Research in Education
We accept both empirical and theoretical papers, however, Research in Education looks for submissions which offer theoretically-rich analysis of educational issues. As a transdisciplinary journal, we encourage innovative papers from a range of perspectives, which might draw on theoretical approaches including postcolonialism, psychoanalysis, critical theory, post-structuralism or feminism, among many others.
Research in Education publishes double-blind peer-reviewed papers in special issues and as individual full-length articles. The editorial board reviews submitted papers on the basis of their critical engagement with educational issues, the quality of the argument, and the extent to which they ‘speak’ to our international audience.
Research in Education provides a space for fully peer-reviewed, critical, trans-disciplinary, debates on theory, policy and practice in relation to Education. International in scope, we publish challenging, well-written and theoretically innovative contributions that question and explore the concept, practice and institution of Education as an object of study.
| Tony Carusi | Massey University, New Zealand |
| Matthew Clarke | University of Aberdeen, UK |
| Jonathan Vincent | Lancaster University, UK |
| Nafsika Alexiadou | Umeå University, Sweden |
| Peter Bansel | Western Sydney University, Australia |
| Eva Bendix Petersen | Roskilde University, Denmark |
| Mike Calvert | University of York St John, UK |
| Jordi Collett | Vic University, Spain |
| Hilary Constable | University of Cumbria, UK |
| Aslam Fataar | Stellenbosch University, South Africa |
| Andreas Fejes | Linkoping University, Sweden |
| Julia Gillen | Lancaster University, UK |
| Sotria Grek | University of Edinburgh, UK |
| Ralph Jessop | University of Glasgow, UK |
| Zeus Leonardo | University of California, Berkeley, USA |
| Margaret Lo | University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong |
| Marcia McKenzie | University of Saskatchewan, Canada |
| Amy Metcalfe | University of British Columbia, Canada |
| Maropeng Modiba | University of Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Alex Moore | University College London, UK |
| Paul Moran | University of Chester, UK |
| Andrew Murphie | University of New South Wales, Australia |
| Anne Phelan | University of British Columbia, Canada |
| Mary Lou Rasmussen | Monash University, Australia |
| Fazal Rizvi | University of Melbourne, Australia |
| Muhammad Saeed | University of the Punjab, Pakistan |
| John Schostak | Manchester Metropolitan University, UK |
| Sam Sellar | University of Queensland, Australia |
| Parlo Singh | Griffith University, Australia |
| Stephanie Springgay | University of Toronto, Canada |
| Elizabeth St. Pierre | University of Georgia, USA |
| Dorthe Staunes | Aarhus University, Denmark |
| Aaron Stoller | North Carolina State University, USA |
| Feng Su | Liverpool Hope University, UK |
| Tomasz Szkudlarek | University of Gdansk, Poland |
| Greg Thompson | Queensland University of Technology, Australia |
| Sharon Todd | University of Maynooth, Ireland |
| Margaret Wood | University of York St John, UK |
| Deborah Youdell | University of Birmingham, UK |
Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/rie to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Research in Education will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.
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, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, 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. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that Research in Education may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy.
If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.
- What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
2.6 Research data - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Supplemental material
4.4 Reference style
4.5 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
6.1 Sage Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article - Further information
Before submitting your manuscript to Research in Education, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope
Research in Education accepts the following (all will undergo peer review; may be solicited or unsolicited):
Full papers: up to 7000 words
- Theoretically innovative contributions to ongoing debates in Education.
Research notes: 3000 - 4000 words
Short, concise reports and discussions, from a particular investigation/study that focus on:
- Significant emergent findings
- Conceptual, practical or methodological innovations, or
- Points of departure for future studies.
Reviews/Essays (4000 – 5000 words)
- These will describe new developments of broad significance in education, with a focus on identifying unresolved questions and future research directions.
- Should aim to convey new developments in a field and its implications, whether theoretical, empirical, or methodological.
- Should include an abstract, an introduction that outlines the main point, brief subheadings, and up to 40 references
Review papers (graduate student): up to 5000 words
- Critically analytic syntheses of relevant literature in areas covered by the journal, demonstrating high quality student scholarship.
- Authors must be a student, i.e. not yet holding a doctoral qualification, at the time of publication, and papers must be identified as a 'Review paper (graduate student)' on first submission
Two distinctive features of Research in Education:
- The Critical Exchange involves two invited authors each of whom is asked to write 4,000 words in response to a prompt. The two authors then read each other's initial contribution and respond with a further 1,000 words. We hope to thus generate vibrant and constructive scholarly debate on issues of interest and significance to our readers.
- Papers in response to a book or paper: involves two or three authors each of whom is asked write 1500 – 2000 words that articulate personal viewpoints or learning, or review key themes, as they relate specifically to a book or paper that is relevant to the areas covered by the journal. Works are identified by the Editors, and original authors are invited to respond to the submitted papers. Submissions are via a Call for Papers, or Editorial invitation.
Special issues are welcome: may be solicited or unsolicited, result from a Call for Papers, be generated by papers produced by a project or a conference, or in response to invitation to expert/keynote authorship by the Editors.
Each year an award of Best Review Paper (graduate student) will be decided by a sub-committee of the Editorial Board. The winner will receive a Sage book voucher with the winning paper featured on the journal homepage. The prize will recognise the winning article published in an issue in the previous year. The sub-committee’s decision will be based on the quality of:
- the writing, structure and analytical synthesis presented, and
- contribution to the understanding of a particular topic, or to broader theoretical, conceptual or methodological issues in Education.
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.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
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.
Research in Education adheres to a rigorous double-blind reviewing policy in which the identity of both the reviewer and author are always concealed from both parties.
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.
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.
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.
2.3.1 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.
2.3.2 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.
Research in 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.
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
Research in 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.
The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.
Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:
- share your research data in a relevant public data repository
- include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
- cite this data in your research
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
3.1.1 Plagiarism
Research in 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 plagiarised 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.
3.1.2 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.
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway.
3.3 Open access and author archiving
Research in Education offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.
4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
4.2 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 colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.
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 supplementary files
Research in Education adheres to the Sage Harvard reference style. View the Sage Harvard guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Harvard EndNote output file
4.5 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.
Research in Education is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/rie 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.
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.
The collection of ORCID IDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID ID you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID 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. Your ORCID ID will become 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.
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
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. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. 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).
Please also 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 Author Gateway
6. On acceptance and publication
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, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us 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.
Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.
6.3 Access to your published article
Sage provides authors with online access to their final 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.
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Research in Education editorial office as follows:
Research in Education
University of Aberdeen
researchineducation@abdn.ac.uk