International Journal of Educational Research

The International Journal of Educational Research publishes research papers in the field of Education. Papers published in IJER address themes of major interest to researchers, practitioners, and policy makers working in different international contexts. Work must be of a quality and context that the Editorial Board think would be of interest to an international readership. The aims and scope of the journals are to:

• Publish high quality papers that are of international significance in terms of design and/or findings;

• Publish papers on topics that are of international significance across educational contexts and which discuss explicitly how the findings of the paper can inform research, policy, or practice beyond the context in which the original work is undertaken;

• Promote greater equality and representation in academic publishing and be inclusive of a variety of knowledge traditions. This means that papers that challenge established paradigms and present alternative approaches to educational research are of special interest to us;

• Encourage collaboration by international teams of researchers to create special issues on these topics;

• Publish papers that are accessible to a wide audience of educationalists with varied backgrounds.

What can papers/special issues be about?

Proposals for special issues and individual papers can be on any contemporary educational topic of international interest. Reports of high quality educational research involving any discipline and methodology will be welcome. However, the journal's aim is to ensure it publishes high quality research that could potentially inform research, policy, or practice beyond the context in which the original work is undertaken.

The research reported does not have to be comparative in the traditional sense of comparing aspects of education in different countries or cultures; a paper may report research carried out in just one location or cultural setting. Work can be drawn from any context or research paradigm. All papers, even those that focus on only one country's case study, must engage with broader theories and discussions in the field. We are specifically looking for originality and clear significance to an international readership.

All manuscripts submitted to the Journal must have the following features:

• Explanation of how the question addressed in the paper relates to the existing literature;

• Explicitly stated research question;

• Detailed description of the research design and data analysis;

• Discussion of the results (a) in light of the existing literature, (b) highlighting how the results inform research, policy, or practice beyond the context in which the original work is undertaken;

• All advice listed in the 'Instructions for Authors' must be followed

As well as papers, which report the findings of empirical research, papers, which provide critical literature reviews of research on specific educational topics of international interest, will also be welcome. Literature reviews need to explain in great detail the systematic procedures used for the selection of the literature included in the analysis.

Manuscripts can also be submitted to the Journal's open access companion title, the International Journal of Educational Research Open .

Types of publication

The International Journal of Educational Research publishes research papers and special issues on specific topics of interest to international audiences of educational researchers. Regular issues of research papers have an open call for manuscripts. Strong manuscripts will be reviewed. There is an Editorial Board policy that weaker manuscripts or manuscripts that do not follow the Guidelines for Authors will be rejected before review.

Special issues are usually composed of individually invited manuscripts handled by a guest editor. Guest editors have responsibility for putting together the author team and handling the peer review process. Note that proposals for Special Issues must follow the format descripted in the Guide for Authors.

How are papers assessed?

Papers (including those in special issues) are subject to a peer review process, using an international panel of researchers who are expert in relevant fields. Referees are asked to judge the quality of research and also the relevance and accessibility of a paper for an international audience. The journal uses double anonymized peer reviews, meaning any reviewers are unable to establish the author(s) of a manuscript. Authors must propose three reviewers for their manuscripts. These reviewers should be international in scope and at least one of them should be from an English language speaking country. Authors should not suggest reviewers from their own institution or reviewers where a conflict of interest may arise for the reviewer. For special issues, referees are asked first to judge the quality of a proposal, and then to judge the entire contents of a draft issue. More detailed information on this process is provided under Guide for Authors.

Ethical guidelines

Work must be undertaken in an ethical manner. Research must have been undertaken in accordance with Elsevier's guidelines on ethical research available at: http://www.ethics.elsevier.com/