Education Innovations: Systems and Future Learning 

Author guidelines

Before you start

For queries relating to the status of your paper pre decision, please contact the Editor or Journal Editorial Office. For queries post acceptance, please contact the Supplier Project Manager. These details can be found in the Editorial Team section.

Author responsibilities

Our goal is to provide you with a professional and courteous experience at each stage of the review and publication process. There are also some responsibilities that sit with you as the author. Our expectation is that you will:

Respond swiftly to any queries during the publication process.
Be accountable for all aspects of your work. This includes investigating and resolving any questions about accuracy or research integrity.
Treat communications between you and the journal editor as confidential until an editorial decision has been made.
Read about our research ethics for authorship. These state that you must:
- Include anyone who has made a substantial and meaningful contribution to the submission (anyone else involved in the paper should be listed in the acknowledgements).
- Exclude anyone who hasn’t contributed to the paper, or who has chosen not to be associated with the research.
- In accordance with COPE’s position statement on AI tools, Large Language Models cannot be credited with authorship as they are incapable of conceptualising a research design without human direction and cannot be accountable for the integrity, originality, and validity of the published work. The author(s) must describe the content created or modified as well as appropriately cite the name and version of the AI tool used; any additional works drawn on by the AI tool should also be appropriately cited and referenced. Standard tools that are used to improve spelling and grammar are not included within the parameters of this guidance. The Editor and Publisher reserve the right to determine whether the use of an AI tool is permissible.
If your article involves human participants, you must ensure you have considered whether or not you require ethical approval for your research, and include this information as part of your submission. Find out more about informed consent.

Emerald’s Policy on AI Usage

Emerald’s overarching principles of AI usage:

1) Authors and peer reviewers are responsible and accountable for the accuracy and integrity of their work.

2) AI tools and technology must be used responsibly and transparently.

3) AI tools and technology should not replace human involvement in the publication process but instead supplement it.

Copywriting (creating, drafting, or writing) any part of a submission using generative AI tools and technology to generate new material is not permitted.

Copy-editing (correcting, editing, formatting, modifying, or refining) all or part of an author’s own original existing work using generative AI tools and technology the content to improve its structure and the clarity of the language and grammar is permitted, ensuring users adhere to the following overarching principles.

Emerald’s full policy, including examples of use cases can be found on our Publishing Ethics page.

Research and publishing ethics

Our editors and employees work hard to ensure the content we publish is ethically sound. To help us achieve that goal, we closely follow the advice laid out in the guidelines and flowcharts on the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) website.

We have also developed our research and publishing ethics guidelines. If you haven’t already read these, we urge you to do so – they will help you avoid the most common publishing ethics issues.

A few key points:

Any manuscript you submit to this journal should be original. That means it should not have been published before in its current, or similar, form. Exceptions to this rule are outlined in our pre-print and conference paper policies. If any substantial element of your paper has been previously published, you need to declare this to the journal editor upon submission. Please note, the journal editor may use Crossref Similarity Check to check on the originality of submissions received. This service compares submissions against a database of 49 million works from 800 scholarly publishers.
Your work should not have been submitted elsewhere and should not be under consideration by any other publication.
If you have a conflict of interest, you must declare it upon submission; this allows the editor to decide how they would like to proceed. Read about conflict of interest in our research and publishing ethics guidelines.
By submitting your work to Emerald, you are guaranteeing that the work is not in infringement of any existing copyright.
If you have written about a company/individual/organisation in detail using information that is not publicly available, have spent time within that company/organisation, or the work features named/interviewed employees, you will need to clear permission by using the consent to publish form; please also see our permissions guidance for full details. If you have to clear permission with the company/individual/organisation, consent must be given either by the named individual in question or their representative, a board member of the company/organisation, or a HR department representative of the company/organisation.
You have an ethical obligation and responsibility to conduct your research in adherence to national and international research ethics guidelines, as well as the ethical principles outlined by your discipline and any relevant authorities, and to be transparent about your research methods in such a way that all involved in the publication process may fairly and appropriately evaluate your work. For all research involving human participants, you must ensure that you have obtained informed consent, meaning that you must inform all participants in your work (or their legal representative) as to why the research is being conducted, whether their anonymity is protected, how their data will be stored and used, and whether there are any associated risks from participation in the study; the submitted work must confirm that informed consent was obtained and detail how this was addressed in accordance with our policy on informed consent.
Where appropriate, you must provide an ethical statement within the submitted work confirming that your research received institutional and national (or international) ethical approval, and that it complies with all relevant guidelines and regulations for studies involving humans, whether that be data, individuals, or samples. Specifically, the statement should contain the name and location of the institutional ethics reviewing committee or review board, the approval number, the date of approval, and the details of the national or international guidelines that were followed, as well as any other relevant information. You should also include details of how the work adheres to relevant consent guidelines along with confirming that informed consent was secured for all participants. The details of these statements should ensure that author and participant anonymity is not compromised. Any work submitted without a suitable ethical statement and details of informed consent for all participants, where required, will be returned to the authors and will not be considered further until appropriate and clear documentation is provided. Emerald reserves the right to reject work without sufficient evidence of informed consent from human participants and ethical approval where required.

Third party copyright permissions

Prior to article submission, you need to ensure you’ve applied for, and received, written permission to use any material in your manuscript that has been created by a third party. Please note, we are unable to publish any article that still has permissions pending. The rights we require are:

Non-exclusive rights to reproduce the material in the article or book chapter.
Print and electronic rights.
Worldwide English-language rights.
To use the material for the life of the work. That means there should be no time restrictions on its re-use e.g. a one-year licence.

We are a member of the International Association of Scientific, Technical, and Medical Publishers (STM) and participate in the STM permissions guidelines, a reciprocal free exchange of material with other STM publishers. In some cases, this may mean that you don’t need permission to re-use content. If so, please highlight this at the submission stage.

Please take a few moments to read our guide to publishing permissions to ensure you have met all the requirements, so that we can process your submission without delay.

Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines

We are a signatory of the Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines, a framework that supports the reproducibility of research through the adoption of transparent research practices. That means we encourage you to:

Cite and fully reference all data, program code, and other methods in your article.
Include persistent identifiers, such as a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), in references for datasets and program codes. Persistent identifiers ensure future access to unique published digital objects, such as a piece of text or datasets. Persistent identifiers are assigned to datasets by digital archives, such as institutional repositories and partners in the Data Preservation Alliance for the Social Sciences (Data-PASS).
Follow appropriate international and national procedures with respect to data protection, rights to privacy and other ethical considerations, whenever you cite data. For further guidance please refer to our research and publishing ethics guidelines. For an example on how to cite datasets, please refer to the references section below.

Prepare your submission

Manuscript support services

We are pleased to partner with Editage, a platform that connects you with relevant experts in language support, translation, editing, visuals, consulting, and more. After you’ve agreed a fee, they will work with you to enhance your manuscript and get it submission-ready.

This is an optional service for authors who feel they need a little extra support. It does not guarantee your work will be accepted for review or publication.

Visit Editage

Manuscript requirements

Before you submit your manuscript, it’s important you read and follow the guidelines below. You will also find some useful tips in our structure your journal submission how-to guide.

Format	Article files should be provided in Microsoft Word format. While you are welcome to submit a PDF of the document alongside the Word file, PDFs alone are not acceptable. LaTeX files can also be used but only if an accompanying PDF document is provided. Acceptable figure file types are listed further below.
Article length / word count	Research paper: 4,000 to 8,000 words. Case Study: 3,000 to 5,000 words. Practitioner Paper: 3,000 to 6,000 words. Technical Paper: 4,000 to 7,000 words. Editorial (for editors and guest editors only): minimum 2000 words. Literature review: 10,000 to 12,000 words.
Article title	A concisely worded title should be provided.
Author details	The names of all contributing authors should be added to the ScholarOne submission; please list them in the order in which you’d like them to be published. Each contributing author will need their own ScholarOne author account, from which we will extract the following details: Author email address (institutional preferred). Author name. We will reproduce it exactly, so any middle names and/or initials they want featured must be included. Author affiliation. This should be where they were based when the research for the paper was conducted. In multi-authored papers, it’s important that ALL authors that have made a significant contribution to the paper are listed. Those who have provided support but have not contributed to the research should be featured in an acknowledgements section. You should never include people who have not contributed to the paper or who don’t want to be associated with the research. Read about our research ethics for authorship.
Biographies and acknowledgements	If you want to include these items, save them in a separate Microsoft Word document and upload the file with your submission. Where they are included, a brief professional biography of not more than 100 words should be supplied for each named author.
Research funding	Your article must reference all sources of external research funding in the acknowledgements section. You should describe the role of the funder or financial sponsor in the entire research process, from study design to submission.
Structured abstract	All submissions must include a structured abstract, following the format outlined below. These four sub-headings and their accompanying explanations must always be included: Purpose Design/methodology/approach Findings Originality The following three sub-headings are optional and can be included, if applicable: Research limitations/implications Practical implications Social implications You can find some useful tips in our write an article abstract how-to guide. The maximum length of your abstract should be 250 words in total, including keywords and article classification (see the sections below).
Keywords	Your submission should include up to 12 appropriate and short keywords that capture the principal topics of the paper. Our Creating an SEO-friendly manuscript how to guide contains some practical guidance on choosing search-engine friendly keywords. Please note, while we will always try to use the keywords you’ve suggested, the in-house editorial team may replace some of them with matching terms to ensure consistency across publications and improve your article’s visibility.
Article classification	During the submission process, you will be asked to select a type for your paper; the options are listed below. If you don’t see an exact match, please choose the best fit: Conceptional Papers You will also be asked to select a category for your paper. The options for this are listed below. If you don’t see an exact match, please choose the best fit: Research paper. Reports on any type of research undertaken by the author(s), including: The construction or testing of a model or framework Action research Testing of data, market research or surveys Empirical, scientific or clinical research Papers with a practical focus Viewpoint. Covers any paper where content is dependent on the author's opinion and interpretation. This includes journalistic and magazine-style pieces. Technical paper. Describes and evaluates technical products, processes or services. Conceptual paper. Focuses on developing hypotheses and is usually discursive. Covers philosophical discussions and comparative studies of other authors’ work and thinking. Case study. Describes actual interventions or experiences within organizations. It can be subjective and doesn’t generally report on research. Also covers a description of a legal case or a hypothetical case study used as a teaching exercise. Literature review. This category should only be used if the main purpose of the paper is to annotate and/or critique the literature in a particular field. It could be a selective bibliography providing advice on information sources, or the paper may aim to cover the main contributors to the development of a topic and explore their different views. General review. Provides an overview or historical examination of some concept, technique or phenomenon. Papers are likely to be more descriptive or instructional (‘how to’ papers) than discursive.
Headings	Headings must be concise, with a clear indication of the required hierarchy. The preferred format is for first level headings to be in bold, and subsequent sub-headings to be in medium italics.
Notes/endnotes	Notes or endnotes should only be used if absolutely necessary. They should be identified in the text by consecutive numbers enclosed in square brackets. These numbers should then be listed, and explained, at the end of the article.
Figures	All figures (charts, diagrams, line drawings, webpages/screenshots, and photographic images) should be submitted electronically. Both colour and black and white files are accepted. There are a few other important points to note: All figures should be supplied at the highest resolution/quality possible with numbers and text clearly legible. Acceptable formats are .ai, .eps, .jpeg, .bmp, and .tif. Electronic figures created in other applications should be supplied in their original formats and should also be either copied and pasted into a blank MS Word document, or submitted as a PDF file. All figures should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals and have clear captions. All photographs should be numbered as Plate 1, 2, 3, etc. and have clear captions. All figure/table captions should include the necessary credit line, acknowledgement, or attribution if you have been given permission to use the figure/table; if the figure/table is the property of the author(s), this should be acknowledged in the caption.
Tables	Tables should be typed and submitted in a separate file to the main body of the article. The position of each table should be clearly labelled in the main body of the article with corresponding labels clearly shown in the table file. Tables should be numbered consecutively in Roman numerals (e.g. I, II, etc.). Give each table a brief title. Ensure that any superscripts or asterisks are shown next to the relevant items and have explanations displayed as footnotes to the table, figure or plate.
Supplementary files	Where tables, figures, appendices, and other additional content are supplementary to the article but not critical to the reader’s understanding of it, you can choose to host these supplementary files alongside your article on Insight, Emerald’s content-hosting platform (this is Emerald's recommended option as we are able to ensure the data remain accessible), or on an alternative trusted online repository. All supplementary material must be submitted prior to acceptance. Emerald recommends that authors use the following two lists when searching for a suitable and trusted repository: https://commons.datacite.org/repositories https://www.re3data.org If you choose to host your supplementary files on Insight, you must submit these as separate files alongside your article. Files should be clearly labelled in such a way that makes it clear they are supplementary; Emerald recommends that the file name is descriptive and that it follows the format ‘Supplementary_material_appendix_1’ or ‘Supplementary tables’. All supplementary material must be mentioned at the appropriate moment in the main text of the article; there is no need to include the content of the file only the file name. A link to the supplementary material will be added to the article during production, and the material will be made available alongside the main text of the article at the point of EarlyCite publication. Please note that Emerald will not make any changes to the material; it will not be copy-edited or typeset, and authors will not receive proofs of this content. Emerald therefore strongly recommends that you style all supplementary material ahead of acceptance of the article. Emerald Insight can host the following file types and extensions: Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) MS Word document (.doc, .docx) MS Excel (.xls, xlsx) MS PowerPoint (.pptx) Image (.png, .jpeg, .gif) Plain ASCII text (.txt) PostScript (.ps) Rich Text Format (.rtf) If you choose to use an alternative trusted online repository, you should ensure that the supplementary material is hosted on the repository ahead of submission, and then include a link only to the repository within the article. It is the responsibility of the submitting author to ensure that the material is free to access and that it remains permanently available. Where an alternative trusted online repository is used, the files hosted should always be presented as read-only; please be aware that such usage risks compromising your anonymity during the review process if the repository contains any information that may enable the reviewer to identify you; as such, we recommend that all links to alternative repositories are reviewed carefully prior to submission. Please note that extensive supplementary material may be subject to peer review; this is at the discretion of the journal Editor and dependent on the content of the material (for example, whether including it would support the reviewer making a decision on the article during the peer review process).
References	All references in your manuscript must be formatted using one of the recognised APA styles. Please ensure you check all your citations for completeness, accuracy and consistency. Emerald’s APA referencing style References to other publications in your text should be written as follows: Single author: (Adams, 2006) Two authors: (Adams and Brown, 2006) Three or more authors: (Adams et al., 2006) Please note, ‘et al' should always be written in italics. A few other style points. These apply to both the main body of text and your final list of references. When referring to pages in a publication, use ‘p.(page number)’ for a single page or ‘pp.(page numbers)’ to indicate a page range. Page numbers should always be written out in full, e.g. 175-179, not 175-9. Where a colon or dash appears in the title of an article or book chapter, the letter that follows that colon or dash should always be lower case. When citing a work with multiple editors, use the abbreviation ‘Ed.s’. At the end of your paper, please supply a reference list in alphabetical order using the style guidelines below. Where a DOI is available, this should be included at the end of the reference.
For books	Surname, initials (year), title of book, publisher, place of publication. e.g. Harrow, R. (2005), No Place to Hide, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY.
For book chapters	Surname, initials (year), "chapter title", editor's surname, initials (Ed.), title of book, publisher, place of publication, page numbers. e.g. Calabrese, F.A. (2005), "The early pathways: theory to practice – a continuum", Stankosky, M. (Ed.), Creating the Discipline of Knowledge Management, Elsevier, New York, NY, pp.15-20.
For journals	Surname, initials (year), "title of article", journal name, volume issue, page numbers. e.g. Capizzi, M.T. and Ferguson, R. (2005), "Loyalty trends for the twenty-first century", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp.72-80.
For published conference proceedings	Surname, initials (year of publication), "title of paper", in editor’s surname, initials (Ed.), title of published proceeding which may include place and date(s) held, publisher, place of publication, page numbers. e.g. Wilde, S. and Cox, C. (2008), “Principal factors contributing to the competitiveness of tourism destinations at varying stages of development”, in Richardson, S., Fredline, L., Patiar A., & Ternel, M. (Ed.s), CAUTHE 2008: Where the 'bloody hell' are we?, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Qld, pp.115-118.
For unpublished conference proceedings	Surname, initials (year), "title of paper", paper presented at [name of conference], [date of conference], [place of conference], available at: URL if freely available on the internet (accessed date). e.g. Aumueller, D. (2005), "Semantic authoring and retrieval within a wiki", paper presented at the European Semantic Web Conference (ESWC), 29 May-1 June, Heraklion, Crete, available at: http://dbs.uni-leipzig.de/file/aumueller05wiksar.pdf (accessed 20 February 2007).
For working papers	Surname, initials (year), "title of article", working paper [number if available], institution or organization, place of organization, date. e.g. Moizer, P. (2003), "How published academic research can inform policy decisions: the case of mandatory rotation of audit appointments", working paper, Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds, Leeds, 28 March.
For encyclopaedia entries (with no author or editor)	Title of encyclopaedia (year), "title of entry", volume, edition, title of encyclopaedia, publisher, place of publication, page numbers. e.g. Encyclopaedia Britannica (1926), "Psychology of culture contact", Vol. 1, 13th ed., Encyclopaedia Britannica, London and New York, NY, pp.765-771. (for authored entries, please refer to book chapter guidelines above)
For newspaper articles (authored)	Surname, initials (year), "article title", newspaper, date, page numbers. e.g. Smith, A. (2008), "Money for old rope", Daily News, 21 January, pp.1, 3-4.
For newspaper articles (non-authored)	Newspaper (year), "article title", date, page numbers. e.g. Daily News (2008), "Small change", 2 February, p.7.
For archival or other unpublished sources	Surname, initials (year), "title of document", unpublished manuscript, collection name, inventory record, name of archive, location of archive. e.g. Litman, S. (1902), "Mechanism & Technique of Commerce", unpublished manuscript, Simon Litman Papers, Record series 9/5/29 Box 3, University of Illinois Archives, Urbana-Champaign, IL.
For electronic sources	If available online, the full URL should be supplied at the end of the reference, as well as the date that the resource was accessed. Surname, initials (year), “title of electronic source”, available at: persistent URL (accessed date month year). e.g. Weida, S. and Stolley, K. (2013), “Developing strong thesis statements”, available at: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/588/1/ (accessed 20 June 2018) Standalone URLs, i.e. those without an author or date, should be included either inside parentheses within the main text, or preferably set as a note (Roman numeral within square brackets within text followed by the full URL address at the end of the paper).
For data	Surname, initials (year), title of dataset, name of data repository, available at: persistent URL, (accessed date month year). e.g. Campbell, A. and Kahn, R.L. (2015), American National Election Study, 1948, ICPSR07218-v4, Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (distributor), Ann Arbor, MI, available at: https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR07218.v4 (accessed 20 June 2018)

Submit your manuscript

There are a number of key steps you should follow to ensure a smooth and trouble-free submission.

Double check your manuscript

Before submitting your work, it is your responsibility to check that the manuscript is complete, grammatically correct, and without spelling or typographical errors. A few other important points:

Give the journal aims and scope a final read. Is your manuscript definitely a good fit? If it isn’t, the editor may decline it without peer review.
Does your manuscript comply with our research and publishing ethics guidelines?
Have you cleared any necessary publishing permissions?
Have you followed all the formatting requirements laid out in these author guidelines?
Does the manuscript contain any information that might help the reviewer identify you? This could compromise the anonymous peer review process. A few tips:
- If you need to refer to your own work, use wording such as ‘previous research has demonstrated’ not ‘our previous research has demonstrated’.
- If you need to refer to your own, currently unpublished work, don’t include this work in the reference list.
- Any acknowledgments or author biographies should be uploaded as separate files.
- Carry out a final check to ensure that no author names appear anywhere in the manuscript. This includes in figures or captions.

You will find a helpful submission checklist on the website Think.Check.Submit.

The submission process

All manuscripts should be submitted through our editorial system by the corresponding author.

The only way to submit to the journal is through the journal’s ScholarOne site as accessed via the Emerald website, and not by email or through any third-party agent/company, journal representative, or website. Submissions should be done directly by the author(s) through the ScholarOne site and not via a third-party proxy on their behalf.

A separate author account is required for each journal you submit to. If this is your first time submitting to this journal, please choose the Create an account or Register now option in the editorial system. If you already have an Emerald login, you are welcome to reuse the existing username and password here.

Please note, the next time you log into the system, you will be asked for your username. This will be the email address you entered when you set up your account.

Don't forget to add your ORCiD ID during the submission process. It will be embedded in your published article, along with a link to the ORCiD registry allowing others to easily match you with your work.

Don’t have one yet? It only takes a few moments to register for a free ORCiD identifier.

Visit the ScholarOne support centre for further help and guidance.

What you can expect next

You will receive an automated email from the journal editor, confirming your successful submission. It will provide you with a manuscript number, which will be used in all future correspondence about your submission. If you have any reason to suspect the confirmation email you receive might be fraudulent, please contact the journal editor in the first instance.

Post submission

Review and decision process

Each submission is checked by the editor. At this stage, they may choose to decline or unsubmit your manuscript if it doesn’t fit the journal aims and scope, or they feel the language/manuscript quality is too low.

While all journals work to different timescales, the goal is that the editor will inform you of their first decision within 60 days.

During this period, we will send you automated updates on the progress of your manuscript via our submission system, or you can log in to check on the current status of your paper. Each time we contact you, we will quote the manuscript number you were given at the point of submission. If you receive an email that does not match these criteria, it could be fraudulent and we recommend you contact the journal editor in the first instance.

Manuscript transfer service

Emerald’s manuscript transfer service takes the pain out of the submission process if your manuscript doesn’t fit your initial journal choice. Our team of expert Editors from participating journals work together to identify alternative journals that better align with your research, ensuring your work finds the ideal publication home it deserves. Our dedicated team is committed to supporting authors like you in finding the right home for your research.

If a journal is participating in the manuscript transfer program, the Editor has the option to recommend your paper for transfer. If a transfer decision is made by the Editor, you will receive an email with the details of the recommended journal and the option to accept or reject the transfer. It’s always down to you as the author to decide if you’d like to accept. If you do accept, your paper and any reviewer reports will automatically be transferred to the recommended journals. Authors will then confirm resubmissions in the new journal’s ScholarOne system.

Our Manuscript Transfer Service page has more information on the process.

If your submission is accepted

Copyright

All accepted authors are sent an email with a link to a licence form. This should be checked for accuracy, for example whether contact and affiliation details are up to date and your name is spelled correctly, and then returned to us electronically. If there is a reason why you can’t assign copyright to us, you should discuss this with your journal content editor. You will find their contact details on the editorial team section above.

Proofing and typesetting

Two to three months before the scheduled print publication of an issue, we carry out editorial checks on your paper and a pre-typeset version appears in the Accepted Articles section of the journal’s online content. Your paper is then copyedited, typeset, and proofs are sent to you (if you are the corresponding author) for your review. You receive advance notification of this. Please note, this is your opportunity to correct any typographical errors, grammatical errors or incorrect author details. We can’t accept requests to rewrite texts at this stage.

How to share your paper

Visit our author rights page to find out how you can reuse and share your work.

To find tips on increasing the visibility of your published paper, read about how to promote your work.

Correcting inaccuracies in your published paper

Sometimes errors are made during the research, writing and publishing processes. When these issues arise, we have the option of withdrawing the paper or introducing a correction notice. Find out more about our article withdrawal and correction policies.

Need to make a change to the author list? See our frequently asked questions (FAQs) below.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a submission fee for the journal?	The only time we will ever ask you for money to publish in an Emerald journal is if you have chosen to publish via the gold open access route. You will be asked to pay an APC (article-processing charge) once your paper has been accepted (unless it is a sponsored open access journal), and never at submission. Read about our APCs At no other time will you be asked to contribute financially towards your article’s publication, processing, or review. If you haven’t chosen gold open access and you receive an email that appears to be from Emerald, the journal, or a third party, asking you for payment to publish, please contact our support team via [email protected].
How can I become a reviewer for a journal?	Please contact the editor for the journal, with a copy of your CV. You will find their contact details on the editorial team tab on this page.
Who do I contact if I want to find out which volume and issue my accepted paper will appear in?	First, log into your author centre on the journal's ScholarOne site. Click on Manuscripts with Decisions and check the Status column of the table at the bottom of the page. If the editor has assigned your paper to an issue, the volume and issue number will appear. If they have yet to assign it, you can email them to request further details. You will find their contact details on the editorial team tab on this page.
Who do I contact if I have a query about my submission?	Please email the journal editor – you will find their contact details on the editorial team tab on this page. If you ever suspect an email you’ve received from Emerald might not be genuine, you are welcome to verify it with the content editor for the journal, whose contact details can be found on the editorial team tab on this page.
Is my paper suitable for the journal?	If you’ve read the aims and scope on the journal landing page and are still unsure whether your paper is suitable for the journal, please email the editor and include your paper's title and structured abstract. They will be able to advise on your manuscript’s suitability. You will find their contact details on the Editorial team tab on this page.
How do I make a change to the list of authors once the manuscript has been submitted?	Authorship and the order in which the authors are listed on the paper should be agreed prior to submission. We have a right first time policy on this and no changes can be made to the list once submitted. If you have made an error in the submission process, please email the Journal Editorial Office who will look into your request – you will find their contact details on the editorial team tab on this page.

Editorial team

Meet our editors

Professor John Chi-Kin Lee is President and Chair Professor of Curriculum and Instruction of The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK).

Professor John Chi-Kin Lee joined EdUHK (the then Hong Kong Institute of Education) in 2010, Professor Lee was Vice President (Academic) from 2010 to 2019, and Vice President (Academic) and Provost from 2019 to 2023.

His research interests focus on curriculum and instruction, geographical and environmental education, life and values education, and teacher development and school improvement. He is active in leading education research and development projects and has a solid track record in securing external grants. Professor Lee was named among the top 2% most-cited scientists in the world in terms of career-long impact, in the latest list released by Stanford University. He has served as Changjiang Scholar Chair Professor, conferred by the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. Professor Lee is the UNESCO Chair in Regional Education Development and Lifelong Learning and the Director of UNESCO-UNEVOC Centre (Hong Kong).

Professor Lee has served as a Research Fellow of The Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO), and Director of the Academy for Applied Policy Studies and Education Futures, and Academy for Educational Development and Innovation at EdUHK.

Chun Sing Maxwell Ho is Assistant Professor of the Department of Education Policy and Leadership and Associate Co-Director of the Academy for Education Development and Innovation at the Education University of Hong Kong.

Dr Ho has been invited to hold school leader training programmes for primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong. He has led the HKSAR core teacher promotion training as well as in-service training programs for newly appointed principals and vice principals.

He was awarded the 2021 Emerald Young Researcher Award and 2023 Michael Fullan Emerging Scholar Award, in recognition of his contribution to research and practice, as well as its impact on Hong Kong’s schools.

Co-Editors-in-Chief
- Dr Chun Sing Maxwell HO
  The Education University of Hong Kong - China
  [email protected]
- Prof John Chi-Kin Lee
  The Education University of Hong Kong - China
  [email protected]
Publisher
- Gabi Hart
  Emerald Publishing - UK
  [email protected]
Journal Editorial Office (For queries related to pre-acceptance)
- Please contact the Journal Editorial Office
  [email protected]
Supplier Project Manager (For queries related to post-acceptance)
- Suryalakshmi Balakrishnan
  Emerald Publishing
  [email protected]
Managing Editor
- Ms Basad Barajeeh
  The Education University of Hong Kong - China
- Dr Yan Lam Ho
  The Education University of Hong Kong - China
- Dr Josephine Lau
  Finnish Institute for Educational Research, University of Jyväskylä - Finland
Section Editor for Education
- Professor Susie Garvis
  Griffith University - Australia
- Professor Sedat Gümüş
  Education University of Hong Kong - Hong Kong
Section Editor for Social Sciences
- Professor Mingyue Michelle Gu
  The Education University of Hong Kong - China
Section Editor for the Arts
- Professor Patricia Shehan Campbell
  University of Washington - USA
Section Editor for Media and Communication Studies
- Professor Cui Baoguo
  Tsinghua University - China
- Professor Mette Hjort
  The Education University of Hong Kong - China
Section Editor for Law
- Professor Rachel F. Moran
  Texas A&M University School of Law - USA
Strategic Advisory Board
- Professor Margaret S. Barrett
  Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance, Monash University - Australia
- Professor Alfredo Bautista
  The Education University of Hong Kong - China
- Professor Allan B. I. Bernardo
  De La Salle University - Philippines
- Professor Alberto Cabedo-Mas
  Universitat Jaume I - Spain
- Dr David Santandreu Calonge
  Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence - United Arab Emirates
- Professor Lily Chen-Hafteck
  The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, University of California, Los Angeles - USA
- Professor Christopher Day
  University of Nottingham - UK
- Professor Chris Dede
  Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University - USA
- Professor William H. Schubert
  University of Illinois Chicago - USA
- Professor Andy Hargreaves
  Boston College - USA
- Professor David G. Hebert
  Western Norway University of Applied Sciences - Norway
- Professor Jussi Kivistö
  Faculty of Management and Business, Tampere University - Finland
- Dr Haradhan Kumar Mohajan
  Premier University, Chittagong - Bangladesh
- Professor Bill Lucas
  Winchester University - UK
- Dr Regina Murphy
  Dublin City University - Ireland
- Professor Anatoly Oleksiyenko
  The Education University of Hong Kong - China
- Professor Izhar Oplatka
  Tel Aviv University - Israel
- Professor Romulo Pinheiro
  University of Agder - Norway
- Professor Pasi Sahlberg
  University of Melbourne - Australia
- Dr Flavia H Santos
  University College London - UK
- Professor Allan Walker
  The Education University of Hong Kong - China
- Professor Minjuan Wang
  The Education University of Hong Kong - China
- Professor Graham Frederick Welch
  University College London - UK
- Professor Yong Zhao
  University of Kansas - USA
Editorial Board
- Dr Donnie Adams
  The University of Melbourne - Australia
- Professor Raian Ali
  Hamed Bin Khalifa University - Qatar
- Dr Norman B. Mendoza
  The Education University of Hong Kong - China
- Professor Darren Bryant
  Curtin University - Australia
- Professor Sanfa Cai
  School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai, P.R. China
- Professor Yuzhuo Cai
  The Education University of Hong Kong - China
- Dr Paul Campbell
  The University of Hong Kong - China
- Dr Kason Ka Ching Cheung
  The Education University of Hong Kong - China
- Dr Fanny Chung
  Hong Kong Baptist University - China
- Dr Kristof Fenyvesi
  University of Jyväskylä, Finnish Institute for Educational Research - Finland
- Dr Rhoda Myra Garces-Bacsal
  United Arab Emirates University - United Arab Emirates
- Dr Jason Goopy
  Edith Cowan University - Australia
- Professor David Gurr
  University of Melbourne - Australia
- Professor Usha C. V. Haley
  Wichita State University - USA
- Dr Stephanie Hill
  University of Cambridge - UK
- Professor Henry H Huang
  Yeshiva University - USA
- Professor Yi-Hwa Liou
  National Taipei University of Education - Taiwan
- Professor Bruce Macfarlane
  The Education University of Hong Kong - China
- Professor Thomas Wing Yan Man
  The Chinese YMCA of Hong Kong - Hong Kong
- Professor Raul C. Pangalangan
  University of the Philippines - Philippines
- Professor Ricardo Rabinovich-Berkman
  University of Buenos Aires - Argentina
- Dr Rania Sawalhi
  The University of Jordan - Jordan
- Professor Paul Syme
  Acadia University - Canada
- Dr Ai-Girl Tan
  National Institute of Education - Singapore
- Dr Pan Hang Tang
  The Education University of Hong Kong - China
- Dr Katy Ieong Cheng Ho Weatherly
  Faculty of Education, University of Macau - China
- Professor Carolyn Y. Nicholson
  Stetson University - USA
- Dr Yang Yang
  The Education University of Hong Kong - China
- Dr Achmad Yudi Wahyudin
  Universitas Teknokrat Indonesia - Indonesia
- Dr Gaoming Zheng
  Tongji University - China
- Dr Aziza Zhunusbekova
  Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University - Almaty, Kazakhstan
- Dr Maarten van Houten
  Hotel Management School Maastricht - Netherlands

Indexing & metrics

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Calls for papers & news

Calls for papers

Innovating Music Education: New Directions in Pedagogy, Learning, and Cultural Practice

Education Innovations: Systems and Future Learning 

Introduction Music education has long provided spaces where creativity, cultural understanding, and shared musical experience shape how people learn together. Through singing, playing instruments, composing, listening, and moving wit...

Guest editor(s):

Prof. Patricia Shehan Campbell , Dr. Yang Yang, Dr. Yan Lam Ho, Prof. Lily Chen-Hafteck , Dr. Regina M. Murphy, Prof. Alberto Cabedo-Mas

Educational Leadership, Management, and Policy for Preparing the Future Workforce: Global Perspectives and Local Realities

Education Innovations: Systems and Future Learning 

Introduction Across the globe, education systems are undergoing rapid transformation in response to technological change, global interconnectedness, demographic transitions, and the climate crisis. These changes are not only reshapin...

Guest editor(s):

Rania Sawalhi, Philipp Christian Grollmann, Paul Campbell, Esther Dominique Klein

News

Call for Reviewers: Education Innovations: Systems and Future Learning

We invite nominations and expressions of interest from individuals who would like to contribute to the peer review process for the fully open access journal Education Innovations: Systems and Future Learning (EISFL). This journal is dedicated...

08/09/2025

ISSN: 2978-3151
eISSN: 2978-3151

You can publish an open access article in this gold open access journal by paying an article processing charge (APC).

Aims and scope

The Journal is dedicated to advancing interdisciplinary theories, multiple and sometimes contesting or complementary perspectives, empirical research, and critical analysis in educational development under the VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) era. Committed to cross-sector and interdisciplinary engagement, the Journal fosters significant advancements and insights within the educational sector. The Journal defines the educational ecosystem as a complex network of actors/agents such as learners, educators, policymakers, cross-disciplinary experts and institutions interconnected through learning environments, both traditional and digital, and influenced by cultural, socio-economic, and technological factors as well as global agenda such as the pursuit of nurturing talent to cope with the future and achievement of Sustainable Development Goals. Our scope is broad, inviting contributions that explore and interact within this ecosystem through a wide array of themes:

Interdisciplinary Approaches to Education: This theme promotes the integration of multiple disciplines within educational curricula and systems to enhance creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and other future-ready competencies.
Innovative Curriculum, Pedagogical, Learning, and Assessment Approaches: This theme explores cutting-edge teaching methodologies that enhance learning experiences and outcomes across diverse educational settings.
Entrepreneurship in Education: This theme explores how entrepreneurship can be integrated into school leadership, teacher development, and student education to foster innovation across all levels of learning.
Lifelong Learning: Highlighting strategies and programs that promote lifelong learning and continuous professional and personal development constitutes this theme.
Policy and Educational Reform: This theme provides critical insights into educational policies and advocates from various societal contexts for reforms to address systemic challenges and improve curriculum relevance.
Socioeconomic and Cultural Influences on Education: This theme focuses on probing how socioeconomic and cultural factors affect educational access, quality, and outcomes and identifying strategies to mitigate these effects.
Sustainability in Education: This theme requires assessing how sustainability is integrated into curricula and its impact on fostering environmental consciousness and environmentally friendly behaviors among learners.
Positive, Life, and Values Education: This theme focuses on the importance of moral and spiritual values for education and the personal development of character

The Journal invites innovative, empirically grounded, theoretical submissions that significantly advance our understanding of education. By fostering a multidisciplinary dialogue, the Journal aims to influence educational paradigms and contribute to developing and enhancing global educational practices.

Transparency statement for Education Innovations: Systems and Future Learning

Journal Ownership: Education Innovations: Systems and Future Learning is owned and published by Emerald Publishing.
Peer Review Process: The journal operates a double-anonymous peer review model. All articles undergo an initial assessment by the journal editor. If they are suitable for consideration, articles will then be reviewed by a minimum of two external reviewers to assess suitability for publication. Final responsibility for editorial decisions rests with the Editor-in-Chief of the journal.
Editorial team/contact information: Contact details for the editorial team can be found on the journal homepage. Queries may also be directed to Emerald’s Publishing team as follows: Gabi Hart, [email protected]
Copyright: All articles in the journal are published Open Access under a Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY-4.0). This allows authors to retain copyright of their work whilst others can share, use and build upon this work created on the basis that appropriate attribution is given.
Author Fees: Article Processing Charges (APCs) apply and details can be found in the author guidelines section of the journal homepage.
Allegations of Misconduct: All journals published by Emerald are members of and subscribe to the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics. In the event of any allegation of research or publication misconduct, the publisher and editor will adhere to COPE guidelines in dealing with such allegations.
Conflicts of interest: Authors are asked to declare any financial or ethical conflicts of interest upon submitting their work to the journal. Difficult cases will be referred to the Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE) for advice.
Frequency: The journal operates a continuous publication model whereby articles will be published as the final and complete version of record upon acceptance.
Access: All journal articles are published Open Access on EmeraldInsight.com under a CCBY 4.0 licence (please see section 4).
Advertising: The journal does not accept direct advertising.
Archiving: Emerald provides perpetual access for all e-journal content by working with digital preservation schemes Portico, LOCKSS and CLOCKSS.
Direct marketing: On occasion, the journal will use direct marketing activities (primarily email campaigns) to raise awareness of the journal and to invite authors to submit articles. Marketing activities are conducted by Emerald.
This statement was updated by Elli Wooding (Emerald Publishing) on 4th March 2026.

This title is aligned with our quality education for all goal

We believe in quality education for everyone, everywhere and by highlighting the issue and working with experts in the field, we can start to find ways we can all be part of the solution.