Peer Review Process
The Italian Journal of Educational Research (IJEduR) uses double-blind review system for all papers. Each manuscript is reviewed by at least two reviewers. The reviewers act independently and they are not aware of each other’s identities.
Manuscripts are sent for review only if they pass the initial evaluation regarding their form and thematic scope. A special care is taken that the initial evaluation does not last more than necessary. Under normal circumstances, the review process takes up to four weeks, and only exceptionally up to two months. During the review process the Editor-in-Chief may require authors to provide additional information (including raw data) if they are necessary for the evaluation of the manuscript. These materials shall be kept confidential and must not be used for any other purposes.
The reviewers are selected solely according to whether they have the relevant expertise for evaluating a manuscript. They must not be from the same institution as the author(s) of the manuscript, nor be their co-authors in the recent past. No suggestions of individual reviewers by the author(s) of the manuscript will be accepted.
The purpose of peer review is to assists the Editorial Board in making decision of whether to accept or reject a paper. The purpose is also to assist the author in improving papers.
In the case that the authors have serious and reasonable objections to the reviews, the Editorial Board makes an assessment of whether a review is objective and whether it meets academic standards. If there is a doubt about the objectivity or quality of review, the Editor-in-Chief will assign additional reviewer(s). Additional reviewers may also be assigned when reviewers’ decisions (accept or reject) are contrary to each other or otherwise substantially incompatible.
The final decision on the acceptance of the manuscript for publication rests solely with the Editor-in-Chief.
Respect of Time: the referee who does not feel adequate to the task proposed or who is not able to finish the evaluation of the proposed contribution in the scheduled time is required to promptly notify the coordinators.
Confidentiality: each assigned reading should be considered as confidential. Therefore, these texts must not be discussed with other people without the explicit permission of the editors.
Text display: the referees undertake to accurately indicate the bibliographical references of fundamental works possibly neglected by the author. The referee must also report to the editors any similarities or overlaps between the text received in reading and other works known to her/him.
Conflict of interest and disclosure: confidential information or information obtained during the process of peer-review must be considered confidential and may not be used for personal purposes. The referee shall not accept in reading articles for which there is a conflict of interest due to previous collaboration or competition with the author and /or her/his institution.
Objectivity: the peer-review must be conducted in an objective manner. Any personal judgment about the authors of contributions is considered inappropriate. Manuscripts are evaluated on the basis of a depth review form that takes into account their RELEVANCE, IMPORTANCE, ORIGINALITY, QUALITY and CLARITY. The referees are required to give adequate reasons for their judgments. Each reviewer submit a judgment for each of these areas and an overall judgment.
The Editorial Board follows a precise policy on the judgments made by the reviewes:
- Double acceptance: the paper is accepted.
- Double rejection: the paper is rejected.
- Acceptance + Rejection: correction needed. The paper is accepted with reserve. In this case authors are invited to include a substantial modification of the paper, that will be re-assessed to a third reviewer, who shall decide on the final admissibility.
List of Reviewers
The Review Committee includes scholars of recognized Italian and foreign competence. The Editor-in-Chief and Co-directors of the journal are responsible for the referral procedure. Italian Journal of Educational Research (IJEduR) would like to acknowledge the following reviewers for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for issues. Their comments and suggestions were of great help to the authors in improving the quality of their papers. Each of the reviewers listed below returned at least one review for these issues.
