Author Guidelines
Author Guidelines
1. Scope and scholarly contribution
Submissions must make a clear and original contribution to scholarship at the intersection of early childhood education and child rights. Manuscripts should demonstrate relevance to education, development, protection, parenting, inclusion, participation, policy, law, governance, professional practice, digital childhoods, climate and environmental issues, health and well-being, or comparative and international childhood studies.
2. Types of manuscripts
- Original Research Article: normally 6,000–8,000 words.
- Systematic, Scoping or Critical Review: normally 5,000–8,000 words.
- Policy, Legal or Governance Analysis: normally 5,000–8,000 words.
- Theoretical or Conceptual Article: normally 5,000–8,000 words.
- Research-to-Practice Article: normally 3,500–6,000 words and must retain a clear scholarly contribution.
Word limits exclude references, tables, figures and supplementary material unless otherwise stated by the editors.
3. Language
Articles are published primarily in English. Manuscripts should use clear, professional academic English. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of all translated material. An Indonesian-language abstract may be supplied as additional metadata.
4. Title, abstract and keywords
Provide a concise and informative title, an abstract of approximately 200–250 words, and 5–7 keywords. The abstract should communicate the problem, purpose, method or approach, principal findings or arguments, and significance of the study.
5. Anonymous manuscript
IKAD-ECCR uses double-anonymous peer review. Authors must remove names, affiliations, acknowledgements and other information that could reasonably identify the authors from the manuscript file and file metadata. Author information must be entered separately in the OJS submission metadata.
6. Research involving children and other human participants
Research involving children or other human participants must comply with applicable ethical standards and institutional or national requirements. Where ethics review is applicable, the manuscript must identify the approving ethics committee or institutional review body and approval reference. Where formal review is not required, authors must explain the ethical basis for that determination.
Research involving children should describe appropriate informed consent procedures and, where developmentally appropriate, children's assent. Researchers must protect privacy, dignity, safety and confidentiality and minimise risks of harm, coercion, stigma or avoidable disclosure.
7. Child safeguarding and responsible representation
Manuscripts must avoid unnecessary disclosure of identifiable information about children. Photographs, case descriptions and quotations that could identify a child require a clear ethical and legal basis for publication. Authors must use respectful, non-stigmatising and rights-respecting language.
8. Authorship and contributorship
Authorship must reflect substantial scholarly contribution and accountability for the work. All listed authors must approve the submitted and final versions. Contributors who do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged appropriately. Changes in authorship after submission require a written explanation and editorial approval.
9. Originality and duplicate publication
Submissions must be original and must not be under consideration by another journal at the same time. Authors must disclose closely related manuscripts, preprints, reports or prior dissemination that may overlap substantially with the submitted work. Plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, manipulated evidence and undisclosed redundant publication are unacceptable.
10. Conflicts of interest and funding
Authors must disclose financial, professional, institutional or personal relationships that could reasonably be perceived to influence the research, interpretation or publication. Funding sources and the role of funders must be stated.
11. Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies
Artificial intelligence systems cannot be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility or accountability for scholarly work. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity and references in their manuscripts.
Substantive use of generative AI or AI-assisted tools in drafting, analysis, coding, translation, image generation or other research or writing activities must be transparently disclosed in the manuscript where relevant. Routine spelling or grammar checking need not normally be declared.
AI tools must not be used to fabricate or falsify data, participants, quotations, references, images or research findings. Authors must independently verify AI-assisted outputs and references. AI-generated or materially AI-altered images, data or media must not be presented as empirical evidence unless generation or transformation is an explicit, justified and reproducible component of the research method.
12. Data, materials and transparency
Authors should provide sufficient methodological detail to support evaluation and, where ethically and legally possible, reproducibility. Data availability statements are encouraged. Data involving children or sensitive personal information must not be shared in ways that compromise confidentiality, consent or safeguarding obligations.
13. Reporting standards
Authors should use recognised reporting guidance appropriate to the study design where applicable, including guidance for systematic reviews, observational research, qualitative research, trials and other relevant methodologies.
14. References
References should be accurate, complete and consistently formatted. Authors are responsible for verifying all cited sources, identifiers and DOI information. Fabricated or unverifiable references are grounds for editorial action.
15. Tables, figures and accessibility
Tables and figures must be necessary, legible and referred to in the text. Authors must identify the source of adapted or reproduced materials and obtain permissions when required. Meaningful figures should include descriptive captions or alternative-text information where appropriate to support accessibility.
16. Open access, copyright and fees
IKAD-ECCR is a Diamond Open Access journal. There is no submission fee and no article processing charge (APC). Authors retain copyright and articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Manuscript Template
Authors must prepare manuscripts for double-anonymous peer review using the official IKAD-ECCR anonymous manuscript template.
Download Anonymous Manuscript Template (.docx)
Important: Do not include author names, affiliations, email addresses, ORCID identifiers, acknowledgements, or other identifying information in the review manuscript. Author information must be entered separately in the OJS metadata.
