Policies
Contents
Open Access Policy
Georgia Educational Researcher (GER) is an open-access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of all articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.
Review Process
GER is a double-blind peer reviewed journal published bi-annually in June and December by the Georgia Educational Research Association (GERA). If you have concerns about the terms of submission or review, please contact the editors.
- Manuscripts should be formatted by the author(s) according to the Format & Style Guidelines for Submission below. Along with your manuscript, you will provide a manuscript title, an abstract of 150-250 words, four to six keywords for your article, and a manuscript type (Qualitative Research, Quantitative Research, Mixed methods, Other).
- Upon submission, the Senior Editor reviews manuscripts for appropriateness, particularly reviewing that the topic pertains to regional or state issues in the field of education. If appropriate, the Senior Editor assigns one Associate Editor to the submission.
- Each submitted manuscript is reviewed by a minimum of two members of the GER Editorial Board, assigned by an Associate Editor.
- Reviews are returned to the GER Associate editor, and comments are compiled and returned to the author listed as the contact person.
- Author(s) who are provisionally accepted have the option to make suggested edits and resubmit to GER.
- Once accepted for publication, manuscripts should be reformatted by the author(s) according to the Format & Style Guidelines for Publication below, then resubmitted to GER. Due dates for final versions vary with each issue.
- Manuscripts are accepted for review with the understanding that they are original material and are not under consideration for publication elsewhere.
- Manuscripts are accepted for review at any time during the year and receipt will be acknowledged by the editor.
- Manuscripts will generally be returned to authors within three months of submission. Please allow more time for manuscripts submitted during the summer since reviewers may not be available for timely reviews.
Format & Style Guidelines for Submission
Submitted manuscripts should generally follow the 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), and according to the following guidelines:
- Manuscripts should be no more than 20 pages long (excluding references and/or appendices).
- Do not include a cover/title page, a title, author name(s), or an abstract. The manuscript document should begin with the body of the paper.
- Do not include headers and footers, including pagination.
- Remove any references to the submitting author’s / authors’ work that may allow a reviewer to determine the identity of the author(s).These references can be included prior to final publication.
- Manuscripts should embed any figures, graphs, charts, etc. in the document near the text to which they refer.
- Appendices should be included in the manuscript document and not as separate attachments.
- Submit a Microsoft Word (.doc or docx) version of the manuscript via the Submit Manuscript link on the GER website.
Format & Style Guidelines for Publication
Manuscripts accepted for publication should be reformatted according to the following guidelines:
- Page Size: 8.5 x 11 inches.
- Margins: 1.5 inches on all sides.
- Font: Times New Roman 12 pt. (10 pt. for footnotes).
- Paragraphs: single-spaced, justified, single column, half-inch indent on first line.
- Double-space between paragraphs.
- Add any references to the submitting author’s / authors’ work.
- Do not include a cover/title page, a title, author name(s), or an abstract. The manuscript document should begin with the body of the paper.
- Do not include headers and footers, including pagination.
- Graphics are clear/legible.
Copyright & Licensing Terms
All articles published in GER are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). Authors retain all copyrights without restrictions, and agree to the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license for their work as a condition of publication.
End users' rights under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license are outlined here. For all other purposes, permission must be obtained from the author.
Copyright and licensing terms for Georgia Educational Researcher are registered with Sherpa Romeo.
Plagiarism Policy
GER may use Similarity Check, a multi-publisher initiative, to selectively screen article submissions for originality. Similarity Check uses the iThenticate software, which checks submissions against millions of published research papers (the Similarity Check database), documents on the web, and other relevant sources. These submitted papers are not retained in the Similarity Check system after they have been checked.Read more at Crossref's Similarity Check & Researchers page.
Charges & Fees
GER levies no submission charges, or charges or fees for publication of accepted articles.
Digital Archiving
GER is preserved using CLOCKSS, a leading preservation archive that guarantees persistent access to journal content for the very long term. Articles also receive Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) through Crossref to ensure they can always be found.