ECNU Review of Education

Manuscript Submission Guidelines: ECNU Review of Education

This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

1. Open Access
2. Article processing charge (APC)
3. What do we publish?
   3.1 Aims & scope
   3.2 Article types
   3.3 Writing your paper
4. Editorial policies
   4.1 Peer review policy
   4.2 Authorship
   4.3 Acknowledgements
   4.4 Funding
   4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
   4.6 Data
5. Publishing policies
   5.1 Publication ethics
   5.2 Research ethics and participant consent
   5.3 Contributor’s publishing agreement
6. Preparing your manuscript
   6.1 Formatting
   6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
   6.3 Supplementary material
   6.4 Reference style
   6.5 English language editing services
7. Submitting your manuscript
   7.1 How to submit your manuscript
   7.2 Title, keywords and abstracts
   7.3 Information required for completing your submission
   7.4 ORCID
   7.5 Permissions
8. On acceptance and publication
   8.1 Sage Production
   8.2 Online publication
   8.3 Promoting your article
9. Further information
10. Appealing the publication decision

Please read the guidelines below then visit the journal’s submission site (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ecnuroe) to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned. Remember you can log in to the submission site at any time to check on the progress of your paper through the peer review process.

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of ECNU Review of Education will be reviewed. As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.

1.Open Access

ECNU Review of Education is an open access, peer-reviewed, journal where East China Normal University and East China Normal University Press pay for the publishing costs incurred by the journal. There is no charge for submitting a paper to the journal. Authors do not have to pay any Article Processing Charge or Open Access Publication Fee. Each article accepted by peer review is made freely available online immediately upon publication, is published under a Creative Commons license and will be hosted online in perpetuity. Each article accepted by peer review is made freely available online immediately upon publication, is published under a Creative Commons license and will be hosted online in perpetuity.

For general information on open access at Sage please visit the Open Access page or view our Open Access FAQs.

2. Article processing charge (APC)

The journal is financially supported by East China Normal University and East China Normal University Press; therefore, no article processing charge is made for open access publication.

3. What do we publish?

3.1 Aims & Scope

Before submitting your manuscript to ECNU Review of Education, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.

3.2 Article types

The categories of articles that are published in the journal are listed and described below. Please select the category that best describes your paper. If your paper does not fall into any of these categories, please contact the editorial office.

• 3.2.1 Research reviews: These provide research synthesis of thematic educational issues either in existing empirical works, educational theory, or practice. ROE especially welcomes the following types of review works:
- Scoping reviews of emerging issues, theories, and methodologies
- Research reviews from non-English speaking regions
- Interdisciplinary perspectives and reviews
- Cross-cultural and cross-contexts reviews

- Format guide:

• Word limit: 6000-8000 words (including references)
• Abstract: up to 200 words, structured
• Keywords: up to 6 (in alphabetical order)
• Tables/Figures: no limit

• 3.2.2 Research articles: These should present original, thought-provoking analysis for educational phenomena. Both empirical and conceptual papers are welcomed.

-Format guide:

• Word limit: 6000-8000 words (including references)
• Abstract: up to 200 words, structured
• Keywords: up to 6 (in alphabetical order)
• Tables/Figures: no limit

• 3.2.3 Policy reviews: These provide the reader with a critical, timely overview of the important education policy development in China and in the world. The review should focus on a specific education policy issued within two years, and include a brief historical background, current development and its future implication.

- Format guide:

• Word limit: 3000-4000 words (including references)
• Abstract: up to 200 words, structured
• Keywords: up to 6 (in alphabetical order)
• Tables/Figures: no limit

• 3.2.4 Book reviews: These are concise essays that provide a brief evaluation of a published book on education (When time is ripe, we also welcome media review relating to education issues). ROE book reviews are invited specifically by the journal but suggestions are also welcome to be sent to our Book Reviews Editor, Dr. Yisu Zhou, via: zhouyisu@um.edu.mo. A book review might assess the importance of a book’s contribution to a particular field covered by the journal’s aims and scope and should aim to objectively review the strengths and weaknesses of the work that concern the journal’s audience.

- Format guide:

• Word limit: 1000-3000 words (including references). If your review includes references to other works, please indicate bibliographic details at the end of your review, complying with the style in our reference guide.
• No Abstract or Keywords
• Tables/Figures: no limit

Please provide the full bibliographical details of the book by adopting the following format: 

Being Modern in China: A Western Cultural Analysis of Modernity, Tradition and Schooling in China Today, by Paul Willis

Cambridge: Polity Press, 2019, 240pp., ISBNs 9781509538317

Page numbers should be included for any direct quotations from the book. Please keep to the agreed deadline for submitting your review, and let our Book Reviews Editor know if you encounter difficulties in doing so. Thank you!

• 3.2.5 Voices: These are organized views and discussions on the latest educational issues or under-studied perspectives from education researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.

- Format guide:

• Word limit: 1000-3000 words (including references)
• Highlights: up to 150 words, 3 to 5 points
• Keywords: up to 6 (in alphabetical order)
• Tables/Figures: no limit 

• 3.2.6 ROE Reports: These include timely reports of the educational forums, or analysis based on authoritative data, which will evoke readers’ attention and reflection.

- Format guide:

• Word limit: 1000-3000 words (including references)
• Highlights: up to 150 words, 3 to 5 points
• Keywords: up to 6 (in alphabetical order)
• Tables/Figures: no limit 

• 3.2.7 Editorial: Editorial presents a general introduction to the major contents of a special issue, e.g., why this topic was selected, from which angles the group of articles discussed the subject, and what the authors’ background and main messages are.

- Format guide:

• Word limit: 1000-3000 words (including references)
• No Abstract or Keywords
• Tables/Figures: no limit

• 3.2.8 Responses & Commentaries: These are dialogues revolving around the targeted articles or a special issue, e.g., the perspectives and opinions of different articles, especially their differences or controversies. The authors may provide corresponding theoretical responses and comments as well as their own opinions or further outlook.

- Format guide:

• Word limit: 1000-3000 words (including references)
• No Abstract or Keywords
• Tables/Figures: no limit

3.3 Writing your paper

The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.

3.3.1 Making your article discoverable

When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords, and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online. For information and guidance on how to make your article more discoverable, visit our Gateway page on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.

Back to top

4. Editorial policies

4.1 Peer review policy

Following a preliminary triage to eliminate submissions unsuitable for ECNU Review of Education all papers are sent out for review. The covering letter is important. To help the Editor in their preliminary evaluation, please indicate why you think the paper is suitable for publication. If your paper should be considered for fast-track publication, please explain why.

The journal’s policy is to have manuscripts reviewed by two independent external expert reviewers. ECNU Review of Education utilizes a double-anonymized peer review process in which the reviewers’ and authors’ names and information are withheld from the other. Reviewers may at their own discretion opt to reveal their names to the author in their review but our standard policy practice is for their identities to remain concealed. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, while maintaining rigor. Reviewers make comments to the author and recommendations to the Editor-in-Chief who then makes the final decision.

Reviewers may at their own discretion opt to reveal their names to the author in their review but our standard policy practice is for their identities to remain concealed. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, while maintaining rigor. Reviewers make comments to the author and recommendations to the Editor-in-Chief who then makes the final decision.

FOR JOURNALS USING RECOMMENDED/OPPOSED REVIEWERS

As part of the submission process you will be asked to provide the names of up to 5 peers who could be called upon to review your manuscript. Recommended reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Please be aware of any conflicts of interest when recommending reviewers. Examples of conflicts of interest include (but are not limited to) the below:
• The reviewer should have no prior knowledge of your submission
• The reviewer should not have recently collaborated with any of the authors
• Reviewer nominees from the same institution as any of the authors are not permitted

You will also be asked to nominate peers who you do not wish to review your manuscript (opposed reviewers).
Please note that the Editors are not obliged to invite/ reject any recommended/opposed reviewers to assess your manuscript.

The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor / Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.

4.2 Authorship

All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.

Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the journal Editor. To request such a change, the Editor must receive the following form the corresponding author: (a) the reason from the change in author list and (b) written confirmation (email, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed. Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the Editor considers the request, publication of the manuscript will be suspended. If the manuscript has already been published in an online issue, any requests approved by the Editor will result in a corrigendum.

Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.

4.3 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.

4.3.1 Third party submissions

Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

•    Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input 
•    Identify any entities that paid for this assistance 
•    Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

4.3.2 Writing assistance

Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.

4.4 Funding

ECNU Review of Education requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

ECNU Review of Education encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.

Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’.

For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations.

4.6 Data

All data submitted should comply with Institutional or Ethical Review Board requirements and applicable government regulations.

Back to top

5. Publishing policies

5.1 Publication ethics

Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.

5.1.1 Plagiarism

ECNU Review of Education and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

5.1.2 Prior publication

If material has been previously published, it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

5.2 Research ethics and participant consent

For authors from countries or institutions that have an ethical review process, approval of research from the responsible institution/committee is required. Authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent.

Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be included in the manuscript text. A statement is required regarding whether written informed consent for participant information and images to be published was provided by the participant(s) or a legally authorized representative. Please do not submit the participant’s actual written informed consent with your article, as this in itself breaches the participant’s confidentiality. The Journal requests that you confirm to us, in writing, that you have obtained written informed consent but the written consent itself should be held by the authors/investigators themselves. The confirmatory letter may be uploaded with your submission as a separate file.

Please also refer to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants.

5.3 Contributor’s publishing agreement

Before publication Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. ECNU Review of Education publishes manuscripts under Creative Commons licenses. The standard license for the journal is Creative Commons by Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC), which allows others to re-use the work without permission as long as the work is properly referenced and the use is non-commercial. For more information, you are advised to visit Sage's OA licenses page. Alternative license arrangements are available, for example, to meet particular funder mandates, made at the author’s request.

Back to top

6. Preparing your manuscript

6.1 Formatting

The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. Word template is available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines

Figures supplied in color will appear in color online.

6.3 Supplementary Material

This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc.) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplemental files.

6.4 Reference style

ECNU Review of Education adheres to the APA reference style (7th edition). Please review the guidelines on APA to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style. If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the APA output file here: https://libguides.murdoch.edu.au/APA.

6.5 English language editing services

Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

The journal will provide complimentary language editing for accepted article. For further information, please contact editorial office at ecnuroe@ecnu.edu.cn.

Back to top

7. Submitting your manuscript

7.1 How to submit your manuscript

ECNU Review of Education is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ecnuroe to login and submit your article online.

IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

7.2 Title, keywords and abstracts

Please supply a title, short title, an abstract and keywords to accompany your article. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article online through online search engines such as Google. Please refer to the information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords by visiting the Sage Journal Author Gateway for guidelines on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.

Please divide the abstract into the following four parts:

1. Purpose:
2. Design/Approach/Methods:
3. Findings:
4. Originality/Value:

7.3 Information required for completing your submission

Provide full contact details for the corresponding author including email, mailing address and telephone numbers. Academic affiliations are required for all co-authors. These details should be presented separately to the main text of the article to facilitate anonymous peer review.

You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

7.4 ORCID

As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.

We strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCIDs to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. We collect ORCID iDs during the manuscript submission process and your ORCID iD then becomes part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.

If you do not already have an ORCID ID please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

7.5 Permission

Please ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.

Back to top

8. Submitting your manuscript

If your paper is accepted for publication after peer review, you will first be asked to complete the contributor’s publishing agreement. Once your manuscript files have been accepted, your article will be prepared for publication and can appear online within an average of 30 days.

8.1 Sage Production

Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit, or by email to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.

8.2 Online publication

One of the many benefits of publishing your research in an open access journal is the speed to publication. With no page count constraints, your article will be published online in a fully citable form with a DOI number as soon as it has completed the production process. At this time it will be completely free to view and download for all.

8.3 Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.

In addition, Sage is partnered with Kudos, a free service that allows authors to explain, enrich, share, and measure the impact of their article. Find out how to maximize your article’s impact with Kudos.

9. Further information

The editors reserve the right to make minor alterations to all the articles that are accepted for publication.

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the Manuscript Submission process should be sent to the ECNU Review of Education editorial office as follows:

roe@ecnu.edu.cn

 

10. Appealing the publication decision

Editors have very broad discretion in determining whether an article is an appropriate fit for their journal. Many manuscripts are declined with a very general statement of the rejection decision. These decisions are not eligible for formal appeal unless the author believes the decision to reject the manuscript was based on an error in the review of the article, in which case the author may appeal the decision by providing the Editor with a detailed written description of the error they believe occurred.

If an author believes the decision regarding their manuscript was affected by a publication ethics breach, the author may contact the publisher with a detailed written description of their concern, and information supporting the concern, at publication_ethics@sagepub.com

Back to top