Submission guidelines

Before submitting your manuscript to this journal, ensure you have read the Aims and Scope Section. We publish original articles, reviews, reports, and polemics in English. Manuscripts should be prepared according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association 7th edition.

To submit your manuscript, please click here: make a new submission.

1. Formatting

- The preferred format for your manuscript is Word.

- The manuscript must be prepared in the A4 format of a standard typescript (app. 2700 characters per page, margins: upper and lower- 25 mm, left- 25 mm).

- It is recommended to use 12-point Times New Roman (or similar) font, 1.5-line spacing.

-The volume of the main manuscript file should not exceed 20 pages (including abstract, tables, graphs, footnotes, and references).

2. Title Page

The title page must be prepared as a separate one-page file uploaded as "Title page", and must consist of:

- Title of the paper

- Authors' first and last name

- Academic title and one affiliation per Author

- Corresponding author's email address

- Authors' ORCIDs (Open Researcher and Contributor ID, see: https://orcid.org/)

- Abstract (app. 200 words)

- 4-5 Keywords

3. The main manuscript file

The main manuscript file should not be longer than 20 pages (including abstract, keywords, tables, figures, and references).

The main manuscript must consist of parts as follows:

- Paper title

- Abstract

- Keywords

- Introduction

- Literature review

- Methods

- Results

- Discussion

- Conclusions

- Limitations

- References

The abstract must not exceed 200 words. The abstract should be descriptive, instructive, and summarize the conducted topic. The authors should define 4-5 keywords that represent the content of the manuscript and are specific to the paper's field or subfield.

4. Tables, artwork, figures, and other graphics

Tables and figures (figures, graphs, photographs) should be placed in the main text and separate files and accurately described. 

Tables

The font in the table should be 10-points. There is no other table formatting than the grid. The title is placed above the table. Footnotes to the table are placed directly below it.

Figures

Figures should be in the jpg format. There is no other table formatting than the grid. The title is placed above the table. Footnotes to the table are placed directly below it.

Charts (black & white only!) should be prepared using Microsoft Office programs (Excel, Microsoft Graph). The chart number and title are saved below the graph. Charts made with other programs and pasted as figures are allowed. 

The minimum resolution of figures is 300 dpi. In the case of figures, tables, etc. from studies published in other journals or books, the author is required to obtain permission to use them and add references to such figures below them in the text.

Both figures and tables must be cited in the text as (Table 1), (Figure 1), etc. 

5. References

The reference list should appear at the end of the paper. Each source you cite in the paper must appear in your reference list. Likewise, each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text. The reference list should be correctly formatted in the APA 7th Style. References shohuld not be added as the Word Index. Only Manual references listed at the end of the paper will be accepted. 

The author declares that he or she has checked whether the bibliographic sources referred to in the article are registered in the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) system and whether they have the DOI. In the case of its occurrence, the DOI number appropriate for the article recalled in the references/footnotes (do not use footnotes in APA format) has been given in the relevant footnote, after the bibliographic data of the referenced source, in the form of an active hyperlink. DOI numbers should be verified directly on the journal's website or publishers or the CrossRef agency website: http://www.crossref.org/guestquery/

6. Ethics in research

Research Involving Human Subjects

Institutional Review Board Statement

When reporting on research that involves human subjects, human material, human tissues, or human data, authors must declare that the investigations were carried out following the rules of the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975, which was revised in 2013. According to point 23 of this declaration, approval from the local Institutional Review Board (IRB) or another appropriate ethics committee must be obtained before undertaking the research to confirm that the study meets national and international guidelines. As a minimum, a statement including the project identification code, date of approval, and name of the ethics committee or institutional review board must be stated in the ‘Institutional Review Board Statement’ Section of the article.

Example of an Institutional review board statement:
ETHICS DECLARATION: “The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and the protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of XXX (Project identification code) on [date of approval].”

For non-interventional studies (e.g. surveys, questionnaires, social media research), all participants must be fully informed whether their anonymity is assured, why the research is being conducted, how their data will be used, and if there are any risks involved in participating. As with all research involving humans, ethical approval from an appropriate ethics committee must be obtained prior to conducting the study. If ethical approval is not required, authors must either provide an exemption from the ethics committee or cite the local or national legislation that indicates ethics approval is not required for this type of study. When a study has been granted exemption, the name of the ethics committee that provided this should be stated in the ‘Institutional Review Board Statement’ Section with a full explanation for the rejection of ethical approval.

Informed Consent Statement

Manuscripts reporting studies involving human participants, human data, or human tissue must include a statement of informed consent for participation in research. Verbal informed consent to participate in a study can be acceptable under some circumstances (such as in ethnographic studies). The authors must explain the rationale for using this kind of consent in the “Informed Consent Statement” Section. For verbal informed consent, a copy of the script used must be provided during the submission stage.

For all manuscripts that include identifying patient/participant information (personal details, images, or videos relating to an individual person), written informed consent for the publication of these details must be obtained from patients/participants (or their relatives/guardians) before submitting to an IJSE journal. A blank version of the form used to obtain permission (without the patient/participant names or signature) should be provided upon submission. You may refer to our template permission form and provide an appropriate form after consulting with your affiliated institution.

For the purposes of publishing in IJSE journals, a consent, permission, or release form should include unlimited permission for publication in all formats (including print, electronic, and online), in sublicensed and reprinted versions (including translations and derived works), and in other works and products under open access license. To respect patients’/participants’ and any other individuals’ privacy, please do not send signed forms.

Private information identifying participants need not be included unless the identifiable materials are of relevance to the research (e.g., photographs of participants’ faces that show a particular symptom). Patients’/participants’ initials or other personal identifiers must not appear in any images. Patient/participant details must be anonymized as much as possible, e.g., do not mention specific age, ethnicity, or occupation where they are not relevant to the conclusions. Steps necessary to protect privacy may include de-identifying data, adding noise, or blocking portions of the database. Editors reserve the right to reject any submission that does not meet these requirements.

The Editorial Office reserves the right to request further documentation when necessary. The submitted manuscript will be scrutinized by the Editorial Office, and upon request, documentary evidence (signed consent forms and any related discussion documents from the ethics board) must be provided.

Example of an Informed Consent Statement:
“Informed consent for participation was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.”
OR “Informed consent for participation is not required as per local legislation [provide local legislation].”
 “Verbal informed consent was obtained from the participants. Verbal consent was obtained rather than written because [state the reason]”,
OR “Informed consent for publication was obtained from all identifiable human participants.”

Requirements for Studies on Vulnerable Groups and Organ Transplants

If a study involves vulnerable groups, the manuscript will undergo an additional review by the editorial office. If requested, the author must provide documentary evidence, including blank consent forms and any related discussion documents from the ethics board or other relevant bodies. Additionally, when studies describe groups by race, ethnicity, gender, disability, disease, etc., an explanation regarding why such categorization was needed must be clearly stated in the article.

Articles describing human organ transplantation studies are subject to all policies for research involving human subjects. Additionally, the authors must specify the institution(s), clinic(s), or department(s) from which the organs or tissues were sourced. IJSE does not accept manuscripts that report data on organs and/or other materials obtained from illegal commercial activity, executed prisoners, or other unethical practices relating to organ donations. Manuscripts addressing this practice, such as editorials or reports on its secondary consequences, may be considered at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief but require a written appeal to the editorial office before submission. For further resources on organ transplantation, IJSE follows the glossary maintained by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (https://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/patients/glossary/).

Clinical Trials Registration

Registration

Clinical trials are subject to all policies regarding Research Involving Human Subjects. In addition, IJSE follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines which require registration of clinical trials in a public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrollment as a condition of consideration for publication. The ICMJE defines a clinical trial as any research project that prospectively assigns people or a group of people to an intervention, with or without concurrent comparison or control groups, to study the relationship between a health-related intervention and a health outcome. Therefore, ‘clinical trial’ not only refers to studies that take place in a hospital or involve pharmaceuticals, but also refers to all studies which involve participant randomization and group classification in the context of the intervention under assessment.

Authors must pre-register clinical trials with an international clinical trials register. Suitable databases include clinicaltrials.gov, the EU Clinical Trials Register and those listed by the World Health Organisation’s International Clinical Trials Registry Platform. The name of the registry, trial registration number and date of registration should be included in the Institutional Reviewer Board statement or in the methods section. 

Purely observational studies (e.g., cohort studies, cross-sectional studies, and case–control studies) do not require registration. Editors may consider exceptions to pre-trial registration requirements in some cases. If an exception is granted, authors must retroactively register the trial and clearly indicate the date and reasons for the retroactive registration in the methods section of the publication.

Approval to conduct a study from an independent local, regional, or national review body is not equivalent to prospective clinical trial registration. IJSE reserves the right to decline any paper without trial registration for further peer-review.

Randomized Clinical Trial Reporting Guidelines

In addition to clinical trial registration, IJSE requires a completed CONSORT 2010 checklist and flow diagram uploaded as a condition of submission when reporting the results of a randomized clinical trial. Checklist templates can be found on the CONSORT website which also describes several CONSORT checklist extensions for different designs and types of data beyond two-group parallel trials. At a minimum, clinical trial articles should report the content addressed by each item of the checklist.

If Authors do not provide the details on ethical issues of their research, the paper will not meet the eligibility criteria for the IJSE and will be declided by the journal Editors.

7. Artificial Inteligence

Artificial Intelligence

The IJSE recognizes the opportunities and challenges presented by the rapid development of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), such as ChatGPT and other large language models (LLMs) for scholarly publishing.

AI tools cannot meet the authorship requirements as they cannot take responsibility for the submitted work. Non-legal entities cannot assert the presence or absence of conflicts of interest nor manage copyright and license agreements.

Manuscript preparation

Where GenAI has been used for purposes such as generating text, data, graphics, study design, or data collection, analysis, or interpretation of data, for transparency, authors are required to disclose details of how the GenAI tool was used in the "Materials and Methods" section and provide the GenAI tool's product details in the "Acknowledgments" section.

Recommended acknowledgement statement:
"During the preparation of this manuscript/study, the author(s) used [tool name, version information] for the purposes of [description of use]. The authors have reviewed and edited the output and take full responsibility for the content of this publication. "

The use of GenAI tools for the purposes of text editing (e.g., grammar, structure, spelling, punctuation and formatting) is not covered by this policy and does not need to be declared.

Authors are fully responsible for the originality, validity, and integrity of the content of their manuscript, including any material contributed by GenAI tools. Through careful review, they must ensure that this content complies with all IJSE's publication ethics policies, including, but not limited to, Plagiarism, Data Fabrication and Image Manipulation, and Intellectual Property.

IJSE reserves the right to request further information and editorial decisions will be made in line with IJSE's Terms and Conditions.

Authorship

GenAI tools and other large language models (LLMs) cannot be listed as authors. These tools do not meet IJSE's authorship requirements.

GenAI use by reviewers

Reviewers should not use GenAI tools and other large language models (LLMs) to prepare review reports. Reviewers are solely responsible for the content of their reports, and utilizing these tools may violate confidentiality, proprietary, and data privacy rights.

Some limited use to improve the written quality of the peer-review report (e.g., checking grammar, structure, spelling, punctuation, and formatting) may be acceptable but should be disclosed upon submission of the peer-review report. Under no circumstances should reviewers upload manuscripts, either in whole or in part, images, figures, tables, or any communication related to manuscripts under review to any GenAI tools, as to do so violates IJSE's confidentiality policy relating to peer review. If it is determined that AI tools have been inappropriately used in review report preparation, the report will be discarded.

GenAI use in editorial decision-making

The IJSE Editors play an essential role in peer review to ensure the integrity and rigor of the process. Given this significant responsibility, the IJSE Editors must not use GenAI tools during the editorial review or decision-making process. Under no circumstances should the IJSE Editors upload manuscripts, either in whole or in part, images, figures, tables, or any communication related to manuscripts under review to any GenAI tools, as to do so violates IJSE's confidentiality policy relating to peer review.

8. Extensive English Editing

It is the authors’ responsibility to submit their work in correct American English. The APC includes only minor English editing, conducted by native English speakers. The APC does not include extensive English editing. If extensive editing is required, your paper could be returned to you at the English editing stage of the publication process. This could delay the publication of your work. 

Aim & Scope

The International Journal of Special Education offers a wide range of professionals a peer-reviewed international forum for original papers in special education. Research papers, as well as, theoretical and review articles are sought from all over the world.

We encourage Authors to submit their results of the research, historical and philosophical reviews in addition to evidence-based data on the effectiveness of innovative approaches in special education.

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