International Journal of Curriculum and Instructional Studies (IJOCIS)

International Journal of Curriculum and Instructional Studies (IJOCIS) Author Guide

• About the Journal
• Indexing
• Boards
• Submission Guideline
• Publication Process 
• Before Submission
• Submission Preparation
• After Acceptance

About the Journal

International Journal of Curriculum and Instructional Studies (IJOCIS), which started its publication life by publishing its first issue on 01.06.2011, is an international refereed journal (ISSN: 2146-3638; E-ISSN: 2619-9068) published by the Turkish Association of Curriculum and Instruction  (TACI/EPÖDER). Through IJOCIS, the TACI/EPÖDER aims to create a common scientific platform for theoretical and practical workers in the field of Curriculum and Instruction.

IJOCIS accepts studies focusing on the field of Curriculum and Instruction for publication. The journal includes qualitative and quantitative original research, theoretical studies, original opinions and model proposals related to Curriculum and Instruction. The main purpose of IJOCIS is to be a reliable and reputable source of information where conceptual and applied scientific research in the field of Curriculum and Instruction is published at national and international level.

This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.

 IJOCIS is indexed by various national and international databases as indicated below.

Indexation

- ERIC (Education Resources Information Center)

- Ulakbim TR Dizin

- ERIH Plus (European Reference Index for the Humanities)

- EBSCO Central & Eastern European Academic Source

- Arastirmax

- Idealonline

- ASOS Index

- Google Scholar

Boards

Owner

Prof. Dr. Özcan Demirel, Cyprus International University, TRNC/KKTC

Editor-In-Chief

Prof. Dr. Kerim Gündoğdu, Aydın Adnan Menderes University, Türkiye

Editors

Assoc. Prof. Dr. A. Selcen Bingöl, Gazi University, Türkiye

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gülçin Tan Şişman, Hacettepe University, Türkiye

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Semra Tican Başaran, Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, Türkiye

Assist. Editors

Assist. Prof. Dr. Yasemin Karsantık, Trabzon University, Türkiye

Assist. Prof. Dr. Nesrin Öztürk, İzmir Demokrasi University, Türkiye

Statistical Editor

Prof. Dr. A. Banu Yücel Toy, Yıldız Technical University, Türkiye

Technical Editors

Dr. Veysel Karani Ceylan, (ICT teacher), Milas District Directorate of National Education, Türkiye

Res. Assist. Metin Kartal, (PhD Candidate) Ankara University, Türkiye

Çetin Yurtseven, (Teacher, M.Sc.), Muğla, Türkiye

Proofreading Editors

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dilara Demirbulak, Yeditepe University, Türkiye

Assist. Prof. Dr. Gülçin Gülmez, Middle East Technical University, Northern Cyprus

Assist. Prof. Dr. Betül Altay, Aydın Adnan Menderes University, Türkiye

Burcu Dönmez, (Turkish teacher & PhD Candidate), Aydın Adnan Menderes University, Türkiye

Türkü Payza, (Turkish teacher & PhD Candidate), Aydın Adnan Menderes University, Türkiye

Ceren Karakoç, (Turkish teacher & PhD Student), Aydın Adnan Menderes University, Türkiye

Scientific Editorial Board

Prof. Dr. Ahmet Doğanay, Çukurova University, Türkiye                             adoganay@cu.edu.tr

Prof. Dr. Ahmet OK, Middle East Technical University, Türkiye                   as@metu.edu.tr

Prof. Dr. Ali Yıldırım, University of Gothenburg, Sweden                             ali.yildirim@gu.se

Prof. Dr. A. Seda Saracaloğlu, Aydın Adnan Menderes Univ., Türkiye        sedasaracal@adu.edu.tr

Prof. Dr. Berit Karseth, University of Oslo, Norway                                      berit.karseth@iped.uio.no

Prof. Dr. Catherine K. K. Chan, University of Hong Kong                              kkcc7950@hku.hk

Prof. Dr. Dawn Sanders, University of Gothenburg, Sweden                       dawn.sanders@gu.se

Prof. Dr. Eero Ropo, (Emeritus) University of Tampere, Finland                  eero.ropo@tuni.fi

Prof. Dr. Fatma Hazır Bıkmaz, Ankara University, Türkiye                            bikmaz@ankara.edu.tr

Prof. Dr. Gülsen Ünver, Ege University, Türkiye                                              gulsen.unver@ege.edu.tr

Prof. Dr. Hanife Akar, Middle East Technical University, Türkiye                 hanif@metu.edu.tr

Prof. Dr. Kıymet Selvi, (Emeritus), Anadolu University, Türkiye                  kselvi59@gmail.com

Prof. Dr. Kristi Klette, University of Oslo, Norway                                         kirsti.klette@ils.uio.no

Prof. Dr. Lin Goodwin, Columbia University (Emeritus), USA                      alg25@tc.columbia.edu

Prof. Dr. Lynn Davies, University of Birmingham, U.K.                                l.davies@bham.ac.uk

Prof. Dr. Melek Demirel, Hacettepe University, Türkiye                              mdemirel@hacettepe.edu.tr

Prof. Dr. Meral Güven, Anadolu University, Türkiye                                     mguven@anadolu.edu.tr

Prof. Dr. Michael Apple, University of Wisconsin, Norway                          apple@education.wisc.edu

Prof. Dr. Michael Osborne,  University of Glasgow, The UK                       Michael.Osborne@glasgow.ac.uk

Prof. Dr. Nilay Bümen, Ege University, Türkiye                                             nilay.bumen@ege.edu.tr

Prof. Dr. Orhan Akınoğlu, Marmara University, Türkiye                              oakinoglu@marmara.edu.tr

Prof. Dr. Ronald Sultana, University of Malta, Malta                                   ronald.sultana@um.edu.mt

Prof. Dr. Susan Drake, Canada Brock University, Canada                            sdrake@brocku.ca

Prof. Dr. Todd Alan Price, National St Louis University, USA                        tprice@nl.edu

Prof. Dr. Ursula Hoadley, University of Cape Town, South Africa                uk.hoadley@uct.ac.za

Prof. Dr. Wee Tiong Seah,  University of Melbourne, Australia                   wt.seah@unimelb.edu.au

Submission Guideline

Article submissions to the Journal of Curriculum and Instruction Studies can be made electronically at http://ijocis.com/index.php/ijocis. In addition, authors can send their different questions or messages via e-mail to ijocisjournal@gmail.com if they deem necessary. It is recommended to check this box in your e-mail address at the time of the initial submission in case the e-mails fall into the junk (spam) box. Since all operations are carried out through these platforms, we do not pay attention to other types of submissions and communication methods.

Evaluation and Publication Process

Submitting

Studies submitted to the International Journal of Curriculum and Instructional Studies are published in English with extended Turkish summary. Author(s) can upload their manuscripts on the web page by using the journal template prepared in accordance with APA7 format and following the necessary procedures. The article should be uploaded as a single file with the extended Turkish summary at the end. Three different files are requested from authors during the submission process:

1) Blind Review Text, which ensures that no names of individuals, institutions or organizations are mentioned in the submission files,

2) Title Page, which includes individuals, institutions, organizations, ORCID numbers (etc.),

3) Ethical Approval Form for articles that are resarch/field studies

The author(s) is not expected to upload the Similarity Report. This report is produced by IJOCIS technical team through Ithenticate

Initial Checking

When submissions are uploaded to the system, they are first reviewed by the Editor-In-Chief in terms of journal focus and scope. If deemed appropriate, they are first referred to the Assistant Editors for similarity check and journal template/format check. This stage takes a maximum of two weeks depending on the intensity. The feedback and corrections given by the associate Editors in terms of format are forwarded to the author and the author is given a maximum of two weeks for this work. The corrected file received from the author is reviewed by the Editor-In-Chief and v to ensure that it can be forwarded to the Editor. Candidate articles based on quantitative research are forwarded to the Statistics Editor if deemed necessary by the Editor-In-Chief.

The article forwarded to the Editor is reviewed by the Editor and the Editor conveys his/her thoughts about the article (if necessary) to the Editor-In-Chief. At this stage, the article may be sent to the evaluation process as it is or the author may be asked to edit the article before evaluation.  The manuscript, which is forwarded to the Editor and is not objectionable to enter the evaluation process, is forwarded by the Editor to (at least) two expert reviewers in the relevant field. It is ensured that both of these reviewers are from different institutions. The reviewers must have at least a PhD degree in the relevant field of specialization. This process takes a maximum of two weeks. Therefore, it takes a maximum of four weeks for the article to be uploaded, reviewed and evaluated. 

Evaluation Process

The reviewers are given one month for a study for which a reviewer is appointed. A reviewer who accepts the review is expected to complete the evaluation within one month. If he/she fails to complete it, he/she is given an additional period of two weeks. If he/she states that he/she needs additional time, a final two-week period may be given. If the evaluation is not completed within this period, the Editor changes the reviewer. The peer review process takes two to three months on average, taking into account correspondence.

The feedback/evaluations received from the reviewers are received and the author(s) are informed after the Editors check the relevant decisions and files. This information and files are forwarded to the authors. If corrections are requested by the reviewer(s), the author(s) is given a maximum of one month to fulfill them. Many reviewers ask to see the manuscript edited by the author(s) again. The feedbacks fulfilled by the author(s), together with the files, if any, are resent to the reviewer(s) and the reviewer(s) are asked for their opinions on the necessary corrections and edits of the author(s). The reviewer(s) may also request additional edits as a result of checking the files. The author(s) should fulfill these corrections/edits and upload both the corrected file and the file in response to the reviewer to the system to be forwarded to the Editor. At this point, it is useful to indicate the points they object to the reviewer's evaluations by marking them with the 'track changes' option in Word.

If there is an acceptance and a rejection decision from the reviewers, the Editor may refer the manuscript to a third reviewer by taking these opinions into consideration; may ask for a major revision by taking the initiative; may reject (decline) or accept the manuscript by asking for an minör revision. After the final decision of the reviewers, the whole process is reviewed by the Editor and a decision/opinion is formed about the study. The Editor may share this decision/opinion with the Editor-In-Chief. If deemed necessary, the Editor-In-Chief may ask the members of the Scientific Editorial Board for their opinions on the article. This stage takes a maximum of two weeks.

Before Submission

Author Names

When submitting an article to the International Journal of Curriculum and Instructional Studies, the template file should be taken into consideration. All author names must be given in the correct order and complete. No author additions are allowed after the submission of the article (unless also given on the Title Page). If it is requested to delete an author or change the author ranking after the article has been submitted, this is possible with an official request signed by all authors. It is recommended to pay attention to this in order to avoid any problems.

Conflict of Interest

The author(s) are responsible for the submissions to the International Journal of Curriculum and Instructional Studies. If the author(s) has any conflict of interest with any person, institution or organization, it should be notified before the evaluation process begins. 

Submission Declaration

All or part of a submission to the International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction Studies must not have been published anywhere else. All submissions are checked for plagiarism/similarity before being evaluated. It should be noted that similarities with other works of the author(s) are also considered as plagiarism. Such submissions are returned to the author and resubmission is not accepted.

Copyright

It should be accepted by the author(s) that the Owner of the International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction Studies, Editor, Assistant Editors, Reviewers and Scientific Committee have no responsibility for the scope, findings, results and interpretations of the article uploaded to the system.

It must be declared to the International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction Studies that the article is original, has not been sent to any other journal for publication or has not been published before.

The copyrights of the articles published in the International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction Studies (IJOCIS) belong to the authors. However, the first publication rights are granted to IJOCIS and the Association of Curriculum and Instruction as the owner. The journal/publisher is not responsible for subsequent uses of the work. It is the author's responsibility to file an infringement lawsuit if requested by the author.

Publication Ethics

According to ULAKBIM rules and principles, Ethics Committee Approval Document is required for studies. Ethics committee approval must be obtained before starting clinical and experimental studies with humans that require an ethics committee decision for social sciences. This report is expected to be uploaded to the system with the submission file during the first submission. Beyond the legally defined requirements at the national level, it is an obligation to comply with international laws and ethical standards and principles widely accepted by the academic community in the preparation of an article. For this reason, it is important for all stakeholders to comply with the standards for ethical principles and they are required to carry the following responsibilities.

 Author Responsibilities

• A submission to the International Journal of Curriculum and Instructional Studies is expected to be original. All information from other studies must be cited completely and accurately.
• Ethics committee approval must be obtained before initiating clinical and experimental studies with humans that require ethics committee approval. In the method section of the study, information such as the date and number of the authorized committee of the ethics committee approval and informed consent from the participants should be included.
• People who do not contribute to the study should not be listed as authors.
• If there is any conflict of interest regarding the applied study, the process given under the heading 'Conflict of Interest' should be followed.
• Raw data of the study may be requested during the evaluation process, in such a case, the author(s) must submit the relevant data as soon as possible.
• Authors should obtain permission documents from relevant persons, institutions or organizations when necessary.
• A study should not be sent to more than one journal for evaluation. If detected, the ethical processes that our journal is subject to will be followed.
• During the evaluation process, the author(s) should not reach stakeholders in any way on issues that will affect the evaluation process of their work.

Ethical Compliance Checklist

• Did you obtain Ethics Committee Approval before the study started?
• If you used unpublished tools, procedures or data that others may claim ownership of, did you obtain permission for use?
• Have you obtained the necessary legal permissions for data collection/application etc. in your study?
• Have you properly cited/referenced the published studies that you have used or quoted in your article?
• If you have used copyrighted materials, have you obtained permission to use these materials?
• Will you be able to answer questions from the Editor that you have obtained the "informed consent" of the people from whom you collected data or that you have made the necessary explanations?
• Have you taken adequate measures to ensure the confidentiality of the information provided by participants, third parties, or anyone else from whom you obtained data, and to protect them from harm?
• If there is more than one author, have all authors read and agreed on the content?
• If there is more than one author, have all authors agreed on the order of author names?

Editor Responsibilities

• Facilitate and contribute to the review process.
• Appointing impartial and relevant double-blind reviewers.
• Ensuring that the process is completed quickly.
• Maintain complete records.
• Support freedom of thought.
• Maintain an objective attitude.
• Maintain business processes without compromising intellectual property rights and ethical standards.
• Take responsibility for controversial or conflict of interest issues.

Reviewer Responsibilities

• First of all, reviewers should only accept to evaluate studies related to their field of expertise.
• They should not access the identity information of the author(s). If they reach or guess the identity information of the author(s), they should terminate the evaluation process.
• Evaluate with impartiality and confidentiality.
• If they think that they are faced with a conflict of interest during the evaluation process, they should refuse to review the study and inform the journal Editor.
• They can only use the studies they have reviewed after the study is published. No information regarding a rejected study should be shared.
• Evaluate objectively only with regard to the content of the study. They should not allow nationality, gender, religious beliefs, political views and commercial concerns to influence the evaluation.
• Evaluate in a constructive and courteous manner. They should not make derogatory personal comments, including slander and insults.
• Complete the evaluation of the accepted paper on time.

Publisher Responsibilities

• Editors are responsible for all processes of the studies. Since Editors are the decision-makers, the publisher undertakes to provide independent Editorial judgment.
• Protects the ownership and copyright of each published article, respects the rights of authors and undertakes the obligation to keep a record of each published copy.
• The publisher has the responsibility to take measures against all kinds of scientific misconduct, citation mongering and plagiarism related to Editors.

Assuring the Accuracy of Scientific Knowledge

Ethics in reporting research results: The scientific method is based on the replicability and verifiability of observations. Data cannot be fabricated or altered to achieve a particular result or to support hypotheses, including the manipulation of visual material. No part of the data or findings may be disregarded in favor of a more desirable and convincing conclusion.

In the event of an unintentional error in writing, the author is obliged to inform the readership of this error when he/she realizes this error after the article is published. For this purpose, he/she first notifies the Editor and the publisher of the error and ensures that the correction is published. Each correction must be published on the web and accessible to readers.

Storing and sharing data: When doubts arise about the accuracy of the research report, the author must submit the data to the Editor. If the author fails to submit the data, the manuscript will be rejected without further evaluation. The researcher is obliged to keep the data, application tools and other materials for at least 5 (five) years from the date of publication of the research. After the article is published, the researcher must share the data if other [qualified] researchers request the research data. However, before sharing the data with other researchers, all codes and data that can be associated with the identification of subjects/participants must be deleted. If the research is funded by an organization, measures must be taken to protect the rights of that organization and ensure proper attribution. A written agreement must be signed and recorded between the researcher who wants to share the data and the researcher who owns the data, including the purpose, scope, conditions and limitations of use, limits and conditions of sharing with third parties

Repeated or fragmented publication of data: Data republication is the publication of findings from the same data in a second journal or other source as if it were the first time. Republishing is also a violation of legal regulations on copyright. Because the author cannot give copyright to more than one institution for the same work. The whole of a previously published work or a part of it that exceeds the amount that can be cited with reference cannot be published a second time and in another source. A work with the same content or substantially similar to a previously published article cannot be submitted for consideration for publication. Articles that have been presented as a paper but not published may be submitted for consideration for publication in a journal with a footnote indicating that they were presented as a paper. However, published papers cannot be submitted for consideration for publication in journals.

In rare cases, if the author wishes to make the research results accessible to a different audience, it may be possible to publish the results in a new source, provided that the following conditions are met:

• The republished material is relatively shortened compared to the original text.
• It is clearly footnoted that the information has been previously published, the previous publication is cited in full, and written permission has been obtained from the publisher where it was first published.
• Previously published tables, graphs and images should be identified as [reprints] in the text and in footnotes.
• The original publication is clearly and accurately cited in the bibliography.

The data obtained from a research should be presented as a whole and should not be divided into parts. It can be misleading to publish research in parts. However, in cases where it is appropriate to publish more than one publication from the results of large-scale, long-term or interdisciplinary studies, more than one publication can be published in the same source or in different sources. In interdisciplinary studies, it may not be appropriate to publish research findings in a single source. In long-term studies, if the results of the analyses performed at different stages of the study make a unique contribution to scientific knowledge, the analyses at different stages can be published as separate studies, but specifying the stage of the research. In this case, publications based on earlier phases of the research should be cited. In publications based on long-term studies, the information given in the publications made in the early stages of the same research should not be repeated, and references to previous information should be made to inform the reader.

If more than one paper based on the same research is submitted for evaluation, this issue should be explained to the Editor and the Editor should evaluate whether the second study meets the criteria for publication as a separate study.

Plagiarism and self-plagiarism: Authors are not allowed to write about other people's information and ideas as their own. Likewise, they may not publish their own previously published work, or parts of it, without citation or attribution.

Protection of Participants' Rights and Interests

The confidentiality of the information provided by the participants must be protected and secured. For this reason, the research report should not contain information that would enable the participants to be identified. If there is a subordinate-superior relationship or a teacher-student relationship in collecting data from the participants and obtaining their consent to use the data, care should be taken to ensure that this relationship does not put the subordinate under pressure to provide the requested information and consent. Especially for academics, seeing their students as "natural participants" may lead to a serious bias in the research, as well as a violation of the rights of students to provide or not provide information of their own volition. 

If the subject of the research is the evaluation of a service or product, the researcher should not have a commercial relationship with the relevant organization or have a conflict of interest in any way. If the researcher has a relationship that can be considered as a conflict of interest, this relationship should be expressed as a limitation, even if there is no conflict of interest that will affect objectivity in the research process.

Protection of Intellectual Product Rights

Authorship is a right gained by making a significant contribution to a study and accepting responsibility for the published work. Significant contribution means formulating the problem or hypothesis, structuring the experimental design or implementation procedures, performing statistical analyses, interpreting the results, writing part of the study. Significant contributors are listed as authors. However, the names and contributions of other contributors who cannot be listed as authors should be indicated in footnotes. Other contributions that do not confer authorship rights but should be acknowledged include providing support in the creation of the data collection tool, making suggestions on data analysis techniques, collecting or entering data, finding participants, and making routine observations.

In listing the names of the authors, the contribution of each author is generally taken into account and the names of the authors are listed starting with the author who contributed the most. If the contributions of the authors are equal, alphabetical order can be made by clearly stating this point. Institutional or professional titles and statuses are not taken into account in the listing of authors' names.

Preparation for Submission

Template

Studies in the International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction Studies are published in English with an extended Turkish summary. Author(s) are required to upload the requested files using the article template after following the necessary steps on the web page. The names of individuals, institutions and organizations should not be mentioned in the submission files. APA7 compliance must be observed in all studies.

Word Count

Submissions are expected to be at most 10,000 words, excluding the list of references. However, if there are different requirements depending on the nature of the work, the author may contact the Editor-In-Chief.

Abstract

The abstract is expected to be maximum 250 words. Statistical programs, citations, references, etc. (unless they are very important) should not be written in this section.

Keywords

3-5 keywords that are not too general and specific and that best limit the research should be used. Each keyword should not exceed 3 words.

Headings

Detailed information about headings is given in the template. Titles should not be numbered and the titles in the template should be used as much as possible.

Symbols

The relevant submission file should be prepared with MS Word 2010 and later, and the necessary symbols should be made with the insert symbol command, not as images.

Tables

Table notations are given in the template. When referring to tables in the text, it is expected to use the expressions "in Table 1/Table 2..." instead of "the table below/above...".

Figures/Graphs/Photographs etc.

Figure representations are given in the template. When referring to figures in the text, it is expected to use the expressions "in Figure 1/Figure 2..." instead of "the figure below/above...". In addition, the images should be at least 300 dpi resolution.

Numbers

In the representation of numbers in the text, numbers in the range of '0-1' (such as one, two... nine, etc.) should be given in the form of text (except findings; first grade students, etc.). Similarly, all numbers (except findings) after the period should be given in text form (found. Eleventh century... etc.). In both text and tables, continuous data should be shown in decimal form (11.25, 24.00, etc.). Whole numbers should be given with double zeros and numbers that need to be rounded should be rounded. The separator is a period.

Information and Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments should be added just before the references after the publication is accepted. It should never be added during the submission.

Author Contribution Statement

In multi-authored articles, it should be indicated in this section which stages of the article each author is individually responsible for.

References

It should be ensured that APA7 format is used in all references. Different APA7 citation formats are indicated in the template. 

After Acceptance

Production/Redaction and Publication Process

For a study accepted for publication, the language editing process begins and the relevant file is forwarded to the proofreading Editors. The feedback/correction requests received from the proofreading Editors in terms of language are forwarded back to the author(s) by the Editor and the correction is expected. This stage takes a maximum of one month.

The author(s) is asked to fill in the author, institution, e-mail and ORCID information as in the template on the final edited file, which has completed all controls, and to fill in footnote and acknowledgment information, if any.

Layout

The manuscript is proofread by the author(s) and uploaded to the system, and the technical Editors review the manuscript as a structure and make the necessary layout arrangements. After the process is completed and final approval is received from the author(s), the file is assigned a DOI number and published online. Authors are not asked to include academic titles.

Following the initial submission, the publication process of an article can take between three and twelve months.

                                     For all other inquiries:  ijocisjournal@gmail.com