Guidelines for Authors

Education Thinking primarily publishes stand-alone literature reviews. All approaches to reviewing education research literature are welcome. Most preferably, articles are expected to provide the reader with a complete overview of the development of research literature on a given topic. An article should present the main inputs of the main authors who contributed to developing knowledge on the topic over time, and clarify how these inputs relate to each other (or not). The article should explain the concepts, theories, and methods used in the literature, as well as the results obtained. The article should also take stock of the state-of-play of knowledge on the topic, providing a state-of-the-art overview not only of what is known, but also of knowledge gaps and pending research issues, especially those most in need of attention in the near future. The article should be clear and streamlined; precise, detailed, and informative, while keeping concise.

Language and readability – Manuscripts are to be written in English. Unexplained jargon should be avoided. Word choice should be inclusive and bias-free. Before submission, manuscripts must be checked for spelling and grammar and, where necessary, undergo English language editing (the use of online translation tools such as DeepL may also be considered). Authors should bear in mind that, as a general rule, manuscripts must be carefully proofread and edited before submission. This includes not only content editing but also copy editing, for which the use of online editing tools such as Paperpal or Enago is highly recommended. Making the manuscript as readable as possible, and complying with the usual standards of academic writing, will enable the reviewers to easily understand the content, and concentrate on evaluating it and on providing useful suggestions wherever possible.

Format – The formatting of manuscripts for Education Thinking is based on the lines set by the 7th edition (2020) of the APA publication manual. Please only use the pre-formatted “Education Thinking’s Templates”, which comprise a “Main Text Template” and a “Title Page Template“: download the templates to your hard drive, then open them and save them under new names as MS Word documents where to insert your manuscript. Keep the original templates for your ease of reference. Important Note: Please do not use any other formatting than what is referred to in these Guidelines and in the Templates (for example, do not insert tabs, do not insert page breaks, do not keep lines with next or together, do not wrap tables into text, and so on). The reason for this is that not all formatting can be removed during the editing phase, while underlying formatting that is not removed can compromise the correct layout of your online article.

Anonymity of authors – Any details that could lead to identifying the author(s) have to be removed from the abstract, keywords, main text (from the introduction to the references), and annexes. This also includes the possible links to repositories where non-anonymised supplementary materials (e.g. videos, data sets) intended for readers may have been deposited. Such links also have to be removed from the submitted manuscript and will be reinserted in the final draft. The Main Text Template indicates how to keep authors’ anonymity in the in-text and end-list references.

Structure of the submission – The submission will comprise up to 17 components organised as follows (see the Templates for more explanations):

  1. Title of paper
  2. Authors’ names and affiliations
  3. Declaration of interests
  4. Acknowledgements
  5. Funding information
  6. Authors’ notes
  7. Copyright statement
  8. Journal’s area(s) of research
  9. Abstract (Additional abstracts in languages other than English are accepted)
  10. Keywords
  11. Introduction
  12. Method used for the literature review
  13. Results
  14. Discussion
  15. Conclusion
  16. References
  17. Appendices

Word limit – Submissions should not exceed 8,000 words, including all 17 components.

Authorship – In line with the ICMJE approach, Education Thinking recommends to only list as authors of a manuscript, those persons who:

– Have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work;

– And have taken part in the drafting of the work or in revising it critically for important intellectual content;

– And have also taken part in the process of final approval of the version to be published;

– And in addition, have taken part too in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved, thus being accountable for all aspects of the work.

The contributors who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged.

That said, please note that, in the end, it is the responsibility of the authors (not the journal) to agree on, decide, and set up the list of the manuscript’s authors.

Compliance with laws, public order, morality, and ethics – By submitting to Education Thinking a manuscript for publication, the authors warrant that the underlying research was carried out and the article was prepared in compliance with laws and standards of ethical conduct, and that the manuscript does not contain any statement that is abusive or defamatory, nor is in any way contrary to public order or morality. This refers in particular to the Singapore Statement on Research Integrity and the Ethical standards 4, 13, 14, 15, and 16 of the Code of Ethics of the American Educational Research Association.

Using third-party materials and plagiarism – The authors warrant that the manuscript does not infringe the intellectual property rights of any other person or entity. They warrant that they have secured the necessary written permission from the appropriate copyright owners for the reproduction in the article and the journal of any text or other material. Permissions signed by the rights owners must be submitted along with the manuscript (see submission procedure below). The journal will check all manuscripts for plagiarism. Also, in line with COPE‘s approach to the use of AI tools in publishing, Education Thinking reminds authors that they are fully responsible for the parts of their manuscripts produced by an AI tool, and are therefore liable for any breach of publication ethics.

Copyright – While retaining all their moral and economic rights protected by copyright laws, the authors, by submitting to Education Thinking a manuscript for publication, (a) irrevocably grant Education Thinking the right to publish the accepted version of the manuscript with open access on its website, and the right to make any editorial changes to this accepted version, i.e. changes that do not affect the substantive meaning of the content; and (b) commit to mention Education Thinking in any reference to the article once published.

Open access publishing means that users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author, provided that authors’ copyrights are complied with and the authors and the journal are properly credited.

Users who need permissions for other uses will request them directly from the authors. Alternatively, authors may wish to grant general permissions, using one of the six Creative Commons (CC) licences. In that case, authors may provide a Copyright licence statement on the title page of their manuscript, where they specify the exact licence applicable to their article (the appropriate licence is to be selected from the Title Page Template). If the article includes rights held by others, authors must first make sure to get permission from the rights holders to sublicense those rights under the CC licence.

Evaluation process – Upon receipt of a submission, the editor checks its relevance to the scope of the journal, completeness, compliance with the Guidelines for Authors, and overall quality, originality, and clarity. The manuscripts sent to the referees undergo a double-blind peer review based on criteria of scientific quality (see the Guidelines for Referees). No other consideration (e.g. of background, religion, gender, race, institutional affiliation, etc.) is taken into account at any stage. Based on the referees’ conclusions, the editor notifies the author(s) of a decision of:

– Acceptance (i.e. no revision is required. The paper enters the publication process); or

– Acceptance conditional to minor or substantial revision, along with a point-by-point response (the authors have to carry out the revision before the paper is sent to publication); or

– Invitation to resubmit the paper after in-depth revision, along with a point-by-point response (the revised paper will be sent back to one or more of the original referees for re-evaluation before a final decision is made); or

– Rejection.

To appeal a rejection decision, authors need to address to the editor a complaint (a) identifying which of the referees’ comments they are contesting; and (b) providing evidence that these particular comments were wrong. The editor, in collaboration with the referees as necessary, will consider the claim and the rejection decision in light of the evidence received, and will make a final decision. Only one appeal will be considered per article. Decisions on appeals are unappealable.

Duplicate submission – By submitting to Education Thinking a manuscript for publication, the authors warrant that this manuscript is original, is not under consideration for publication in another journal, and has not been published elsewhere.

To submit – Your manuscript must have been prepared using the Education Thinking Templates. When ready for submission, please rename the two files as follows, using the date of submission (“YYYY_MM_DD”) and the last name of the corresponding author (“Name” – For the sake of clarity and simplicity, the corresponding author should also be the submitting author), i.e.:

– “YYYY_MM_DD_Name_A” for the Main Text file (containing components 9 to 17 only); and

– “YYYY_MM_DD_Name_B” for the Title Page file (containing components 1 to 8 only).

Please make sure to fully anonymise the main text file: not only its content (see above paragraph Anonymity of authors) but also its properties and personal information: File / Info / Check for issues / Inspect document / Deselect all options except “Document properties and personal information” / Inspect / Remove all / Close / Save. 

If your article includes rights held by others, you must first make sure to get permission from the rights holders and then also upload an additional file (“YYYY_MM_DD_Name_C”) containing the Permission Request signed by the rights holders. You may add as many permission files as necessary (if more than three, please notify the editor in the submission form).

Then, submit the MS Word files, not PDFs. Proceed with submission from the journal website, using the “Make A Submission” button.

The editor will check the appropriateness of the submission and will then contact you within days.

Publishing in Education Thinking is fee-free.

For inquiries about manuscripts – Please contact the editor at: editor@analytrics.org

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