Instructions for Authors

Who Can Submit?: Anyone may submit an original paper to be considered for publication in the International Journal of Educational Methodology (IJEM), provided he or she owns the copyright to the work being submitted or is authorized by the copyright owner or owners to submit the article. Authors are limited to two submissions in a period of twelve (12) months. Namely, the authors and co-authors cannot submit more than two papers to this journal (including co-authored papers) within this period. We don't consider multiple submissions and redundant/overlapping papers.

Author Responsibilities: For the IJEM, papers should attempt to present research, innovations, and theoretical and/or practical insights in relevant current literature and debates. Submitted manuscripts should only be in English. Only the Latin alphabet should be used in the article.

After uploading the article, an automatic confirmation message will be sent to all authors. The authors cannot be changed in the article after submission, nor can the authors' order be changed.

All submissions should be sent via IJEM Manuscript Submission System as a Word file with doc or docx extension.

The recommended word count for submissions is approximately 7000-8000. A manuscript should be no more than 10.000 words; this limit includes figures, references, and tables. All tables and figures should be inserted into the text. Significant feature articles may be somewhat longer than 10,000 words at the discretion of the editors. The abstract should be less than 250 words. Abbreviations are not allowed in the title. Proofreading the paper should be done professionally before submission. The journal editor may request a proofreading certificate.

Authors should be aware that they are addressing an international audience. Articles should present original work and, where appropriate, should acknowledge any significant contribution of others. Manuscripts submitted to IJEM for review should not have been accepted for publication elsewhere. As an author, you are required to secure permission if you want to reproduce any figure, table, or extract from the text of another source. This applies to direct reproduction as well as "derivative reproduction" (where you have created a new figure or table that derives substantially from a copyrighted source).

The corresponding author should always be willing to participate in the peer review process and be obliged to provide retractions or corrections for mistakes. A list of references should be included in the submitted paper. Grant/financial support should be stated in the paper if available. All authors are expected to contribute significantly to the research.

Page style: Articles should be typed in 12-point font on an A4 page, paginated, and double-spaced. Margins should be set as top & bottom: 2,5 cm and left & right 2,5 cm. The title should be followed by an abstract of 150 to 250 words and 3 to 5 keywords. Footnotes should be avoided, and endnotes should be kept to a minimum. All pages should be numbered.

References: Paper format, including references, should follow the American Psychological Association (APA) (7th Edition) style. Please see our citation guide (https://www.ijem.com/citation-guide, see for more examples: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples). Your reference list should be in English. 

If a source is in another language, write the original title, then add its English translation as in the below example:

Bussieres, E.-L., St-Germain, A., Dube, M., & Richard, M.-C. (2017). Efficacite et efficience des programmes de transition a la vie adulte: Une revue systematique [Effectiveness and efficiency of adult transition programs: A systematic review]. Canadian Psychology/ Psychologie canadienne, 58(1), 354–365. https://doi.org/10.1037/cap0000104

Note, for this example, that Canadian Psychology/ Psychologie canadienne is a bilingual journal that is published with a bilingual title; if the journal title were only in French, it would not be necessary to translate it into the reference.

If the other language uses a different alphabet from the one you are writing in, transliterate the alphabet into the Roman alphabet. If transliteration is not possible or advisable, it is acceptable to reproduce the original alphabet on paper.

E.g.,

Amano, N., & Kondo, H. (2000). Nihongo no goi tokusei [Lexical characteristics of Japanese language] (Vol. 7). Sansei-do.

Paper templates: Author(s) must use this template for their research paper(s). As you can see from the template, the research manuscripts should include the following parts: A full title, a short title to be used as a running head, authors' names, authors' affiliated institution name(s), authors' email addresses, authors' ORCID numbers, authorship contribution statement, abstract, keywords, introduction, literature review, methodology, findings/ results (separately), discussion (separately), conclusion (separately), recommendations (separately), limitations (separately), and references (Click the Word icon to download and see the template). 

The review papers should include the following parts: A full title, a short title to be used as a running head, authors' names, authors' affiliated institution name(s), authors' email addresses, authors' ORCID numbers, abstract, keywords, authorship contribution statement, introduction, methodology, results (separately), conclusion (separately) and references. Introduction: Provides information about the context, indicates the motivation for the review, defines the focus, and the research question, and explains the text structure. Methodology: contains for example information about data sources (e.g. bibliographic databases), search terms and search strategies, selection criteria (inclusion/exclusion of studies), the number of studies screened and the number of studies included, and statistical methods of meta-analysis. Results: Main text of the review article. Reasoning-based information and ideas. Conclusion: Discussion of the outcome and interpretations (Click the icon to download and see the template). 

The theoretical papers should include the following parts: A full title, a short title to be used as a running head, authors' names, authors' affiliated institution name(s), authors' email addresses, authors' ORCID numbers, abstract, keywords, authorship contribution statement, introduction, theoretical framework or model (separately), conclusion (separately) and references. Introduction: Provides information about the context, indicates the motivation for the review, defines the focus and the research question, and explains the text structure. Theoretical framework or model:  Main Text of the theoretical article. It should be supported with literature. Author(s) may use more than a sub-section. Conclusion: Discussion of the outcome and interpretations  (Click the icon to download and see the template). 

Tables and captions to illustrations: Tables must be typed out on the same document. Tables and figures should be numbered. The approximate position of tables and figures should be indicated in the paper. Captions should include keys to symbols.

Figures: All diagrams and photographs are termed "Figures" and should be numbered consecutively. Figures should be given short descriptive captions.

Article Processing Charge: There is no fee for manuscript submission to IJEM. However, IJEM charges an article processing fee to the author(s). Because our journal normally works by subscription, in order for the articles to have open access, the author(s) is/are required to pay an article processing charge. IJEM is an open-access journal, meaning all articles are available online immediately upon publication to anyone, anywhere, at any time. The journal has an Article Processing Charge (APC) to support open access. The author(s) will be asked to pay the APC [USD 300] -the transaction/tax fee should be added to this APC- to cover publication costs such as assigning the DOI number, preparing the galley proof of the paper, professional editing, etc. This is because the journal editors do not want rigorous work to be prevented from publication. This charge applies to accepted articles. There is no waiving policy in case of a lack of funds to pay this APC. However, the publisher may use grant funds for high-quality articles that editors approve. APC or waiver status never influences editorial decision-making. As per our advertising policy, the journal doesn't accept adverts. The executive editor is authorized to be the recipient of payments on behalf of the journal publisher.

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statements: For all parties involved in the process of publishing (authors, Editorial Board, and reviewers), it is necessary to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior. To guarantee high ethical standards, IJEM has developed international standards for all parties. IJEM expects all the parties to commit to these standards.

International Standards for Authors: IJEM does not require all authors of a research paper to sign a letter of submission, nor does it impose an order on the list of authors. All authors who submit to IJEM are expected to observe the international standards for authors voluntarily. IJEM adheres to International Standards for Authors developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics and encourages all authors to refer to these standards.

• Authors must certify that their manuscripts are their original work. Plagiarism, Duplicate, Data Fabrication and Falsification, and Redundant Publications are forbidden.
• Authors must certify that the manuscript has not previously been published and is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere.
• If the authors have used the work and/or words of others, the authors must ensure that the work and/or words of others are appropriately cited or quoted and identify all sources used in the creation of their manuscripts.
• When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author's obligation to promptly notify the Journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.
• Authors must notify IJEM of any conflicts of interest.
• Authors must ensure the confidentiality and anonymity of the participants while collecting, analyzing, and reporting data.
• For studies involving human subjects, authors must obtain approval from their institutional ethics committee and confirm that recognized standards, such as the Declaration of Helsinki (see https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/#:~:text=The%20World%20Medical%20Association%20(WMA,identifiable%20human%20material%20and%20data), have been followed to minimize harm to participants. Authors must obtain informed consent from human participants. They must also ensure the information they collect from participants does not contain any identifiable information and mitigate the risk of being able to assign data to specific individuals.
• Children participating in research have a particular right to protection. Therefore, authors must obtain parental or guardian consent before data collection. They must also gain informed consent of other vulnerable individuals, i.e., the disadvantaged, prisoners, and minorities. 
• Research ethics policies for studies involving the participation of human subjects (e.g., consent, participant anonymity, etc.) and vulnerable populations (i.e., children – parent/guardian consent) are also expected to be present on the journal website, in line with accepted standard practices in the field.
• Authors must ensure that all participants in their study have given informed consent for publication.
• According to the WMA Declaration of Helsinki – Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects, “Some groups and individuals are particularly vulnerable and may have an increased likelihood of being wronged or of incurring additional harm. All vulnerable groups and individuals should receive specifically considered protection”. (see https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/)
• Accordingly, authors must consider issues arising from working with potentially vulnerable people and must address how such risks to these participants are minimized and how they are protected from risks.

International Standards for Editorial Board: Editors and Editorial Board are required to follow the international standards for Editorial Board:

●  The Editorial Board must keep information pertaining to all submitted manuscripts confidential. 
●  The Editorial Board is responsible for making publication decisions for submitted manuscripts. 
●  The Editorial Board must strive to meet the needs of readers and authors. 
●  The Editorial Board must evaluate manuscripts only for their intellectual content. 
●  The Editorial Board must strive to improve IJEM’s quality constantly. 
●  The Editorial Board must maintain the integrity of the academic record. 
●  The Editorial Board must disclose any conflicts of interest and preclude business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards. 
●  The Editorial Board must always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed.

International Standards for Reviewers: Reviewers of IJEM are also expected to meet the international standards for reviewers when they accept review invitations.

●  Reviewers must keep information pertaining to the manuscript confidential. 
●  Reviewers must bring to the attention of the Editor Board any information that may be a reason to reject the publication of a manuscript. 
●  Reviewers must evaluate manuscripts only for their intellectual content. 
●  Reviewers must objectively evaluate the manuscripts based only on their originality, significance, and relevance to the domains of the journal. 
●  Reviewers must notify IJEM about any conflicts of interest.

Publisher Role: The Publisher is strictly not involved in the editorial process. The roles undertaken by "RHAPSODE LTD" include:
(a) Conducting plagiarism checks on submitted articles
(b) Website development and ensuring that best practice is followed in its publications
(c) Typesetting, proofreading, and publishing accepted articles
(d) Assigning DOI numbers to published articles (as a Crossref member)
(e) Maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record

Plagiarism Policy: IJEM does not require all authors to sign the letter of submission. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all authors have agreed to be listed and approved for the paper submission to the journal and for approved papers managing all communication between the journal and all co-authors before and after publication. All manuscripts are checked for plagiarism using the iThenticate tool by IJEM. Authors should strictly avoid plagiarism, including self-plagiarism. Manuscripts with over 15% overlapping from the similarity report results exceeding 15% would not be considered for publication by IJEM. Papers submitted to IJEM must be original and not be published or submitted for publication elsewhere. If the publisher or editors of our journal are made aware of any allegations of research misconduct related to an article published in our journal, our publisher or editor follows Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines when addressing the allegations.

The editorial board will thoroughly check submitted manuscripts in order to identify and prevent possible research misconduct regarding the publication of papers with IJEM. According to the Editor’s and reviewers’ feedback, the corresponding author is responsible for retracting or correcting articles if research misconduct is identified.
IJEM is a member of iThenticate, an initiative to help editors verify the originality of submitted manuscripts.
IJEM refers to the ethical principles set out by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Peer Review Policy: 

IJEM is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal. All research articles, review articles, and other academic contributions submitted to IJEM are subject to editorial screening and peer review prior to publication. IJEM is committed to maintaining high standards of academic quality, editorial independence, transparency, and ethical integrity in all stages of the publication process.

Peer Review Model

IJEM employs a double-blind peer review model. In this system, the identities of authors and reviewers are concealed from each other throughout the entire review process. Authors are required to submit anonymized manuscripts and ensure that all identifying information is removed from the manuscript text, references, acknowledgements, and supplementary files.

A diagram that illustrates the review and publishing process can be seen below.

Editorial Roles and Responsibilities

Editor-in-Chief (EiC): The Editor-in-Chief holds overall responsibility for the journal’s editorial policy, ethical standards, and the integrity of the peer review process. The EiC has final authority over editorial decisions and may either handle manuscripts directly or delegate the peer review process to a qualified Handling Editor or Associate Editor, while retaining full editorial oversight.

Handling Editor / Associate Editor: The Handling Editor or Associate Editor manages the peer review process for assigned manuscripts. This role includes selecting and inviting reviewers, monitoring the review process, evaluating reviewer reports, and making a reasoned recommendation to the Editor-in-Chief.

Editorial Office: The Editorial Office performs technical and administrative checks, including completeness of submissions, adherence to formatting and policy requirements, and coordination of communication between editors, reviewers, and authors.

External Reviewers: External reviewers provide independent, confidential, and constructive evaluations of manuscripts. Reviewers advise the editors by assessing the scientific quality, originality, and relevance of submissions, but they do not make final publication decisions.

Initial Editorial Screening (Desk Evaluation)

Upon submission, all manuscripts undergo an initial editorial screening conducted by the Editor-in-Chief or a designated Handling/Associate Editor. This evaluation assesses:

• alignment with the journal’s aims and scope,

• originality and relevance to the field of educational sciences,

• basic methodological and ethical soundness, and

• compliance with submission guidelines and formatting requirements.

Manuscripts may be desk rejected at this stage if they are outside the scope of the journal, insufficiently original, contain serious scientific or methodological flaws, or fail to meet basic quality standards. Authors are normally informed of desk decisions within 2–3 weeks of receipt.

It is rare but possible that non-standard content (such as invited editorials or editor-commissioned contributions) may proceed without external peer review; such cases are clearly identified and documented. Standard research articles are not accepted for publication at the screening stage without peer review.

External Peer Review

Manuscripts that pass the initial screening are sent for external peer review. As a standard practice, at least two independent external reviewers with relevant subject-matter expertise are invited to evaluate each manuscript.

How Reviewers Are Selected 

Reviewers are selected by the Editor-in-Chief or the designated Handling/Associate Editor based on their scholarly expertise, research background, and publication record relevant to the submitted manuscript. IJEM maintains a database of potential reviewers covering diverse subfields of educational research. This database is regularly updated to ensure breadth of expertise and international representation.

Before inviting a reviewer, editors carefully assess potential conflicts of interest, including recent collaboration with the authors, institutional affiliation, or any personal, professional, or financial relationships that could affect objectivity. Reviewers are required to declare any potential conflict of interest upon invitation and must decline the review if such a conflict exists.

Author-suggested reviewers may be considered at the editor’s discretion; however, authors do not participate in the final selection of reviewers, and reviewer appointment is not guaranteed based on author suggestions.

Reviewer Evaluation Criteria

Reviewers are asked to evaluate whether the manuscript:

• is original and contributes meaningfully to educational research,

• makes a clear theoretical and/or empirical contribution,

• is methodologically sound and well designed,

• follows appropriate ethical standards and guidelines,

• presents results clearly and supports its conclusions, and

• appropriately cites relevant and current literature.

Language editing is not a formal component of peer review; however, reviewers may suggest improvements to clarity or presentation when relevant.

Editorial Decision-Making Process

Reviewers provide written reports and recommendations to support editorial decision-making. Reviewers do not make publication decisions.

The Handling/Associate Editor evaluates all reviewer reports and prepares a recommendation based on the quality, consistency, and substance of the reviews. The final decision to accept, request revision, or reject a manuscript is made by the Editor-in-Chief, or by a delegated senior editor acting under the Editor-in-Chief’s authority and oversight.

The editorial board contributes to the journal’s strategic direction and policy development but does not collectively vote on individual manuscript decisions.

Decision Categories

Editorial decisions fall into one of the following categories:

• Reject

• Major Revision

• Minor Revision

• Accept

Contradictory Reviews and Exceptional Situations

If reviewer reports substantially contradict one another, or if a reviewer report is delayed, the editor may invite an additional external reviewer or seek an independent editorial assessment from another qualified editor before making a recommendation.

IJEM’s standard policy is to base editorial decisions on at least two external reviewer reports. In exceptional circumstances, where repeated attempts to secure a second review are unsuccessful, the Editor-in-Chief may proceed with a decision only if:

• at least one high-quality external reviewer report has been obtained,

• an additional independent editorial assessment is documented, and

• acceptance is not based solely on a single external reviewer report.

The editorial rationale for such decisions is recorded internally to ensure transparency and accountability.

How Long Does the Review Process Take?

The length of the peer review process may vary depending on reviewer availability and the complexity of the manuscript. However, IJEM strives to conduct a thorough and timely review process.

Typical timelines are as follows:

• Initial editorial screening: up to 2–3 weeks

• External peer review: approximately 8–12 weeks

• First editorial decision: typically within 3 months of submission

If delays occur, authors are informed promptly.

Revision timelines depend on the extent of required changes:

• Minor revisions: approximately 7–14 days

• Major revisions: approximately 21–45 days

Extensions may be granted upon reasonable request.

Revised Manuscripts

Revised manuscripts may be returned to the original reviewers for further evaluation or assessed editorially, depending on the nature and extent of the revisions. Reviewers may request additional revisions if necessary.

Communication with Authors

Editorial decisions are communicated to the corresponding author along with anonymized reviewer comments. Reviewer comments may be shared verbatim after removal of identifying information or inappropriate language.

Complaints and Appeals Policy

IJEM aims to respond to and resolve all complaints in a fair, transparent, and constructive manner.

Appeals Against Editorial Decisions

Authors who disagree with an editorial decision have the right to appeal. Appeals must be submitted in writing to the Editor-in-Chief and should clearly state the grounds for appeal.

The Editor-in-Chief reviews the manuscript, editorial history, and reviewer reports. Where appropriate, the Editor-in-Chief will consult another senior editor, assign a new handling editor, and/or seek additional independent peer review. The decision resulting from an appeal is final.

Complaints Related to Policies, Procedures, or Editorial Conduct

Complaints regarding journal policies, procedures, editorial content, or the actions of editorial staff should be submitted by email to [email protected]. All complaints are acknowledged within three working days.

If resolution requires consultation with third parties, the complainant is informed of the expected timeline and receives periodic updates. If the Editor-in-Chief is unavailable or has a conflict of interest, the complaint is referred to a designated senior or executive editor.

All complaints are handled in accordance with principles of confidentiality, impartiality, and editorial independence.

Conflicts of Interest Policy: Transparency and objectivity in research are essential for IJEM. These principles are strictly followed in our peer review process and decision for publication. Manuscript submissions are assigned to reviewers in an effort to minimize potential conflicts of interest. The following relationships between reviewers and authors are considered conflicts and are avoided: Current colleagues, recent colleagues, recent co-authors, and doctoral students for which the editor served as their committee chair. After papers are assigned, individual reviewers are required to inform the editor-in-chief of any conflicts mentioned in the list above and any other conflicts that may exist.

Intellectual Property, Copyright, and Access: IJEM is an Open Access journal. All articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license.   This license allows authors and readers to use all articles, data sets, graphics, and appendices in data mining applications, search engines, websites, blogs, and other platforms by providing an appropriate reference (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The license will be indicated on the front page of each online article galley. Authors certify that their submitted manuscript (and any supporting items) are their own intellectual property, and the copyright has not been transferred to others. All manuscripts, revisions, drafts, and galleys remain the intellectual property of the author(s). Author(s) fully retain the copyright to their work.

All individual articles are available to readers without any restrictions. However, although our journal normally works by subscription, in order for the articles to have open access, the author(s) is/are required to pay an article processing charge.

Archiving Policy: The publisher of IJEM ensures electronic backup of the published articles and website content regularly. All published articles are also being archived by the British Library and ERIC database and made publicly accessible.

Publishing Schedule: IJEM is published online quarterly every February, May, July, and November of the year.

Informed Consent Policy: Author(s) should comply with the following conditions in order to meet ethical and legal standards for work with human subjects:

Participants in your research should be informed that

- you will be conducting research in which they will be the participants or that you would like to write about them for publication.

- until preliminary review, participation is voluntary, so there is no penalty for refusing to participate, and the participants may withdraw at this time without penalty.  After preliminary review, the author is not allowed to withdraw submitted manuscripts because the withdrawal is a waste of valuable resources that editors and referees spent a great deal of time processing submitted manuscripts, money, and works invested by the publisher. If the author still requests withdrawal of his/her manuscript when the manuscript is still in the peer-reviewing process, the author will be punished with paying APC per manuscript as a withdrawal penalty to the publisher.

Participants in your research should be informed about

- the purpose of your research and the procedure you will follow in the research.

- contact information so that they can reach you for answers to questions regarding the research.

- any foreseeable risks and discomforts involved in agreeing to cooperate.

- any possible direct benefits of participating (e.g., receiving a copy of the article or chapter).

Participants in your research should be informed if and how their confidentiality will be protected.

Generative AI Policy: Our journal embraces the use of new AI-supported technologies in article writing. However, generative AI and AI-assisted technologies may only be used to enhance the language of the work and eliminate semantic errors. Their use is strictly prohibited for other purposes, such as writing the introduction, literature review, and methodology sections, analyzing data, making inferences based on data results, and writing the discussion section. Authors are not allowed to list AI as a co-author when AI or AI-supported technologies are used. Even when these technologies are employed to improve the language of the work, they must be utilized under human supervision, and the final version must be reviewed and verified by the author(s). This is because AI can make mistakes, and the responsibility lies entirely with the author(s). At the end of their submitted work, the author(s) must clearly state which AI tools were used and for what purpose. This statement will be included in the published article. Including this statement ensures transparency and trust among authors, editors, reviewers, and readers. Additionally, it is important to ensure compliance with AI usage conditions.

If you have any questions, please contact us at: [email protected]