About the Journal

Focus and Scope

Didacticae. Journal of Research in Specific Didactics is a scientific, open and blind peer-reviewed journal with an international scope, designed as a space for dialogue and reflection about the different specific disciplines in Didactics (Experimental Sciences, Mathematics, Technology, Languages, Literature, Arts, Music, Humanities, Social Sciences, Physical Education...). It is published half-yearly (March & October) and it includes articles in English, Spanish or Catalan. The authors sending articles in Catalan must provide the translation of the abstract into English and, if possible, into Spanish. 

The call for papers is open permanently, although the articles for the monographic section will have set deadlines which will be published in 'Announcements'. If the number of articles accepted for the monographic section is higher than the maximum allowed, the author will have the option to publish the manuscript in a later issue.

The publication is open to all those researchers and practitioners who wish to propose articles on this subject. Articles admitted include empirical investigations, reports on innovation and teaching experiences as well as reviews and theoretical reflections.

The journal publishes different kinds of articles:

  • Monographic articles: articles approved by the Editorial Board of the journal in a monograph format.
  • Epistemological and historical articles: theoretical articles revolving around the epistemology and history of didactics.
  • Research articles: articles presenting the results of a research study.
  • Innovation and experiences: slightly shorter articles devoted to innovation and teaching experiences.
  • Reviews: short articles about books, PhD dissertations and teaching/learning projects.

Didacticae. Journal of Research in Specific Didactics publishes issues related with its focus and scope as well as a monographic section, centered on a specific subject. The manuscripts submitted to a monographic section undergo a blind peer review process.

If interested in submitting an article, you must first register or log in if you already have an account, and then download the following style template. Use this format checklist as well.

Blind Peer Review Process

The editors of the journal reserve the right to publish the contributions in the issue which they consider most appropriate.

All the articles published in Didacticae but for the editorial and the reviews are previously subjected to a blind peer review by at least two external referees. The editorial and reviews need the editor-in-chief's approval.

All the authors will receive notification of receipt of the work. Comments and the final decision of the review process will be sent to them in a period of no more than six months after the date of receipt of the article.

If changes are requested, the author must confirm if he/she is willing and in a position to make them. If there is no reply or the reply takes more than one month, the journal will consider that the changes are not accepted and the article will therefore be considered rejected.

Publication Frequency

This journal is published half-yearly (March & October). The articles published 'in press' appear without doi and page numbers, which will be added when the issue they belong to is published. 

The call for papers is open permanently. Monographic issues will be announced in due time.

Open Access Policy

Didacticae offers the possibility to consult all its content free, under the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater exchange of knowledge.

The articles published in Didacticae are under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Spain License.

Archives in LOCKSS

This journal uses the LOCKSS system to create an automatic archive system shared by the collaborating libraries, which create permanent journal files for conservation and restoration.

An electronic backup is additionally made of each issue. Preservation of access to the journal content in the event of Didacticae no longer being published is guaranteed.

Following is LOCKSS publisher manifest of Didacticae: https://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/didacticae/gateway/lockss

Interoperability protocols

This journal implements OAI-PMH protocol (Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting), a low-barrier mechanism for repository interoperability that expose Dublin Core structured metadata. OAI 2.0 Request: https://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/index/oai?verb=ListRecords&metadataPrefix=oai_dc&set=didacticae 

Appears in...

Declaration of publishing ethics and best practices

Didacticae subscribes the Declaration of publishing ethics and best practices for scientific journals published by the University of Barcelona.

The University of Barcelona promotes the open access publication of digital journals and endeavours to guarantee quality and conscientiousness in the transfer of scientific knowledge. The University is committed to ensuring that the articles it publishes and the publishing process itself observe the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). It is therefore essential that all of the stakeholders in this process—journal editors,reviewers, technical editors and authors—know and act according to the Code.

  • Journal editors should:

- ensure that the decision to publish is not dependent on the author’s race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnic origin, country of origin, citizenship or political persuasion;

- publish regular updates on the responsibilities of authors, submission requirements, the arbitration system used to select the articles and the evaluation criteria to be applied by reviewers;

publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed and not make use of any article received for UB-specific research assignments without the author’s consent;

- guarantee confidentiality during the review process, meaning (a) the anonymity of reviewers and authors and the confidentiality of the content of the articles, the reports submitted by reviewers and any other type of correspondence with or between the editorial, consultant and scientific committees and (b) confidentiality in the correspondence between the author and the journal committees or reviewers when the author wishes to clarify, change or complain about some aspect of the article;

- make certain that the integrity of articles already published is respected;

- act swiftly to eliminate from the journal or refuse to publish any article that has been found to plagiarise information from other sources.

  • Authors should

- understand that they are responsible for all submitted content;

- notify the journal editors of any errors in their published articles so that the appropriate corrections can be made;.

- guarantee that the article and associated materials are original and do not infringe on the rights of third-party authors and, when there are co-authors, guarantee that the consent of all the authors is obtained before the article goes to press.

- state there is no competing interest whatsoever (academic, personal or financial)

  • Reviewers and technical editors should

- apply revisions that are objective, informed, critical, constructive and unbiased, where acceptance or rejection is based only on the work’s relevance, originality, interest to the public in question and compliance with the style and content regulations in the evaluation criteria;

- meet deadlines when this is possible and promptly inform the journal editor when it is not;

- avoid sharing, spreading or reproducing any information from articles still under review without permission from the corresponding journal editors or authors.

- declare there are no competing interests when carrying out their review.

Plagiarism policy

Regarding plagiarism, Didacticae follows the instructions included in the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors of COPE (http://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts) and uses the Urkund tool to detect it.  

When some plagiarism is detected in an article submitted to this journal or already published in it:

  • The person informing us about the case of plagiarism will be informed of the procedure to deal with the situation.  
  • The manuscripts will be compared to check to what extent the manuscript is affected by plagiarism.  
  • The Editorial Board of Didacticae will be informed and will be asked their views on the case. . 
  • The author submitting the manuscript with plagiarism evidence will be sent the original sources and will be asked for some explanation about it.  
  • If the authors are finally found guilty of plagiarism:
  1. Both the authors and the editor of the journal in which the original paper was published will be informed. 
  2. Didacticae will publish an official retraction of the manuscript.
  3. The online version of the paper will be removed from the Didacticae online platform.
  4. Didacticae will not publish any other paper by the authors found guilty of plagiarism during 5 years. 

Sources of Support

Journal History

Didacticae was founded in 2016 in order to represent the new Faculty of Education, following the merge of the former Faculty of Pedagogy and Faculty of Teacher Training.

An educated society is one that fosters the education of its citizens and, consequently, that of its teachers. We cannot just quietly observe our youngsters remaining unenergetic and uninspired, and not see that their teachers play a key role in their development in a paradoxical world where many do not know what a paradox is.

Living in a moment when knowledge is becoming more and more specialized, there is a need for lifelong learning and acknowledging the value of what is specialized without overlooking those aspects which are most important in the present world of science, mathematics, language, literature, social science, arts, physical education, technology and music, among others. Not only do we need to look deeply into education in a broader sense but also into its specialities. Multidisciplinarity must give way to interdisciplinarity so we can collectively influence on all our Early Childhood Education, Primary School and University teacher trainees. The editorial board that chartered this journal has borne in mind that its main focus will be education in a broader sense, given that lifelong learning is an aim worth the effort, particularly when it comes to education research dealing with specific didactics.

This journal aims to delve into all disciplines, reflecting on both common and different epistemologies, as well recognizing the common yet different histories of education of each of its branches. There also exists a need to incorporate principles and methodologies derived from anthropology, neuroscience, robotics and philosophy of science, among others. We will only be able to do so if we are familiar with what is happening in each field of knowledge and what is being written about the recent research carried out by the most important researchers.

We hope that this journal helps future researchers remain up to date with the current research, that is, to bring to the forefront what is being researched in specific didactic areas, ranging from ECE education to higher education. To do so, it was agreed that each issue would have a initial themed section devoted to one specific discipline and other sections with articles from other disciplines. The journal also includes reviews of interesting projects, books and doctoral thesis, research articles and articles on epistemology and history of didactics.

The recently-merged Departments of Didactics of the University of Barcelona and the new Faculty of Education are pleased with this new project. Hopefully it will last for the upcoming generations.

The Management Board - January 2017

 

Funding

This journal is funded by the Vicerdean of Research of the Faculty of Education, as well as by the Vicerector of Institutional Relations, Communication and Language Policy of the Universitat de Barcelona.