Journal of Research in Science, Mathematics and Technology Education

Aims, Scope, and Journal Policies

ISSN: 2577-6789

Aims & Scope

The objective of the Journal of Research in Science Mathematics and Technology Education (JRSMTE ) is to publish original, fully peer-reviewed articles on a variety of topics and research methods in science, mathematics, and technology education. Priority is given to interdisciplinary research that integrates science, mathematics, and technology education.

Fee, Publication frequency & DOI

All processes of publishing are free of charge.

JRSMTE is published online every January, May, and September in a year.

JRSMTE assigns a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to each published article.

We Consider Articles for Publication Which; 

report original science and add significantly to research already published
are of interest to the community
are scientifically rigorous
have sound motivation and purpose
have not been published previously in the peer-reviewed literature, including in another language
are not under consideration for publication in any other peer-reviewed journal or book available through a library or by purchase.

Peer Review Policy

Our journal has adopted a double-blind reviewing policy, where both the referee and author remain anonymous throughout the process. Please remove all identifying features from the paper itself, ensuring that the Authors’ identity is not revealed.

All contributions will be initially assessed by the executive editor for suitability for the journal. Papers deemed suitable are then typically sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the paper. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the final decision regarding the acceptance or rejection of articles. The Editor’s decision is final.

The peer-review process takes place in 10 steps.

  1. Submission of Paper: The corresponding author submits the paper to the journal via an online system Make a submission.
  2. Editorial Office Assessment: The journal checks the paper’s composition and arrangement against the journal’s Author Guidelines (Author Guidelines) to make sure it includes the required sections and stylizations. The quality of the paper is not assessed at this point.
  3. Appraisal by the Editor-in-Chief (EIC): The EIC checks that the paper is appropriate for the journal and is sufficiently original and interesting. If not, the paper may be rejected without being reviewed any further.
  4. EIC Assigns an Associate Editor: Associate Editors handle the peer review.
  5. Invitation to Reviewers: The handling editor sends invitations to individuals he or she believes would be appropriate reviewers. As responses are received, further invitations are issued, if necessary, until the required number of acceptances is obtained – commonly this is 2.
  6. Response to Invitations: Potential reviewers consider the invitation against their own expertise, conflicts of interest, and availability. They then accept or decline. If possible, when declining, they might also suggest alternative reviewers.
  7. Review is Conducted: The reviewer sets time aside to read the paper. The first read is used to form an initial impression of the work. If major problems are found at this stage, the reviewer may feel comfortable rejecting the paper without further work. Otherwise, they will read the paper several more times, taking notes so as to build a detailed point-by-point review. The review is then submitted to the journal, with a recommendation to accept or reject it – or else with a request for revision (usually flagged as either major or minor) before it is reconsidered.
  8. Journal Evaluates the Reviews: The handling editor considers all the returned reviews before making an overall decision. If the reviews differ widely, the editor may invite an additional reviewer so as to get an extra opinion before making a decision.
  9. The Decision is Communicated: The editor sends a decision email to the author including any relevant reviewer comments.
  10. Next Steps: If accepted, the paper is sent to production. If the article is rejected or sent back for either major or minor revision, the handling editor tries to include constructive comments from the reviewers to help the author improve the article. At this point, reviewers are also sent an email or letter letting them know the outcome of their review. If the paper was sent back for revision, the reviewers are expected to receive a new version, unless they have opted out of further participation. However, where only minor changes were requested this follow-up review is done by the handling editor.
  11. JRSMTE does not accept appeals to the review process. However, authors may edit their manuscript and resubmit any time after a rejection; a cover letter may be included to argue for your paper’s inclusion in spite of initial unfavorable reviews.

Transparent Reviewing Process (see the flowchart).

Guidelines for Reviewers:

Reviewers (typically 2 per manuscript) are selected by the handling editor based on the Reviewers’ familiarity with the content in the manuscript and are recruited through Editorial Park. As a double-blind peer review journal, conflicts of interests in reviewing are kept to a minimum by masking the identity of both the reviewer and the authors to each other throughout the editorial process. As such, authors’ suggestions for a reviewer by name are not considered.

Reviewers are asked to evaluate the manuscript based on whether it is original and novel work, of interest to the global community of SMTE scholars, scientifically rigorous, and sound in motivation and purpose. Completed written reviews are expected after two weeks

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public, supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Preprint Policy

JRSMTE supports the early sharing of research via preprint servers and other early sharing platforms and our authors are permitted to share a Preprint of their article anywhere at any time.

If your article is subsequently published in JRSMTE, or if you choose to post the Preprint after the publication of the Final Published Version, then we strongly encourage you to add the following information to the Preprint in order to maximize the readership and citation of the final Version of Record:

  1. Citation details of the Version of Record;
  2. A link from the preprint to the Version of Record via DOI (digital object identifier); and
  3. The wording as set out below:

This is the version of the article before peer review or editing, as submitted by an author to JRSMTE. JRSMTE is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at [INSERT DOI].

Special Issue:

JRSMTE publishes an annual Graduate Student Special Issue, soliciting articles that were written during graduate studies in areas of Science, Math, and Technology Education, including those that were part of a recent graduate thesis. All of the articles submitted to JRSMTE, whether submitted for regular or Special Issues, go through the same rigorous peer review process. The Editor-in-Chief and Executive Editor are responsible for the content of the entire journal

Ethical Guidelines for Authors:

Authors should provide all sources of data used in the research. Plagiarism in all its forms is unethical and it is unacceptable. Authors must ensure that the submitted article is their original work, which has not been previously published including in any other language. Authors must ensure that the submitted article has not been considered for publication elsewhere. Authors must state that all data in the paper are real and authentic.

If evidence of plagiarism or data manipulation or fabrication is found before/after acceptance or after the publication of the paper, a letter or email will be sent notifying the lead author of the issue and of potential retraction. The author will be offered a chance for rebuttal. If the arguments are not found to be satisfactory, the manuscript will be retracted and the author sanctioned from publishing papers for a period to be determined by the responsible Editor(s).

Authors are responsible for following and reporting recommended ethical research practices, including informed consent and maintaining participant confidentiality, in keeping with international guidelines for educational research ethics.

https://www.bera.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/BERA-Ethical-Guidelines-2011.pdf

Authors must disclose any sources of funding that would generate a conflict of interest.

Allegations of misconduct

The Editor-in-Chief (editor@jrsmte.com) should be contacted for any allegations or concerns of author misconduct. Misconduct includes but is not limited to plagiarism, data fabrication, undisclosed funding sources or other conflicts of interest, research ethics violations (e.g. lack of informed consent from research participants), or review process manipulation. The EIC will designate a handling editor to undertake an impartial and confidential investigation of the allegations.

JRSMTE makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in our publications. However, JRSMTE makes no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by JRSMTE. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. JRSMTE  shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to, or arising out of the use of the Content.

The Policy of Screening Plagiarism

JRSMTE adheres to the international policies against plagiarism. JRSMTE uses the Turnitin platform for plagiarism detection. Before submitting articles to reviewers, those are first checked for plagiarism, by a member of the editorial team.  We define plagiarism as a case in which a paper reproduces another work with at least 15% similarity and without citation or quotation marks surrounding quoted material, with attribution.

Plagiarism is the presentation of another person’s thoughts or words as though they were your own, without permission, credit, or acknowledgment, or because of failing to cite the sources properly. Plagiarism can take diverse forms, from literal copying to paraphrasing the work of another, including translation from another language. In order to properly judge whether an author has plagiarized, we emphasize the following possible situations:

Paraphrasing involves taking ideas, words, or phrases from a source and crafting them into new sentences within the writing. This practice becomes unethical when the author does not properly cite or does not acknowledge the original work/author. 

Authorship and Copyright without Restrictions

To prevent the unethical addition of co-authors, all authors and co-authors should have made a substantial contribution to the manuscript, and should be well-versed in the manuscript’s central thesis, findings, and implications.

The journal allows the author(s) to hold the copyright without restrictions and will retain publishing rights without restrictions.

The submitted papers are assumed to contain no proprietary material unprotected by patent or patent application; responsibility for technical content and for protection of proprietary material rests solely with the author(s) and their organizations and is not the responsibility of the JRSMTE or its Editorial Staff. The main (first/corresponding) author is responsible for ensuring that the article has been seen and approved by all the other authors. It is the responsibility of the author to obtain all necessary copyright release permissions for the use of any copyrighted materials in the manuscript prior to the submission.

Author(s) Rights

It is important to check the policy for the journal to which you are submitting or publishing to establish your rights as an author. JRSMTE’s standard policies allow the following re-use rights:

  • The journal allows the author(s) to hold the copyright without restrictions.
  • The journal allows the author(s) to obtain publishing rights without restrictions.
  • You may do whatever you wish with the version of the article you submitted to the journal.
  • Once the article has been accepted for publication, you may post the accepted version of the article on your own personal website, your department’s website, or the repository of your institution without any restrictions.
  • You may use the published article for your own teaching needs.
  • You may use the article in a book authored or edited by you at any time after publication in the journal.
  • When posting or re-using the article please provide a link to the appropriate DIP for the published version of the article on the JRSMTE Journal.

Copyright and Access

  • Journal of Research in Science Mathematics and Technology Education (JRSMTE) refers to the “Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International” license. Manuscript content on this site is licensed under Creative Commons Licenses

Copyright and Access

Journal of Research in Science Mathematics and Technology Education (JRSMTE) refers to the “Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International” license. Manuscript content on this site is licensed under Creative Commons Licenses.

This license allows authors to use all articles, data sets, graphics, and appendices in data mining applications, search engines, websites, blogs, and other platforms by providing appropriate references.

JRSMTE is an open-access journal and all individual articles are available to readers without any subscription/fees.

Archiving: The publisher of JRSMTE ensures electronic backup of the published articles and website content regularly. All published articles are also being archived in our second server database and available for access.