Cybersecurity Skills Journal Special Issue
Diversifying the Cybersecurity Workforce
Call for Abstracts
The Cybersecurity Skills Journal (CSJ) is a double-blind peer-reviewed journal published by the National CyberWatch Center Digital Press. The goal of CSJ is to stimulate professional discussion and advance the interdisciplinary field of cybersecurity through the publication of scholarly works of value and interest to the profession.
Ongoing shortages of cybersecurity talent are a widely recognized problem. Researchers have been arguing for more holistic perspectives on this problem for the past ten years (e.g., Assante & Tobey, 2011; Furnell & Bishop, 2020; Hoffman, Burley & Toregas, 2012). Yet little is known about the factors that influence the interest, engagement, development, recruitment, retention, and advancement of broadening participation in cybersecurity functions and roles that could expand and enhance the cybersecurity talent pool. In this Special Issue, we invite practitioners, scholars, and educators to propose or report systematic and rigorous investigations of the contributing causes, mediating or moderating influences, and evidence-based solutions for diversifying the cybersecurity workforce.
Diverse perspectives are essential for driving innovation and addressing the critical cybersecurity skills gap. A recent survey by Glassdoor found that three-quarters of job seekers and employees believe that a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforce and diverse perspectives are important when evaluating new employment or advancement opportunities in organizations. Furthermore, nearly two-thirds (63%) thought that employers should be doing more to increase workforce diversity. Why? According to HR.com increased workforce diversity is associated with higher morale, greater productivity, increased creativity for problem-solving, successful international expansion, and can generate return on investment exceeding 150% from turnover reduction in the first year alone.
Do you have models, data, systematic review, cases, or instructional designs that suggest how our nation can succeed in diversifying the cybersecurity workforce? If so, we invite you to submit a paper proposal or draft abstract. Authors should review the Manuscript Content Guidelines to understand the specifications for practice, instructional design, or research manuscripts.
Special Issue Topics
Age, Assigned sex, Bias, Citizenship, Criminal background, Cultural identity, Education / Degree type, Ethnicity, Ethodiversity, Exceptionalities, Gender identity, Ideology, Intersectionality, Language, Life experiences, Location, National Origin, Neurodiversity, Personality, Race, Sexual orientation, Single Head of Household, Socioeconomic Status
Interventions
Apprenticeship, Broadening Participation, Building/sustaining teams, Career Discovery and Exploration, COVID 19, Culturally-sensitive teaching, Equity (Distributive/Pay), Equity (Procedural), Human Factors, Impact of AI & Automation, Inclusion, Internship, Lessons from other fields, Mentoring, Organizational policies, Parenting, Professional growth, Recruitment, Remote Work, Reskilling/Upskilling, Retention, Senior career pathways, Training, Veterans, Work-life balance
Submission Information
The Cybersecurity Skills Journal (CSJ) Special Issue on Diversifying the Cybersecurity Workforce will publish three types of papers: articles, notes, and dialogues.
CSJ Articles support replication, validation, and generalization of practice, research, and instructional methods and results. Due to the depth of analysis required, an article will typically be between 7,500 and 15,000 words. CSJ Notes inspire conceptualizing, applying, investigating, or experimenting with nascent ideas. Abstracts for CSJ Articles have a structured format discussed in the author guidelines. At least the first three sections of the structured abstract form must be completed with your registration of an abstract submitted for review by the CSJ editorial staff. Selected abstracts will receive a double-blind review by a panel of up to ten peers. Once accepted, further development of the abstract and associated paper will be guided and mentored by the peer reviewers.
CSJ Notes explore uncharted territory, rather than seeking to confirm or disconfirm the results of prior literature as is done in an article. A note will propose or review new or emerging domains, principles, techniques, or tools. Accordingly, a CSJ Note is much shorter than an article, typically between 1,000 and 2,500 words. The note is, in effect, an extended abstract that could be subsequently developed into an article for a future issue of CSJ.
CSJ Dialogues are being introduced with this Special Issue. The purpose of this paper is to capture a discussion among stakeholders to dilemmas or previously insurmountable challenges to cybersecurity skill assessment, development, recruitment, or evaluation. CSJ Dialogues may be edited recordings of a focus group session, interviews with subject matter experts, or conversations between tor more practitioners, scholars, or educators exploring the goals, success factors (objectives), and effective practices for successful mitigation or resolution of problems or taking full advantage of opportunities facing the cybersecurity community. A dialogue abstract will include a problem definition, an initial list of open-ended questions, and brief bios of individuals who will be (or were) conversing about the issue(s) to be the prime focus of the dialogue.
All CSJ manuscript submissions must include a structured, extended abstract that summarizes the manuscript. Not all sections of the abstract template are initially required, but you must complete at least the first three sections for your abstract to be considered and be assigned a peer mentoring panel that will assist you in further developing a manuscript suitable for publication in CSJ. For further information on the structured abstract format please refer to the Cybersecurity Skills Journal Author Guidelines.
Have questions? Uncertain what next steps to take to produce a structured abstract?
For more information, review the Special Issue Overview Presentation
Request to attend a Paper Development Workshop
To register click here.
Special Issue Publication Timeline (all dates are approximate)
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February 1st - Call for Abstracts Opens (Submissions reviewed monthly)
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February 17th 4 pm ET - Call for Abstracts FAQ Zoom Conference
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July 31st - Early Abstract Submission Deadline (Prioritized for publication)
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October 31st - Abstract submissions close
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December 15th - Manuscript submissions due
