ac.uk).

I would like to thank Heriot Watt University for supporting the journal, all the authors, editorial board and reviewers for their hard work. I have been delighted by the amount of support the journal has received from scholars across the career stages. We hope you enjoy this first issue and will share it with your networks and join us in making a small (but important) contribution to a shift in academic publishing.