Policies
Peer Review Process
Journal of Pathways Education and Research considers multiple types of submissions in the Journal:
Research papers (maximum 8000 words) showcasing original and theoretically inflected research into any aspect of pathways education and/ or widening participation.
Papers that critically interrogate existing policy, practice, or theory in pathways education and/ or widening participation (maximum 8000 words), and that may contribute to building theory and/ or propose new approaches in these realms.
Practice reports (maximum 4000 words) showcasing an aspect of teaching and classroom practice.
Book and resource reviews (maximum 1000 words) which may be traditional book reviews or reviews of new pedagogical resources.
All submitted papers should be original, unpublished, and not in consideration for publication elsewhere at the time of submission to Journal of Pathways Education and Research.
All articles will be refereed in a double-blind review process by at least two reviewers with expertise in the relevant subject area.
Further details on JPER's peer review process (click here)
Open Access Policy
Journal of Pathways Education and Research is a free to read, free to publish, institutionally supported journal.
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.
Journal of Pathways Education and Research defines open access according to the definition provided by Open Access Australasia:
Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of cost or other access barriers. Through licensing via an open license (usually a Creative Commons License), freely available outputs can also be legally shared and reused. Hence, open access is more than just free access.
Additionally, the Journal recognises the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) principles and recommendations for open access (updated in March 2022) which note that “…OA is not an end in itself, but a means to other ends, above all, to the equity, quality, usability, and sustainability of research.”
Copyright
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the Journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - No Derivatives 4.0 International Licence (CC BY ND). This Licence allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
2. Authors have obtained all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any third-party copyright materials included in submissions.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their unmodified work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. This can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
Editorial Policies
- Papers must be submitted with the understanding that they have not been published elsewhere (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or thesis) and are not currently under consideration by another journal. If your article is already accessible on a pre-print server this may compromise our double-blind review policy - please email the Journal Manager for further information.
- The submitting author is responsible for ensuring that the article's publication has been approved by all the other co-authors. Further correspondence and galley proofs will be sent to the corresponding author(s) before publication unless otherwise indicated.
- It is a condition for submission of a paper that the authors permit editing of the paper for readability.
- All articles submitted will also be checked for plagiarism. Authors retain copyright and articles are licenced via Creative Commons to make published articles more readily available and useable. There are no APCs (Article Processing Charges). Authors can submit and publish at no cost.
- Special Editions also require blind peer reviewing and are subject to the same editorial policy.
- All production decisions are made by the Editor-in-Chief in consultation with the Journal Manager. Decisions of the Editor-in-Chief are final and not subject to review or appeal.
Archiving and Self-Archiving
Ethics and Integrity
This Journal has an Ethics and Malpractice Statement.
Journal of Pathways Education and Research has aligned with the ethos and best practice guidelines from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) for dealing with ethical issues in journal publishing and has adopted the COPE guidelines which the journal members (Advisory Board, editors and the journal manager) have agreed meet the purposes and objectives of the Journal.
A summary of the basic principles and guidelines for peer reviewers, authors and editors are provided.
COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers
Responsible Research Publication: International Standards for Authors
Responsible Research Publication: International Standards for Editors
Artificial Intelligence Generated Content
Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC) tools—such as ChatGPT and others based on large language models (LLMs) cannot have accountability for a published work or research design, nor can it have legal standing to hold or assign copyright. In accordance with COPE’s position statement on AI tools—these tools cannot fulfill the role of, nor be listed as, an author of an article.
The following statement from COPE:
AI tools cannot meet the requirements for authorship as they cannot take responsibility for the submitted work. As non-legal entities, they cannot assert the presence or absence of conflicts of interest nor manage copyright and license agreements
Full statement: https://publicationethics.org/cope-position-statements/ai-author
If an author/s has used this kind of tool to develop any portion of a manuscript, its use must be described, transparently and in detail, in the Methods or Acknowledgements section. The author is responsible for the accuracy of any information provided by the tool and for correctly referencing any supporting work on which that information depends. Tools that are used to improve spelling, grammar, and general editing are not included in the scope of these guidelines. The final decision about whether use of an AIGC tool is appropriate or permissible lies with the Journal’s editor/s.
Suspected plagiarism in a submission:
Journal of Pathways Education and Research uses Turnitin plagiarism detection software - and may utilise the software if the editorial team or the reviewer/s have concerns about original content.
