International Journal of Whole Schooling

Guidelines for contributors


The International Journal of Whole Schooling welcomes articles from a wide variety of perspectives - educators, parents, academics, students, advocates, and concerned citizens.

The Process

All articles submitted are first reviewed by the editors. If the editors believe the article is suitable for review, they will then remove the author name and send the piece for double blind review to two members of the Editorial Review Board. The selected reviewers anonymously evaluate the article and make publication recommendations to the editors. In cases where the two reviewers do not agree, the article is sent to a third reviewer for opinion. The final decision to publish an article rests with the editors, however under normal circumstances, the opinion of the reviewers will govern the decision to publish.

Articles are published on the Journal website as they are reviewed and accepted for publication. We do divide these into two issues per year for purposes of bibliographical reference.

Types of articles

The International Journal of Whole Schooling publishes a number of different styles of articles. These include:

1) Research. Traditional or non-traditional research papers including quantitative and qualitative research styles. Central to papers of this nature is a literature review, clear outline of research objectives, description of research method, reporting of results, interpretation of results, and conclusions.

2) Voices. Personal experiences and stories which add to knowledge or provide a different perspective on a topic. These papers might highlight personal tales that add a ‘human’ element to larger principles or research. Literature and research may or may not be cited in a ‘voices’ paper, but will often be necessary if the author claims the experience can be generalized to a wider community or principle.

3) Practice. Descriptions of events, structures, or innovative teaching or administrative practices which have been found to successfully support the principles of Whole Schooling. Practice articles may be about individual students, classrooms, schools or school systems. Literature and research on the practices under discussion would be used as appropriate.

4) Analysis. Reaction to current events, policy, or practice as they relate to Whole Schooling. An analysis piece would generally be written by someone with expertise or direct experience in the area under discussion. Literature and research would generally be used to support the arguments of an author, unless the topic was so new as to be unsupported by such.

5) Review. Critiques of books, research, television programs, movies, websites, newspaper articles, speeches, and conferences. Book reviews may or may not be peer reviewed at the discretion of the editors.

6) Commentary. A commentary would be written on a current event or topic by a person with the background to make an informed comment.

Writing Assistance

One of the goals of the International Journal of Whole Schooling is to include a wide variety of different articles and authors. Articles suitable for publication could include research, opinion, reviews, critique, or ‘stories’ designed to make us further consider aspects of Whole Schooling. In order to include as many different voices as possible in the Journal, we are pleased to offer assistance with writing for those who feel they have something worthwhile to say, but not the background as an author to put together an article which would pass a rigorous review process. If you would like assistance and advice in this area, please contact editor Jonathan Chitiyo and we will try and match you up with someone who can provide you with the help you request.

Specific Guidelines

All articles must be written in APA style (7th ed.). Please take special care regarding citations and references. Authors are asked to please pay particular attention to the following to ensure that they are correctly formatted:

- tables and figures, including titles
- headings
- citations and references

Please use APA guidelines. All articles must use Times New Roman font at 12-point size. Page one should have on it only the title and author's names and affiliations. The abstract should be on page two. The text of the article will follow with typical APA headings and style; and you may use either 1.5 or double spacing.  Please use 11 point type, Times New Roman, for the header and page numbers. Margins of between 2cm and 2.4cm are appropriate.

Finally, also please show how the article should be cited in a box on page 1. Click HERE to see an example of how this should look.

Articles should be concise, but also long enough to adequately address the topic. Please note that articles which are longer than 20 pages including references will not be considered. The International Journal of Whole Schooling does not charge authors a publication fee.         

We have established separate rubrics for each of the types of articles listed above. Click on the appropriate category to download a review rubric in PDF format: Research; Voices; Practice; Analysis; and Commentary. These are intended to assist you in preparing your article.

Articles are accepted for consideration year-round. All articles are to be submitted as a Microsoft ‘Word’ document or other major word processor via email to either of the editors: Dr. Jonathan Chitiyo.

Publication Ethics: For Authors

The International Journal of Whole Schooling is a member of and subscribes to the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics and follows their core practice guidelines on all ethical matters.

Of particular relevance to authors are Core Principle 2: Authorship and Core Principle 9: Peer Review Process. When submitting an article to the International Journal of Whole Schooling author/s understand and agree to the following conditions:

(1) the submitted article is the original work of the author/s and has not been published elsewhere, or is not currently under consideration for publication in another journal or publication venue;

(2) the author/s freely assigns copyright of the submitted article, if published, to the International Journal of Whole Schooling. The Journal will at all times acknowledge authorship of the article;

(3) the author/s understand that, if published, the International Journal of Whole Schooling will make the article available via its internet web site and may distribute printed copies;

(4) the Journal may charge a fee for distribution of the material and the author understands that he or she will receive no portion of such fee;

(5) the author/s understand that the above applies to all future editions, versions, and revisions of the journal, as well as in derivative works and all ancillaries, including non-exclusive world rights in all languages;

(6)the author/s confirms that he/she/they are the owner of the work and that the material does not infringe upon the copyright and other rights of third parties; and

(7) the author/s understand that the International Journal of Whole Schooling has a liberal reprinting and distribution policy, with individuals being able to assume the right to make small copy runs of the article.

(8)the corresponding author will be asked to confirm that all authors contributed to the work, that everyone entitled to be listed is named, and that all authors consent to the publication.

(9)the article will be assessed using plagarism checking software (Turnitin) to ensure there is no plagarism of content. If plagarism is detected the editors will contact the author/s to resolve any issues.

Publication Misconduct

The editors of the International Journal of Whole Schooling will take all reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred, including plagarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication, ampong others. In no case will the editors encourage or allow such misconduct. In the event that misconduct is brought to the editors attention, COPE's guidelines in dealing with allegations of misconduct will be followed.