ITEL Author Instructions and Guidelines

Review Paper

Review papers aim to summarize recent and past research history and provide directions for educational technology research, such as research methods, theories, and system design, based on systematic review methods.

Translation

Translations are English translations from papers that have been published in the Japan Journal of Educational Technology (Japanese version). The content must be identical and written in proficient English. Papers in this category are NOT recognized as a research achievement. The original and translated manuscripts are reviewed by the Editorial Board of the Japan Journal of Educational Technology, and are then transferred to our journal to be approved for publication.

Invited Paper

Invited papers are informative papers written by the outstanding researchers invited by the ITEL Editorial Board.

Exception for Translation

Contributions for the Translation category must be submitted to the original journal’s Editorial Board. The translated manuscript from Japanese must be a well-written, complete English translation from the original Japanese article, which has been reviewed and approved by the original journal’s Editorial Board.

Approval by the co-authors and declaration of no gift-authorship

The submission of a manuscript indicates that its publication has been approved by all co-authors, and that the submitting author has ensured that all co-authors have contributed to the development of the manuscript through the research process.

Copyright permissions from original authors of the information resources used in the manuscript and the Prohibition of plagiarism

When submitting a manuscript that includes figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere, the authors must obtain permission(s) from their copyright owner(s) and include evidence that such permission(s) have been granted. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors. Both self-plagiarism or plagiarism of other authors is strictly prohibited. This does not apply if a citation is made appropriately according to the law.

Guarantee for ethical codes

The authors must keep in mind compliance and ethics. When submitting their manuscript, the authors are assumed to have obtained consent from the responsible authorities at the institute/organization at which the research outlined in the manuscript has been conducted. Submission of a manuscript that uses any kind of sensitive data with privacy or personal information requires the authors to ensure obtaining consent from the individuals concerned (such as participants, cooperators, institutions) before the study began. Even with this permission, the authors must exclude any personal information or information that allows readers to identify specific people or institutions where the research was conducted. Using confidential information in some organizations or institutions for the research written in the manuscript also requires the authors to obtain proper permission in advance.

In addition, the authorship should be clarified; all co-authors must agree with the content of the manuscript, and all must give their consent to submit the manuscript before submission.

Quality of English

When submitting their manuscript, the authors must ensure that the manuscript is free from typographical errors and is written in quality English that reviewers can easily understand. Receiving proofreading by native English speakers is highly recommended, either in British or American English. Submitting the proof of proofreading is preferable for the Editorial Board to recognize the English quality of the manuscript.

Intention and ability to pay for the publication charge

A publication charge applies for each article accepted for publication in this journal. Submitting the manuscript indicates that the authors ensure their intention and ability to pay the publication charge when their manuscript is accepted for publication. The submission is NOT limited to members of JSET or JSiSE; however, the submission from the authors, including at least one member from either society, is highly recommended so as to qualify for the discounted publication charge for members. If non-member authors request the membership discount, at least one of them should become a member of either society before the final decision regarding publication. For the publication charge options, see Table 1 below for details.

*Note: A charge of JPY33,000 per page is applicable for every excess page.

Length and formats

The number of pages, including the figures, tables, author portrait with biography, acknowledgements, and appendix for all submission categories, except Short papers, should be basically within 8 pages. The number of pages for Short papers should be basically 4 pages for your initial submission, and strictly within 6 pages for publication.

The manuscript format should follow the Word template. The template provides you with an A4 size exact format with an explanation regarding how to format the paper in an exact manner.

Copyright

All domestic and foreign copyrights, including all the rights stipulated in Articles 21 to 28 of the Japanese Copyright Act (which shall be deemed to include the corresponding rights in foreign countries, the foregoing shall apply hereafter), shall be equally transferred to the JSET and JSiSE at the time the papers are accepted (the accepted paper shall be referred to as “the Accepted Paper”).

The authors covenant not to exercise the author’s moral rights against JSET and JSiSE and their designated third party regarding the Accepted Paper.

The authors shall be deemed to agree to this author’s instructions by submitting one’s paper to ITEL. A contributor of an article represents and warrants that one indicated this author’s instructions to all the authors of a submitted paper and obtained their agreements prior to submission.

The authors of the Accepted Paper shall be granted the right to use the same for academic and educational purposes by oneself, including, but not limited to, including the Accepted Paper into one’s own edited compilations public transmission via the Internet, copying and distributing, without any restriction on the condition that the credit containing article title, volume page, and year of publication must be indicated. No application for permission to JSET nor JSiSE is required by the author.

Articles published in Information and Technology in Education and Learning will be Open-Access articles distributed under a Creative Commons 4.0 International License (The choice of the type of Creative Commons License shall be at the sole discretion of the Journal as the copyright holder).

Ethics

The ITEL Editorial Board is committed to upholding the integrity of the scientific record.

The manuscript should not be submitted to more than one journal or book chapter for simultaneous consideration.

The manuscript should provide transparency on the re-use of material that the authors have published elsewhere in order to avoid concerns about self-plagiarism or dual or double publications. Translation papers automatically contain attached information regarding the original source published in the Japan Journal of Educational Technology. This journal considers translation as one of the ways through which to convey promising advancements of knowledge in the area of study in education and learning in Japan to people around the world who cannot understand the original Japanese expressions.

A single study should not be split up into different parts in order to increase the number of submissions so that the authors have a higher possibility of being accepted by any journal. In addition, the authors should carefully and seriously consider inappropriate salami-publishing behavior, which is intended to increase the number of articles published in one journal over time.

The authors should present results clearly, honestly, and without any fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate data manipulation. The authors should adhere to rules for collecting, selecting, and processing data in our field of research.

Plagiarism (not only expressions, but also data or results) is strictly prohibited. The authors must acknowledge other works and follow citation rules in the area of study in information and technology in education and learning, which is also according to the Copyright Law. The authors must respect third parties’ rights, such as copyright and/or moral rights.

All authors whose names appear in the manuscript must contribute any of the following procedures in the research written in the manuscript: the design of the study, reviewing literature, conducting surveys, experiments, classroom practices, or other opportunities to collect data, software development, data analysis, developing arguments based on the results in order to lead their conclusions, developing or revising the manuscript, etc. The primary affiliation for each author should be the institution where the majority of their work was done. Each author must obtain consent for the submission from the organization to which they belong when the content of the manuscript is not only related to them, but also to their affiliation.

If there is any suspicion of misbehavior or alleged fraud, the ITEL Editorial Board will investigate the issue or the problematic situation. If there are valid concerns found in the investigation, the ITEL Editorial Board will contact the authors by e-mail and provide an opportunity to address the issue. If the infraction situation is serious, the ITEL Editorial Board will make the following decisions. The author's institution may be informed of some of the decisions:

Actual submission of the manuscript

All manuscripts, with the exception of Invited papers and Translation papers, must be submitted via our online submission system. The manuscript will obtain a unique manuscript number, and the author who submitted the manuscript can check the status of the manuscript in the review process on the online submission system, which is accessible via the ITEL website (www.j-itel.org). When a decision is made, the system automatically sends an e-mail about the decision to the authors. Revisions can be submitted through the online submission system.

When submitting or reviewing their manuscript, the authors or reviewers need to provide their names, email addresses, affiliations, and other contact details that will be used for the necessary operations for editing and publishing this journal, including, when necessary, sharing with the publisher (International Academic Publishing, Inc.) or the online journal platform (J-STAGE) and their partners for production and publication. All contributors to the ITEL publication recognize the importance of protecting the personal information collected from users in the operation of these services, and have practices in place to ensure that steps are taken to maintain the security, integrity, and privacy of the personal data collected and processed.

Revision of the manuscript

The authors can view the comments from the reviewers on the online submission system. The authors have to follow all the comments and instructions to achieve publication. The authors also have to explain in detail how they have revised the manuscript in their response letter.

The ITEL Editorial Board provides the authors with ONE (1) opportunity for four (4) weeks for revision before the final decision for the publication in order to polish the manuscript. The reason why the number of revisions is limited is to ensure the promptness of the publication process. If the authors do not submit the revised manuscript within four weeks, the submission will be automatically withdrawn.

Authors who have received a negative decision on their manuscript or have withdrawn their manuscript can make another submission for the manuscript ONLY IF they revise it according to the comments or instructions given by the reviewers. When the authors wish to submit their revised manuscript as another trial, they must submit additional documents that explain how they have revised the manuscript according to the decision letter.

After the decision for publication of the manuscript

When the authors receive the final decision letter confirming that the manuscript has been accepted for publication, the authors have to submit the following materials: the final version of the Accepted Paper (sometimes the authors may need to revise the manuscript to finalize the Accepted Paper because the reviewers or the Editors may ask for some concise revisions to improve the manuscript, but not significant changes), a copyright transfer agreement, and other necessary data that is necessary for publication. There are several proofreading opportunities for the authors before the actual publication. In this process, the authors are also asked to pay for the publication charge.

After finishing the process above, the Accepted Paper is published immediately online on J-STAGE, which is an electronic journal platform for science and technology information in Japan.