Journal of Education Research–Qatar

Journal of Education Research–Qatar

To read the text in Arabic, please shift the English button at the top of the screen to Arabic.

SUBMISSIONS AND AUTHORS INSTRUCTIONS

Papers submitted to the journal must not be previously published or submitted to another journal and awaiting decision. If using previously published figures, tables, or parts of text, authors must obtain the copyright-holder's permission and properly cite them. Please refer to our Ethical Policy and Authors Responsibilities sections below before submitting your paper to the journal.

Language: English and Arabic

Article Processing Charges: Publication charges and submission charges are funded by the Pre-University Education Division (PUE). It is free for authors.

To submit: you can email your manuscript, for the time being, to [email protected]

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

Files Preparation, Style, and Formatting

The submission files to be divided into: 1) cover page in Word file: containing the article title, all authors’ names, affiliations, and email addresses, and ORCID (if you have one). 2) main file in Word: containing an abstract (200-300 words); 3-6 keywords to make your paper more discoverable; main body of article (with headings starting from Introduction are numbered in sequence); and the list of references at the end of the article (https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples). This is the file that goes to peer-reviewers, so ensure it does not reveal the authors’ names or affiliations. 3) short authors’ bio, approx. 200 words; 4) Appendix files (optional): e.g., for tables and figures.
If the manuscript is in Arabic, then an English translation of title, abstract and keywords are required.
Figures should be high quality (1200 dpi for line art, 600 dpt for grayscale and 300 dpi for colour). Figures to be in PS, JPEG, TIFF, or Microsoft Word.
Tables should be editable and present new information not duplicating what is in the text.
Equations should be editable in the Word file.
Source of figures, images, tables used must be stated under each.
ORCID: Authors are encouraged to get an ORCID ID before submission. It is available for free. After obtaining it, included it in the cover page file.
Reference stye is APA style, for examples please refer to (https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples).
For authors: please refer to the list of Authors Responsibilities below.

Articles Types

Research Papers

Research papers including action research article submissions should be structured in the following order: title, abstract, keywords, main text (introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, acknowledgements, conflict of interest statement, references). Word count should be no more than 6,500 words

Book reviews

Book reviews should be structured in the following order: full citation details of the book, introduction, summary, analysis, critique, relevance to the area of practice and applicability to the Arab world or Qatar context; and Recommendation. When drafting your review, authors should consider the following question guide:

Who is the book intended for? Is the book relevant/applicable to the Arab world or Qatar context?
What (if any) new information does the book present/provide and how might it affect the readers' practice?
What evidence does the book present?
Are there any ideas (i.e. cultural considerations, contextual considerations, etc.) that the authors have neglected to consider? What changes would need to be made for make it relevant to be implement the concept in the Arab world?
Would you suggest that educators or specialists read this book? Why or why not?
Do you think this book can foster change or improve educational practice or policy?

Word count should be no more than 1,000 words.

Case Studies

Case studies should be structured in the following order: 1) abstract, 2) introduction, 3) case and context description (including stakeholders, scenario, and analysis provided if applicable), 4) discussion (including guiding questions, areas for considerations, pros/cons, and findings if applicable), and 5) conclusions (including recommendations and next steps). Word count should be no more than 3,000 words.

Curriculum, instruction, and pedagogy articles

Curriculum, instruction, and pedagogy articles should be structured in the following order: 1) abstract, 2) introduction, 3) curriculum, instruction, and pedagogy description 4) analysis and critique 5) discussion and 6) recommendations. Word count should be no more than 3,000 words.

Perspective or Opinion Pieces

Perspective or Opinion Pieces should be structured in the following order: 1) Introduction, 2) Relevance 3) Authors perspective, and 4) Discussion. Word count should be no more than 1,000 words.

Policy and Practice Reviews

Policy and Practice Reviews should be structured in the following order : 1) Abstract, 2) Introduction, 3) Summary of the policy/4) implications for practice, 5) applicability, and 7) Discussion. Authors should consider the following questions Is the policy applicable to the Arab world or Qatari context?

Can the policy be adapted to fit local cultural, social, or institutional frameworks?
Is the policy contextually relevant to the populations or sectors it aims to serve

Word count should be no more than 3,000 words.

PUBLISHING POLICY

Open Access

Articles are published as fully open access. They are published under The Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license. As per this license, all articles are free to access, read, download, copy, distribute, and adapt as long as the original work is attributed to their original creators (https://www.qscience.com/open_access).

Copyright

The copyright of articles is retained by authors. Authors grant HBKU Press a license to publish the articles and identify itself as the original publisher. The authors also grant any third party the right to use the article freely as long as its original authors, citation details, and publisher are identified. Formal terms and conditions can be read at the Creative Commons website for Attribution License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

Privacy Statement

The personal information used on this website is to be used exclusively for the stated purposes of the journal. It will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Archiving: The journal articles are archived, for long-term preservation, on multiple servers around the world by our archiving and preservation partner CLOCKSS.

PEER REVIEW POLICY

PUE and HBKU Press take the peer review process seriously and papers go through a rigorous peer review process. The submitted paper is sent to at least 2 external qualified experts in the topic of the paper. The journal uses a double-blind peer review process, meaning that the identities of reviewers and authors are not revealed to one another. Reviewers are given a structured review report to fill in to assist them to communicate a structured and constructive feedback to authors. Usually, reviewers submit reports with comments or corrections suggestions for authors to address. When authors receive these reports, they need to revise their original submission and resubmit the paper with a letter highlighting the changes they have made considering the reviewers' comments. Based on the reviewers' reports and authors revision, the editor reaches a publication decision (reject/accept after revision/accept). For more information about our main peer-reviewed policy, https://www.qscience.com/reviewer_guidelines

EDITORIAL POLICY

On submission, if passing initial screening (following journal’s scope and guidelines) the manuscript is assigned to an editorial member for an initial assessment of the paper and whether to be considered for external peer reviewing or return to authors. Please refer to the Ethical Policy and Publication Ethics section below.

The next step, the editor sends it to at least 2 external experts in the field of the paper for peer review; the editor manages the review process between the authors and reviewers and ensures that authors have addressed all points of reviewers in their revision. When all revisions have been completed and accepted by reviewers and editor, the editor will notify the Editor in Chief and a notification of acceptance, via the online submission system, is sent to authors. Once accepted the paper will be handled by HBKU Press for preparation for publication.

ETHICAL POLICY AND PUBLICATION ETHICS

COPE Compliance:

PUE and HBKU Press, are members of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and adhere to its Code of Conduct and its Best Practice Guidelines. We also adhere to the international standards in research and publications ethics, and we will not tolerate cases of suspected research and publication misconduct. Authors should comply to these publication ethics and follow the rules related to their field of study (e.g. human participants, animals). More details related to ethical guidelines for experimental research on humans, medical or pharmaceutically related are on https://www.qscience.com/editorial_policy. Authors who are concerned about the editorial process may refer their concerns to COPE.

Please be aware of the malpractice points below before submitting manuscripts:

Submissions: Papers submitted should not have been published elsewhere (unless published as an abstract or thesis), Papers should not be under consideration by another publication. We take publications ethics very seriously; we check if the paper has been published before.

Plagiarism: Manuscripts upon receipt are checked for plagiarism using a specialized software and will be rejected in case of plagiarism. Plagiarism means using another person’s ideas, data, images, tables, research processes, results, or words without attributing them to the original author/source and claiming them to be your own materials. So please ensure that all others' work is cited properly even if citing your own previously-published work (Self Citation). If citing your previously published work, there is a limit to the number of sources used. The same applies to re-using tables or images (please cite the source).

Authorship: should be limited to those who have made a substantial contribution to the manuscript (conception, design of the study, data collection, analysis, and drafting the manuscript or revised it critically for content). The corresponding author should confirm that all co-authors have approved the final version submitted to the journal. Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or supervision of the research group are not enough to justify authorship alone; such contributions should be listed in the acknowledgment section.

Competing Interests: All authors are asked to disclose competing interests at the submission stage. All potential conflicts of interest must be listed in the manuscript. Any personal or financial relationship with an individual or an organization that may influence your interpretation of the results should be disclosed.

Research on Humans and Animals: authors need to comply with the related ethical rules in research. For further details, please refer to the Ethical guidelines section on https://www.qscience.com/editorial_policy

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI): We, at QScience, are committed to integrating AI tools carefully in academic research. Our policy emphasizes the following:

Human Oversight: AI tools can assist in improving readability, language, and research quality, but human oversight and control are essential. AI tools should not be listed as authors.
Transparency: Authors must disclose the use of AI tools in their manuscripts to ensure transparency and maintain the integrity of the research.
Ethical Practices: We stress the importance of ethical practices, safeguarding intellectual property, and ensuring the originality of the work.
Guidelines and Prohibitions: Clear guidelines are provided on the responsible use of AI, including prohibiting the creation or alteration of images using AI unless part of the research design.

By adhering to these principles, we aim to balance the benefits of AI with the need to maintain high standards of research integrity and ethics.

Research Misconduct and Journal Actions: Research misconduct includes plagiarism, republishing/duplication of study in another journal, fraud of data, falsifying research records or results or patients’ approval. Any allegations of misconduct should be reported to the Editor in Chief. The allegations will be investigated following COPE guidelines for misconduct. Actions will be as follows depending on when the misconduct is reported and verified:

Pre-publishing − the manuscript will be rejected.
Post-publishing − the paper will be retracted from the journal website as per our reattraction policy section below.

Retraction Policy: The journal follows COPE Retraction Guidelines (https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.1.4 ), an article can be retracted for any misconduct instances explained above. When retracted, the article webpage will display the article metadata with a note that it has been retracted and why. The PDF version of article will be marked “retracted” on each page.

Corrections Policy: If an unintended error occurred in a published article, depending on the nature of the error and its impact on the content, the editor after consulting with authors can decide for an article to be corrected. There are 2 types of corrections: 1) errata for errors made by the journal or publisher and do not affect the scientific content of the article (e.g., typographic errors, incorrect header numbering). Depending on the severity of the error, the original PDF may be replaced with an updated version. A correction notice will be displayed on the article’s webpage, stating the errors in the original version and the changes inserted in the new version. The original PDF will be marked with a correction note directing readers to the corrected version (erratum article). 2) corrigenda, if unintentional errors made by the authors that affect the scientific integrity of the paper or involve changes in authorship. Corrigenda are published as separate publications and are assigned their own DOI.

The decision for issuing errata or corrigenda is with the editors after discussion with the authors.

AUTHORS RESPONSIBILITIES

Authors must ensure that:

The paper is original and is their own work. The data presented is real and the research is conducted and written properly.
The paper has not been previously published or submitted to another journal at the same time.
All authors mentioned have significantly contributed to the work.
Identify and cite any materials taken from other sources including tables, images, or author’s own previously published work.
Follow any rights regulations: copyright, privacy rights, intellectual rights and obtain permission to re-use images, data, tables (when required).
Adhere to all research ethics and guidelines of their disciplines and identify that in the manuscript. If the study involves humans participating, their consent must be obtained.
Acknowledge, in the paper, any conflict of interest (employment, personal financial interest or others) together with any funding sources for the research.
Participate in the peer review process and respond to all reviewers’ comments and revise the manuscript on time.
Report any errors or inaccuracies they discover pre or post publication to the editors to provide corrections or retract the paper. Please refer to the retraction and correction policies above.
Agree that the paper will be published as open access under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) license.(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

REVIEWERS RESPONSIBILITIES

Report to editors any conflict of interest before accepting review.
Report any suspected misconduct related to the paper they review.
Be objective in their assessment and provide good quality and constructive feedback for authors to improve the manuscript.
Identify any part in the paper that has been plagiarized or not cited.
Maintain the confidentiality of the review process. Should not use, share or disclose unpublished information in a manuscript.
Refrain from contacting the authors directly (anyway, it is blind peer review and the journal will not reveal the identity of authors to reviewers).
Reply promptly upon receiving a review invitation (whether accept or decline) to editors.

COPE Guidelines for Reviewers (https://publicationethics.org/files/Ethical_guidelines_for_peer_reviewers_0.pdf)

EDITORS RESPONSIBILITIES

Accept/reject papers based only on the content of manuscripts, regardless of authors race, gender, or nationality.
Maintain confidentiality about the paper and authors. Not using any part of the content in their own research without authors’ written consent.
Declare any conflict of interest and handle the manuscript to another editor.
Ensure that each manuscript is reviewed by at least 2 experts in the discipline of the paper.
In case of any misconduct reported, editors will investigate and follow COPE guidelines and Allegations of Misconduct by COPE.