About the Journal

ISSN  2182-4967

Scope

The RE@D’s Journal – Journal of Distance Education and Elearning –main goal is to contribute to scientific knowledge and the consolidation of research in the domains of Distance Education, Open Education and Elearning. It is grounded on the values of accuracy, relevance and timeliness, and it is open to teachers and researchers willing to share their research, reflections and professional practices within the scope of the journal.

Priority is given to themes related to educational and pedagogical developments supported by digital technologies as well as to the reflection around the most striking social, cultural and symbolic issues of the network society.

Editorial Politics

RE@D is published on a continuous basis, but with two editions per year.  It is also open to the edition of special issues when justified.

The RE@D Journal accepts contributions in one of the following formats:

a) Theoretical reflection or critical literature review: texts presenting contributions such as proposals/models and/or original and innovating conceptual frameworks, constituting significant contributions for reflection and discussion, on fields within the journal’s editorial scope. 

b) Empirical studies/researches and practices: the texts within this section should present research and empirical studies conducted within the scope of the journal.

c) Praxis: texts that, framed by theoretical references, present a critical reflection on experiences and innovations developed in different educational contexts.

In addition to these formats, RE@D publishes in a special section - Folium - texts that, although not unpublished, represent a significant contribution within the scope of the journal. The texts included in this section are the responsibility of the direction of the journal, upon proposal of the members of the Editorial Board.

Open Access Policy

The RE@D Journal offers free and immediate access to its contents.

RE@D does not charge any fee for article submission, review, publication or download.

Peer Review Politics

  • Incoming manuscripts will be subject to a double-blind review by external experts, members of the Editorial Board or selected ad hoc reviewers, involving two reviewers.
  • The evaluation process may result in the text being accepted for publication as proposed, rejected, or accepted with required revisions.
  • In case of contradiction in the comments received, a new evaluation may be requested. The final decision for publication will be made by the journal's directors.
  • The authors will be informed of the comments and the decision of the journal's directors about the respective publication.

 The following evaluation criteria are used:

  • Relevance, Structure, and Clarity (Relevance of the topic. Title and elucidating summary of the study. Well organised and structured. Consistency in the arguments presented).
  • Theoretical background (Relevance of the theoretical framework to the object of study. Coherence of conceptual approach. Adequate and up-to-date literature review).
  • Methodological options (Correct and precise justification of the methodological options. Adequacy of the procedures in terms of the study's objectives. Clear and complete explanation of the procedures used).
  • Data analysis and interpretation (Relevance of the data presented taking into account the objectives of the study. Adequacy and rigour in analysing quantitative and/or qualitative data.  Discussion of the data in relation to the theoretical framework/review of the literature. Relevance of the illustrations/graphs included).
  • Final reflections and conclusion (Coherence and justification of the conclusions taking into account the analysis of the data. Critical reflection and relationship with other research/review of the literature. Limitations and implications).
  • Formatting and References (Presentation according to the standards of the journal. Relevance and actuality of bibliographical references. Use APA standards (7th edition) for citations and references).

The evaluation and publication process takes an average of 4 months.

Authors Rights

  • Authors of papers submitted for publishing are responsible for author rights and any related rights in what refers to citations, transcriptions, paraphrasing, or figurative and graphic elements integrated in the text. Any legal problem in this field is of total responsibility of the authors of the papers.
  • All papers and reviews submitted to the journal are published under the Creative Commons License  Attribution-non Commercial International 4.0 (CC-BY-NC).

  • Authors retain copyright for their work, giving the journal the rights of first publication.

  • Authors have the right to publish their journal papers in institutional repositories, as long as these fully respect this journal’s principles and formatting.

Data sharing policy

Committed to the principles of Open Science, RE@D - Revista de Educação a Distância e eLearning encourages authors to make the data supporting the results presented in their articles available under the Fair Principles, to ensure that they are locatable, accessible, compatible, and reusable.

It is recommended that the data be deposited in a data repository with a long-term preservation plan for the files, a record of persistent identifiers, and a metadata structure that ensures compliance with the requirements defined in the Fair Principles. If it is difficult to find a suitable repository, we suggest using, for example, the re3data.org portal or FAIRsharing, or a general repository such as Zenodo.

Authors are also encouraged to follow good citation practices for datasets. Where appropriate, information should be provided on where the data associated with the article are located and under what conditions they can be accessed, using persistent identifiers, URL and DOI.

In cases where the data results from using specific software, authors are encouraged to share the software with the data to enable validation and reuse.

Data preservation must comply with institutional and funder requirements. Personal data must be made available following the rules set out in  the  General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

To ensure that the article is evaluated in a double-blind peer review, this information should not be included in the article document. However, it should be included in the submission dossier to the journal, and the information should be mentioned in the comments sent to the editor.

Digital Preservation Policy

RE@D - Open Education and eLearning Journal is digitally preserved through the Repositório Aberto (Universidade Aberta, Portugal).

Ethics Code

RE@D - Revista de Educação a Distância e eLearning adheres to the rules of ethical conduct of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) and AERA (American Educational Research Association), governed by the principles of professional, scientific, and academic responsibility, integrity and respect for diversity, dignity and human rights.

Ethical conduct of editors 

  • The editors ensure the selection of qualified reviewers and experts to carry out a critical appraisal of the proposals submitted, a minimum of 2 for each paper.
  • The editors keep authors informed of the submission, evaluation and publication process and ensure that this process takes place in the shortest possible time.
  • The editors ensure the confidentiality of the editorial process, namely the anonymity of authors and reviewers about double-blind peer review.
  • The acceptance or rejection of an article for publication is based on the relevance within the scope of the journal, the scientific quality and clarity of the text, and is not influenced by discrimination of ethnicity, gender, nationality, political or religious opinions of the authors.
  • In case of detection of plagiarism, the editors follow the indications explained in COPE.

Ethical conduct of reviewers

  • Reviewers, by accepting to review papers for RE@D commit themselves to follow the evaluation criteria indicated by RE@D, respecting the review deadlines and the authors' confidentiality.
  • Reviewers undertake to conduct an impartial, honest, constructive, and informative review, free from bias in their assessments.
  • Reviewers undertake to inform the editor of any practices that contravene the author's ethical conduct that they come across during the review process.
  • Reviewers must refuse to make an assessment if they identify the author(s) and/or the work or if there are conflicts of interest (personal, professional, financial or otherwise) on their part.

Ethical conduct of authors

  • Authors of papers submitted to RE@D assure that the work is original and has not been published or submitted elsewhere.
  • Authors commit not to use discriminatory, offensive, or abusive language.
  • Authors commit not to falsify or fabricate data, sources, results, and conclusions.
  • Authors commit to correctly indicate sources and to reference other authors whenever they use data or other material, avoiding plagiarism practices. 
  • The authors commit themselves to declare that there are no conflicts of interest that might have influenced the results, interpretations, or conclusions of the work.

   

   

Financed by National Funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., under projects UIDB/04372/2020 and UIDP/04372/2020