About the Journal

Focus and Scope

The International Journal of Educational Psychology (IJEP) publishes top research in the area of educational psychology which seeks to be applied in a variety of educational contexts, formal and informal, and involving different education levels and people of all ages. The articles published in IJEP deal with educational problems that are relevant for the international scientific and education communities and their contributions serve as scientific tools to improve school education and education in general in relation to processes and outcomes. The second objective of IJEP is the publication of theoretical works that advance the literature in educational psychology, opening new lines of research in the field.

IJEP publishes articles that, from a variety of perspectives and methods, deepen in the understanding of the processes, tools, contexts, and outcomes of school and non-school learning. These works can include, among others, the analysis of the dynamics of classroom interactions, the relationships between learning and development, the design of effective learning environments, learning processes in non-school contexts (such as the home, the street, after-school programs, ICT), discourse use in those contexts, and interactions between learning and identity. These analyses are undertaken to take into account the cultural dimension of teaching and learning processes in societies that are increasingly diverse.

The journal is primarily addressed to researchers, but it is also of interest to those in charge of implementing the results of educational sciences research.

Peer Review Policy. All research articles in this journal have undergone rigorous double-blind peer review, based on initial editor screening and anonymized refereeing by two anonymous referees.

Peer Review Process

- All research articles submitted to IJEP are subjected to peer-review.

- Authors must participate in peer review process. Therefore, they should avoid any clue about the authorship of the work submitted. Name(s) of the author(s) must not appear in the manuscript. Information about the authors is included in the Electronic platform of the journal but not inside the manucsript sent for review. Manuscripts not fulfilling these presentation norms might be rejected.

- Peer-review is performed by experts in the field, who point out relevant published work which is not yet cited.

- Reviewers for IJEP are asked to declare that have no conflict of interest, and thus their judgments are objective.

- Reviewed articles are treated confidentially

Until October 5th 2013, Hipatia Press scientific journals were published under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivative License (CC BY NC ND). Hipatia Press journals decided to change the license and use the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) as recommended by the Budapest Open Access Initiative taking into account its commitment with Open Access. 

Publication Frequency

This journal is aimed to be published three times a year (February, June and October).

Open Access Policy

This journal provide readers with immediate free access to all published content and it is available to users everywhere who have Internet access.

Publication Ethics

Hipatia Press Scientific Journals pursue the ethical standards present in the COPE Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and the International Standards for editors and authors published by the Committee on Publication Ethics

IJEP is committed to meeting high standards of ethical conduct at all stages of the publication process. In our ethical standards and procedures, we set out general expectations for authors, editors, reviewers, publishers and social partners. IJEP guarantees at all times the confidentiality of the evaluation process: the anonymity of the reviewers and the authors, the content evaluated, the rationale report issued by the reviewers and any other communication issued by the editorial and advisory boards. Also, the confidentiality will be maintained before any clarifications or complaints that an author wishes to send to the committees of the journal or to the evaluators of the article.

Hipatia Press and IJEP editors will take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred, for retracting or correcting articles when needed:

  • IJEP declares its commitment for the respect and integrity of the works already published. For this reason, plagiarism is strictly prohibited in IJEP and texts that are identified as plagiarism or its content are fraudulent will be removed from the journal if they have already been published or will not be published.
  • Hipatia Press and IJEP editors will act, in these cases, as quickly as possible. By accepting the terms and agreements expressed by IJEP, authors must ensure that the article or review and the materials associated with them are original or do not infringe copyright.
  • The authors also have to justify that, in case of a shared authorship, there was a full consensus of all the authors affected and that the article or book review has not been previously presented or published in other journals.
  • In the event that IJEP editors are made aware of any allegation of research misconduct, these allegations would be treated accordingly. 
  • IJEP editors will be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies whenever needed. 
  • In no case IJEP or its editors shall encourage such misconduct, or knowingly allow such misconduct to take place.

IJEP endorses the Elsevier’s policy for retracting or correcting articles when needed. Therefore, we provide the following guidelines which will be applied in those cases that appear to be violating the ethical standard of publication:

Article withdrawal

Articles in Press (articles that have been accepted for publication but which have not been formally published) that include errors, or are discovered to be accidental duplicates of other published article(s), or are determined to violate our journal publishing ethics guidelines in the view of the editors (such as multiple submission, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data or the like), may be withdrawn from IJEP.

Article retraction

In case of infringements of professional ethical codes, such as multiple submission, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data or the like. A retraction note titled “Retraction: [article title]” signed by the authors and/or the editor is published in the paginated part of a subsequent issue of the journal and listed in the contents list with a link to the original article. The original article is preceded by a screen containing the retraction note and carries a watermark on the .pdf indicating on each page that it is “retracted.”

Article replacement

In cases where the article, if acted upon, might pose a serious health risk, the authors of the original article may wish to retract the flawed original and replace it with a corrected version. In these circumstances the procedures for retraction will be followed with the difference that the database retraction notice will publish a link to the corrected re-published article and a history of the document.

 

For further guidance of publication ethics, we adhere to the International Standards for editors and authors published by the Committee on Publication Ethics specified for each role participating in the publication process:

Authors

  • The research being reported should have been conducted in an ethical and responsible manner and should comply with all relevant legislation.
  • Researchers should present their results clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation.
  • Researchers should strive to describe their methods clearly and unambiguously so that their findings can be confirmed by others.
  • Researchers should adhere to publication requirements that submitted work is original, is not plagiarized, and has not been published elsewhere.
  • Authors should take collective responsibility for submitted and published work.
  • Funding sources and relevant conflicts of interest should be disclosed.
  • The authorship of research publications:
    • should accurately reflect individuals’ contributions to the work and its reporting.
    • should follow criteria for authorship and acknowledgement to be agreed at the start of the project. Ideally, authorship criteria within a particular field should be agreed, published and consistently applied by research institutions, professional and academic societies, and funders.
    • should include only those individuals who meet authorship criteria (i.e. made a substantial contribution to the work) and should not omit deserving authors such as ghost authors.
    • Should prevent including individuals who do not meet the authorship criteria such as: guest authors who are listed because of their seniority, reputation or supposed influence; gift authors who are listed as a personal favour or in return for payment.
    • Requires that all authors agree to be listed and approve the submitted and accepted versions of the publication. The corresponding author should act as a point of contact between the editor and the other authors and should keep co-authors informed and involve them in major decisions about the publication (e.g. responding to reviewers’ comments).
    • should not be confused with acknowledgements that could misleadingly imply a contribution or endorsement by individuals who have not, in fact, been involved with the work or given an endorsement.

 

For a detailed account of ethics international standards for authors developed by COPE during the 2nd World Conference on Research Integrity in Singapore in 2010, please access the following document: https://publicationethics.org/files/International%20standards_authors_for%20website_11_Nov_2011.pdf

 

Changes to authorship

Authors are strongly advised to ensure the correct author group, and the order of authors at submission. Changes of authorship by adding or deleting authors, and/or changes in Corresponding Author, and/or changes in the sequence of authors are not accepted after acceptation of a manuscript.

 

Peer reviewers

  • Only agree to review manuscripts for which they have the subject expertise required to carry out a proper assessment and which they can assess in a timely manner.
  • Respect the confidentiality of peer review and not reveal any details of a manuscript or its review, during or after the peer-review process, beyond those that are released by the journal.
  • Not use information obtained during the peer-review process for their own or any other person’s or organization’s advantage, or to disadvantage or discredit others.
  • Declare all potential conflicting interests, seeking advice from the journal if they are unsure whether something constitutes a relevant interest.
  • Not allow their reviews to be influenced by the origins of a manuscript, by the nationality, religious or political beliefs, gender or other characteristics of the authors, or by commercial considerations.
  • Be objective and constructive in their reviews, refraining from being hostile or inflammatory and from making libellous or derogatory personal comments.
  • Acknowledge that peer review is largely a reciprocal endeavour and undertake to carry out their fair share of reviewing and in a timely manner.
  • Provide journals with personal and professional information that is accurate and a true representation of their expertise.
  • Recognize that impersonation of another individual during the review process is considered serious misconduct.

For a detailed account of the ethical guidelines for peer reviewers developed by COPE, please access the following document: http://publicationethics.org/files/Ethical_guidelines_for_peer_reviewers_0.pdf

 

Editor

  • Editors are accountable and take responsibility for everything they publish.
  • Editors will make fair and unbiased decisions independent from commercial consideration and will ensure a fair and appropriate peer review process.
  • Editors will adopt editorial policies that encourage maximum transparency and complete, honest reporting.
  • Editors will guard the integrity of the published record by issuing corrections and retractions when needed and pursuing suspected or alleged research and publication misconduct.
  • Editors will pursue reviewer and editorial misconduct.
  • Editors will critically assess the ethical conduct of studies in humans and animals.
  • Peer reviewers and authors are told what of is expected of them.
  • Editors have appropriate policies in place for handling editorial conflicts of interest.

For a detailed account of the publication ethics and malpractice statement for editors developed by COPE, please access the following document:  https://publicationethics.org/files/editable-bean/COPE_Core_Practices_0.pdf