About the Journal

Focus and Scope

Witness is a peer-reviewed annual journal that provides a place for high-quality academic reflection on the theory and practice of evangelism by both practitioners and scholars of evangelism. It is interdisciplinary in its articles, allowing for a wide variety of disciplines to consider and work with evangelism (including theology, history, ethics, anthropology, and others).

Peer Review Process

Two reviewers who are usually professors of evangelism typically review the article along with the editor. The review process takes about three months to complete.

Reviewers consider whether the potential article meets with the purpose of the journal of publishing high-quality academic work about evangelism, includes original work, is well-written, addresses a timely theme or issue, and is the right length (approx. 20 pages).

Publication Frequency

Witness is an annual journal that is published annually, typically in the fall or winter.

Purpose of Journal

Witness is a peer-reviewed annual journal that provides a place for high-quality academic reflection on the theory and practice of evangelism by both practitioners and scholars of evangelism. It is interdisciplinary in its articles, allowing for a wide variety of disciplines to consider and work with evangelism (including theology, history, ethics, anthropology, and others).

Journal History

Soon after its founding in the early 1980s, the Academy for Evangelism in Theological Education recognized that there was a lack of publications in which scholars and practitioners of evangelism could publish and read academic reflections on the theory and practice of evangelism. This led to the founding of the Journal of the Academy for Evangelism in Theological Education in 1985. The JAETE was the first peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the academic exploration of evangelism.

In 2010, the journal changed its name to Witness: The Journal of the Academy for Evangelism in Theological Education. Witness was published as a hardcopy through 2015. In 2016, it became an exclusively online journal in order to allow greater accessibility to its contents. Across these iterations, the mission of the journal to provide a place for high-quality academic engagement with evangelism remains.