Author Guidelines

Open Educational Studies publishes original and rigorous scholarship on education in Asian contexts. The journal is specifically focused on research that advances understanding of educational theory, policy, practice, innovation, and transformation across diverse Asian societies, cultures, institutions, and educational systems.

Suitable manuscripts may address teaching and learning, curriculum and instruction, educational psychology, early childhood education, primary and secondary education, higher education, teacher education, educational leadership and policy, assessment and evaluation, inclusive education, language education, STEM and STEAM education, arts education, educational technology, artificial intelligence in education, online and blended learning, student engagement and well-being, school environments, family and community engagement, sustainability education, and other interdisciplinary areas of educational research.

Geographical fit is essential. The principal research setting, participants, schools, universities, institutions, communities, policies, curricula, data, or educational systems must be located in or substantively connected to Asia, including Southeast Asia, South Asia, East Asia, Central Asia, and West Asia.

Comparative studies are welcome when they examine two or more Asian countries, educational systems, institutions, or cultural contexts. Manuscripts focused primarily on educational settings outside Asia without a substantive Asian research component are outside the journal's scope.

Before submitting, authors should ensure that the manuscript:

• has a clear and substantive focus on education in Asia;
• addresses a meaningful educational problem or research gap;
• demonstrates engagement with relevant and current scholarship;
• uses a research design appropriate to the research question; and
• offers a clear theoretical, empirical, methodological, policy, or practical contribution to understanding or improving education in Asia.

Manuscripts that fall outside these disciplinary or geographical priorities may be declined during the initial editorial screening.

Open Educational Studies accepts the following types of manuscripts:

1. Original Research Article (Maximum 8000 words)

Original Research Articles present previously unpublished empirical research that makes a clear and significant contribution to music scholarship. Submissions may employ quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, experimental, ethnographic, historical, analytical, or other appropriate research approaches. Each article should clearly describe its research problem, theoretical foundation, methodology, findings, discussion, and implications.

2. Review Article (Maximum 10.000 words)

Review Articles provide a critical and comprehensive synthesis of scholarly literature concerning a specific topic within the journal’s scope. These articles should identify major developments, theoretical debates, methodological trends, research gaps, and directions for future investigation. Systematic, scoping, integrative, and critical reviews are welcomed, provided that the review procedures are clearly explained.

3. Conceptual or Theoretical Article (Maximum 8000 words)

Conceptual or Theoretical Articles develop, examine, or refine concepts, theories, models, and analytical frameworks relevant to music studies. The article should be grounded in current scholarship, present a coherent argument, and demonstrate how the proposed perspective advances existing knowledge or offers new directions for research and practice.

4. Practice-Based or Practice-Led Research Article (Maximum 8000 words)

Practice-Based or Practice-Led Research Articles examine artistic practice as an essential component of scholarly inquiry. Submissions may address music composition, performance, improvisation, production, arrangement, sound art, or other creative practices. Authors must clearly explain the research context, creative process, documentation, reflective analysis, research outcomes, and contribution to knowledge. Supporting materials such as scores, audio recordings, videos, or creative portfolios may be included where relevant.

5. Musical, Performance, or Cultural Analysis (Maximum 8000 words)

These articles offer rigorous analyses of musical works, performances, repertoires, recordings, genres, traditions, or cultural practices. Submissions may use musicological, semiotic, historical, sociocultural, ethnographic, aesthetic, or interdisciplinary perspectives. The analysis should be supported by appropriate evidence and contribute an original interpretation to the field.

Manuscripts must be written in clear and professional academic English. Authors may use either British or American English, but usage must be consistent throughout the manuscript. Specialized musical, cultural, and local terminology should be clearly explained when first introduced, and appropriate diacritics and transliterations should be retained where necessary for scholarly accuracy. Authors are responsible for checking grammar, spelling, terminology, and language consistency before submission. Where necessary, authors are encouraged to obtain professional academic language editing. Language editing does not guarantee acceptance, as editorial decisions are based on the scholarly quality, originality, and suitability of the manuscript.

Open Educational Studies operates as an open-access, peer-reviewed scholarly journal. All published articles are made openly available to readers in order to support broad access to knowledge, international scholarly exchange, and the wider dissemination of research in music studies and related fields.

All submitted manuscripts undergo an initial editorial screening to assess their relevance to the journal’s scope, scholarly quality, originality, methodological adequacy, and compliance with the journal’s submission requirements. Manuscripts that meet these initial criteria may proceed to double-blind peer review, in which the identities of authors and reviewers are concealed from one another during the review process.

Authors are therefore required to submit an anonymous manuscript that does not contain identifying information. Author names, affiliations, correspondence details, contribution statements, funding information, ethics declarations, conflicts of interest, and other author-related declarations should be provided separately in the Title Page Template.

Publication decisions are based on the scholarly merit, originality, methodological rigor, clarity, ethical compliance, and relevance of the manuscript to the journal’s scope. Acceptance for peer review does not imply acceptance for publication, and all final publication decisions remain the responsibility of the editorial team.

Authors should prepare the required submission files before beginning the online submission process. Because the journal uses a double-blind peer-review process, author-identifying information must be separated from the manuscript sent to reviewers.

Authors should normally prepare:

• Anonymous Manuscript — the complete article prepared using the official Caraka Journal Manuscript Template and without author names, affiliations, email addresses, acknowledgments, or other identifying information.
• Title Page — a separate file containing author information and the required authorship and declaration information.
• Supplementary Materials, where applicable — additional materials that are necessary to support the manuscript, such as datasets, research instruments, musical scores, audio, video, appendices, or other relevant supporting files.

Authors should ensure that the information in all submitted files is complete and mutually consistent before submission.

The anonymous manuscript should follow the structure provided in the official manuscript template. For a standard research article, the manuscript should normally be organized as follows:

Title
Abstract
Keywords
1 Introduction
2 Literature review
3 Method
4 Findings
5 Discussion
6 Conclusions
7 Limitations and future research
References

Subsections may be used where necessary. For example, the Method section may include:

3.1 Study Design
3.2 Participants
3.3 Additional methodological subsections as appropriate

The manuscript should maintain a clear hierarchy of numbered headings throughout the article.

For article types whose scholarly conventions require a different organization, appropriate adaptation may be made, provided that the structure remains clear, logical, and suitable for the nature of the study.

The Title Page should be submitted separately from the anonymous manuscript.

Authors should use the official Caraka Journal Title Page Template to provide author names, affiliations, email addresses, ORCID iDs, corresponding-author information, CRediT author contributions, ethics and informed-consent information where applicable, AI-use declaration, funding statement, conflict-of-interest declaration, data-availability statement, and acknowledgments.

The article title must contain no more than 15 words, consistent with the manuscript template.

Author-identifying information should not be duplicated in the anonymous manuscript.

The manuscript must include a structured abstract of 200–250 words.

The abstract should provide a concise and self-contained overview of the study. Its structure should clearly communicate the principal elements of the research, such as the research background or problem, objective, methodological approach, major findings, and conclusion or contribution, as appropriate to the type of article.

The abstract should avoid unnecessary citations, undefined abbreviations, excessive background information, and claims that are not supported by the manuscript.

Authors must provide five keywords. Each keyword should contain a maximum of two words. Keywords should represent the principal concepts of the study and should support accurate indexing and discoverability of the article.

The anonymous manuscript should be prepared in accordance with the official manuscript template.

The main text should use:

• Times New Roman, 12 pt;
• left-aligned text; and
• a consistent numbered heading hierarchy.

The template uses the following heading system:

1 Introduction — Heading 1
2 Literature review — Heading 1
2.1 Heading 2
2.1.1 Heading 3

The same hierarchy should be applied consistently throughout the manuscript.

Authors should avoid unnecessary manual formatting or attempts to reproduce the final journal layout. The submitted manuscript should prioritize clarity, consistency, and conformity with the official template.

Tables should present information clearly and should be used only when they improve the communication of data or findings.

Each table must:

• be numbered consecutively, for example Table 1;
• be explicitly referred to in the narrative text, for example, “As shown in Table 1…”;
• have a clear and informative title or description;
• use understandable row and column headings; and
• contain only the necessary horizontal rules.

In accordance with the manuscript template, tables should contain horizontal lines only:

1. at the top of the table;
2. below the column header; and
3. at the bottom of the table.

Vertical borders and unnecessary decorative lines should not be used.

Any abbreviations, symbols, statistical notation, or information requiring clarification should be explained appropriately.

Figures should be numbered consecutively and must be explicitly referred to in the narrative text. For example:

“Figure 1 shows…”

Figures should have a minimum resolution of 100 DPI and should be presented without borders, as specified in the official manuscript template.

Each figure should:

• have a clear figure number and caption;
• be relevant to the analysis, findings, or explanation presented in the manuscript;
• contain legible labels, symbols, and text;
• be positioned and sized so that its content can be clearly interpreted; and
• include an explicit source statement when applicable.

The source of all figures must be explicitly identified. Authors may use a statement such as “Source: …”, or provide an appropriate citation in accordance with APA 7th edition when a figure is adapted or reproduced from another source.

Authors are responsible for obtaining any permission required to reproduce copyrighted images, photographs, musical scores, diagrams, or other protected visual materials.

References must follow the APA 7th edition style.

Authors should ensure that:

• every work cited in the manuscript appears in the reference list;
• every work included in the reference list is cited in the manuscript;
• author names and publication years are accurate;
• journal titles, volume and issue information, page ranges, and other bibliographic information are complete where applicable;
• DOIs are included whenever available;
• URLs are provided when appropriate; and
• capitalization, italics, punctuation, and other reference elements are consistently formatted according to APA 7th edition.

Reference-management software may be used, but authors remain responsible for checking the accuracy and completeness of all citations and references before submission.

Each author must report all applicable scholarly contributions using the CRediT Contributor Roles Taxonomy. Only roles that accurately reflect the work performed by each author should be assigned.

The applicable roles are: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, and Writing – review & editing.

Contribution statements must be accurate and agreed by the authors. CRediT describes individual contributions but does not independently determine eligibility for authorship.

Research involving human participants, human biological materials, or identifiable personal data must report the applicable ethical-review status.

Where ethical approval was required, authors must provide the official name of the Institutional Review Board, Ethics Committee, or equivalent body; the institution; the approval or protocol number; and the approval date.

Where permission from a school, hospital, organization, institution, community, or other research site was also required, the relevant site permission should be reported. When ethical review is genuinely not applicable, authors must explicitly state the reason.

Research involving human participants must report the informed-consent procedure actually used in the study.

• Written informed consent may be reported for adult participants.
• Electronic informed consent may be reported for adult participants where appropriate.
• Research involving minors must report parental or legal-guardian informed consent together with age-appropriate assent from participating minors.
• Oral or verbal informed consent may be reported when it was appropriately documented in accordance with the ethics-approved protocol.
• Where the study did not involve human participants, informed consent may be reported as not applicable.

The declared consent procedure must accurately correspond with the procedures used in the research.

All authors must disclose any actual, potential, or perceived financial or non-financial competing interests relevant to the submitted work.

Relevant interests may include financial relationships, patents or intellectual property, research sponsorship or funder relationships, personal relationships, academic or collaborative relationships, or other circumstances that a reasonable reader could perceive as influencing the work.

If no competing interests exist, authors must explicitly declare that they have no known financial or non-financial competing interests. If an interest exists, the disclosure must identify the relevant author, organization or entity, and the nature of the relationship.

Authors must accurately disclose the financial support associated with the research.

The declaration should identify whether the study received no specific funding, an external grant, internal or institutional funding, or multiple funding sources. Where funding was received, authors should provide the official funder name, applicable funding scheme or program, and grant number whenever one exists.

The funding declaration should be consistent with the funding information supplied during submission.

All manuscripts must state how the data supporting the study are available.

Authors should indicate whether data are included in the article or supplementary materials, openly available in a public repository, available on reasonable request, subject to controlled or restricted access, confidential or proprietary, or not applicable because no new data were generated or analyzed.

Any restriction should be accurately explained and may reflect ethical approval, participant consent, privacy, confidentiality, legal, institutional, cultural, or proprietary requirements.

Authors must declare whether generative AI or AI-assisted technology was used to generate or materially modify substantive manuscript content.

If such technology was used, authors must identify the tool or technology and the purpose for which it was used. All AI-assisted outputs must be critically reviewed, verified, and revised by the authors as necessary.

Human authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, integrity, originality, appropriate attribution, and final content of the manuscript.

Acknowledgments should recognize contributions that do not meet authorship criteria.

Authors may acknowledge individuals who provided academic or technical assistance; research-site or institutional support; participant-recruitment or fieldwork assistance; equipment, laboratory, software, or facility support; community, cultural, or stakeholder contributions; or other appropriate assistance.

Funding should normally be reported separately under the Funding Disclosure. Permission should be obtained before naming individuals where required.

Open Educational Studies is committed to maintaining integrity, transparency, fairness, and accountability throughout the scholarly publication process. The journal’s publication-ethics policies are guided by the principles and recommended practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

These principles apply to authors, editors, reviewers, and other parties involved in publication. All participants are expected to act responsibly, disclose relevant interests, protect the integrity of the scholarly record, and cooperate with legitimate editorial inquiries concerning potential ethical issues.

Reference to COPE guidance indicates that the journal uses COPE principles and resources as an ethical framework and does not by itself constitute a claim of formal COPE membership.

Manuscripts submitted to Open Educational Studies must represent original scholarly work and must not have been published previously in substantially the same form or be simultaneously under consideration by another journal.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that ideas, text, data, images, musical materials, analytical content, and material derived from previous work are appropriately acknowledged. Plagiarism, duplicate publication, redundant publication, inappropriate text recycling, undisclosed substantial overlap, fabrication, falsification, and other forms of publication misconduct are prohibited.

Prior dissemination as a thesis or dissertation, preprint, conference abstract or presentation, working paper, institutional repository deposit, or comparable non-journal output does not automatically prevent consideration. Relevant prior dissemination must, however, be transparently disclosed and the submitted manuscript must provide a substantive scholarly contribution.

A work already published as a full journal article, book chapter, or substantially equivalent scholarly publication will normally not be eligible. Translation of an already published work is also regarded as prior publication unless explicitly approved as legitimate secondary publication with appropriate disclosure and permissions.

When several manuscripts arise from the same dataset, research project, participant group, fieldwork, or creative practice, each manuscript must address a sufficiently distinct scholarly question and make an independently substantive contribution. Simultaneous submission of the same or substantially similar manuscript to multiple journals is prohibited.

Authorship must accurately reflect substantial scholarly contributions to the work. The journal permits a maximum of six authors per manuscript.

Every listed author must have made a meaningful scholarly contribution, approved the manuscript submitted for publication, and accepted appropriate responsibility for the integrity and accuracy of the work.

The journal does not permit guest, gift, honorary, or ghost authorship. Academic seniority, institutional position, supervision alone, funding alone, personal relationships, or administrative authority do not by themselves justify authorship.

Individual contributions must be transparently reported. Authors should resolve the author list, author order, and individual contributions before initial submission.

The authorship list and author order are expected to be complete and final at the time of initial submission.

Authors must not routinely add, remove, replace, or reorder authors after submission because additional work was undertaken during revision, for administrative convenience, to increase academic credit, or for any purpose that misrepresents actual contributions.

A request to change authorship may be considered only in exceptional and adequately justified circumstances. The request must explain the reason for the proposed change, identify affected authors, provide an updated contribution statement, and demonstrate written agreement from all authors concerned.

Authorship changes will normally not be permitted after acceptance except in exceptional circumstances. Following publication, an authorship change will only be considered when necessary to correct the scholarly record and may require a formal correction.

The journal may investigate requests that raise concerns regarding guest authorship, ghost authorship, authorship sale, coercion, manipulation of academic credit, or other unethical practices.

Open Educational Studies does not tolerate research or publication misconduct.

Prohibited practices include plagiarism; inappropriate text recycling; fabrication or falsification of data, evidence, quotations, sources, or findings; inappropriate manipulation of images, audio, visual material, or research records; duplicate or redundant publication; citation manipulation; fabricated references; deliberate misrepresentation of methods or findings; and other conduct that compromises the scholarly record.

Manuscripts may undergo similarity screening and additional editorial checks. A similarity score alone is not automatic evidence of misconduct; potentially problematic overlap will be evaluated in context.

Authors must cooperate with reasonable requests for original data, research documentation, ethics records, previous versions, related publications, source files, images, recordings, or other evidence relevant to an integrity concern.

Confirmed or serious suspected misconduct may lead to rejection, suspension of review, withdrawal of an acceptance decision, institutional notification where appropriate, correction, expression of concern, retraction, or other proportionate editorial action.

Research involving human participants, human biological materials, or identifiable personal information must comply with appropriate ethical standards and receive approval from a competent Institutional Review Board, Ethics Committee, or equivalent body where such review is required.

Human participation must be voluntary and based on an appropriate informed-consent process. Written, electronic, or properly documented oral consent may be used when appropriate to the approved research protocol.

Research involving minors requires parental or legal-guardian informed consent together with age-appropriate assent from participating minors unless an ethically justified and formally approved exception applies.

Identifiable photographs, recordings, audiovisual material, quotations, case information, or personal information may require specific consent for publication in addition to consent for participation.

Music research may involve traditional communities, Indigenous peoples, cultural heritage, sacred practices, community knowledge, performances, rituals, oral traditions, or culturally restricted materials. Such research must be conducted and reported with particular ethical care.

Researchers should respect applicable community protocols, cultural authority, local knowledge systems, permissions, expectations concerning attribution, and restrictions relating to sacred, private, sensitive, or culturally protected materials.

Consent from an individual participant does not necessarily override legitimate community-level cultural responsibilities or restrictions.

Authors should avoid extracting, decontextualizing, sensationalizing, misrepresenting, or inappropriately exploiting community knowledge or cultural expression. The editorial team may request clarification regarding permissions, cultural protocols, community engagement, or recording practices where necessary.

Authors, editors, and reviewers must disclose financial and non-financial interests that could reasonably be perceived as influencing judgment, interpretation, decision-making, or participation in the publication process.

Relevant competing interests may include financial relationships, employment, consultancy, fees, investments, patents, intellectual property, institutional relationships, academic competition, close personal relationships, ideological commitments, research sponsorship, or other relevant circumstances.

Authors must disclose all applicable funding sources and identify funders and grant numbers where available. Funding alone does not necessarily constitute a competing interest; however, relevant involvement of a funder in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or publication decisions should be disclosed.

Authors are responsible for the integrity, accuracy, and appropriate preservation of the data and evidence supporting their work.

Fabrication, falsification, selective manipulation, intentional misrepresentation, inappropriate deletion, or concealment of research data is prohibited.

Data may be included in the article or supplementary materials, deposited in an appropriate repository, made available on reasonable request, or legitimately subject to controlled or restricted access.

Restrictions may arise from participant consent, ethical approval, privacy, confidentiality, cultural protocols, institutional requirements, law, intellectual-property rights, or legitimate proprietary interests. Authors must not claim that data are publicly available when the stated access is not actually possible.

Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies cannot qualify for authorship because they cannot assume responsibility or accountability for scholarly work.

Authors remain fully responsible for all submitted content, including factual accuracy, originality, citations, analysis, interpretation, confidentiality, intellectual-property compliance, and the integrity of the scholarly record.

Where generative AI has been used to generate or materially modify substantive manuscript content, its use must be transparently disclosed. AI-assisted outputs must be critically reviewed, independently verified, and revised by human authors.

Authors must not use AI systems in ways that violate confidentiality, participant privacy, ethics approval, informed consent, copyright, contractual obligations, or applicable law.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that all materials included in a manuscript may lawfully and ethically be published.

This is particularly important in music scholarship where manuscripts may contain photographs, musical notation, scores, audio, video, screenshots, archival materials, album artwork, performance documentation, artworks, transcriptions, or other third-party content.

Where permission is required, authors must obtain appropriate authorization before publication and retain documentation. Adapted, reproduced, or previously published material must be appropriately attributed and sources of figures or other reproduced materials must be identified.

Permission to use material for research purposes should not automatically be assumed to constitute permission for publication.

Authors and other stakeholders may raise legitimate complaints concerning editorial procedures, ethical concerns, conflicts of interest, peer-review conduct, or other matters related to the publication process.

Authors may appeal an editorial decision when they believe a significant factual, procedural, or interpretive issue warrants reconsideration. An appeal should provide a clear scholarly justification rather than simply express disagreement with the decision.

Complaints and appeals should be handled fairly, confidentially, and without retaliation. Where appropriate, a matter may be reviewed by an editor who was not directly responsible for the disputed decision.

An appeal does not guarantee reversal of the original decision. Once a properly considered appeal has been resolved, the resulting editorial decision will normally be final.

Open Educational Studies is committed to maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the published scholarly record.

A correction may be issued when a published article contains an error that does not invalidate its overall findings or scholarly contribution.

A retraction may be necessary when findings are unreliable because of major error or misconduct, substantial plagiarism or redundant publication is identified, research is found to be unethical, or other serious circumstances undermine the reliability or legitimacy of the publication.

An Expression of Concern may be issued when serious questions have been raised but the available evidence is incomplete, disputed, or subject to ongoing investigation.

Post-publication notices should clearly identify the article concerned, explain the reason for the action, and preserve the scholarly record rather than silently removing the publication. Authors are expected to cooperate with legitimate post-publication investigations.

The anonymous manuscript must not contain information that directly identifies the authors. Authors should remove:

• author names;
• institutional affiliations;
• email addresses and ORCID iDs;
• corresponding-author information;
• acknowledgments containing identifiable information;
• author contribution statements;
• funding information that directly reveals author identity;
• conflict-of-interest declarations containing identifying details; and
• other statements that unnecessarily disclose the identity of the authors.

Where authors cite their own previous work, citations should normally be retained and written in the same manner as citations to other authors. Authors should not unnecessarily replace legitimate self-citations with expressions such as “Author, 2025” unless doing so is essential to preserve anonymity.

The anonymous manuscript should follow the official manuscript requirements, including the required manuscript structure, text format, abstract and keyword requirements, table and figure presentation, and APA 7th edition references.

Authors should also check the document before upload to ensure that author-identifying information has not been unintentionally retained in headers, footers, comments, tracked changes, or document properties.

Complete and accurate author information must be provided separately from the anonymous manuscript.

For each author, the following information should be supplied:

• full author name;
• department or academic unit;
• faculty, where applicable;
• institution;
• city and country;
• email address; and
• ORCID iD, where available.

One author must be identified as the corresponding author.

The journal permits a maximum of six authors per manuscript. The authorship list and author order should be accurate and final at the time of initial submission.

The author information must also be consistent with the information entered into the journal submission system. Authors should carefully verify spelling, institutional names, author order, correspondence details, and identifiers before completing the submission.

Required authorship and research declarations—including CRediT contributions, ethical approval, informed consent, AI use, funding, conflicts of interest, data availability, and acknowledgments—must also be completed accurately before submission.

Supplementary materials may be submitted when they provide information that is important for understanding, evaluating, reproducing, or documenting the research but is not appropriate for inclusion in the main manuscript.

Depending on the nature of the study, supplementary materials may include:

• research instruments;
• questionnaires or interview guides;
• extended methodological information;
• additional tables or figures;
• datasets or data documentation;
• appendices;
• musical scores or notation;
• audio recordings;
• video recordings;
• performance documentation;
• analytical materials; or
• other relevant supporting files.

Each supplementary file should be clearly named and, where appropriate, referred to in the manuscript.

Supplementary materials should contain sufficient information for editors, reviewers, and readers to understand their relationship to the article. Authors remain responsible for the accuracy, ethical compliance, copyright status, permissions, confidentiality, and participant privacy of supplementary content.

Materials intended for blinded peer review should not unnecessarily reveal author identity.

Submission of supplementary material does not guarantee that all submitted files will be published. The editorial team may request modification, removal, consolidation, or separate archiving of supplementary content where necessary.

Before submitting a manuscript, authors should confirm that all applicable requirements have been completed.

Manuscript preparation

• The manuscript is original and is not simultaneously under consideration by another journal.
• The manuscript is within the scope of Open Educational Studies.
• The appropriate article category has been selected.
• The anonymous manuscript contains no unnecessary author-identifying information.
• The article title contains no more than 15 words.
• The structured abstract contains 200–250 words.
• Exactly five keywords are provided, with a maximum of two words per keyword.
• The manuscript uses Times New Roman, 12 pt, with left-aligned text.
• The required heading and manuscript structure has been followed.
• Tables are numbered, cited in the text, and use only the required horizontal lines.
• Figures are numbered and cited in the text.
• Figures have a minimum resolution of 100 DPI and do not use unnecessary borders.
• Sources of figures are explicitly identified where applicable.
• References follow APA 7th edition.

Author and declaration information

• Author names and affiliations are complete and accurate.
• The manuscript contains no more than six authors.
• The corresponding author has been identified.
• Email addresses and ORCID iDs have been checked.
• CRediT contribution roles have been completed for each author.
• Ethical approval information has been provided where applicable.
• Informed-consent information has been provided where applicable.
• Generative-AI use has been declared.
• Funding has been declared.
• Conflicts of interest have been declared.
• Data availability has been declared.
• Acknowledgments have been completed where applicable.

Final submission check

Authors should verify that information contained in the uploaded files is consistent with the metadata entered into the submission system. All files should be opened and checked before final submission to confirm that the correct and complete versions have been uploaded.

Submission of a manuscript indicates that the authors accept responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the information provided.

Authors are strongly encouraged to use the official journal resources when preparing a submission.

Two principal files are provided:

Manuscript Template

The Manuscript Template is used to prepare the anonymous manuscript and contains the journal requirements for:

• manuscript formatting;
• title;
• abstract;
• keywords;
• section organization;
• headings;
• tables;
• figures; and
• references.

The manuscript prepared from this template should remain anonymous for double-blind peer review.

Title Page Template

The Title Page Template is used to provide author information and required declarations, including:

• author names and affiliations;
• correspondence information;
• ORCID iDs;
• CRediT author contributions;
• ethical approval;
• informed consent;
• generative-AI declaration;
• funding;
• conflicts of interest;
• data availability; and
• acknowledgments.

Authors should always use the current version of the journal templates available through Author Resources rather than relying on previously downloaded copies.

Every manuscript submitted to Open Educational Studies undergoes an initial editorial screening before it is considered for external peer review.

The purpose of editorial screening is to determine whether the submission is sufficiently suitable and ready to enter the peer-review process. The editorial team may assess:

• alignment with the journal’s aims and scope;
• suitability of the selected article category;
• originality and scholarly contribution;
• clarity of the research problem, objectives, or research questions;
• appropriateness and transparency of the research or analytical methods;
• adequacy of the manuscript structure and academic presentation;
• compliance with manuscript-formatting requirements;
• completeness of the required submission files and declarations;
• ethical approval and informed-consent information where applicable;
• authorship and contribution information;
• data-availability and transparency requirements;
• appropriate disclosure of generative-AI use;
• reference quality and citation accuracy;
• manuscript anonymity for double-blind review; and
• potential plagiarism, duplicate publication, inappropriate overlap, or other publication-integrity concerns.

A manuscript may be returned to the authors for technical or administrative correction before editorial assessment when required files or essential information are incomplete.

A submission may also be declined without external peer review when it is clearly outside the journal’s scope, does not meet the expected scholarly standard, contains substantial methodological or ethical problems, does not comply with fundamental submission requirements, or is otherwise unsuitable for further consideration.

Passing editorial screening does not guarantee acceptance for publication. It means only that the manuscript is considered suitable to proceed to the next stage of editorial evaluation.

Open Educational Studies uses a double-blind peer-review process, in which the identities of authors and reviewers are concealed from one another during review.

Manuscripts that pass editorial screening are assigned to three qualified reviewers with relevant expertise in the subject area, methodology, theoretical perspective, or scholarly context of the submission.

Reviewers are asked to evaluate the manuscript on matters such as:

• originality and significance of the contribution;
• relevance to the journal’s scope and readership;
• clarity of the research problem and objectives;
• adequacy of the theoretical or conceptual foundation;
• appropriateness and transparency of the methods or analytical approach;
• quality and credibility of the findings or arguments;
• relationship between evidence, interpretation, and conclusions;
• quality of tables, figures, musical examples, or other research materials where applicable;
• engagement with relevant scholarly literature;
• ethical and research-integrity considerations; and
• overall clarity, organization, and scholarly presentation.

Reviewers are expected to provide constructive, evidence-based, and professionally expressed comments.

Following peer review, the editorial decision may include outcomes such as:

• acceptance;
• minor revision;
• major revision; or
• rejection.

The final editorial decision is made by the journal’s editorial team after considering reviewer reports, the manuscript itself, applicable journal policies, and the scholarly requirements of the journal.

Reviewer recommendations are advisory and do not independently determine the editorial decision.

Where reviewer reports differ substantially, the editor may seek additional review, request clarification, or make an editorial judgment based on the available evidence.

When revision is invited, authors should address the decision letter and reviewer comments carefully and comprehensively.

A revision invitation does not constitute acceptance. The revised manuscript remains subject to editorial evaluation and, where appropriate, further peer review.

Authors should:

• read the editor and reviewer comments in full before revising;
• address every substantive comment;
• revise all affected parts of the manuscript consistently;
• verify that changes made in one section do not create inconsistencies elsewhere;
• update tables, figures, references, supplementary files, and declarations where necessary;
• maintain the anonymity of files intended for double-blind review;
• ensure that newly added references are accurate and complete;
• correct language, formatting, or presentation issues identified during review;
• avoid making unrelated changes that unnecessarily alter the manuscript; and
• submit the revision within the deadline specified in the editorial decision.

Where additional experiments, analyses, evidence, theoretical clarification, or methodological explanation are requested, authors should either provide the requested revision or clearly explain why a particular request cannot or should not be implemented.

If more time is genuinely required to complete a substantial revision, the corresponding author should contact the editorial office before the revision deadline and provide a reasonable explanation.

Before resubmission, authors should ensure that all revised files correspond to the same version of the manuscript and that no outdated files remain in the submission package.

The journal may return an incomplete revision without further peer review when major reviewer or editorial comments have not been adequately addressed.

Every revised submission should be accompanied by a clear and systematic response to the editor and reviewers.

Authors should respond to comments point by point and indicate how each issue has been addressed in the revised manuscript.

A useful response structure is:

Reviewer comment
→ reproduce or clearly summarize the comment.

Author response
→ explain what was changed, provide clarification, or justify why no change was made.

Location of revision
→ identify the relevant section, page, paragraph, line, table, figure, or other location in the revised manuscript where appropriate.

Authors should:

• respond to every reviewer and editor comment;
• maintain a professional and respectful tone;
• clearly distinguish reviewer comments from author responses;
• describe substantive revisions rather than merely stating “done” or “corrected”;
• provide supporting evidence or references when necessary;
• identify corresponding changes in the revised manuscript;
• explain respectfully when they disagree with a recommendation; and
• ensure that the response letter and revised manuscript are fully consistent.

Authors are not required to accept every reviewer suggestion. When a recommendation is not adopted, however, the authors should provide a clear scholarly, methodological, ethical, or practical justification.

Disagreement with a reviewer should focus on the scholarly issue rather than the reviewer personally.

Where two reviewer recommendations conflict, authors should explain how they resolved the issue and may refer to the editor’s guidance where relevant.

The editorial team evaluates not only the revised manuscript but also the quality and completeness of the response to reviewers when determining whether the concerns raised during peer review have been adequately resolved.

Once a manuscript has been formally accepted for publication, the corresponding author must ensure that the final submission files are complete, accurate, and consistent with the version approved by the editorial team.

Acceptance applies to the manuscript in its approved scholarly form. Authors should not introduce substantial new analyses, results, interpretations, authorship changes, or other major content changes after acceptance unless specifically requested or approved by the editor.

Before production begins, authors may be asked to provide or confirm:

• the final clean manuscript;
• final tables, figures, illustrations, musical examples, or other media;
• supplementary materials;
• complete author and affiliation information;
• corresponding-author details;
• ORCID iDs where available;
• final CRediT contribution statements;
• ethics and informed-consent declarations;
• funding information;
• conflict-of-interest declaration;
• data-availability statement;
• generative-AI declaration;
• acknowledgments;
• permissions for copyrighted or third-party materials; and
• other information required for publication.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that the final files are internally consistent. Author names, article title, affiliations, tables, figures, references, supplementary materials, and declarations should correspond with the information approved during the editorial process.

Minor editorial or production queries may arise after acceptance. Authors should respond promptly so that publication is not unnecessarily delayed.

Formal acceptance does not remove the authors’ responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, originality, ethical compliance, and lawful use of all materials contained in the article.

Before publication, authors may receive a production proof for final checking.

The purpose of proof checking is to identify errors introduced during copyediting, typesetting, layout, conversion, or other production processes. It is not a new stage of substantive manuscript revision.

Authors should carefully check:

• article title;
• author names and author order;
• affiliations;
• corresponding-author information;
• headings and subheadings;
• abstract and keywords;
• main text;
• equations or symbols where applicable;
• tables and table notes;
• figures, illustrations, and captions;
• musical notation or musical examples;
• special characters, diacritics, and transliterations;
• in-text citations;
• reference-list entries;
• URLs and DOIs where provided;
• acknowledgments;
• funding and declaration statements; and
• supplementary-material references.

Particular attention should be given to names, non-English terminology, musical terminology, notation, culturally specific terms, diacritics, and other elements that may be affected during production.

Proof corrections should normally be limited to genuine production errors, factual mistakes requiring correction, or minor changes necessary for accuracy.

Substantial rewriting, new analyses, new data, major changes to conclusions, or extensive restructuring should not normally be introduced at proof stage.

Authors should return proof corrections within the period specified by the journal. Failure to respond promptly may delay publication.

The corresponding author is responsible for coordinating proof review with co-authors where necessary and for returning one clear and consolidated set of corrections.

Authors retain the copyright to their work published in Open Educational Studies.

By submitting and accepting publication of an article in the journal, the authors grant Open Educational Studies the right to publish, reproduce, distribute, archive, and make the article publicly available as the journal’s official version of record. This publishing right enables the journal to perform the editorial, production, dissemination, indexing, preservation, and other activities necessary for scholarly publication.

Published articles are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA) license.

Under this license, readers and other users may share and adapt the published work provided that they:

• give appropriate credit to the author(s) and the original publication in Open Educational Studies;
• provide appropriate citation and attribution to the published article;
• do not use the material for commercial purposes; and
• distribute adaptations or derivative works under the same or a compatible ShareAlike license.

The application of a Creative Commons license does not transfer copyright ownership from the authors to the journal. Authors remain the copyright holders of their scholarly work, while Open Educational Studies retains the publishing rights associated with the journal’s publication of the article.

Authors may reuse their own published work in future academic activities, teaching, presentations, repositories, books, or other scholarly works, provided that the original publication is appropriately acknowledged and such reuse complies with the applicable CC BY-NC-SA license and any other relevant publication agreements.

Third-party material included in an article—including photographs, figures, artworks, musical scores, notation, lyrics, audio, video, screenshots, archival materials, or other copyrighted content—is not automatically covered by the article’s Creative Commons license when separate copyright or licensing conditions apply.

Authors are responsible for obtaining any permissions required for third-party material before publication and for ensuring that appropriate copyright notices, acknowledgments, source statements, or licensing information are provided.

Where third-party material cannot be distributed under the article’s CC BY-NC-SA license, its separate copyright status or permitted terms of use should be clearly indicated.

An accepted article proceeds to online publication after the required editorial and production processes have been completed.

The published version constitutes the journal’s formal version of record and should contain the final approved scholarly content and publication metadata.

Before publication, the journal may complete processes such as:

• copyediting;
• language and consistency checks where applicable;
• typesetting and article layout;
• preparation of tables and figures for publication;
• metadata verification;
• reference and DOI checks;
• final proof correction; and
• publication-file preparation.

Once published, the article becomes part of the permanent scholarly record.

Authors should verify the published article and its metadata when it becomes available, particularly:

• article title;
• author names;
• affiliations;
• abstract;
• keywords;
• DOI;
• volume and issue information where applicable; and
• the final article files.

Minor formatting differences may occur between the submitted manuscript and the published version as a result of journal production and house style.

If authors identify a substantive error after publication, they should contact the editorial office rather than modifying or circulating an unofficial corrected version as though it were the journal version of record.

Post-publication errors and integrity concerns are handled under the journal’s Corrections, Retractions & Expressions of Concern policy.

Authors are encouraged to communicate and share their published research responsibly in order to increase scholarly visibility, accessibility, and appropriate academic use.

Sharing must comply with the copyright and license conditions applicable to the published article.

Authors may promote their research through appropriate scholarly and professional channels, including:

• institutional or personal academic profiles;
• institutional repositories where permitted;
• scholarly networks;
• conference presentations;
• teaching and academic activities;
• professional associations;
• research-group or institutional communications; and
• responsible social-media communication.

When sharing or discussing the published research, authors should provide sufficient bibliographic information for readers to identify the official published version, preferably including the article DOI where available.

Authors should avoid distributing altered copies in ways that could cause confusion about which version represents the journal’s version of record.

Public communication of research findings should accurately reflect the published evidence. Authors should avoid exaggerated claims, misleading summaries, unsupported causal statements, or selective presentation of findings.

Where research involves communities, culturally sensitive knowledge, vulnerable participants, confidential information, or restricted materials, responsible sharing must continue to respect the ethical, consent, privacy, and cultural obligations applicable to the research.

Authors should also respect any separate copyright or permission restrictions that apply to images, musical works, recordings, audiovisual materials, or other third-party content contained in the publication.

Authors should use the current official Manuscript Template when preparing a manuscript for submission to Open Educational Studies.

The template is designed for the anonymous manuscript used during double-blind peer review and provides the journal’s principal manuscript-formatting requirements, including:

• left-aligned text in Times New Roman, 12 pt;
• article title of no more than 15 words;
• structured abstract of 200–250 words;
• five keywords, with a maximum of two words for each keyword;
• manuscript section and heading structure;
• table formatting and in-text table citation;
• figure formatting and in-text figure citation;
• minimum figure resolution of 100 DPI with no borders;
• explicit identification of figure sources; and
• references prepared according to APA 7th edition.

Authors should begin manuscript preparation using the current version of the template rather than reusing an older file from a previous submission. The manuscript should remain anonymous and should not contain author names, affiliations, correspondence details, or other unnecessary identifying information.

The template provides the manuscript-preparation framework; detailed requirements and journal policies remain governed by the relevant sections of these Author Guidelines.

The current file is available through the Download Template resource provided below this topic.

The Title Page Template should be completed and submitted separately from the anonymous manuscript.

The title page provides the information required to identify the authors and document the declarations associated with the submission. It includes:

• article title;
• author names;
• departmental, faculty, institutional, city, and country affiliations;
• email addresses;
• ORCID iDs;
• corresponding-author information;
• CRediT author contribution statements;
• ethical approval;
• informed consent;
• generative-AI use;
• funding;
• conflicts of interest;
• data availability; and
• acknowledgments.

The journal permits a maximum of six authors per manuscript, and the author list, author order, and contribution information should be accurate at the time of initial submission.

Authors should select only declarations that accurately reflect the study and should replace all placeholder fields with complete and accurate information. Where supporting ethics, consent, funding, permission, or other documentation exists, authors should retain it in case verification is requested during editorial assessment.

Information provided on the title page should be consistent with the metadata entered into the journal submission system.

The current file is available through the Download Title Page resource provided below this topic.

Do I need to use the journal templates?

Authors should prepare new submissions using the current official Manuscript Template and Title Page Template. The templates are designed to ensure that manuscript formatting, author information, and required declarations are provided consistently.

Should author names appear in the manuscript?

No. Open Educational Studies uses double-blind peer review. The manuscript submitted for review should therefore be anonymous. Author names, affiliations, correspondence information, and other identifying declarations should be provided separately.

How many authors may be listed?

A manuscript may include a maximum of six authors. All listed authors must meet the journal’s authorship requirements and accurately report their contributions.

What are the title, abstract, and keyword requirements?

The article title should contain no more than 15 words. The manuscript should include a structured abstract of 200–250 words and exactly five keywords, with each keyword containing no more than two words.

Which reference style does the journal use?

Open Educational Studies uses APA 7th edition. Authors are responsible for ensuring consistency between in-text citations and the reference list and for verifying the accuracy and completeness of references.

What are the requirements for figures?

Figures should have a minimum resolution of 100 DPI, should not use unnecessary borders, should be numbered and referred to in the manuscript text, and should have their sources explicitly identified where applicable.

Do all studies require ethical approval?

No. Ethical approval is required where applicable to the research. Studies involving human participants, human biological materials, or identifiable personal data should report the appropriate ethics-review information. When ethical approval is genuinely not applicable, the reason should be declared accurately.

Do I need to provide an informed-consent statement?

Where research involves human participants, authors must report the applicable informed-consent procedure. For research involving minors, parental or legal-guardian consent and age-appropriate minor assent should be reported where applicable. The available declaration options also cover written, electronic, and appropriately documented oral consent.

Must the use of generative AI be declared?

Yes. Authors must declare whether generative AI or AI-assisted technology was used to generate or materially modify substantive manuscript content. Where such technology was used, the tool and purpose must be disclosed, and human authors remain responsible for the accuracy, integrity, originality, and final content of the manuscript.

Can supplementary materials be submitted?

Yes. Relevant supplementary materials may accompany a manuscript when they support the research and are appropriate for editorial assessment or publication. These may include datasets, instruments, additional tables or figures, musical scores, audio, video, appendices, or other supporting materials.

Can authors be added or removed during revision?

The author list and author order are expected to be complete and final at initial submission. Adding, removing, replacing, or reordering authors after submission is restricted to exceptional and adequately justified circumstances and is governed by the journal’s Changes to Authorship policy.

What license applies to published articles?

Authors retain copyright to their work. Publishing rights are granted to Open Educational Studies, and articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA) license.

What should I do if my question is not answered in the Author Guidelines?

Authors should contact the Open Educational Studies Editorial Office through the journal’s official contact channel and provide sufficient information for the editorial team to identify and respond to the issue.

Authors are encouraged to consult these Author Guidelines before contacting the editorial office. If a question cannot be resolved through the guidelines, the Open Educational Studies Editorial Office may be contacted through the official communication channel provided by the journal.

The editorial office may assist with questions concerning:

• manuscript preparation and submission requirements;
• article categories and journal scope;
• submission files or supplementary materials;
• technical submission problems;
• revision and resubmission procedures;
• publication requirements;
• ethical or publication-policy questions;
• authorship matters;
• appeals or complaints; and
• other matters relating to an active submission or published article.

For questions relating to an existing submission, authors should provide the manuscript number, article title, corresponding-author name, and a concise explanation of the issue. Screenshots or other relevant information may be included when they are necessary to explain a technical problem.

Questions regarding editorial decisions, authorship, research integrity, complaints, or appeals should clearly identify the relevant manuscript and the specific issue requiring consideration.

Authors should communicate through the editorial office rather than attempting to identify or contact anonymous peer reviewers directly.

New manuscripts should be submitted through the journal’s submission system rather than sent to the editorial office by email unless the journal specifically instructs otherwise.