Focus and scope
The Waikato Journal of Education is a well-regarded peer-reviewed journal. Since the journal was first published in 1995, it has made a major contribution to the scholarship on a wide range of topics in the field of education, particularly issues connected to curriculum, learning and teaching. Articles have included reports on educational research and practice and viewpoints on education policies, theories and practices.
Issues often have a special focus. Previous Special Issues and sections have included creative research in the arts; Pacific education: research and practice; bodies in motion; theorising pedagogy; Māori culture and education; teacher education, curriculum, ethics and tertiary education; educational leadership; and new voices in ethnography. The journal appeals to a diverse readership that includes academics, graduate students, teachers across all sectors from early childhood to tertiary, policymakers and the public.
The journal aims to publish two issues per year. This may alter at times.
The journal is open access. The final published version of every article (or Version of Record) is permanently and freely available online for anyone, anywhere, to read. The journal uses a Creative Commons Licence, which must be respected at all times. There are no charges for submitting or processing any manuscript.
General information
Length
As a general guide, a full Special Issue should comprise of 8–15 articles. Where the review process results in fewer articles than this, a Special Section can be published.
Timeline
Authors should work to clear deadlines set by the Guest Editors.
Peer review process
The Waikato Journal of Education has a blind peer review policy. All articles are reviewed by scholars with appropriate expertise. The reviewers can be nationally and/or internationally based and may include members of the Editorial Board.
Manuscript submissions must be blind review ready. This means any information that might identify authors must be removed before submission, including citations of authors' work, institutional affiliations, contextual information, and the like. Placeholders can be inserted where necessary, such as: [author, date] in the body of the text. The same applies in a reference list, including the title of the work. We suggest authors keep a master manuscript copy with all author information intact for use for revision and the final submission processes that require author information.
The review process depends on voluntary efforts, and expertise. We aim to complete the reviewing process within six to nine months.
Ethical guidelines for peer reviewers
We ask all peer reviewers to make every reasonable effort to adhere to the following ethical guidelines for articles they have agreed to review:
- Reviewers must judge each submitted manuscript on its merits.
- When reviewing a manuscript, reviewers should declare any perceived conflicts of interest that could potentially bias their review.
- Reviewers must keep the peer review process confidential; information or correspondence about a manuscript should not be shared with anyone outside of the peer review process.
- Reviewers should provide a constructive, comprehensive, evidenced, and appropriately substantial peer review report.
- Reviewers must avoid making statements in their report that might be construed as impugning any person's reputation.
- Reviewers should make all reasonable effort to submit their report and recommendation in a timely manner, informing the editor if this is not possible.
- Reviewers should call to the journal editor's attention any significant similarity between the manuscript under consideration and any published paper or submitted manuscripts of which they are aware.
Waikato Journal of Education expects reviewers to provide constructive critical reviews aimed at strengthening the quality of the manuscript as a whole. This includes reviewers commenting on the ethical stance of the manuscript where appropriate, and raising questions as needed. These might include aspects such as: unethical research design, insufficient detail or protection of research participants, inappropriate data manipulation and presentation. It is important too that reviewers are alert to possible plagiarism and offer comment on the extent of originality.
Please note that your review will be seen by the author, but your name will not be revealed as part of the blind review process. Your review will be acknowledged by email.
Special Issues and Guest Editors
To propose a Special Issue or special section, there are two options. Please see these Proposal Guidelines
If your proposal has been accepted, thank you for agreeing to guest edit a Special Issue or Special Section of an issue of the journal.
Please create an account for yourself if you do not already have one. You do this by clicking on Register here
Please contact the Journal Administrator, Denyse Graham ([email protected]) if you need further assistance.
- Our issues are usually available in May and November.
- The following timetable signposts how to keep these endpoint deadlines in mind.
- The timeframes are indicative only—you may need to adjust the timing given when you start the process and new timetables need to be negotiated with Journal Editors.
- For the May issue, it is important to be mindful of the summer holiday break (Dec–Jan) and how this may affect your deadline planning.
- The current timeframe indicates a 9–12-month timeline. It is important for the timeliness of the journal’s publication that timeframes are maintained.
- Waikato Journal of Education special section timeline, See details here
It is important that as Guest Editor you ensure that the Author Guidelines are followed.
NB: We require all submissions and reviews to use the Waikato Journal of Education online system. The online system keeps track of all communication, the reviews and timelines.
Guest Editors are crucial to the journal in fostering innovation, community and contributions of educational research excellence and we appreciate your willingness to act in this role. Please use this information to guide you as the Special Issue or Special Section Editor. Feel free to seek support from the journal’s General Editor as you work through this very important task. The Editor and the team want you to be proud of your guest-editorship and the section/issue you are in charge of. Over time, we will develop a set of how-to videos for Guest Section Editors to help you through this process. The videos should be a useful reference point for becoming familiar with the functions of the Waikato Journal of Education site.
Guest Editor Special Issue initial proposal
All Special Issues must receive initial approval from the Waikato Journal of Education’s Editorial Board. Proposals should be emailed to the Journal Administrator, Denyse Graham at [email protected].
There are two formats proposals can take:
A detailed formal proposal that includes the titles and abstracts of the proposed articles. This proposal format must contain:
- The title of the Special Issue.
- A brief CV of the proposed Guest Editors (usually no more than three).
- A statement of the Special Issue’s relevance for Waikato Journal of Education.
- Titles and draft abstracts of each of the proposed articles.
- Brief details of contributors.
- A rough timeline.
A proposal for a Special Issue call for papers. This proposal format must contain:
- The title of the Special Issue.
- A briefCV of the proposed Guest Editors (usually no more than three).
- A statement of the Special Issue’s relevance for Waikato Journal of Education and the likely content to be covered.
- A draft of the Call for Papers.
- A rough timeline.
The Editorial Board will consider whether the initial proposal is of interest to the journal and the proposed Guest Editors will be informed of approval. A member of the Editorial Board will liaise with Guest Editors regarding progress of the Special Issue and any queries that arise throughout the process.
Guest Editors are expected to oversee the peer review process for the Special Issue and make decisions about structure and length of article types. Guest Editors will also be given full support and guidance regarding the use of the online submission and reviewing system used by Waikato Journal of Education.
Publishing ethics policy
The publishing ethics policy for the Waikato Journal of Education is comprised of:
- The peer review process and ethical guidelines for peer reviewers.
- Online submission and ethical guidelines for authors and authorship.
Complaints procedure
Should authors, readers or reviewers have a complaint, this must be sent in writing to the General Editor, outlining the basis of the complaint.
The General Editor will review any complaint on the basis of Waikato Journal of Education policies and procedures. The General Editor may convene an extraordinary Editorial Board meeting to resolve matters before responding to the complainant with a final ruling and/or next steps.
Open access policy
This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.
Copyright Notice
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Journal sponsor
The Waikato Journal of Education is published by the Wilf Malcolm Institute of Educational Research, Division of Education, University of Waikato, New Zealand.