The Editor-in-Chief, Editorial Board and publisher of European Journal of Education & Language Review believe that ethical guidelines should be respected and upheld in the publishing of all academic journals, and the ownership of intellectual property be recognised and acknowledged.

Statement on Diversity and Equality

European Journal of Education & Language Review, as a founding principle of ethics, supports diversity, equality, and social inclusion, particularly in the representation of minority groups. We are committed to representing all peoples with fairness, dignity and respect, regardless of age, health or disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy and parental responsibility, language, race, ethnicity, religion and belief, social class, caste, or sexual orientation (or any other form of cultural, linguistic or social axis of potential discrimination). In general, as academic publishers, we support the right to self-expression and freedom of speech, and we believe it is necessary and important to engage with difficult topics which will in some cases may cause offense to social or cultural groups. We also recognize and acknowledge that as a journal involved in cultural and linguistic debates relating to social change, some content may occasionally prove to cause offense to members of the public. We strongly support the principal of supporting minority voices, particularly those who have been traditionally excluded from academic fora.  As a journal, we strive to be anti-censorship and support the principles of open and honest debate within an academic context; nevertheless we will also aim to avoid causing unnecessary hurt or harm to minority social groups or cultures, particularly in the use of stereotyped or demeaning, reductive representations (whether in image or words). Authors should take care when publishing images of objects or subjects that might have cultural significance which potentially could cause offense. The Chief Editor on behalf of the Editorial Board and Lectito reserves the right to refuse articles that may cause offense or hurt and/or are perceived to be violations of human dignity.

Conflicts of interest

The scientific reliability of the published articles is important, and thus any conflict of interest on the side of the author, peer-reviewer or the editors should be declared and avoided. These conflicts of interest can be on the personal, financial, political, academic or religious level. Authors, peer-reviewers or editors should, whenever these are relevant to the content being considered or published, declare their interests and affiliations, so that the appropriate measures can be taken by the Editor-in-Chief on behalf of the Editorial Board. If necessary and in exceptional circumstances, a qualifying statement can be made in the journal that a specific person has a personal, financial, political, academic or religious conflict of interest with the topic.

Where there is a declared conflict of interest, alternative peer reviewers will be sought. Authors can also be prevented to publish their article in the journals if there is a clear conflict of interest. The existence of a conflict of interest should however not prevent someone from being included in the list of authors, if they qualify for authorship.

Funding

Readers should know who funded the research project or the publication of a document. This can be public or private funding through a charity or government department, funding body, university or commercial company. And so:

• Funders of a paper, in the form of persons, organizations, research institution, companies or any other form should be mentioned.
• The role of the research funders or any other research contributors in the design or preparation of the article should be mentioned, if they are not mentioned in the list of authors. They can, for example, be mentioned in acknowledgment.
• If a funder wants to publish a supplement or separate section in an alternative publication within 2 years of publication in European Journal of Education & Language Review, they should ask for the permission of Lectito. Applications will be handled on a case by case basis.

Authors

All contributors and their sources have to be properly acknowledged in the article’s publication according to guidelines. Guidelines on notes and references can be found here.

Authors of research papers should state whether they had complete access to the research data that supports the article and if not, they should state this in the article.

When the article is written by a group of authors, the individual authors who have direct responsibility for the manuscript should be mentioned. When a group-authored manuscript is submitted, the corresponding author should indicate the preferred citation or acronym of the group name as well the names of the individual authors.

COPE also provides extensive resources on authorship and authorship disputes, and we encourage anyone involved in editorial decisions to familiarise themselves with these resources. 

Confidentiality

It is important that authors and peer-reviewers handle all information carefully and that informants and research subjects are protected in respect of confidentiality.

Authors should provide a statement in the article in which they identify the ethics committee that approved that study and that it conforms to recognized international standards. These standards ensure the reader that adequate steps have been taken to minimize physical and psychological harm to participants and to avoid coercion or exploitation. Across the scholarly disciplines, there are variations in practice and standards around privacy and confidentiality. In biomedical sciences for example, authors should only publish information and images from individual participants where the individual has given their free, prior informed consent. In social sciences, it is not always possible to gain written consent. However, this must be obtained where possible and must be available for the journal to see if requested. Authors should strive to treat the privacy of research subjects with as much care as possible and anonymize the data unless otherwise requested by the participant. Where photographs of participants appear in the research article, permission from any visible subject other than the authors should be obtained where possible.

The journal's policy requires that authors who discuss a clinical trial, demonstrate that the clinical trial is registered in a publicly accessible database. Authors should include the name of the trial register and their clinical trial registration number at the end of their abstract. If you wish the editor[s] to consider an unregistered trial, please explain briefly why the trial has not been registered.

Research Involving Vulnerable Populations

Research involving vulnerable populations—such as children and minors, students, individuals with disabilities, economically or socially disadvantaged groups, refugees or migrants, or other individuals with limited autonomy—requires special ethical consideration. Authors must ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect the rights, dignity, and welfare of participants.

Where applicable, authors must confirm that the study received approval from a recognized Institutional Review Board (IRB), Ethics Committee, or equivalent body, and that informed consent was obtained from participants or from parents or legal guardians when participants are minors. Participation must be voluntary, and participants must be informed of their right to withdraw from the study at any time without consequences.

Authors must ensure that research procedures minimize potential harm and protect the privacy, confidentiality, and anonymity of participants. Manuscripts that fail to demonstrate appropriate ethical consideration for vulnerable populations may be rejected during editorial review.

Peer Review Policy

Double Blind Peer Review

European Journal of Education & Language Review upholds sector standards of international excellence in academic publishing. This journal maintains a double-blind peer review policy, in which both the reviewers and the author/s are anonymous. To facilitate this, authors have to anonymize their manuscripts to ensure that their identity has not been given away in the article’s content.

Peer review is an important process of evaluation, designed to keep the quality of scholarly work high. The process aims to give constructive feedback to the authors, so that their work can become of the highest academic standard possible. Peer reviews are also helping editors to decide the paper’s suitability for publication in the journal. As a principle, European Journal of Education & Language Review will not accept peer reviews that contain harsh or discriminatory comments, that are unduly negative or could be unduly biased toward a specific ideological or disciplinary position, or due to a range of reasons that result in an over-critical judgment. We wish to support scholars, particularly those who are at an early stage of their research career, or have not benefitted from training at an elite institution. Our peer review system is primarily designed to support authors in developing their work, and therefore peer reviewers must provide overall supportive and constructive criticism in aiding the author/s to develop and improve their submission and learn how better to compose a publishable article.

Timely Reviews

We ask reviewers to provide review reports in a timely manner, in order to help the journal to provide a high quality publishing service that benefits the global scientific community. Please contact the editorial office if you need a deadline extension of your review.

A Step by Step Reviewer’s Guide:

1. Investigate the article’s content and the journal to which it is submitted:
   • Does the article meet the submission criteria (aims, length, scope and presentation) of the journal?
2. Make an assessment of the article:
   • Is the methodology of the article accurate?
     • Are research questions clearly formulated?
     • Are the research components well-defined?
     • Are all conclusions justified and supported by the results?
   • What is the quality of the presentation?
     • Is the data presented in an appropriate manner?
     • Is the article clearly structured, using subheadings and suitable signposts?
     • Is the English language level sufficient?
     • Have all the references and sources been presented in the publisher’s house style?
   • Does the article have the highest level of scientific soundness?
     • Is the research performed in accordance with the highest technical standards?
     • Are the data robust enough to draw conclusions?
     • Is the article well structured and the argument coherently formulated?
     • Are the references to other scholarly works sufficient and complete?
     • Is the article free of fraud, plagiarism or any other unethical behavior?
   • Is the research relevant?
     • Is the same information already published before, either by the same author or by another scientist?
     • Are the article’s findings and argument novel and is there an overall benefit of publishing this work?
3. Write a review report:
   • Follow the steps on the review form.
     Keep in mind: As a reviewer, you may disagree with the author’s opinions, but if they are consistent with the available evidence, you should allow them to stand. If you provide feedback, you are required to give constructive criticism. Positive feedback as well as negative feedback can help an author to improve the manuscript.
   • Make a recommendation:
     • Accept: if the manuscript can be published in its current form.
     • Accept after minor changes: if the manuscript needs some light revisions before publishing it.
     • Reject and start review process again after major changes: if the manuscript needs major revisions before publishing it.
     • Reject: if the paper is not suitable for publication within this journal or if the revisions that would have to be undertaken are too fundamental.
4. Some things to keep in mind:
   • Use appropriate language in addressing your comments to the author. Carefully construct your comments so that the author understands fully what to improve. Generalized and vague statements should be avoided, along with negative comments that are not supported with arguments. Lectito editors never edit reviewer comments and thus we ask you to use appropriate language. Confidential comments to the editors can be made on the review form in the special box assigned for it.
   • o    European Journal of Education & Language Review requires that reviewers give suggestions to the author on how to improve clarity, succinctness and overall quality of the manuscript particularly in the case of required revisions or rejections.

Media Relations

Some scientific findings are in the interest of community, mainstream, and social media. So, publishers, editors and writers can contact the media or publish findings on social media. While doing this they will give accurate information, provide a fair summary of the work and findings to the media. Publishers will also inform authors if journalists are invited to a meeting.

Advertising

Advertising may be an important source of revenue for many scientific publications.

On our online academic content platform, we may allow for restricted, suitable, and occasionally targeted advertising. We have the right to refuse or delete any advertisement that we believe violates our ethical stance or influences editors, authors, and the public in a decisive way or violates any code of ethics.

In this direction we are careful that editorial procedure should not be affected by any income deriving from advertising: editorial and marketing management should be completely separated.

Misleading advertisements will be rejected, and editors must be prepared to publish comments that meet the same standards as the rest of the journal's content.

Useful Contacts

For all enquiries relating to the integrity of the journal’s content please contact  editor@lectitopublishing.nl. All queries will be handled sensitively and as confidentially as possible within the scope of any necessary subsequent investigation.

We recognise that there may be occasions when you may wish to remain anonymous.

For enquiries regarding advertising in any of our Academic products or platforms, including journal issues, contact  info@lectitojournals.com.

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