Guidelines for Authors

1. Introduction

 The Faculty of Education, Allama Iqbal Open University, welcomes you to come forward in participation of our peer reviewed journal focusing on Early Childhood Care and Education. The journal provides a platform for the publication of the most advanced research in the areas of learning development, instruction and teaching. This journal welcomes original empirical investigations. The paper represents a variety of theoretical perspectives and different methodological approaches. This may refer to any empirical work from infants to early graders and to a diversity of learning and instructional settings, from classroom to informal and non-formal learning. This may rest on the full spectrum of established methodologies from experiments to field observations. The major criteria in the review and the selection process concern the significance of the contribution to the areas of Early Childhood Education and Development.

 2. General Instructions

  • Manuscripts should not be exceed 20 pages and must conform to the style of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA 6th edition). The word limit for the manuscript will be 4000-8000 words.
  • The name(s), affiliation(s), and phone, fax, e-mail addresses), permanent and postal address and a brief biography (optional) of the author(s) should appear on cover page. Must add Phone number to contact.
  • An Abstract of 150 to 200 words should be submitted with the manuscript.
  • The authors are requested to check the article thoroughly with spellings, figures, and illustrations, etc., before sending for publication. Incomplete articles will not be entertained.
  • The research papers are accepted for publication on the understanding that they have not been published earlier and are not being considered for publication elsewhere.
  • Research papers/articles should be an original piece of work, including methodology, contents, data analysis and interpretation.
  • Add something new to the existing stock of knowledge.
  • The maximum number of authors for an article should not be not more than three..
  • Authors should be clearly specified as
    • main/corresponding author
    • co-author, and/or
    • Supporting author.
  • Manuscripts will be reviewed by at least three consulting editors/reviewers. This process normally takes 6-12 months.
  • After approval, these will be edited thoroughly. If conditionally approved, the authors will be required to revise within a specific time.

3. Formatting

  • Margins: One inch on all sides on A4 size paper.
  • Font size and Type: 12-pt Times New Roman.
  • Line Spacing: Double-space throughout the paper, including the title page, abstract, body of the document, references, appendixes, footnotes. Tables, and figures may be adjusted to 1 or 1.5 line spacing.
  • Spacing after Punctuation: Space once after commas, colon, semicolons, full stop or any other punctuation mark.
  • Alignment: Flush left (creating uneven right margin)
  • Paragraph Indentation: 5-7 spaces.
  • Pagination: The page number appears one inch from the right edge of the paper on the first line of every page.
  • Referencing: Sources cited appear in parentheses after each reference (direct or otherwise), giving author’s name (unless mentioned in text), year of publication, and page number(s) in the case of direct quotes. Enclose quotes of 40 or fewer words in double quotation marks in the text; indent quotes longer than 40 words in block format; page numbers must be given. List all sources alphabetically at the end of the manuscript under the heading References using APA style.
  • Footnotes are  endnotes are discouraged; however, necessary brief explanatory notes, numbered consecutively and marked in the text with superscript numeral may appear before the References under the heading Notes; citations in notes follow the same format.
  • Graphics: Mathematical symbols should be clearly marked. Number the tables and figures with Arabic numerals. Prepare tables using tabs without vertical lines; provide figures, charts, and diagrams in camera-ready form.
  • The soft copy of the article complete in all respect and all correspondence regarding contribution to the Journal and other information must be submitted electronically on journal’s OJS.

4. Section of Research Article

Open this link to follow paper template (Template–JECCE)

Research articles should present innovative research that clearly addresses the selected hypothesis or question. A research article should be divided into the following sections:

  1. Title Page
  2. Introduction
  3. Literature Review
  4. Methodology
  5. Results and Discussion
  6. Conclusions
  7. Acknowledgment (if any)
  8. References

5. Plagiarism Policy

As per HEC policy, plagiarism will not be accepted in any journal of the Faculty of Education. With the submission author is required to declare the originality of his/her work, properly citing or copying previous publications. If plagiarism is detected during the peer review process, the manuscript may be rejected.  If the plagiarism is detected after publication, the publisher has the right to issue a correction or retract the paper. Your work must be below than the prescribed limits of similarity index by the HEC. Self-plagiarism will NOT be ignored in the similarity index report; no arguments / proofs will be entertained regarding self-plagiarism.

6. Conflict of Interest

Authors, reviewers or editorial board members  have to disclose every situation, which could potentially affect the impartial review and publication procedure.

7. Open Access Policy

Open Access is an unrestricted online model that allows the distribution of research papers through the internet to everyone in the global community with no price restraint. Thus, all articles published under open access can be accessed by anyone with internet access. All articles published in JECCE will be freely accessible online to the global community. Privacy Statement: The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Important Note: Authors are required to agree to the Author’s Declaration confirming that the work as submitted has not been published or accepted for publication, nor is being considered for publication elsewhere, either in whole or substantial part; the work is original and all necessary acknowledgments have been made; all authors and relevant institutions have read the submitted version of the manuscript and approve its submission; all persons entitled to authorship have been so included.

The Editor
Journal of Early Childhood Care & Education (JECCE)
Early Childhood Education & Elementary Teacher Education Department,
Faculty of Education, ICT Building,
Allama Iqbal Open University,
Islamabad- Pakistan.