Instructions for Authors

ONLINE SUBMISSIONS After carefully reviewing the style guidelines below, submit manuscripts online by clicking on Submit Manuscript. Step-by-step instructions on how to submit your manuscript online are available during the submission process. 

Track the progress of your submission by logging into Research in Learning Technology’s website.

Please note that the submitting author will be the principal contact for editorial correspondence, throughout the peer review and proofreading process, if applicable.

PLAGIARISM DETECTION To verify the originality of submitted content, RLT editors check all submissions for plagiarism using Similarity Check/Ithenticate, a plagiarism screening software that checks submissions against millions of published research papers, and billions of web content.

Authors, researchers and freelancers can also use iThenticate to screen their work before submission by visiting http://research.ithenticate.com.


 

LANGUAGE All articles should be written in English - British or American as long as consistency is observed. SI units should be used. Please subject the manuscript to professional language editing before submitting the final version if you are not a native speaker.

Articles should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader, should contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on the grounds of race, sex, culture or any other characteristic, and should use inclusive language throughout. Please ensure that writing is free from bias, for instance by using ‘s/he’, and by using non-racist language.

COMPETING INTERESTS Authors are responsible for disclosing all relationships that could be viewed as potential conflicts of interests. 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS List all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship, such as a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support. Financial and material support should also be acknowledged. Groups of persons who have contributed materially to the paper but whose contributions do not justify authorship may be listed under a heading such ‘participating investigators’ and their function or contribution should be described.

PUBLICATION FEE Publishing in Research in Learning Technology is free of charge. Colour illustrations are also free of charge, as is supplemental audio-visual or interactive material.

AUTHORSHIP Each of the manuscript’s authors should meet all three of the following criteria: (1) has made a substantial contribution to the design of the study, the collection of the data, or the analysis or interpretation of the data; (2) has drafted the manuscript or helped revise it, shaping its intellectual content; (3) has approved of the submitted manuscript. Each author should be able to take public responsibility for a portion of the paper’s content, and should be able to identify the co-authors who are responsible for the remaining material.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS Authors must ensure that their research is conducted in accordance with their institution's ethical guidelines and that appropriate clearance from the relevant committee is obtained prior to the work being submitted to Research in Learning Technology. Authors seeking further guidance should refer to Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research and the Framework for Ethical Learning Technology, which is widely applicable beyond Higher Education.

Manuscript Layout

Manuscripts should follow the traditional layout: Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, References. Insert running page numbers.

WORD LIMITS Please include a word count for your paper. The paper must be no more than 6000 words including tables, captions, and references. 

TITLE PAGE Organize the title page in the following way: 1) title of manuscript, 2) name of author(s), 3) name of department(s) and institution(s), 4) email addresses for all authors (listed by authors' initials), and 5) name and full postal and email address of the corresponding author who also acts as 'Guarantor' for all parts of the paper. Please observe that the journal adheres to a 'double blind' review process and thus the title page revealing the identity of the authors should be uploaded as separate file.

The title should be informative and accurate and at the same time trigger the interest of the reader. A short running head will be derived from the title to appear on each page of the article.

ABSTRACT Articles must include an abstract of around 200 words providing sufficient information for a reader to be able to decide whether or not to proceed to the full text of the article. After the abstract, please give 3-5 keywords; avoid using the same words as in the title.

SECTION HEADINGS Please use headings styles to indicate section headings, but please avoid using numbered section headings. Use a maximum of three levels of heading. 

FIGURES Upon acceptance please supply figures/graphics/images in at least 300 dpi. 

If the figures/graphics/images have been taken from sources not copyrighted by the author, it is the author’s sole responsibility to secure the rights from the copyright holder to reproduce those figures/graphs/images for both worldwide print and web publication. All reproduction costs charged by the copyright holder must be borne by the author.

When figures/graphics/images are reproduced, a parenthesis should be added to the figure legend thus: (Reproduced with permission from xxx.)

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL Supplementary material may be added, and will be published in the form in which it is received.

REFERENCES SYSTEM References should follow the Harvard Style and DOI numbers must be included where available. Examples

Journal
Kselman, T. & Davies, B. N. (1988) ‘The problematics of education in the 1980s: some reflections’, Oxford Review of Education, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 312–332. doi: 10.1080/0305498830090102

If there are more than three authors, list the first author, followed by et al.

Book
Parry, J. P. & Smith, G. (1994) Death in Banaras, 2nd edn, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 

Chapter in edited book
Young, G. (1981) ‘Hospice and health care’, in Race, Class and Education, 2nd ed., eds C. Saunders, H. Summers & G. Teller, Edward Arnold, London, pp. 145–167.

Edited book
Bloch, M. & Parry, J. (eds) (1982) Death and the Education of Life, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Conference proceedings
Bohre, N. (1993) ‘Integrated education’, IEEE Symposium on Education, Detroit, MI, pp. 276–281.

Newspaper
Simpson, L. (1987) ‘Education goes private’, The Sunday Times, 13 Oct., p. 10.

Electronic media
Weibel, S. (1990) ‘Metadata: the foundations of resources’, D-lib magazine, [online] Available at: http://www.dlib.org/dlib/July95/07weibel.html 

Dissertaion
Smith, J. (1998) Social Work Education in Scotland, Dissertation Thesis …, University of Glasgow.