About

Research and Education (REd) is an international, peer-reviewed journal in the field of education, published twice a year by WEIK Press in Bucharest, Romania. The journal operates independently of any university or research institute, ensuring that editorial decisions remain free from institutional pressure and that all submissions are treated on the same terms. REd is a Diamond Open Access journal, with no fees for authors, institutions or readers, and applies the same double-blind peer review process, regardless of whether the author is a doctoral candidate or an established scholar.

The journal has been published continuously since its launch in 2017. Since 2022, REd has maintained a strict biannual publication schedule, with issues released in July and December, without delays or missed issues. Since Issue No. 11 (2024), the entire editorial workflow has been managed through ScholarOne Manuscripts, providing a robust and internationally recognised platform for manuscript submission, peer review, and editorial management.

Journal facts at a glance

Aims and Scope

Research and Education publishes original research that helps understand teaching, learning and educational systems across formal, non-formal, and informal settings. We welcome empirical, theoretical, methodological and review papers on topics such as: higher education research and policy; school education (primary, secondary, vocational); early childhood education; adult and lifelong learning; distance and online learning; educational technology and artificial intelligence in education; educational psychology; teaching methods and pedagogical innovation; curriculum studies; educational leadership and management; educational assessment and evaluation; comparative and international education; education for sustainable development; equity, inclusion and diversity in education; and educational research methodology.

Interdisciplinary submissions are welcome, provided that the research question and contribution sit clearly within the field of education.

The journal accepts the following types of manuscripts:

• Original Research Articles: 6,000 to 10,000 words
• Theoretical or Conceptual Articles: 5,000 to 8,000 words
• Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (ex: PRISMA 2020): 7,000 to 12,000 words
• Book Reviews: 1,500 to 2,500 words
• Editorials: by invitation only

Manuscripts outside the journal’s scope: 

• Manuscripts outside the field of education
• Promotional or commercial content 
• Verbatim conference proceedings. 

A paper previously presented at a conference may be considered only if it contains at least 30% new content, and the previous version is disclosed at the time of submission.

The journal’s average rejection rate is approximately 60%

Peer Review Policy

All original research articles and theoretical and systematic review submissions undergo a double-blind peer review by at least two independent external reviewers. Book reviews and editorials undergo an editorial review only.

Since Issue No. 11 (2024), the entire peer review activity has been managed through ScholarOne Manuscripts (Clarivate). The platform supports manuscript anonymisation, keeps full records of all editorial actions and provides an auditable history of the decision-making process.

Stage 1. Desk review, 7 to 10 working days. The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Office perform an initial assessment to determine whether the manuscript falls within the journal’s scope, follows the Instructions for Authors, is written in clear academic English, includes the required ethical disclosures and passes the plagiarism check. Manuscripts that do not meet these requirements are returned to the author or rejected, without external review.

Stage 2. External double-blind review, typically 6 to 10 weeks. Two reviewers are selected from the REd reviewer database, the ScholarOne pool and by targeted invitation, based on subject expertise and the absence of conflicts of interest. Under the double-blind review model, reviewers do not have access to the authors’ identities or affiliations, and authors do not know the reviewers’ identities. Authors may neither nominate nor exclude reviewers. Reviewers assess the manuscript according to six criteria: originality, scientific contribution, methodological rigour, structure and academic writing, evidence and citation (APA 7th edition) and ethical compliance.

Stage 3. Editorial decision, within 2 weeks of receiving all reports. A decision is made after considering the reviewers’ recommendations. The possible outcomes are Accept, Minor revision, Major revision and Reject. Where the reviewer recommendations differ, the editor may request a third opinion. All decisions are communicated through ScholarOne, together with the full reports. Authors may appeal a decision in accordance with the procedure described in the Complaints and appeals section.

Stage 4. Revision and re-evaluation. When a revision is requested, authors are required to complete changes and resubmit via ScholarOne within the allocated timeframe:

• Minor revision (2 weeks): Applied for minor text edits, reference checks (APA 7th edition), or formatting issues. Revised manuscripts are assessed directly by the handling Editor without returning to external peer reviewers.
• Major revision (4 weeks): Required when significant methodological, analytical, or structural updates are needed. The revised manuscript undergoes a second round of external peer review, typically assigned to the original reviewers. A major revision decision does not guarantee eventual publication.

Revision submission requirements. All revisions submitted through ScholarOne must include:

• >Point-by-point response: A comprehensive document addressing each reviewer and editor comment individually (or providing clear justification where a suggestion was not implemented).
• Marked manuscript: A version of the paper clearly showing all additions and deletions (using tracked changes or highlighting).
• Clean manuscript: An unannotated final version of the revised paper.

Deadline extensions. If authors require additional time, an extension request must be submitted to the handling Editor via ScholarOne before the initial deadline expires. Unapproved late submissions may be administratively withdrawn or required to start as new submissions.

Reviewer recognition. REd recognises the contribution of its reviewers, so a certificate is issued for each completed review. With the reviewer’s consent, completed reviews are logged as verified peer-review activity on the reviewer’s ORCID record. Each year, the first issue of the journal includes an annual acknowledgement of all reviewers who contributed during the previous calendar year. The acknowledgement does not disclose which manuscripts each reviewer evaluated.

Indicative timelines. Acknowledgement of submission within 2 working days. Desk decision in 7 to 10 working days. First external decision in 8 to 12 weeks. Production and publication in 4 to 6 weeks after acceptance. The entire process from submission to publication is expected to take between 14 and 20 weeks.

Ethics in Publication

Research and Education adheres to the COPE Core Practices, the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing and the ICMJE Recommendations, adapted for educational research. Any alleged breaches of integrity are handled in accordance with the COPE Flowcharts.

Authors must:

• submit only original work that is not under consideration elsewhere;
• respect authorship standards by making a substantive contribution, drafting or revising the manuscript, approving the final version and ensuring accountability; Ghost, gift and guest authorships are not accepted. Any change in authorship after submission requires the written consent of all authors and the editor’s approval;
• provide a CRediT statement (https://credit.niso.org/), mandatory from Issue No. 14 / 2026;
• disclose all conflicts of interest, funding sources, ethics approval (with reference number and approving body where applicable), informed consent procedures, including parental consent and child assent for minors, and a data availability statement;
• cite responsibly under APA 7th edition guidelines. Retracted articles must not be cited as if they were still valid, and AI-assisted references must be checked against the original sources;
• limit self-citation to genuinely relevant prior work.

Use of artificial intelligence by authors. Authors may use AI tools for language editing and limited brainstorming, provided that such use is disclosed in an AI Use statement. AI tools may not be listed as authors and may not be used to generate or fabricate data, results, references or analyses. Authors remain fully responsible for every part of the manuscript.

Use of artificial intelligence by reviewers. Reviewers may not upload any part of a confidential manuscript into a generative AI system that may retain or learn from the submitted content. AI tools may be used by reviewers only for minor language editing of their own reports.

Reviewers must: treat manuscripts as strictly confidential, disclose and avoid conflicts of interest, provide constructive and evidence-based review on time, refrain from using any content from a manuscript for their own purposes, and alert the editor when they suspect plagiarism, fabrication, undisclosed conflicts of interest or misuse of AI tools. Reviewers will follow the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers.

Editors must: decide on scholarly merit alone, treat all authors equally regardless of nationality, gender, ethnicity, religion, institutional affiliation or career stage, keep manuscripts confidential, recuse themselves from cases involving close collaborators or relatives, and investigate ethical concerns without delay.

Plagiarism screening: All submissions are screened for textual similarity using professional plagiarism-detection software during the  initial editorial assessment and again before publication. Manuscripts containing plagiarism or unacceptable levels of text overlap, including inappropriate self-plagiarism, will be rejected.

Corrections, retractions and expressions of concern. Where errors or breaches of integrity are identified after publication, REd will take appropriate action. Depending on the case, the journal may issue a Correction (linked to the original article, for honest errors that do not change the conclusions), a Retraction (where the findings are no longer reliable or the article resulted from misconduct, in line with the COPE Retraction Guidelines) or an Expression of Concern (during an ongoing investigation or when evidence is inconclusive). The article remains online with a visible Retracted watermark and a linked notice. Every such notice is open access, indexed and has its own Crossref DOI.

Complaints and appeals. Complaints concerning editorial decisions, reviewer or editor conduct,  or the handling of ethical issue  should be sent to office@researchandeducation.ro, with the subject “Complaint” or “Appeal”. Receipt of complaints will be acknowledged within five working days and investigations will be completed within 30 working days. Appeals against an editorial decision are reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief. Appeals concerning the Editor-in-Chief are escalated to the publisher and, where appropriate, to an external arbiter, in accordance with COPE guidance.

Editorial independence and revenue. Editorial decisions at REd are independent of the commercial interests of WEIK Press. The journal does not accept advertising, sponsored content or paid placement, and does not run direct marketing to authors. REd is published with the full financial support of WEIK Press. As part of its commitment to open scholarly communication, WEIK Press enables the journal to operate without charging fees to authors, institutions, or readers.

Copyright

Authors retain full copyright over their published work. By accepting publication in Research and Education, authors grant the journal a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to publish, distribute, archive and preserve and make the article availableunder the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce any third-party material. Detailed guidance is available on the Permissions page.

Open Access Policy

Research and Education (REd) is published under the Diamond Open Access model. There are no submission fees, no article processing charges, no page or colour charges, no fees for supplementary materials, graphical abstracts or XML production, and no reader access fees. Every article is published open access from the moment it appears online.

Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Third parties may copy, redistribute and adapt the work, provided appropriate credit is given to the authors, and e the work is not used for commercial purposes, and any adaptation is licensed under the same terms.

No embargo. Authors may deposit the preprint, the accepted manuscript and the published Version of Record in any personal, institutional or subject repository, at any time, with no embargo.

Article Processing Charges (APC)

Research and Education does not charge Article Processing Charges (APCs). There are no submission fees, page or colour charges, or fees for graphical abstracts or XML production. 

Digital Preservation

To ensure the long-time preservation and accessibility of scholarly record, Research and Education:

• assigns a Crossref DOI to every published article, so that links remain persistent;
• deposits article metadata with Crossref, DOAJ, CEEOL, RePEc, ERIH PLUS, Google Scholar and Coherent Digital;
• maintains redundant backups of all content through Enformation, the technology provider hosting the ResearchTag publishing platform.

WEIK Press is committed to preserving online access for all articles published in Research and Education through persistent DOIs, even if the journal ceases publication.

Editorial Independence

WEIK Press, as publisher, provides the infrastructure, copyediting, production, indexing and preservation services. The publisher does not influence peer-review outcomes or editorial decisions, which are the sole responsibility of the Editor-in-Chief, in consultation with the Associate Editors, where appointed, based on independent external review.