Student Engagement in Higher Education Journal

Student Engagement in Higher Education Journal is an international peer-reviewed journal publishing contributions dealing with student engagement in Higher Education from a disciplinary or multi-disciplinary perspective.

We welcome contributions from those working and studying in Higher Education, this includes:

  • students: undergraduate, postgraduate or research.
  • all and any staff working in whatever capacity working in a university or tertiary education
  • any individuals involved in a consultancy or indirect role but which are involved in universities or tertiary education

The journal will normally be published twice a year.

Focus and the audienceof the journal

The focus of the journal reflects the focus of RAISE; i.e. research, theory, practice and policy about student engagement. We adopt a very broad definition of student engagement as this is a multi-construct. This includes all forms of work around student voice, student participation and students as partners.

We seek submissions which consider an international audience and our wide constituency of all involved in Higher/Tertiary Education. So do be mindful of the audience.This includes the usage of terms that may not be understood outside of any national context in HE or constituency of roles (including, but not limited to, the use of; years 4/5/6 in place of first year, second year or final year etc). It is also important to remember to give further explanation of description of nation based organisations (such as, Ofsted, Office of Learning and Teaching), this may be done as an endnote.

The ethos of RAISE

A key principle of RAISE is inclusive practice and treating all, whatever their background and role, with respect and courtesy. Therefore we will not accept any material which is discriminatory on a wide set of grounds including gender, gender identity, race, ethnicity, nationality and age. We advise caution to any writer in making assumptions about groups and applying any deficit model. We reserve the right to amend any material that any of our membership would potentially find pejorative or insulting.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge (in line with Open Journal Systems policy). Authors are free to deposit their work in their institutional repositories, but must clearly acknowledge that this is an article in SEHEJ.

Submissions

We publish the following kinds of articles (the word limits are inclusive of titles, biogsetcand references):

Research Papers - A research paper must establish a research agenda for the study (based on completed research) in the context of the existing literature, with appropriate conceptual underpinnings; a clear methodology, which demonstrate that evidence has been gathered in rigorous, ethical ways; Analysis of the collated findings, and a critical discussion and conclusion that offer fresh insights and adds to knowledge and understanding. Theoretical pieces, policy analyses and meta-analyses of the literature that provide similar fresh insight and synthesis are also welcome(a maximum of 8000 words).

Student Voice - based on personal experience of studying at University, what engaged you with your studies or what disengaged you. How you felt about student engagement initiatives and how they impacted on your studying (a maximum of 2000 words)

Opinion Pieces - these are fairly short contributions based on the perspective of the writer. These will be informed opinions which may reference scholarship but are not expected to be rigorous as papers. Usually these will be invited by the editors (a maximum of 2000 words)

Case Studies/Practice pieces - based on student engagement and students as partners practices within the setting of the curriculum (learning, teaching and assessment in practice), extra-curricular activities or broader student experience initiatives. These should describe the context and a rationale for the work, a review of the literature (if relevant but do keep this to a minimum), implementation and evaluation.

There are two styles which we will accept. Formal case studies to a template (for example the Partnership SIG has designed such a template) or more reflective, thought pieces about practice. (a maximum of 3000 words in any case)

Non-text submissions – this would include short films, animations, audio files/podcasts or other forms of media that can be shared on-line and are accessible to our readers. Contact the editorial team to ensure that the submission is in a suitable format for the journal.

Reviews - a critical review of a book related to student engagement, or a relevant conference or similar event. (a maximum of 1000 words)

We consider all contributions submitted on the strict condition that:

  • thesubmission is your own original work, and does not duplicate any other previously published work, including your own previously published work.
  • thesubmissionhas been submitted only to the Student Engagement in Higher Education Journal. It should not be under consideration or peer review or accepted for publication or in press or published elsewhere.
  • thesubmissions contains nothing that is abusive, defamatory, libellous, obscene, fraudulent, or illegal (note statement about the ethos of RAISE earlier).
  • All submissions that involve research with human participants must have been successfully reviewed according to appropriate research ethics committee guidelines. A statement to that effect should be included either in the methodology or as an endnote.

Submissions are accepted in English. UK English spelling and punctuation are preferred.

Ways of submitting

If you considering submitted a student voice, opinion piece, non-text submission or review please contact the editorial team beforehand by email.

If you would like to check if your submission idea is likely to fit with the journal in terms of focus and quality, please submit a proposal of your intended submission (in the order of 300 words) before writing and submitting the full piece..

If you are new or fairly new to writing for publication you may opt for the Developmental Route. The editors may also recommend this route after receiving a proposal from you. This entails submitting a draft submission clearly stating that you wish to exercise this option. The editors will decide if they consider the submission suitable for SEHEJ. If they do, you will be allocated a mentor. The role of the mentor is to support you redraft the submission up to the standard required for publication. When the mentor agrees that the submission is ready, this is submitted to the appropriate section editor (e.g. research paper section) for final approval and corrections- it is very unlikely that these changes will be more than minor. Once made, the submission will be accepted.

For more experienced authors, a Direct Route is offered. Please submit a paper or case study/practice piece to the appropriate section of the journal via the SEHEJ website. Ensure that the submission:

  • Fully complies with submission and editorial guidelines and policies.
  • If not using the house templates*, you must adhere fully to all format and layout rules.
  • Is submitted in two forms; with full author details clearly marked ‘not for review’; and in anonymised form with all author and institutional identifiers removed, marked ‘for review’.

The editorial team will acknowledge receipt and will check compliance as above. Non-compliant submissions will be returned and not accepted for review. The editorial team will decide if the submission is suitable for SEHEJ. If deemed so, the submission will be reviewed by at least two referees and a decision returned to the lead author normally within three months. Reviewers consider:

The criteria are:

  1. Relevance to the journal theme: any aspect of student engagement
  2. Quality of submission (argument, scholarship, research rigour, contribution to knowledge as appropriate)
  3. Interest to members of RAISE and the wider HE community

The editor will decide between four possibilities on the basis of reviews received:

  1. Accept as is
  2. Minor revisions – on the basis that corrections can be undertaken requiring only a couple of work
  3. Major revisions – requiring substantial reconsideration by the authors
  4. Reject

For revision, and resubmission, authors must resubmit normally within 6 months. They complete a pro-forma to demonstrate how they have addressed the requirements and suggestions made.

The editor may send resubmissions back to the reviewers (particularly in the case of major revision). The editor will then decide if the resubmission requires further revision, is acceptable or will be rejected.

Process once a submission is accepted

One of the editorial team will prepare a copy edited version of the final submission. They will check to ensure that this final version of the submission complies with the editorial guidelines and policies, and the layout required for the journal and may make editorial changes to ensure this, and for readability.

A proof will be sent to the lead author for a final check. Once this is complete the final version will be placed into the next issue and published online. A PDF version of the proofed final version may be placed in other depositories- as long as it is fully acknowledged that this article appears in SEHEJ (with issue and volume).

Editorial Guidelines – which apply to all submissions:

Manuscripts should be compiled in the following order:

  • Title
  • Do not include an abstract or keywords (except if the submission is a research article- *see subsequent advice on this if a research article)
  • All authors of a manuscript should include their full names, affiliations/institutions and email addresses on the cover page of the manuscript. One author should be identified as the corresponding author. Please give the affiliation where the research was conducted. If any of the named co-authors moves affiliation during the peer review process, the new affiliation should be given in the biographical note. Please note that no changes to affiliation can be made after the manuscript is accepted.
  • All persons who have a reasonable claim to authorship must be named in the manuscript as co-authors; the corresponding author must be authorized by all co-authors to act as an agent on their behalf in all matters pertaining to publication of the manuscript, and the order of names should be agreed by all authors
  • Please supply a short biographical note for each author (max of 20 words per author or 30 words for a single author).
  • Please use section headings which should be concise (e.g. Introduction or Background; Methods: Findings; Discussion; Conclusions or Recommendations etc.)
  • For all manuscripts non-discriminatory language is mandatory. Sexist, racist, or homophobic terms must not be used.
  • When using a word which is or is asserted to be a proprietary term or trade mark, authors must use the symbol ® or TM.
  • Authors must not embed equations or image files within their manuscript.
  • Authors must not use any sort of endnote referencing tool to manage citations and references in the final version submitted.

Layout

Please format your submissions:

  • Do not use Styles in Word or equivalent in other word-processing software
  • In Arial 12 point
  • Single line spacing
  • Justified to the left margin
  • Section headings should be emboldened (Arial 12)
  • Sub-section headings should be italicised (Arial 12)
  • Single line break between paragraphs, do not indent text
  • Do not use bold, italics or underlining in the main text
  • Quotes- if less than one line use double quotation marks. If longer than one line the quote should be separated by a line break, in italics, and use an indentation of 0.6cm from the left margin. Please put page number from source.
  • No footnotes.
  • Endnotes are permitted but do keep brief and avoid too many.
  • Tables and figures should be inserted into the position preferred by the author.
  • Insert page numbers. Bottom of the page, right (Plain no 3 in Microsoft Word)

We reserve the right to reformat and edit text appropriately to fit the format for the final published version.

References

Full list of references being provided for all citations at the end of the work, in alphabetical order.

Use APA style, for guidance see:

Please ensure any hyperlinks included in the text and referencing list have been recently tested and are up to date. Any source you use must be accessible to all.

Images

If you are submitting images please ensure that you obtain required permissions for reproduction and submit them as .jpg files.

*Research Articles (further guidance)

  • Research articles of approximately 8000 words (inclusive of all texts, bios, abstracts, references, tables/figures - note authors should make allowance for the additional space that these will use) will be considered for review. However, if your paper is considered suitable for review but is over the word limit it must be shortened to within the stipulated 8000 words upon return of reviewer comments and revision. If your paper is considerably over the word limit,i.e. over 8500 words, it will be returned to you without being checked and we will ask you to resubmit a shortened version.
  • Abstracts of between 150-250 words are required for all manuscripts submitted.
  • Each manuscript should have keywords. (we reserve the right to change these keywords to enable consistency)

Organisation and Management of SEHEJ

Special arrangements for made for the first edition but in future the following arrangements will apply.

Editorial board

Six to eight individuals will be appointed as senior editors. They will be responsible for editing and managing SEHEJ. They will team up in groups of three or four to edit each edition, taking the role of section editors to manage submissions (sections are the types of submission accepted by SEHEJ such as papers).

Senior editors will need to:

  • Be experienced in writing and reviewing articles for academic journals.
  • Have an extensive knowledge of the field of student engagement.
  • Make decisions about the quality of submissions against the SEHEJ criteria, and after consideration of reviews, to provide constructive feedback to authors.
  • Work closely together as a member of the editorial team, committing to at least twice yearly (on-line) meetings with the team.
  • Be willing to commit a substantial period of time and effort to the task, for a three year period.
  • Be willing to induct, mentor and support junior editors, reviewers and authors.
  • Identifying new topics for commissions, special editions and advising on direction for the journal—giving feedback on past issues and making suggestions for both subject matter and potential authors.
  • Provide content by writing editorials and other short articles
  • Approach and encourage potential contributors
  • Recruit new reviewers
  • Arrange for copyediting of accepted submissions

The workload of a Senior Editor is approximately 40-50 hours per year (when they have settled into the role).

Associate editors will also be recruited from those who have less experience of academic publishing. Students are particularly encouraged to apply for such positions. They will work under the guidance of a senior editor. It is expected that each senior editor will support one or more associate editors. Associate editors will take on the role of reviewers, after gaining further experience, shall share editing roles working with a senior editor. In due course, associate editors will be eligible to become senior editors.

Editorial Administrator

An individual will be appointed to work with the editorial team. This position is will be paid, and funded from RAISE. That person will be responsible for:

  • Managing the SEHEJ website and software (Open Journal Systems) – including publishing issues.
  • Inducting and supporting users (including editors, reviewers and authors) of the SEHEJ OJS software.
  • Maintaining and updating the journal pages on the main RAISE website
  • Liaising with the editorial team to ensure good communications and regular meetings take place.
  • Annual reporting to the RAISE Committee and Annual General Meeting
  • Copyediting support

Reviewers

A panel of reviewers will be recruited from the membership of RAISE. Those new to reviewing shall be offered appropriate induction and training.

Reviewers will need to:

  • Commit to, and follow the editorial policies and procedures of SEHEJ.
  • Be able to undertake the role for at least one year, preferably longer.
  • Be able to commit sufficient time and effort to meeting review deadlines.
  • Always be constructive, diplomatic and inclusive in giving feedback to authors.

Mentors

Individuals shall be recruited to support authors who choose to use the Developmental Route to publish in SEHEJ. Mentors will be experienced colleagues (who may also be editors or reviewers) who are in a position to offer this form of support.

Induction and training

All those new to such roles (Editors and Reviewers), and indeed it is recommended that even more experienced individuals engage with this too initially, will be offered induction and training. Moreover it will be a requirement to engage in this, except where exempted by the Senior Editors.

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