EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL

ISSN 2454-4949

Guideline for contributors of research paper/article

1. Types of contributions

Contributions suitable for the journal should fall among one of the following classifications

1.1 Original research article:

  • Fundamental research papers, presenting important new information and data in any area of education related to schools, teachers, learners, community and allied fields. 
  • Applied/ Descriptive research papers on the problems and prospects of school and teacher education.
  • Action research papers on problems related to school and teacher education.

1.2 Review article / Book review

  • Review articles of an authoritative and critical nature on a topic of major importance in any area of education.
  • Literature review with focus on trend analysis and gap finding in the field of education.
  • Analytical review of NAS, SEAS, Gunotsav or other national/state level educational evaluation/ achievement survey.
  • Scholarly review of books on educational issues.

1.3 Perspectives

  • Contributions for this section should highlight recent, exciting research and emerging themes but do not primarily discuss the author’s own work. Perspectives must be a maximum of 2000 words including references (10 references maximum) and 1 (one) figure.

2. General Guidelines

  • Manuscripts must meet high scientific or technical standards. In addition, all papers must be clearly presented in good English. Papers may have to be rejected solely because of requiring excessive editing. They should reflect original contribution based on actual study / field work done by the author.
  • All manuscripts are subject to blind peer review by specialists in educational research, whose names shall not be disclosed without consent.
  • Manuscripts must not be copyrighted, classified, or submitted for publication­­­­­ elsewhere.
  • All original journal papers/articles will be copyrighted in the name of the publisher.
  • All original papers/articles accepted for publication must be accompanied by an acceptance of the ‘Disclaimer’ that the author will solely be responsible for any copyright/plagiarism issue as well as for any loss to any person or institution caused by any shortcoming, defect and inaccuracy in the contents and data incorporated in the paper/article.
  • The data, information, findings, suggestions, recommendations etc. incorporated in the published paper/article do not represent the views of either the Government of Assam or SCERT, Assam. The author will have to take responsibility in case any issue arises.

3. Editorial Policies

3.1 Authorship

Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors.

3.2 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should appropriately be listed in an acknowledgements section. The technical assistance or general support extended by colleagues or students may be acknowledged.

3.3 Publication charge

At present, there is no publication charge for publishing a research paper/article in this Journal.

4. Publishing Policies

4.1 Ethical issues

SCERT, Assam is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to publication ethics. They are also requested to follow the guidelines developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). 

4.2 Plagiarism

This Journal takes issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism, or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. Where an article/paper, for example, is found to have been plagiarized from other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the paper is contested, we keep the right not to publish the article/ paper without giving any reason, or even withdrawal, if published.

4.3 Language ethics

All explanations must be supported by sufficient evidence. No ambiguous, vogue, imaginary, unascertained, derogatory/ discriminatory words, or offensive remark should be used. The comments in the paper should in no way hurt the sentiments of any person, community, and organization. The author will solely be responsible for any loss to any person or institution caused by any shortcoming, defect and inaccuracy in the content/comment/date of his/her paper.

4.4 Prior publication

If the material has been previously published, it is not acceptable for publication in this journal. However, the author/ authors must submit a disclaimer that the paper article is not published or submitted anywhere before.

4.5 Other ethical concerns

Data/remark should not be included in the paper without the consent of the respondent. There should not be violation of accepted norms of ethical treatment of animals or human rights

5. Open Access Policy

5.1 Open access and author archiving

The Journal offers open-access publishing. Once a paper/ article is published, it will be accessible to everyone and will be archived in the portal and the library of SCERT, Assam.

6. Manuscript Preparation

Manuscripts submitted to this journal should contain the following sections

6.1 TITLE PAGE

Every manuscript should begin with a title page that includes the following information:

  • Title of the manuscript.
  • Author names, including the address of the institution with which they were affiliated during the research work.
  • An indication of which author will be the ‘Corresponding author’ after publication, along with an email contact for that author.

6.2 ABSTRACT

  • Every paper submitted to the Journal must have an abstract that consists of a single paragraph of a maximum of 250 words.
  • In the abstract, the author must summarize why the research was conducted, how it was conducted, and the major results and conclusion. In essence, it should contain an overview of the objectives, methods, results, conclusions and implications of the research.
  • A few keywords (maximum of five) relevant to the subject matter should be mentioned separately below the abstract.

6.3 INTRODUCTION

The author should use this section to introduce the topic, summarize current literature, present the problem his or her research addresses, as to why they are significant, and how do they apply to the larger field of educational research.

In this section,

  • The author should briefly review relevant studies or literature by other researchers.
  • It should also contain all the background information that enables the reader to understand the rest of the author's paper. This means that all important concepts/ keywords should be operationally defined.
  • The author must clearly state the objective/objectives of the study and state the hypothesis if any.
  • It may also contain a brief conceptual framework about the concepts defined/employed in the study.

6.4 METHODOLOGY

The author/researcher should thoroughly describe the area of study along with the tools, techniques and methods used to investigate the problem. He/She should briefly describe why these methods were used. Information may be grouped under the following subsections/subheadings, if necessary:

  • Study area
  • The method adopted for the study
  • The population of the study
  • Sample of the study
  • Tools/materials used for the study
  • Statistical techniques used

6.5 FINDINGS

Papers submitted to the Journal must have separate results/ findings and discussion sections. In the results, the author should thoroughly detail the outcomes of the survey, experiments, tests, and/or theories/models developed in the research. The results should be supplemented by figures and/or tables, which should be briefly explained.  

6.6 DISCUSSION

In this section, the author/researcher should restate the problem he or she was attempting to address and summarize how the findings have addressed it. The author should discuss the significance of all the findings and interpret their meanings in the context of previous studies done by other researchers in the field. Potential sources of error should be discussed. Finally, the author should suggest the implications and applications this research might have. He/She should discuss how this research has an impact on contemporary educational scenarios, what it adds to existing research, and what future studies could be carried out.

6.7 CONCLUSION 

The conclusion section should briefly summarize key findings, confirm whether the research supports or refutes the initial question or hypotheses, and highlight the broader significance and implications of the research. This section must be very concise and not exceed more than one paragraph.

6.8 REFERENCES

All contributions to the Journal must contain in-text citations and a list of references in APA Style (7th edition). Footnotes are not permitted. References may include research articles published in journals, scholarly books (ie, not textbooks), personal communications with eminent educationists/subject matter specialists working in the specific area or unpublished data (only data, no conclusions).

The APA 7 referencing guide can be accessed at:
https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/reference-guide.pdf

6.9 APPENDICES

Authors are discouraged from including appendices or supplementary figures in their manuscripts. 

6.10 FIGURES AND TABLES

Figures and tables are important components of research manuscripts. Each figure or table should

  • reflect clear information from the study,
  • should be simple clearly formatted and numbered,
  • indicate errors using the standard deviation or comparable information,
  • Captions should include a succinct title and description for each illustration, providing sufficient information for readers to understand each figure without being verbose.

Figures must be of good quality and should be submitted for publication at resolutions of minimum 300 DPI (dots per inch).

7. Manuscript Submission

The journal is web-based and has a system for online submission and peer review. Anyone who wishes to contribute a research paper/article will have to create an account in the system with the necessary details. All manuscripts will be subject to the Journal’s blind peer review process.

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 already have an account created.

7.1 Permission

Prior to submission, ensure that you have obtained the necessary permissions from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures, or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere.

7.2 Process of submitting a research paper/article:

  • Create an account / Log in.
  • Log in with your user ID and password.
  • If you already have an account but you have forgotten the password, go to the Reset Password screen.
  • Welcome to the submission site
  • Submit your paper

7.3 Access to your published paper/article

The PDF copy of the published journal will be made available in this portal.

7.4 File type

All submissions must be saved as a PDF.

8. General Guidelines

  • Contributors can submit their research paper/ article through online mode only  
  • Papers with immediate relevance for policy would be considered for early publication. Please note that this is a matter of editorial judgment. 
  • Articles should be accompanied by an abstract of a maximum of 250 words, keywords (maximum of five), an introductory paragraph and subheads. 
  • Research papers/ articles must not contain more than 3,000 words, including notes and references. Longer articles will not be considered and processed. 
  • The pages should be numbered consecutively, starting with the title page and through the text, reference list, tables and figure legends. 
  • The title page should contain the Title, Authors, Affiliations, and Corresponding author and address. 
  • Authors are requested to provide full details for correspondence: postal address, phone numbers and email address. 
  • Acknowledgements should be as brief as possible. 
  • Papers should not have been simultaneously submitted for publication to another journal or newspaper. If the paper appeared earlier in a different version, we would appreciate a copy of this along with the submitted paper. 
  • The author(s) of the paper should furnish a self- signed certificate that it is his/her original work and not submitted for publication in any other journal/book.
  • Receipt of papers/ articles will be immediately acknowledged by email. 
  • All efforts are taken to complete the early processing of the papers that are received. 
  • Educational Research Journal, SCERT, Assam requests authors not to send revised versions of their earlier contributions based on stylistic changes/additions, deletions of references, minor changes, etc. as this poses challenges in processing and unnecessary delaying of the work. Revised versions will not be processed. Only when there are major developments in the field of study after the first submission, authors can send a revised version. 
  • Authors must follow the APA (7th edition) referencing style while writing their manuscripts.
  • The decision of the editorial board shall be final in respect of the selection of a paper and publication of the journal and any other related issues.

LAST DATE FOR SUBMISSION OF CONTRIBUTIONS

  • For the June Edition-30th April
  • For the December Edition- 30th September ( for December, 2023 i.e. VI volume of the journal, the last date is extended to 15th December, 2023)

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