Dear authors, thank you for choosing our journal to submit your work. To ensure a smooth review process for your article, we ask that you carefully read and meticulously follow the guidelines below.

Submission Policy

Kastamonu Education Journal is an international, peer-reviewed journal that publishes original research. For information regarding the aims, scope, and peer review policy of our journal, please visit the "Aims and Scope" page. Please note that studies falling outside the scope cannot be considered for evaluation and that our journal publishes full-text articles in English.

Manuscripts submitted for publication must be original, possess sufficient theoretical content and methodological grounding, and must not have been previously published or be under consideration for publication elsewhere. A study previously published in proceedings books (such as symposia) must be significantly modified (at least 80% of the text must be original and previously unpublished content) before being evaluated by our journal.

The length of the articles submitted to our journal should ideally be around 6,500 words and must not exceed 11,500 words. The bibliography is not included in this count. Care should be taken to ensure that all submitted manuscripts are clear, concise, and compliant with grammatical rules.

Kastamonu Education Journal employs a double-blind peer review policy. Please anonymize the main manuscript file and upload the version prepared for blind review to the system. Care must be taken to ensure that the anonymous text does not contain author names or affiliations; if the author(s) cite their own work, these citations must be presented in a manner that maintains anonymity. Furthermore, the author(s) must provide an anonymized ethical statement in the manuscript that does not include the institution's name or any identifying information (e.g., “This study was approved by an institutional ethics committee [XXXXX board; approval number: XXX; approval date: XXX]”).

During the preliminary review, manuscripts may be excluded from evaluation if they: do not align with the journal's aims and scope; fail to establish a theoretical, methodological, or applied connection with the field of educational sciences; do not comply with the requirements specified in the journal’s scope; or fail to report expert consultation processes where necessary. Additionally, scale development and adaptation studies that do not establish an educational context based on the literature, or qualitative studies that limit findings to mere frequencies, code counts, and quotes without a rigorous analysis and interpretation, may also be rejected at the desk review stage.

Kastamonu Education Journal accepts original research articles and review articles (systematic reviews/meta-analyses). Research articles must be original and may be structured using qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods, provided that the rationale for the selected methodology and the contribution to the field are clearly demonstrated.

The journal only accepts review articles in the form of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Scientific value, methodological clarity, and originality are expected in these article types; non-systematic or traditional literature reviews are outside the journal's scope. Author(s) are expected to adhere to established reporting standards (e.g., PRISMA, MOOSE, or equivalent) in systematic reviews and meta-analysis studies and provide a clear description of procedures such as search strategies, and inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Plagiarism

Kastamonu Education Journal takes matters of copyright, plagiarism, and violations of other best publishing practices seriously. Emphasizing the originality of submitted manuscripts, the journal ensures that articles do not contain content involving plagiarism, self-plagiarism, or inappropriate citation. As part of the review process, manuscripts identified through iThenticate software as having high similarity or improper citation practices are rejected by the editor. A maximum similarity index of up to 15% is accepted, provided that the similarity does not originate entirely from one or two sources (bibliography excluded, limit match size to 5 words). Manuscripts with a similarity rate exceeding 15% will be rejected. Furthermore, articles identified with significant or unexplained similarities may be rejected at any stage of the process.

Ethical Approval and Research Ethics

The journal requires authors to provide ethical committee approval for research involving human or animal participants, personal data, or procedures subject to ethical oversight. Within this scope, ethical approval is mandatory for studies collecting data from participants through surveys, interviews, observations, or experiments; studies using humans or animals for experimental or scientific purposes; and retrospective studies that process personal data in accordance with data protection regulations. Authors must also adhere to ethical principles regarding participant confidentiality, informed consent, and responsible data management. "Ethical Committee Approval" must be obtained for all studies submitted to our journal. Submissions lacking ethical committee approval will not be included in the evaluation process. If a study does not require ethical committee approval according to national or institutional regulations, the corresponding author must upload a signed statement explaining why ethical approval is not required.

  Full-Text Manuscript File

Authors must ensure that the full-text manuscript and any supplementary files (metadata, etc.) are fully anonymized before uploading them to the system. Submitted manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with the Journal Template. Please download the manuscript template here. All references within the article text must comply with APA 7 standards. A typical manuscript should include the following sections:

·        Title

·        Abstract (150-300 words): A summary of the study outlining its aim, design, methods, key findings, and implications.

·        Keywords (3-6 terms): Words representing the main topics or core ideas of the study.

·        Introduction: A section that clearly defines the research problem, provides the theoretical background and literature review, highlights the contribution to the field, and includes research questions, etc.

·        Method: A section providing a detailed explanation of the study's methodology, participants, data collection procedures, instruments, data analysis, and approaches to validity and reliability.

·        Findings/Results: A section where conclusions drawn from the data are presented under subheadings, accompanied by appropriate statistics, analyses, quotes, evidence, and their interpretation.

·        Discussion: The discussion section should interpret and analyze the findings of the study in relation to the hypotheses and existing literature. Authors may use subheadings to organize this section effectively. Additionally, they can include extra subheadings if desired, such as limitations, future research, and implications for research and practice.

·        Conclusion

·        References

·        Appendices

Presentation of References, Tables, Figures, and Appendices

All references in the manuscript must comply with APA 7 standards. Authors are expected to ensure the accuracy of bibliographic information and its correct formatting, verify that in-text citations are reflected in the reference list, and include DOIs where available. We remind authors that incomplete or incorrect references may delay the manuscript process at any stage of evaluation.

The use of tables in the manuscript must adhere to APA 7 guidelines. It is recommended to avoid vertical lines in tables, place the table immediately after the paragraph where it is first mentioned, provide a call-out (reference) to the table before presenting it, ensure the table title is clear, and maintain consistency in the formatting of numerical data within the table.

Figures used in the manuscript must be high-resolution, legible, and visually clear. Figures should appear immediately after they are first mentioned, include explanatory captions and citations, and care must be taken to obtain permission from copyright holders for any copyrighted material. Tables and figures should be centered on the page, followed by a single line of space.

If included, appendices should follow the reference list. Documents such as measurement instruments are presented in the appendices. If there are multiple appendices, they should be presented in alphabetical order (Appendix A, Appendix B, Appendix C, etc.).

Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools

Kastamonu Education Journal acknowledges that all scientific responsibility and declarations of originality for submitted manuscripts rest with the authors. The journal maintains that artificial intelligence (AI) tools cannot be listed as authors and that the status of primary data generation, interpretation, and decision-making processes belongs solely to the authors. AI tools cannot assume the role of an author or be listed as a co-author of a manuscript. The processes of writing and revising manuscripts submitted to the journal must be under human supervision, and consequently, the accuracy of the text remains the responsibility of the author(s). The role of AI in manuscripts may be accepted only at a limited level (such as language enhancement or basic structuring). Therefore, authors are fully responsible for the verification of AI-supported content. In manuscripts submitted to the journal, authors are expected to transparently and explicitly disclose their use of any AI-based tools. Authors must declare the use of AI tools on the title page; if used, the specific tool(s) and the scope of their use must be explained, and the instructions (prompts) provided to the AI tool(s) must be documented by the authors.

Submission Process

Submissions are conducted through the DergiPark system. All submissions must be managed by the corresponding author via their personal account. To submit a manuscript, the corresponding author must register and log in through the DergiPark login page (https://dergipark.org.tr/en/login). Manuscripts submitted through alternative channels or by individuals other than the author (or the corresponding author in the case of multiple authors) will not be considered for evaluation.

The Manuscript Submission Guide is available at https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/journal-file/29908, and the instructional video can be accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naia4Y3MSjQ. Additional information regarding the system can be found at https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/page/egitim-dokumanlari.

During the initial upload to the DergiPark system, manuscript metadata must be entered meticulously; information such as the abstract, keywords, and bibliography must be complete. Submissions that do not meet technical or ethical requirements will be returned without evaluation. Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with the Journal Template. Please download the manuscript template here.

Authors are required to submit the following files during the initial submission. The requirements for each file are specified below:

1. Main Manuscript: A single, anonymized full-text file prepared in accordance with the journal template and double-blind review requirements. This file must not contain any information that could compromise the peer review process (e.g., names, institutional affiliations, or specific details of the ethics committee).

2. Similarity Report: A report generated via iThenticate software, showing a similarity index of no more than 15%.

3. Ethical Committee Approval: A document stating that ethical approval was obtained before the commencement of the study (must include the name of the ethics committee, approval date, and approval number). If the study does not fall into a category requiring ethical approval, you must sign and upload a declaration form stating this situation and specify it on the Title Page.

4. Title Page: This document must include the article title; the full names, affiliations, email addresses, mailing addresses, phone numbers, and ORCID IDs of all authors; corresponding author details; ethical compliance and approval information (including the board name, date, and number); CRediT author contribution statements (e.g., conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, writing); author’s note, permission and copyright information; funding information; conflict of interest statement; acknowledgments; and a disclosure of artificial intelligence tools (including details of the tools used and the scope of their use).

NOTE: The Title Page must be a separate file and must not be included in the anonymized manuscript. This page is not shared with reviewers. If the manuscript is accepted for publication, the statements on the Title Page (author’s note, funding, conflicts of interest, ethical approval, AI disclosure, acknowledgments, author contributions) will be published exactly as provided by the author(s). Therefore, it is essential for authors to ensure the accuracy and suitability of these statements for publication.

5. Copyright Transfer Form

Post-Acceptance Process

Accepted manuscripts undergo linguistic review, formatting according to the Kastamonu Education Journal full-text template, and final proofreading by the author. During this stage, authors must upload the full-text file, incorporating all changes following the revisions, along with a final similarity report for a concluding check. The manuscript is then reviewed by language editors. If deemed necessary, language editors may request a formal proofreading certificate for linguistic editing. In such cases, authors are obligated to provide this document; manuscripts for which the required document is not submitted will not be accepted for publication. Upon completion of this process, the manuscript is queued for the first available and appropriate issue. When reaching the publication stage, the typeset version of the article is sent back to the authors for final approval. Following their approval, a DOI is assigned, and the article is published online. Once page numbers and the DOI are finalized, the article becomes the official version of record.

Open Access and Licensing

Kastamonu Education Journal operates under an Open Access model that does not charge any fees at any stage. Articles are licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license, which allows for widespread reuse provided that proper credit is given.