Journal Policies

Peer-Review Process

All submissions will be reviewed by a member of the journal editorial team and two external reviewers (double-blind peer review). Authors are encouraged to respond constructively to reviewers' comments after submission, and resubmit if necessary.

Publication Frequency

The journal publishes between two and three regular issues per year, usually in Spring and Autumn/Winter, as well as special issues on topics of interest to the Learning Development community.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Publication Ethics

JLDHE readers deserve to read on our pages high quality and original research. To ensure the quality and integrity of our publications, JLDHE adheres to the Core Practices for Journal Editors (COPE) and the reviewers are referred to the Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers. 

We expect that our authors will conduct their research ethically, with transparency and integrity. Ethical standards for publication exist to ensure trust in the validity of research, high-quality publications and that people receive credit for their work and ideas. The inclusion of ethics approval and informed consent statements is a fundamental requirement for studies involving human or animal data. Authors are asked to confirm that the necessary consents and approvals have been obtained from their institutions, and a statement of ethics approval must be included within the manuscript.

When do I need to apply for ethics?

At most HE institutions, data generation for internal course evaluations (including surveys, questionnaires, focus groups, etc.) does not require ethical approval. However, external publication of the same data, including in this journal, does. Ethical approval must be obtained before starting a project, where the participants are informed, prior to participation, of the dissemination plan and the steps taken to protect participants’ identities. Ethical approval cannot be applied retrospectively.

Intellectual property

JLDHE publishes only original research and will not consider texts that have been published elsewhere (recycled content) or that are under consideration elsewhere at the time of submission. Both must be disclosed by the authors before submission.

JLDHE will consider submissions containing material that has previously formed part of a PhD or other academic thesis, as long as it is substantially re-worked and adapted to the needs of the submission format. For guidelines on how to convert a thesis into a journal manuscript, refer to helpful resources such as the APA Style. The authors must secure the appropriate permissions for materials from their thesis to be disseminated through publication, and to disclose such use in the Acknowledgements.

All material included in the submissions must have appropriate copyright clearance (e.g., where images, elements of design, excerpts from texts or databases are reproduced) and authors are responsible for securing and paying for the use of such material.

We reserve the right o reject publication of material that is unethical, libellous or unlawful.

This policy was last updated on 11 March 2024.

Editorial Statement on the use of AI in JLDHE publications

The aim of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education is to uphold rigorous standards of research quality in the scholarship of Learning Development and Teaching and Learning while embracing innovation that can expand knowledge and improve practice. As the Editorial Board of JLDHE recognises that technological innovations are continuous in relation to supporting writing, editing and research, this policy has been written to support authors and readers with our position on Artificial Intelligence (AI) – inclusive of ‘Large Language Models (LLMs)’, ‘AI Chatbots, ‘Generative AI’, and other related technologies. 

While we recognise the potential benefits of using AI tools to transform research and writing practices, we are also aware of its risks, which raise important ethical considerations that we expect our authors to address when submitting their work to JLDHE. In an effort to uphold principles of academic integrity and trustworthiness, authors submitting manuscripts that have used AI in any step of the research and/or writing process must adhere to the following principles:

Transparency – Transparency in writing and dissemination is critical to the peer review process and our journal’s academic standards. A lack of transparency undermines trust, and we expect authors to clearly disclose the use of AI systems in the creation of their manuscripts. This includes attribution to the specific AI system used, as well as transparency about how and to what extent the technology was implemented. This includes details on the type of system, the extent of its use (text generation, research design, methods design, data analysis, data visualisation and other uses), and the purpose within the study. Any AI tasks relevant to methodology should be explained in the Methods section of the manuscript. This will allow editors, reviewers and readers to better evaluate the work.

Authorship – AI tools, and particularly the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) which generate written text, diagrams and figures, should be used to augment, not replace, original analysis and authorship. Authors retain responsibility for the final product, and should ensure it contains original thought, synthesis, and critique. The AI system itself is not the author, nor should it be listed in the references.

Accuracy –  AI tools can confidently produce erroneous or incorrect outputs, often referred to as ‘hallucinations’. All work produced with AI should be carefully reviewed to ensure accuracy, logical coherence, and alignment with the scholarly literature. Errors, inaccuracies, biases or misrepresentations introduced by the AI system must be corrected prior to submission.

Ethics – Any research involving human subjects that informs AI-produced or analysed content must adhere to ethical practices and be approved by an institutional review board. Considerations must be made regarding intellectual property, privacy, and the responsible use of data sources used to train generative systems. The limitations and biases inherent in any AI tools utilised must be acknowledged in the Limitations section of the manuscript. 

By adopting the above principles, we aim to thoughtfully integrate these emerging technologies into our journal and field. Our commitment to transparency, integrity, author accountability and ethics will guide decisions around publishing AI-generated, processed or analysed content. Authors considering the use of AI systems are encouraged to discuss options with the editorial team before submission.

In publishing with us, authors can be confident that we do not use AI for any of our author, reviewer or external content creation and correspondence, nor do we feed any submissions into AI tools that summarise or review academic papers. 

We welcome feedback from our scholarly community as we continue to evaluate appropriate uses of AI in research and publishing.

This policy was last updated on 8 February 2024.

Archiving

This journal utilizes the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration.