London Review of Education

Journal aims and scope

The London Review of Education (LRE) is a fully open-access, peer-reviewed journal that provides a diversity of perspectives on all types, sectors and phases of education. It is free to read and free to write for; there are no article processing charges.  

We welcome and publish contributions from across the world, with an editorial perspective inspired by London’s status as a global city. Founded in 2003 by the UCL Institute of Education (IOE), but independent from it, LRE maintains the Institute’s principled concern for social justice. We encourage interdisciplinary collaborations and international co-authorship.

LRE is a wide-ranging journal that features rigorous analysis and significant research using a variety of methodologies across key themes in education. For example, we cover but are not limited to: assessment; curriculum; educational improvement; equalities and human rights; institutional effectiveness; language, literacy and numeracy; lifelong learning; organization; pedagogy; public goals and policies; resources and technology; teacher education; widening participation. We particularly welcome articles that cross disciplines and interrogate links between research, policy and practice.

We ensure the highest quality of reporting and presentation through an independent, anonymised peer-review process. Once accepted, articles appear in the next available issue, eliminating delays in publication. As an entirely web-based open-access journal, LRE provides opportunities  for including illustrative video clips, colour photos and illustrations.   

Editor-in-Chief

Professor Hugh Starkey, IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, UCL UK

Assistant Editors

Dr Celia Whitchurch, IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, UCL, UK
Dr Denise Miller, University of Greenwich, UK

Book Reviews Editor

Shone Surendran, Qualitative Research Associate/ Research Consultant, Imperial College London, UK, and Research Consultant/ Honorary Lecturer, King's College London, UK

Editorial Board Members

IOE Director (Executive Chair), IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, UCL UK
Professor Lynn Ang (Chair), IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, UCL UK
Dr Vincent Carpentier, IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, UCL UK
Professor Julie Dockrell, IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, UCL UK
Dr Wilton Lodge, IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, UCL UK
Professor Gary McCulloch, IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, UCL UK
Dr Tamjid Mujtaba, IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, UCL UK
Dr Richard Race, University of Roehampton, London, UK
Dr Leena Robertson, Middlesex University London, UK
Dr Becky Taylor, IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, UCL UK
Dr Emma Towers, Kings College London, UK
 

Student Members

Grace Healy, IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, UCL UK

External Advisory Board

Professor Li-Ching Ho, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
Professor Claus Holm, Head of Danish School of Education, Aarhus University, Denmark
Dr Catherine Kell, School of Education, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Professor Normand Labrie, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada
Dr Liu Woon Chia, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Professor Yasushi Maruyama, Graduate School of Education, Hiroshima University, Japan
Dr Larissa McLean Davies, University of Melbourne Graduate School of Education, Australia
Professor Yu Kai, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, China

Submission and Reviews Manager

Cecile Berbesi

Journal information

ISSN: 1474-8479
Homepage: https://www.uclpress.co.uk/pages/london-review-of-education

Published by:
UCL Press
University College London (UCL)
Gower Street
London
WC1E 6BT

UCL Press website: https://www.uclpress.co.uk
UCL Press email: uclpresspublishing@ucl.ac.uk
UCL Press twitter: @uclpress
UCL Press Journals Editorial Policy: https://www.uclpress.co.uk/pages/journals-editorial-policy

Publication frequency: London Review of Education publishes articles continuously (as and when articles are ready for publication).

Contact the journal

All general enquiries should be made to the Editor-in-Chief at ioe.reviews@gmail.com.

Open-access policy

All articles published in the London Review of Education are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY) 4.0 international license agreement and published open access, making them immediately and freely available to read and download. The CC BY license agreement allows authors to retain copyright while allowing others to copy, distribute, and make some uses of the work. Further information regarding this can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 and licensing terms and conditions can be found in our Journals Editorial Policy.

Abstracting & Indexing

UCL Press works with subject specific indexers to deposit published articles in relevant repositories and search databases. Articles published in the London Review of Education are indexed in:

• Dimensions   
• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
• EBSCOHost
• ERIC
• Google Scholar
• OCLC
• SCOPUS
• UCL Discovery
• Web of Science: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI)
• Baidu

Peer review

Articles submitted to LRE are subject to double-blind peer review, where both the reviewers and authors are anonymised during review. Authors will submit an anonymous pdf version of the manuscript, stripped of all identifying references to the author(s) for peer review (see the ‘Submission’ tab for more details). LRE's academic peer reviewers also refer to this guide. Further information about peer review can be found in our journals Peer Review Policy.  

Book reviews are subject to editorial review by the Book Reviews Editor, Janice Tripney: janice.tripney [at] ucl.ac.uk.

Article publication charges (APC)

UCL Press journals do not levy an article-processing charge (APC) for submission or publication in this journal. Contributors to LRE will not be required to make an APC payment for submission or publication of their article.

How to submit

The London Review of Education (LRE) invites papers on research and analysis related to education in any context. We publish general articles continuously, and papers responding to special calls for papers. Please see details of open calls for papers below.

We welcome articles of around 6,000 words that reveal links between research, policy, and practice, and which analyse key themes in education, including public goals and policies, pedagogy, curriculum, organization, resources and technology, and institutional effectiveness. We also consider some other types of content (see ‘Article types’, below)

LRE considers manuscripts on condition that they have not been published already and are not under consideration for publication or in press elsewhere. Contributions to the journal must report original research and will be subjected to review by referees at the discretion of the Editor(s).

Before submitting to the journal, all authors must read and agree to the UCL Press Journals Editorial Policy and the journal contributor agreement.  

To submit articles and book reviews, click ‘SUBMIT TO JOURNAL’ below. You will need to register and/or log in to the online submission system.

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT TO THE JOURNAL

Please read the following notes in full. Manuscripts that are not formatted appropriately for the journal will be returned for reformatting before peer review.

All submissions to the journal should be made by clicking ‘SUBMIT TO JOURNAL’ above. Details of what to submit and how to format your work follow shortly.

• For pre-submission enquiries only: General papers – contact the Editor-in-Chief, Hugh Starkey: h.starkey [at] ucl.ac.uk
• Contributions to special features – Most special features invite pre-submission abstracts. Please consult special calls for papers for information and contact emails.
• Book reviews (please see below section) – contact the Book Reviews Editor, Shone Surendran at s.surendran.14 [at] ucl.ac.uk 

Article types 

Original research article
Detailed studies reporting original research classified as primary literature. Length: 6,000 words.

Review article
Provide critical and systematic appraisal of the current research to provide authoritative judgement to its particular context, topic, and field. Up to 8,000 words.

Commentary
LRE considers different sorts of content under this heading. This might be a research ‘conversation’ between two or more academics, succinct analysis of a current issue in education, or a report about ongoing research. These pieces are usually 2,000-3,000 words. Please send enquiries to the Editor-in-Chief.

Book reviews

Book reviews are concise articles that provide an evaluation of a published scholarly book. Book reviews are often invited but suggestions are welcome and should be sent to the Book Reviews Editor, Shone Surendran at s.surendran.14 [at] ucl.ac.uk.

A book review might assess the importance of a book's contribution to a particular field covered by the journal’s aims and scope and should aim to objectively review the strengths and weaknesses that concern the journal’s audience. Please read our detailed guidance for book reviewers and refer to the journal's aims and scope before submitting a review.

You can also view the list of book reviews publsihed in journal here.

Preparing your manuscript

All authors submitting to LRE must read and accept the UCL Press Journals Editorial Policy, and consent to the Journal Author Contributor Agreement. The notes here offer additional guidance.

Ethics

LRE is committed to upholding the integrity of the work published. Papers may be reporting empirical research, or practice papers reporting practice-based evidence. Authors submitting research papers are required to follow best ethical practice for research as outlined in the British Educational Research Association or similar professional body (please indicate this clearly in your submission). Authors are required to show in their papers that they have received ethical approval for their research from all relevant institutional review boards and that they have followed General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) in the handling of personal data. Where such committees do not operate, authors are responsible for providing evidence of their adherence to relevant ethical guidelines (please indicate this clearly in your submission). We offer a simple questionnaire to help authors deal with this. This can be found under ‘Declarations and conflicts of interest’ in the ‘Formatting your submission’ section below.

English language
All publications are in English (UK). In order to facilitate rigorous and high-quality peer review, all manuscripts should be written in good and coherent English. Should you require help when writing your manuscript, a native English-speaking colleague may be well suited to help edit the level of English language in the manuscript. You may also want to consider using a professional English language editing service to improve the level of English language. Please note that using professional English language editing services does not guarantee manuscript acceptance in the journal, and you may be charged for these services.

Covering letter
Authors are welcome to submit a covering letter with the manuscript, for the Editors’ reference. Should you wish to provide one, please briefly summarise your manuscript, its findings, major themes, relevant discussion points and any disclosures including conflicts of interest the Editor(s) should be aware of.

ORCiD
ORCiD helps researchers record and report their work by providing researchers with a personal unique identifier that can be kept throughout their career. UCL Press journals now implement ORCiD in publications and authors are encouraged to register with ORCiD and enter their ORCiD details on submission. To register, follow the instructions on the ORCiD web pages at https://orcid.org/, or for UCL authors please visit the UCL Open Access pages http://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/open-access/ORCID.

Originality of article
All submitted articles must not be under consideration for publication anywhere else, nor have been published in any form prior to submission to any UCL Press journal. By submitting, authors are agreeing that the submission is original except for material in the public domain and such excerpts of other works have written permission of the copyright owner. Where there is potential for duplication authors must correctly reference and cite the work. Co-publication of an article, as agreed with the publisher and journal, may be considered in accordance with the ICMJE guidelines on overlapping publication, at the discretion of the Editor.

Data and materials
The London Review of Education encourages authors to either deposit any datasets on which conclusions in their manuscript rely in publicly available repositories or to present them in the main paper or additional supporting files, in machine-readable format (such as spread sheets rather than PDFs) whenever possible. UCL Press journal authors are encouraged to follow the FAIR data principles - to make data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Re-usable. Further information and guidance on these principles are outlined at https://www.force11.org/group/fairgroup/fairprinciples.

Formatting your submission

All manuscript text should be Times New Roman 12-point font and be double spaced.

UCL Press’s style preferences are outlined in our Author Guidelines. These are written to support book authors, but the guidance on text styles is also appropriate for journal articles. 

Versions for peer review
The journal operates double-blind peer review, in which authors and reviewers are anonymised to keep their identity hidden from each other. Authors should submit two versions of the manuscript:

1. The complete manuscript not blinded, as a Word file (.doc/.docx, etc.). Please include the following biographical information: full names of contributing authors including their institutions/affiliation and address, their institutional email address, and their ORCiDs. The corresponding author should be identified.
2. An anonymous PDF version of the manuscript, stripped of all identifying references to the author(s) for peer review (anonymisation includes biographical information, acknowledgements, self references, electronic author identification and all publication references). Manuscripts will be returned before peer review if manuscripts are not blinded.

Article content
Please prepare your manuscript under the following headings, and in the order given.

Title  
Your title should succinctly reflect the article’s content, using key words that are most likely to draw interested readers to the content through a search engine. Titles that accurately communicate article content in a few careful words are more effective than catchy phrases that require a subtitle for explanation. Please use the guidelines below as closely as possible. You may be asked to rework you title if it does not follow them effectively.

• Titles should be accessible for all - Be direct, transparent and use keywords so your content is more likely to be found and read by a range of readers.
• Titles should fill less than 2 of manuscript.
• Use a single-sentence title, where possible – A clear, succinct description that does not require an explanatory subtitle is the best option.
• Where ‘Title: subtitle’ is unavoidable:
• The main title (text before colon) will be used for the running head throughout the paper - consider length and whether the title can be understood alone.
• Avoid using a quote in/for the main heading – these always need explanation in the subtitle and will not be understood in the running head.
• If the main title is too long or opaque, the explanatory subtitle may be used as a running head.

Biographical information (Word document only): See point 1 above.

Abstract
Present an abstract of 150 to 200 words. This should reflect the entire content of the submission. It should cover the key steps in your article, probably including the genesis of your project/research/theorising, research questions/hypotheses, the research design and methods, findings and outcomes, a discussion of these including limitations, and any indications offered for future action or research. Your abstract will ultimately be used by search engines, and it will form part of the meta-data that will be seen first by people searching your article.

Keywords
List up to 10 keyword terms that accurately reflect the article.

Article text
Please refer to the ‘General notes for submission’ at the top of this page and to the article type descriptions above when preparing the main body of text.

Abbreviations
If any abbreviations have been used, please define and list them accordingly under this heading.

Funding
Any sources of funding for the research reported should be declared, including any project codes.

Acknowledgements
Mention everyone whose contribution to the work you wish to recognise in this section. Those that contributed to the paper but are not listed as authors can be acknowledged here.

Declarations and conflict of interests
Include the following statements that are relevant for type of paper you are submitting and for your work. Where there are bulleted choices, please include the one that is appropriate to you and provide any information required:

Research ethics statement (for articles reporting on original research with human participants; choose the correct statement where appropriate, and provide any additional information required)

• The author/s declare/s that research ethics approval for this article was provided by ___________________ ethics board. /
• The author/s declare/s that research ethics approval for this article was waivered by ____________________ ethics board. /
• The author/s conducted the research reported in this article in accordance with _________________ standards.

Consent for publication statement (for articles reporting on original research or any activity involving human participants)

The author declares that research participants’ informed consent to publication of findings – including photos, videos and any personal or identifiable information – was secured prior to publication.

Conflict of interest statement (for all articles; delete as appropriate)

• The author/s declare/s no conflict of interest with this work.
• The author/s declare/s the following interests: ___________________________
• The author is a current editor for this journal.

All efforts to sufficiently blind the author during peer review of this article have been made. The author declares no further conflicts with this article.

References
A full reference list should contain all the sources cited in the text. Any source not cited in text should not be included. The journal uses an author, date style of referencing. Please refer to this guide.

Note on appendices
Articles in LRE do not feature end-article appendices. All illustrative matter should be included in the body of the text or as a table/figure.

Preparing tables and figures

Authors are responsible for determining the copyright status of illustrations or other material they wish to reproduce in their article and, if necessary, obtaining permission to reproduce it. This applies both to direct reproduction and to ‘derivative reproduction’ (where authors create a new figure or table which derives substantially from a copyrighted source). By including such material in their submission, authors warrant that it may be reproduced or adapted under the terms of the CC BY licence in the same way as their own work. Please note that short extracts of copyright text (excluding poetry and song lyrics) for the purposes of criticism, discussion, or review may be reproduced without formal permission assuming that the quotation is reproduced accurately and full attribution is given.

All tables and figures should be numbered sequentially (Table 1, Table 2, etc) and have a short, clear title or caption. Each one should be tagged in the correct place in the manuscript, e.g. <Insert Table 1 near here>, even if the table or illustration has been placed in the manuscript in its final position.

All tables and figures should cite a source. Where the source is the author, please add ‘Source: Author’ at the end of the caption.

Tables and author-generated line diagrams
These should be incorporated into the text at their final position. Please supply tables formatted in Word.

Graphs
Please submit these as separate, editable documents accompanied by the original Excel spreadsheet from which they were generated.

Illustrations, photographs
Please submit images both within the article text and as separate image files (jpg, tiff, eps).

Revisions 

Should your manuscript need revision to meet the journal’s requirements, or following peer review, please attend to the following points when revising your manuscript.

Provide your timely revisions along with a response letter to any reviewer reports, within the specified revision period to the handling editor.

• Clearly show and/or highlight the revisions you have made in the text. This can be accommodated by making use of either a different colour text, highlighting the text, or by using Microsoft Word's Track Changes function.
• In your response letter, address all points raised by the editor and reviewers, preferably sequentially and in a bullet point list.
• Outline the revisions you have made to your manuscript.
• Where applicable, perform any additional analyses or experiments the reviewers recommend (unless you feel that they would not make your paper better; if this is the case, explain why in your response letter).
• Provide a polite objective rebuttal to any points or comments you disagree with.

Referencing Style

The journal uses an author, date style of referencing. Please refer to this guide.

Special series and features

The London Review of Education regularly publishes special features that are edited either by guest editors or by the Editor-in-Chief. These features focus on a theme, subject or area of discourse in education research that fit within the overarching remit of the journal. 

Below readers will find a list of published special series in the journal. Special series (perhaps more traditionally known as a special issue) are a collection of articles on a particular theme and each special series is typically guest edited.

Proposals

Proposals are welcome from guest editors with a specialism in any field of education research. Please consult our guide for guest editors. All general enquiries should be made to the Editor-in-Chief.

2023

Culturally responsive STEAM education

Edited by:
Wilton Lodge, IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, UCL, UK
Alexis Stones, IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, UCL, UK

Belonging and home-making in the internationalised campus

Edited by:
Bojana Petrić, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
Cristina Ros i Solé, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK
Prue Holmes, Durham University, UK

2022

Rising to the challenge of teacher education to prepare teachers for today’s world

Edited by:
Becky Taylor IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, UCL, UK
Gracy Healy IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, UCL, UK

Colleges as Anchor Institutions in their Local Community

Edited by:
Lynne Rogers IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, UCL, UK

IOE@120: Critical Engagement with Educational and Social Thought, Practice and Development

Edited by:
Li Wei, IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, UCL, UK
Hugh Starkey, IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, UCL, UK

Decolonising the School Curriculum

Edited by:
Denise Miller, University of Greenwich, UK
Emma Towers, King's College London, UK
Shone Surendran, University College London, UK

2021

Decolonizing the Higher Education Curriculum

Edited by:
Karen Schucan Bird, UCL, UK
Ludovic Coupaye, UCL, UK

2020

Developing an Empowering School Curriculum: A renewed focus on action research

Edited by:
Pete Wright, UCL Institute of Education, UK

AI and the Human in Education

Guest edited by:
Sandra Leaton Gray, UCL Institute of Education, UK
Natalia Kucirkova, University of Stavanger, Norway

Europe and Education

Edited by:
Hugh Starkey, UCL Institute of Education, UK

2019

Methodological Innovations in Qualitative Educational Research

Edited by:
Charlotte Vidal-Hall, UCL Institute of Education, UK
Nozomi Sakata, UCL Institute of Education, UK
Rob Higham, UCL Institute of Education, UK

New Directions in Lifelong Learning

Guest edited by:
Lorena Sanchez Tyson, UCL Institute of Education, UK
Valerie Watson Vega, UCL Institute of Education, UK

2018

Knowledge and Subject-Specialist Teaching

Guest edited by:
David Lambert, UCL Institute of Education, UK

Lessons Learned From Professional Doctorates

Guest edited by:
enise Hawkes, UCL Institute of Education, UK
Sridevi Yerrabati, Sohar University, Oman
Susan Taylor, UCL Institute of Education, UK

2017

Music Education in Context

Guest edited by:
Hilary McQueen, UCL Institute of Education, UK
Maria Varvarigou, UCL Institute of Education, UK

Negotiating the Nation: Young people, national narratives and history education

Guest edited by:
Jocelyn Létourneau, Université Laval, Quebec City, Canada
Arthur Chapman, UCL Institute of Education, UK

Open calls for papers

Below readers will find all open calls for papers to the journal.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Systematic reviews in education: Producing and acquiring knowledge in times of crisis and social change. 

For publication from winter 2023. See link for information, contact and deadlines.  

CALL FOR PAPERS: Culturally responsive STEAM education. 

For publication from winter 2023. See link for information, contact and deadlines.  

CALL FOR PAPERS: Third space roles and identities in educational settings. 

For publication from summer 2024. See link for information, contact and deadlines.