The European Journal of STEM Education (EJSTEME) is committed to responsible scholarly publishing and to safeguarding the reliability, transparency, and integrity of the academic record. Ethical responsibilities extend to everyone participating in the publication process, including authors, reviewers, editors, Editorial Board members, Guest Editors, and the publisher. The journal expects research and publication practices to reflect honesty, accountability, fairness, confidentiality, and respect for intellectual property and research participants. These expectations apply from initial submission and peer review through publication and any subsequent correction or investigation of the scholarly record.
1. COPE and Ethical Framework
The European Journal of STEM Education draws upon the principles, recommendations, and procedures of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) when addressing matters of publication ethics and research integrity. Relevant areas include authorship and contributorship, competing interests, peer review, research misconduct, complaints and appeals, editorial conflicts, corrections, retractions, expressions of concern, and other matters affecting the integrity of published scholarship. When an ethical matter is not directly addressed by an existing journal policy, the Editor-in-Chief and publisher may consult relevant COPE guidance and other recognized scholarly publishing standards. Ethical concerns will be considered carefully, impartially, confidentially, and with appropriate opportunities for affected parties to respond.
2. Diversity, Equality, and Respectful Scholarship
EJSTEME welcomes scholarship from researchers, educators, practitioners, and institutions across different countries, educational systems, disciplines, career stages, and social and cultural contexts. Research should be communicated in a manner that respects human dignity and avoids discriminatory, demeaning, or unnecessarily stigmatizing descriptions of individuals or communities. Authors should use appropriate and respectful terminology when discussing characteristics such as age, disability, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, socioeconomic background, or other personal and social characteristics relevant to the research. The journal supports scholarly freedom, critical inquiry, and evidence-based academic debate. Differences in theoretical, methodological, educational, or disciplinary perspectives should be addressed through scholarly argument and evidence rather than personal or discriminatory language.
3. Responsibilities of Authors
Authors are accountable for the scholarly and ethical integrity of manuscripts submitted to EJSTEME. Submitted work must be original, accurately reported, and appropriately documented. Authors must properly acknowledge previous scholarship, accurately represent research methods and findings, obtain necessary ethical approvals and permissions, and disclose relevant funding and competing interests. Authors must not engage in plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, inappropriate manipulation of research materials, duplicate publication, undisclosed redundant publication, citation manipulation, inappropriate authorship practices, peer-review manipulation, or simultaneous submission of the same manuscript to multiple journals.
Authors are expected to cooperate with reasonable requests from editors concerning research integrity and, when necessary, provide relevant data, documentation, ethical approvals, permissions, or other supporting materials.
4. Authorship and Contributorship
Authorship should reflect meaningful intellectual participation in the research and manuscript. Individuals identified as authors should have made substantial contributions to one or more important components of the work, such as development of the research problem or design, collection or interpretation of evidence, analysis, development of the manuscript, or substantive scholarly revision. All authors must approve the final manuscript and accept responsibility for their respective contributions. Contributors whose participation does not justify authorship should be acknowledged appropriately.
The corresponding author is responsible for confirming that the author list is accurate, that all authors have approved the submission, and that no qualifying contributor has been improperly excluded. Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors after submission must include an appropriate explanation and agreement from the affected authors. Authorship disputes may be addressed using applicable COPE guidance.
5. Conflicts of Interest and Competing Interests
Authors, reviewers, editors, and other participants in the editorial process must disclose relationships or circumstances that could reasonably be perceived as affecting their impartiality. Relevant interests may be financial, professional, academic, institutional, personal, intellectual, or other relationships connected to the manuscript or its subject. Authors should provide an appropriate competing-interest declaration with their submission. The existence of a competing interest does not necessarily prevent publication; however, relevant interests must be transparently reported and appropriately managed.
Reviewers or editors who have a conflict that could interfere with independent evaluation should decline or withdraw from handling the manuscript. Where an editor has a relevant conflict, responsibility for the manuscript will be transferred to another suitably qualified editor.
6. Funding and Research Support
All financial or material support relevant to the research or publication must be identified. Authors should provide the names of funding organizations and grant numbers where applicable. They should also describe any material role played by the funder in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or the decision to publish. If a funding organization had no role in these activities, authors may state this explicitly. Financial support, sponsorship, or institutional relationships must not affect peer-review procedures or editorial decisions.
7. Research and Publication Misconduct
EJSTEME treats allegations of research and publication misconduct seriously and may apply relevant COPE procedures when investigating concerns.
Potential misconduct includes, but is not limited to:
- plagiarism or substantial unattributed copying;
- fabrication or falsification of data or findings;
- deceptive manipulation of images or research materials;
- duplicate or redundant publication;
- inappropriate authorship;
- citation manipulation;
- manipulation of the peer-review process;
- undisclosed competing interests;
- unethical treatment of research participants; and
- deliberate misrepresentation of research methods, evidence, or results.
Investigation of Concerns
An allegation does not by itself establish misconduct. Concerns will be examined objectively and confidentially, with consideration of the available evidence and an appropriate opportunity for relevant individuals to respond. The journal may request original data, instruments, documentation, ethical approvals, permissions, correspondence, or other evidence necessary to evaluate a concern. Where serious concerns cannot appropriately be resolved by the journal, the publisher or Editor-in-Chief may contact an author's institution, research ethics body, funding organization, or another responsible authority.
Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern
EJSTEME may correct the published record when an error materially affects an article but does not invalidate the work as a whole. Retraction may be appropriate when findings are unreliable because of serious error or misconduct, when substantial plagiarism or unauthorized duplicate publication has occurred, when research was conducted unethically, or when another serious breach makes continued reliance on the publication inappropriate. An Expression of Concern may be issued when substantial questions exist about an article but sufficient evidence for a final determination is not yet available. Post-publication notices will be clearly identified and linked to the relevant article whenever practicable.
Plagiarism and Textual Overlap
Authors must appropriately acknowledge the words, ideas, data, images, methods, and other intellectual contributions of others. Submitted manuscripts may be examined using iThenticate or other similarity-detection systems. Similarity reports are interpreted by editors in context. A percentage score alone is not treated as proof of plagiarism. Authors must also appropriately cite their own previously published work when it is reused and disclose substantial overlap with previous publications or manuscripts under consideration elsewhere.
Previously Disseminated Research
Previous presentation or availability of an author's own research as a thesis or dissertation, conference presentation or abstract, poster, preprint, institutional repository item, working paper, or registered study does not automatically make a manuscript ineligible for consideration. Authors should disclose relevant prior dissemination and cite the earlier version when appropriate. The manuscript submitted to EJSTEME should provide a meaningful scholarly contribution beyond any previously disseminated version and must comply with applicable copyright and licensing obligations.
Translated Material
Previously published material translated from another language must not be presented as an original unpublished contribution. Authors must disclose the original publication, obtain necessary permissions, and appropriately identify and cite the source.
Actions Following Confirmed Misconduct
Depending upon the nature and severity of a confirmed breach, EJSTEME may reject a manuscript, publish a correction, retract an article, notify an appropriate institution or authority, or take another proportionate action consistent with recognized publication-ethics practices.
8. Research Data, Transparency, and Reproducibility
EJSTEME encourages transparent research practices that allow readers to understand how evidence was generated, analyzed, and interpreted. Authors reporting empirical research should provide sufficient methodological information to permit scholarly evaluation and, where reasonably possible, replication or further investigation. Authors should include a Data Availability Statement explaining whether relevant data, instruments, code, protocols, instructional materials, or other supporting research resources are available and, where applicable, how they may be accessed.
The journal encourages the use of appropriate recognized repositories when sharing data is ethically and legally permissible. Open sharing is not required when it would conflict with participant consent, privacy or confidentiality obligations, institutional restrictions, intellectual property rights, legal requirements, or legitimate protections concerning schools, students, teachers, or other research participants. When data cannot appropriately be shared, authors should state the reason.
9. Ethical Oversight and Research Involving Human Participants
Because STEM education research frequently involves students, teachers, classrooms, schools, universities, and other educational settings, authors must give careful attention to research ethics.
Research involving human participants must comply with relevant institutional, national, and international ethical requirements. Where required, approval must be obtained from an Institutional Review Board (IRB), Research Ethics Committee, or equivalent body before research involving participants begins. The manuscript should identify the approving organization and provide an approval or reference number where applicable.
If formal ethical approval was not required, authors should be prepared to explain the institutional, disciplinary, or legal basis for the exemption when requested. EJSTEME may request evidence of ethical approval, consent, research permissions, or other participant protections when necessary.
10. Research Involving Children, Students, and Other Vulnerable Populations
Educational research may involve children, minors, students, individuals with disabilities, economically or socially disadvantaged populations, or others whose circumstances require additional ethical safeguards. Researchers must consider power relationships that may exist when teachers investigate their own students, faculty study individuals they supervise or assess, or researchers recruit participants through educational institutions.
Participation must be voluntary. Where required, informed consent must be obtained from participants and permission or consent from parents or legal guardians must be obtained for minors. Assent from children or minors should also be obtained when appropriate to their age and circumstances. Refusal to participate or withdrawal from a study must not result in academic, educational, professional, or other inappropriate disadvantage. Researchers must take reasonable measures to minimize risk and protect participants' dignity, privacy, confidentiality, and welfare.
11. Confidentiality, Privacy, and Informed Consent
Authors must protect confidential and personally identifiable information obtained during research.
Research participants should receive sufficient information to make an informed decision about participation, including relevant information about the study's purpose, procedures, use of information, potential risks, privacy protections, and their rights. Information capable of identifying individual students, teachers, schools, institutions, or other participants should not be published unless identification is academically necessary, ethically justified, and supported by appropriate consent.
Particular attention should be given to indirect identification. Even where names have been removed, combinations of contextual details may allow individuals, classrooms, schools, or communities to be recognized. Submitted manuscripts are also confidential. Editors, reviewers, Editorial Board members, Guest Editors, and others involved in manuscript evaluation must not disclose or improperly use unpublished information obtained through the editorial process.
12. Peer Review and Responsibilities of Reviewers
EJSTEME uses a double-blind peer-review process. Manuscripts that successfully complete initial editorial assessment are normally evaluated by at least two independent reviewers selected for appropriate disciplinary, methodological, or subject expertise. Reviewers should evaluate manuscripts fairly, objectively, constructively, and within the agreed timeframe.
Reviewers must:
- preserve manuscript confidentiality;
- disclose relevant competing interests;
- avoid personal, discriminatory, or inappropriate comments;
- provide evidence-based and constructive assessments;
- identify important methodological or scholarly concerns; and
- alert the editorial office to suspected plagiarism, duplication, research misconduct, or other significant ethical issues.
Reviewers should not require authors to cite the reviewer's publications, EJSTEME articles, other Lectito journals, or any other publications unless those references are genuinely relevant to the manuscript and the recommendation is supported by a scholarly reason.
Recommendations to add citations must never be used for the purpose of artificially increasing citation counts. Detailed procedures governing manuscript evaluation, reviewer selection, editorial decisions, revisions, appeals, and special issues are described in the journal's Peer Review Policy.
13. Responsibilities of Editors
Editors are responsible for protecting the fairness, independence, confidentiality, scholarly rigor, and integrity of the editorial process. Manuscripts are evaluated according to their scholarly contribution, relevance to STEM education, methodological or theoretical rigor, clarity, originality, ethical compliance, and alignment with the journal's scope.
Editors should appoint appropriately qualified reviewers, manage competing interests, protect confidential manuscript information, and avoid using unpublished material obtained through their editorial role for personal or professional benefit. An editor who has a relationship or interest that could compromise—or reasonably appear to compromise—impartiality must not make the editorial decision on that manuscript. Another qualified editor should assume responsibility.
The Editor-in-Chief has final responsibility for editorial decisions and for maintaining appropriate editorial standards.
14. Complaints and Appeals
EJSTEME considers legitimate complaints about editorial procedures, peer review, publication ethics, editor or reviewer conduct, and published material. Complaints should be submitted in writing and should identify the matter of concern and provide relevant information or evidence.
Authors may appeal an editorial decision when they believe a material error occurred in the evaluation or decision-making process. An appeal should explain the scholarly basis for reconsideration rather than merely express disagreement with the outcome. The Editor-in-Chief will normally oversee complaints and appeals. If the matter concerns the Editor-in-Chief or creates a competing interest, another independent senior editor or appropriate publisher representative will handle the matter.
15. Post-Publication Discussion
EJSTEME supports responsible academic discussion after publication. Readers, researchers, and other interested parties may contact the journal when they identify a potentially significant error, methodological concern, ethical issue, or other matter affecting a published article.
The editorial team will assess credible concerns and may seek a response from the authors, consult independent experts, request supporting evidence, or undertake other appropriate review. Where necessary, the scholarly record may be amended through a correction, retraction, Expression of Concern, or other clearly identified notice.
16. Intellectual Property, Copyright, and Licensing
Authors are responsible for respecting intellectual property rights and obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted material when permission is required. This obligation applies to material including figures, photographs, assessment instruments, substantial textual extracts, tables, diagrams, educational resources, and other third-party content.
Copyright ownership, open-access licensing, permitted reuse, and self-archiving are governed by the journal's License and Copyright Policy.
17. Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The journal's requirements concerning generative artificial intelligence are established in its Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy. Generative AI systems cannot be identified as authors because they cannot accept responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, originality, or ethical status of scholarly work. Authors remain fully responsible for all material included in their manuscripts, including material produced or modified with AI-assisted technologies, and must comply with applicable disclosure requirements.
Editors and reviewers have a particular duty to preserve confidentiality. Confidential manuscripts, unpublished research data, reviewer reports, author correspondence, or other protected submission materials must not be uploaded to unauthorized generative AI platforms or other systems where confidentiality cannot be assured.
18. Editorial Independence
Editorial judgments at EJSTEME are made independently from commercial and financial considerations. Decisions about whether a manuscript proceeds to peer review and whether it is revised, accepted, or rejected are based on scholarly and ethical considerations rather than an author's institutional affiliation, nationality, ability to pay publication charges, or commercial relationship with the publisher.
Article Processing Charges, advertising, sponsorship, waiver requests, institutional arrangements, or other sources of publisher revenue do not determine editorial outcomes. The Editor-in-Chief retains final authority over editorial decisions.
19. Advertising and Commercial Activities
Advertising, where accepted, must be clearly distinguishable from scholarly and editorial material. Advertisers, sponsors, commercial partners, or other third parties have no authority over reviewer selection, manuscript acceptance, editorial decisions, or the conclusions expressed in published research.
EJSTEME and its publisher may decline or remove advertising that is misleading, inappropriate, discriminatory, unethical, or inconsistent with the journal's standards. Editorial and commercial functions are kept appropriately separate.
20. Direct Marketing and Manuscript Solicitation
Communications promoting EJSTEME, inviting manuscript submissions, announcing special issues, or contacting prospective contributors must be professional, accurate, appropriately targeted, and non-deceptive.
Promotional communications must not make misleading statements regarding indexing, impact, acceptance, peer-review speed, editorial relationships, publication charges, or other characteristics of the journal. Invitations to submit manuscripts do not imply acceptance or preferential editorial treatment. All submissions remain subject to the journal's normal editorial and peer-review requirements.
21. Disclaimer
Opinions, interpretations, conclusions, and recommendations contained in articles published by the European Journal of STEM Education belong to the respective authors and do not necessarily represent the positions of the Editor-in-Chief, editors, Editorial Board, reviewers, publisher, or their affiliated organizations.
Authors retain responsibility for the accuracy and integrity of their work, appropriate acknowledgment of sources, and compliance with applicable research, ethical, legal, and intellectual-property requirements.
Publication by EJSTEME should not be interpreted as endorsement by the journal or publisher of particular educational products, technologies, instructional approaches, commercial services, organizations, policies, or viewpoints discussed in an article.
Nothing in this disclaimer reduces the journal's responsibility to maintain appropriate editorial oversight, investigate credible concerns, and correct the scholarly record when necessary.
22. Policy Review and Updates
EJSTEME periodically reviews its publication and ethics policies to reflect developments in scholarly communication, STEM education research, research integrity, publication ethics, technology, and relevant COPE guidance.
Policies may therefore be revised when necessary. The journal aims to implement its ethical standards consistently, transparently, and fairly while protecting the reliability and integrity of the scholarly record.