Film Education Journal

Journal aims and scope

Film is a distinct medium with a distinct history and, as such, it requires a distinct pedagogy. The Film Education Journal (FEJ) is the world’s only publication committed to exploring how teachers and other educators work with film, and to involving other participants – policymakers, academics, researchers, cultural agencies and film-makers themselves – in that conversation.

We distinguish film from wider media. In consequence, pedagogical approaches inherited from other subjects, such as the textual study of literature, are not always appropriate for analysing film. In many parts of the world, the study of film is not yet recognized as a discrete subject and has not become a fully integrated part of the curriculum. FEJ aims to lead and shape the developing conversation about the place of film education in diverse educational contexts.

We have identified four groups routinely involved in the practice of film education: theorists, educators, film practitioners and policymakers, each coming from a different background yet sharing a common interest. FEJ exists to occupy the productive middle ground between these groups. We take particular inspiration in this respect from international film cultures that have developed a more holistic sense of how theory, practice, policy and pedagogy speak to each other, for example the post-war film culture in France. In bringing together the diverse voices engaged in film education within a single publication, FEJ will explicitly encourage a greater degree of exchange between theory, practice, policy and pedagogy.

The journal has two key aims:

1. To further understandings of the diverse approaches to film education around the world by exploring how educators, practitioners and policymakers are responding to the questions of film education in different international contexts: in primary schools, secondary schools, universities and film schools, and in programmes of education taking place outside institutions such as community projects and clubs.

2. To develop a critical discourse around these diverse approaches by considering how the work of relevant theorists casts light upon film education practice, and encouraging film practitioners and educators to reflect critically upon their practice.

The journal’s editors will pursue a number of strategies to foster a sense of dialogue between articles written by academics and those written by educators, film-makers and policymakers outside the academy. We are particularly interested in pairs of articles looking at an issue or area of film education from academic and non-academic perspectives.

Journal society information

The Film Education Journal is supported by Transgressive North, an Edinburgh-based artistic collective committed to making progressive cultural interventions both in Scotland and further afield. Transgressive North consists of film-makers, musicians, writers, visual artists, and more. Members of the collective work independently and with other organisations to produce and release arts projects and events, such as the annual Scottish International Film Education Conference, the annual Folk Film Gathering film festival, the Everything is New Project with Dalit 'untouchable' children in India, and the Strange Home project, exploring Scotland's rich oral history traditions.
 
FEJ is also supported by Creative Scotland, the British Film Institute, Edinburgh College of Art (University of Edinburgh) and Queen Margaret University.

Editor-in-Chief

Jamie Chambers, University of Edinburgh, UK 
 

Editors

Andrew Burn, IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society
Mark Reid, British Film Institute, UK
 

Associate editor

Robert Munro, Queen Margaret University, UK 
 

Assistant editor 

Chris Nunn, University of Greenwich, UK
 

Editorial board

Nuria Aidelman, A Bao A Qu, Barcelona, Spain 
Alejandro Bachmann, Austrian Film Museum, Austria
Alan Bernstein, London Film School, UK
Michelle Cannon, IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society
Virginia Heath, Sheffield Hallam University, UK
Bettina Henzler, University of Bremen, Germany
Karen Lury, University of Glasgow, UK
Noe Mendelle, University of Edinburgh, UK
John Potter, IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society
 

Administrator

Pascal Cicchetti

Journal information

ISSN: 2515-7086
Homepage: https://www.uclpress.co.uk/pages/film-education-journal
Film Education Journal twitter: @FilmEducationJ

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: Film Education Journal (FEJ) is published twice a year, in June and November.

Contact the journal

All general enquiries should be sent to the Editor-in-Chief at filmeducationjournal@ed.ac.uk

Open-access policy

All articles published in FEJ 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 Editorial Policy.

Abstracting & indexing

Articles published in the Film Education Journal are indexed in the following:

• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
• EBSCO
• Google Scholar
• Portico digital archive
• UCL Discovery
• Baidu

Peer review

Articles submitted to FEJ for general content are subject to double-blind peer review, where both the reviewers and authors are anonymised during review. Authors should submit an anonymous version of the manuscript, stripped of all identifying references to the author(s) for peer review, as well as a Word document containing all details of authorship (see under ‘Formatting your submission’ on the ‘How to submit’ tab).

Further information regarding peer review can be found on our Peer Review Policy.

Articles published as ‘Perspectives’ are subject to editorial review only.

Article publication charges (APC)

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

How to submit

The Film Education Journal invites you to submit papers that address the themes set out on the ‘Aims and Scope’ tab on this page. The journal publishes a range of article types, aimed at reaching our diverse academic and practitioner audience - see ‘Article types’, below.

FEJ 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).

You are welcome to contact the journal with pre-submission queries.

Before submitting to the journal, all authors must read and agree to the UCL Press Journals Editorial Policy and the Journal Contributor Agreement.

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

Please send submissions and enquiries to filmeducationjournal@ed.ac.uk

Article types

All word spans include references.

General content

• Scholarly articles featuring research, analysis and theoretical consideration of film-education practices (5,000-8,000 words).
• A case study of a film that has been made during a programme of film education. This could be written by the teacher/workshop leader, perhaps incorporating testimony from participants (2,000-6,000 words).
• A case study or broader consideration of a particular film-education project, methodology or technology (2,000-6,000 words).
• An interview with a classroom teacher about their experience of a film-education project or the experience of making a film with students (1,500-3,000 words).
• A national or regional survey of film-education approaches in a given part of the world or a historical survey of differing approaches through time (5,000-8,000 words).
• A broaderreflection on the experience of a film-education practitioner: an experienced practitioner reflects upon their practical experience over a broad time period, and some of the themes emerging from it (3,000-6,000 words).
• An evaluation of a film-education project from a perspective beyond the project (2,000-5,000 words).
• An article by a policymaker advocating for a particular approach to film education in a particular sector (3,000-6,000 words).
• We are particularly interested in pairs of articles looking at an issue or area of film education from academic and non-academic perspectives; essays in conversation with each other.
• As a journal giving priority to international content, we are interested in contributions looking at film education from anywhere in the world, and would particularly encourage contributions from those outside the UK.

Translations - in each issue of FEJ, we aim to include an influential article previously published in another language. The translation is peer reviewed.

Perspectives - These contributions offer a space for established experts in the field of film education to offer relevant opinions and commentaries or to enter into dialogues with each other. They are invited by the editors and are not open to general submission.

Preparing your manuscript

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

Ethics approval
FEJ 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)..

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.

Data and materials
The Film Education Journal 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 the manuscript as:

1. The complete manuscript not blinded, as a Word file (.doc/.docx, etc.) and;
2. An anonymous PDF version of the manuscript, stripped of all identifying references to the author(s) for peer review (anonymisation includes references to authors, acknowledgements, self references, and any electronic author identification., etc.) Manuscripts may be returned before peer review if manuscripts are not sufficiently blinded.

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

Title page
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. There are no hard rules, but titles that accurately communicate article content in a few careful words are more effective than catchy phrases that require a subtitle for explanation. Snappy quotations are best avoided. If the title takes up two full lines or more in the manuscript, it is too long.

Non-blinded version
Include the full title, the full names of contributing authors including their institutions/affiliation and address, their institutional email address, and their ORCiD IDs. The corresponding author should be identified

Blinded version
Title only

Declarations and conflict of interests
Clearly state the following, having referred on each point to the UCL Press Journals Editorial Policy for guidance:

• Any and all possible conflicts of interest and competing interests that may relate to the submitted manuscript, including all financial and non-financial competing interests. Where there are no conflicts of interests or competing interests, authors must clearly declare this under the same heading – usually as “The authors declare no conflicts of interest with this work”.
• Statement of ethics or institutional review board approval for research (where applicable). See additional guidance on ethics approval under the heading ‘Preparing your manuscript’, above.
• Consent for publication (where applicable).

Originality of article statement
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.

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.

Notes on the contributor(s) Please include an academic/professional biography of c.70 words for each of the listed authors.

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 FEJ 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.

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 as separate image files (jpg, tiff, eps).

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.
 

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.

• 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.

Formatting your submission

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.