Submissions

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • The submission has not been previously published (including pre-publishing), nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor). Please refer to the APA 7th edition style manual for more information about plagiarism, including self-plagiarism. For articles based on a dissertation or thesis, please acknowledge in your author note that the work was based on your dissertation or thesis.
  • The submission file is in Microsoft Word file format or RTF. Everything to do with the article should be in one document (i.e., author note, abstract, keywords, text, references, tables, figures, appendices, etc).
  • The submission has NOT been masked/anonymized.  ALL author(s) information, references, and citations are included in the submitted manuscript. (Your article will be masked by AJER prior to being sent to review.)
  • Where available, URLs or DOIs for the references have been provided, per pp. 299-300 of the APA 7th edition style manual.
  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements of the APA 7th edition style manual and as outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.
  • The online submission includes ALL co-authors and their affiliations (after entering the first author, use the "Add Author" button to add others).
  • For grant reporting purposes, we are required to keep data on whether our authors are researchers or students at the time of writing the manuscript. If you are not entering bios at this time, please say a few words about this in each author's Bio section. Please also ensure affiliations are shown. Note: the bio section can be changed later.
  • Certification of professional copyediting and text-matching scan have been uploaded, if available.

Author Guidelines

Articles submitted to the Alberta Journal of Educational Research (AJER) should address the dissemination, interpretation, critique, and support of all forms of scholarly inquiry into education, broadly construed, and the fields associated with education both locally and globally.

Submission of a manuscript to AJER implies, and is an undertaking on the part of the author(s), that neither the manuscript nor any substantially similar manuscript has been published, is in press, or is under consideration elsewhere. This is a condition for publication in AJER. Prior to publication, authors will assign their copyright to AJER by means of a standard form.

AJER does not charge a fee for publication of an author's article. However, a submitted article may go through a rigorous peer reviewer process. Submitting to AJER is an investment of time, not money.

Prior to being considered for suitability for peer review, all articles submitted will be assessed for adherence to our submission guidelines, including adherence to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th ed., and scanned for matching text. Authors are encouraged to have articles professionally copyedited for APA, as well as scanned with text-matching software, such as “Turnitin” or “Grammarly”, prior to submission.

If a submission's topic is considered to fit the mandate of the journal, the Editor will send the manuscript for a set of outside peer reviews. The reviews are then studied by the Editor who will decide to either accept the manuscript, reject the manuscript, or request revisions, which may or may not go out for a second set of peer reviews. The time this takes depends on many things—most importantly the schedules of the editor and the reviewers.

Please submit your manuscript electronically as a Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format (RTF) document through the submission feature of this website.

Submissions can be made at any time (there are no deadlines). Graduate student submissions will be considered. If an article is accepted, it will be published in the next regular issue that has space.

Note: AJER has three email IDs that you may receive emails from:

- ajer @ ualberta.ca
- ajer.editor @ ualberta.ca (remove spaces from around @ sign on all)
- ajer.asst @ ualberta.ca

Please whitelist these or put them in your contacts list.

Guidelines for Contributors of Articles

Keywords:
Please supply 5 keywords that describe the main subjects discussed in your manuscript (in the online submission, and below the abstract in the manuscript). If the article goes to review, the keywords are used to help find reviewers. If the article is published, the keywords are used on this site to make it easier for readers to find your article in a search.

Format:

Please refer to Chapter 2 of the APA 7th edition style manual concerning paper elements and format. (See also: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format) Use a standard typeface and size such as Times New Roman 12 pt. and double space throughout (including block quotations, references, notes, etc.). Manuscripts are not to exceed 8,000 words excluding references. Please indicate the word count on the first page of the manuscript document.

Include everything to do with the manuscript itself in one document. At the beginning include the title, authors with affiliations, word count, an abstract of approximately 100 words, and a list of 5 keywords describing the main subjects discussed in your manuscript. Place all tables and figures at the end of the document (see more notes on tables/figures below).

Masking/Anonymity:

Please send the complete manuscript (i.e., not masked or anonymized in any way). The submission will be anonymized at AJER prior to being sent for review.

Style:

AJER's editorial style conforms to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed., more information here: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines). Manuscripts that do not conform will be returned for adjustment. For spelling, please consult Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary. Spelling in quoted material must remain as in the original.

Referencing:

Please refer to Chapter 8 of the APA 7th edition style manual concerning works credited in the text. (See also: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations) Sources cited appear in parentheses after each reference (direct or otherwise), giving author's name (unless mentioned in text), year of publication, and page number(s) in the case of direct quotes. Enclose quotes of 39 or fewer words in double quotation marks in the text; indent quotes of 40 or more words in block format. Page numbers must be given.

List all sources alphabetically at the end of the manuscript under the heading "References" using APA style (version as shown in Style section above). With regard to DOIs and Hyperlinks, please follow APA 7th Section 9.35: (See also: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/dois-urls). APA suggests that when DOIs are available, you include them for both print and electronic sources. Please refer to pp. 298-300 of the APA 7th edition style manual for more information. (See also: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/dois-urls)

Once DOIs and/or hyperlinks have been placed in your article, test the links to make sure there are no typos and the links work.

To follow/resolve a DOI number—try doi> The DOI® System or CrossRef

To find a DOI number—try the CrossRef Free DOI Lookup

Footnotes and Endnotes:

Footnotes are not allowed. The use of endnotes is discouraged; however, necessary brief explanatory notes, numbered consecutively and marked in the text with superscript numerals, may appear after the References under the heading Notes. Citations in notes follow the same format as other references. Please refer to pages 40-41 of the APA 7th edition style manual concerning the presentation of footnotes.

Tables, Figures, Photos, etc:

Number tables and figures with Arabic numerals and place at the end of the manuscript, after references and appendices. (i.e., all in one document). Please refer to Chapter 7 of the APA 7th edition style manual concerning the presentation of tables and figures. A checklist for tables and figures can be found on p. 207. (See also: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/tables-figures).

Guidelines for Contributors of Research Notes

As of 10 September 2018, AJER is no longer considering Research Notes.

Guidelines for Contributors of Book Reviews

Please contact us if you have any inquiries about submitting.

Copyright Notice

UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA COPYRIGHT LICENSE AND PUBLICATION AGREEMENT

If accepted, authors will be asked to sign a copyright agreement with the following points:

A. Where there is any inconsistency between this Copyright License and Publication Agreement and any other document or agreement in relation to the same subject matter, the terms of this Agreement shall govern.

B. This document sets out the rights you are granting in relation to publication of your article, book review, or research note entitled (the “Article”) through inclusion in the academic journal titled Alberta Journal of Educational Research (the “Journal”) published through the Faculty of Education, representing the Governors of the University of Alberta (the “Journal Editor”).

C. There will be no payment to you for this publication and grant of rights. In consideration of the agreement to publish the Article in the Journal:

1. You are warranting that:

  1. the content of the Article is your original work, and its content does not contain any material infringing the copyright of others; or, where the Article is not entirely your original work, you have obtained all necessary permissions in writing to grant the rights you are giving in this agreement;
  2. the content of the Article does not contain any material that is defamatory of, or violates the privacy rights of, or discloses the confidential information of, any other person;
  3. the Article has not been published elsewhere in whole or in part, and you will not allow publication of the Article elsewhere without the consent of the Journal Editor;
  4. the names of all co-authors and contributors to the Article are:

2. You agree to license the copyright in the Article to the Journal Editor, on a worldwide, perpetual, royalty free basis; and to the extent required by the terms of this agreement. You shall retain the right at all times to be acknowledged as the/an author of the Article.

3. You further agree that the Journal Editor has the entitlement to deal with the Article as the Journal Editor sees fit, and including in the following manner;

  1. The right to print, publish, market, communicate and distribute the Article and the Journal, in this and any subsequent editions, in all media (including electronic media), in all languages, and in all territories, ing the full term of copyright, and including any form of the Article separated from the Journal, such as in a database, abstract, offprint, translation or otherwise, and to authorize third parties to do so;
  2. The right to register copyright of the Journal;
  3. The right to edit the Article, to conform to editorial policy as the Journal Editor sees fit.

4. If any co-author or contributor to the Article does not sign this agreement, the Journal Editor reserves the right to refuse to publish the Article.

Privacy Statement

AJER is committed to protecting user privacy online. We will not disclose individually-identifiable information about a user to any third party without the express permission of the user, unless required to by government or other law enforcement authority.

AJER may link to independently run web sites outside of the ajer.ca domain. We take no responsibility for the content or the privacy practices of such web sites.

AJER uses Google Analytics to track statistical information about the numbers of visitors to the site. To do this Google Analytics sets first party cookies on each visitor’s computer. This is used to store anonymous information. We do not collect any information though our traffic logging that allows us to personally identify users.

This policy may be updated from time to time. If significant changes are made, a notice will be posted on the home page of the website.