Publishing Policies

Publication Ethics and Editorial Policies

The Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice (JUTLP) is committed to responsible, transparent, and ethical scholarly publishing. The journal follows the principles and guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research, and the Australian National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research where relevant.

Review Criteria

Submissions must align with the journal’s aims and scope, make a clear contribution to learning and teaching practice, be grounded in relevant literature, use appropriate methods or scholarly argument, and present clear implications for practice, policy, or research.

Publication Frequency

JUTLP publishes standard issues quarterly and may publish special issues each year. Special issue articles are subject to the same editorial standards, ethical requirements, and peer review expectations as regular submissions.

Peer Review and Editorial Decision-Making

JUTLP normally uses double-anonymous peer review. Each research article is reviewed by at least two independent reviewers and must be supported by editorial assessment before acceptance. Editors assign reviewers based on expertise, independence, and absence of known conflicts of interest. In exceptional cases, and at the request of authors, the journal may support open peer review, for example where cultural protocols make anonymous review inappropriate. Where open review is used, this is acknowledged in the published article. Review materials are confidential. Reviewers must not share, use, or disclose manuscript content before publication. Editorial decisions are based on scholarly merit, relevance to the journal, research integrity, and contribution to the field.

Author Charges

JUTLP is a Diamond Open Access journal. The journal charges authors no fees at any stage of submission, review, editorial processing, production, or publication. There are no submission fees, article processing charges, editorial processing charges, page charges, colour charges, publication fees, mandatory membership fees, withdrawal fees, or other author charges.

Open Access, Copyright and Licensing

All JUTLP articles are freely available online immediately on publication. Readers do not need to pay, subscribe, or register to access published content. Authors retain copyright in their work and grant JUTLP the non-exclusive right to publish the accepted work. Published articles are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-ND 4.0), unless otherwise stated on the article. This permits sharing and redistribution in any medium or format, provided the work is properly cited and not modified. Copyright and licensing information must appear on the journal website and on the full-text version of each published article.

Authorship, Contributorship and Acknowledgements

Authorship should be limited to individuals who made a significant scholarly contribution to the conception, design, execution, analysis, interpretation, or writing of the work, and who approve the final version for submission and publication. The corresponding author is responsible for confirming that all listed authors meet the JUTLP Authorship Criteria, including: a) that all authors have approved the final manuscript, b) have made a significant intellectual contribution against the Australian Research Council Authorship Criteria, and c) have made a written contribution inside the manuscript. Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors before publication must be approved by all authors and explained to the editorial office; and may be rejected by the Editors. Authorship changes after publication will only be considered where a clear error or ethical issue is demonstrated and may require a correction notice.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors, reviewers, editors, guest editors, editorial board members, journal staff, and the publisher must disclose any financial, professional, personal, institutional, or other interest that could influence, or be perceived to influence, the submission, review, decision, or publication process. Editors and reviewers must decline involvement where a perceived or actual conflict of interest exists (e.g., editing a manuscript authored by a colleague is not permitted). Manuscripts submitted by editors, editorial board members, guest editors, or journal staff are handled by an independent editor who is not involved in the submission and review process. Published articles must include a conflict of interest statement, including a statement that no conflicts were declared where applicable.

Research Ethics, Consent and Confidentiality

Research involving human participants must have appropriate ethics approval or a clear statement explaining why ethics approval was not required. Authors should report the approving body, approval number or identifier where available, and relevant consent procedures. Manuscripts containing information, images, recordings, quotations, or data that could identify an individual must confirm that informed consent for publication was obtained. Authors must protect participant confidentiality and anonymise personal information unless explicit consent for identification has been granted.

Funding Disclosure

Authors must disclose all sources of research funding, including funder names, grant numbers where applicable, and the role of the funder in the research, writing, or publication process. If there was no funding, this should be stated. Each published article must include a funding statement.

Data, Materials and Reproducibility

Authors should report methods, evidence, data, and materials accurately and transparently. Where appropriate and ethically possible, authors are encouraged to make data, instruments, analytic code, or supporting materials available in a suitable repository. Any restrictions on access should be explained in the manuscript.

Use of Artificial Intelligence and Automated Tools

Authors must disclose all use or non-use of generative artificial intelligence or automated tools in preparing a manuscript, except for routine spelling, grammar, formatting, or language editing. Authors remain responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and validity of all submitted work. Artificial intelligence tools cannot be listed as authors. Reviewers and editors must not upload confidential manuscript material into generative artificial intelligence tools or use such tools to generate peer review reports or editorial decisions.

Allegations of Misconduct

JUTLP will investigate concerns about possible research or publication misconduct, including plagiarism, duplicate submission or publication, data fabrication or falsification, image manipulation, citation manipulation, peer review manipulation, authorship misconduct, undeclared conflicts of interest, unethical research, or misuse of automated tools. Concerns may be raised before or after publication. The journal may contact authors, reviewers, editors, institutions, funders, or other parties where necessary and will follow COPE guidance when handling allegations.

Plagiarism and Similarity Screening

JUTLP uses iThenticate to screen manuscripts for originality before final acceptance. Manuscripts with plagiarism, excessive similarity, unattributed material, or other integrity concerns may be returned to authors for explanation, rejected, corrected, or retracted depending on the nature and timing of the concern.

Corrections, Expressions of Concern and Retractions

JUTLP may publish corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions where needed to maintain the integrity of the scholarly record. A correction may be issued for an error that does not invalidate the article. An expression of concern may be issued where serious concerns are under investigation but the outcome is not yet clear. A retraction may be issued where findings are unreliable, the work is unethical, the article involves misconduct, or the publication record has been seriously compromised. Authors should notify the editorial office promptly if they identify a significant error in their published work.

Complaints and Appeals

Authors may appeal an editorial decision where they believe there has been a procedural error, unmanaged conflict of interest, or substantial misunderstanding of the manuscript. Appeals must explain the grounds for appeal and will be reviewed by an editor not involved in the original decision where possible. Complaints about journal policies, procedures, editorial conduct, peer review, publication ethics, or published content may be submitted to the editorial office. Complaints will be acknowledged and assessed in accordance with COPE guidance (see Contact below for who to make a complaint or appeal to).

Repository and Sharing Policy

Authors may deposit the published Version of Record in institutional, disciplinary, or public repositories immediately on publication, with no embargo. Deposited versions must include the full citation, DOI or article link, and the applicable Creative Commons licence statement.

Long-Term Digital Preservation

JUTLP is committed to long-term access to published content. Articles are preserved and made discoverable through the journal’s open access publishing platform, the National Library of Australia, Informit, EBSCOhost, and publisher-managed backup arrangements. The publisher also maintains regular off-site backups to support continuity of access. Where additional long-term preservation services are implemented, the journal will update this policy to identify the active preservation arrangements.

Journal and Article Identifiers

The journal displays its ISSN information on the journal website. Each published article is assigned a persistent article identifier, normally a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), and is published with a stable article URL.

Website and Access

The journal website uses secure access through HTTPS. Published articles are available online without subscription, payment, or reader registration.

Contact

Questions about publication ethics, corrections, complaints, appeals, or editorial policy should be directed to the JUTLP Editor-in-Chief if it relates to an Editor or reviewer process, or the matter can be escalated to a member of the Editorial Management Team who oversee compliance with Publisher and Editorial Policy (see contact details on the Editorial Team page).