Ethiopian Journal of Education
Journal / Ethiopian Journal of Education / About the Journal

The Ethiopian Journal of Education (EJE) is a well-established and reputable academic journal in the field of education. It is one of the pioneering platforms for publishing educational research, maintaining a continuous presence since the 1960s. Over the decades, EJE has undergone various stages of development, earning its respected status in the academic community.

The journal aims to provide access to research publications for a wide national and international audience, including researchers, practitioners, and students in education and related disciplines. It also plays a crucial role in identifying key educational issues facing the nation and offering insights that could inform policy development and evaluation.

EJE publishes a wide range of content, including original empirical studies, literature reviews, theoretical articles, methodological papers, book reviews, dissertation and thesis abstracts, synopses of major research projects, short communications, and commentaries on articles published in the journal, as well as other relevant topics in education. Contributions to the journal shall be submitted in English language.

EJE is an open access journal published biannually, in June and December. Digital copies of the journal are archived at:

http://ejol.aau.edu.et/index.php/EJE and https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ejed.

Institute of Educational Research, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, P.O.Box 1176

Source of support for publishing articles in EJE is institutional funds; the processing and publication costs are covered by Addis Ababa University.

The EJE employs a double-blind peer-review model. All manuscripts undergo an initial assessment by the journal editor. If they are considered suitable for peer review, manuscripts will then be a reviewed by a minimum of two external reviewers to assess its suitability for publication. Final responsibility for editorial decisions rest with the Editorial Board of the journal.

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.

The Ethiopian Journal of Education (EJE) is an open access journal. All articles in EJE are published open access with a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 user licence. All charges for publishing an article in the journal are funded by Addis Ababa University, Institute of Educational Research. Therefore, there is no charge to authors.  Authors will not have to pay an article processing charge (APC).

The EJE is published biannually in June and December.

Subscription information (Print Copy)

The EJE is published bi-annually by the Institute of Educational Research, Addis Ababa University.  Subscription rate for print copy per issue including postage is as follows:

                                               Local                          Overseas

Institution                           20 Birr                         USD 20

Individual                            10 Birr                         USD 10

Editorial Policy

Editorial Responsibilities

The Editorial Board of the Ethiopian Journal of Education (EJE) is responsible for determining which submitted articles will be published. The Board is guided by the journal's Editorial Policy and must comply with legal requirements related to libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. The Editorial Board reserves the right to decide not to publish submitted manuscripts in case it is found that they do not meet relevant standards concerning the content and formal aspects. The Editorial Staff will inform the authors whether the manuscript is accepted for publication within six months from the date of the manuscript submission.That is, an average, of course. Some articles take longer, some take less time. The Editorial Board must have no conflict of interest regarding the manuscripts under consideration for publication. If an editor believes there may be a perceived conflict of interest in handling a submission, they must recuse themselves, and the selection of reviewers and all decisions on the manuscript will be made by the remaining members of the Editorial Board. Editorial Board shall evaluate manuscripts for their scientific content free from any racial, gender, sexual, religious, ethnic, or political bias. The Editors and the Editorial Staff must not use unpublished materials disclosed in submitted manuscripts without the express written consent of the authors. The information and ideas presented in submitted manuscripts shall be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain. Editors and the Editorial Staff shall take all reasonable measures to ensure that the reviewers remain anonymous to the authors before, during and after the evaluation process and the authors remain anonymous to reviewers until the end of the review procedure.

Open Access Policy

The Ethiopian Journal of Education (EJE)is an Open Access journal. All its content is available free of charge. Users can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search the full text of articles, as well as to establish HTML links to them, without having to seek the consent of the author or publisher. The journal does not charge any fees at submission, reviewing, and production stages.

Peer Review Process

The Ethiopian Journal of Education (EJE) employs a double-blind peer review process to ensure the integrity, impartiality, and quality of its published research. In this process, both the identities of the authors and the reviewers are concealed from each other throughout the review. The following types of contribution to EJE are peer-reviewed: original empirical studies, literature reviews, theoretical articles, methodological articles. Other contributed manuscripts (dissertation and thesis abstracts, synopsis of major research works, short communications, book reviews and commentaries) are not usually peer-reviewed. Nevertheless, such manuscripts are assessed by editors to determine appropriateness for the Journal and any improvements that could be made. Or articles published in these sections, particularly if they present technical information, may be peer-reviewed at the discretion of the Editorial Board. All submitted manuscripts pass though preliminary assessment by the editorial staff using the criteria set. To save time for authors and peer-reviewers, only those manuscripts that seem most likely to meet the editorial criteria are sent for formal review. Those papers judged by the editors to be of insufficient general interest or otherwise inappropriate are rejected promptly without external review. These decisions are based on the preliminary assessors’ reports and acceptance of the Editorial Board. Manuscripts judged to be of potential interest to the editors’ readership are sent for formal review, typically to two reviewers, but sometimes more if special advice is needed (for example on statistics or a particular technique). The Editorial Board then makes a decision based on the reviewers' comments and suggestions, from among several possibilities: a) accept, with or without editorial revisions; b) require the authors to revise their manuscript to address specific concerns before a final decision is reached; c) reject, but indicate to the authors that further work might justify a resubmission; and d) reject outright, typically on grounds of specialist interest, lack of novelty, insufficient conceptual advance or major technical and/or interpretation problems. Editorial Board decisions are not a matter of counting votes or numerical rank assessments, and do not always follow the majority recommendation. The Board tries to evaluate the strength of the arguments raised by each reviewer and author, and may also consider other information not available to either party. The editors’ primary responsibilities are to their readers and to the educational community at large, and in deciding how best to serve them, the Board must weigh the claims of each paper against the many others also under consideration. Editors may return to reviewers for further advice, particularly in cases where they disagree with each other, or where the authors believe they have been misunderstood on points of fact. The Board, therefore, asks that reviewers should be willing to provide follow-up advice as requested. Editors are very aware, however, that reviewers are usually reluctant to be drawn into prolonged disputes, so they try to keep consultation to the minimum judgment necessary to provide a fair hearing for the authors. When reviewers agree to assess a paper, the Board considers this a commitment to review subsequent revisions. However, a resubmitted paper will not be sent back to the reviewers if it seems that the authors have not made a serious attempt to address the criticisms. Editorial Board of EJE takes reviewers' criticisms seriously; in particular, the Board is very reluctant to disregard technical criticisms. In cases where one reviewer alone opposes publication, editors may consult the other reviewers as to whether s/he is applying an unduly critical standard. Otherwise, the manuscript may be sent to a third reviewer to resolve disputes (to ‘break the tie’) and/or make the final decision on acceptance, but editors prefer to avoid doing so unless there is a specific issue, for example, a special technical point, on which editors feel a need for further advice.

Copyright and Licensing

Authors retain copyright of the published papers and grant to the publisher the non-exclusive right to publish the article, to be cited as its original publisher in case of reuse, and to distribute it in all forms and media. Articles will be distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. Authors can enter the separate, additional contractual arrangements for non-exclusive distribution of the published paper (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.

Article Processing Charges

The Ethiopian Journal of Education (EJE) is available for readers free of charge and the journal does not charge any fees at submission, reviewing, and production stages. Fees shouldn't prevent from publishing and publishing on EJE is free

Submission of Manuscripts

Manuscripts should be submitted electronically via the journal platform http://ejol.aau.edu.et/index.php/EJE/about/submissions

Publication Frequency

EJE is published biannually, in June and December

Business Model

EJE is free for both authors and readers. We thank PKP for the open source platform- OJS and Addis Ababa University Library for managing the portal.EJE covers its editorial and associated costs through institutional support and selling print copies. We seek partners to support EJE as a sustainable open access publishing journal.

Self-Archiving Policy

The Ethiopian Journal of Education (EJE) supports open access to scholarly work and encourages authors to self-archive their published articles. Authors are permitted to deposit the final accepted version of their manuscript (post-peer review) in institutional repositories, personal websites (including social networking sites like ResearchGate, Academia.edu), and other appropriate platforms. Self-archiving is allowed only once the article has been formally published in EJE.

Material submitted to the journal must not be discussed with the media, except for accepted contributions. For accepted articles, media discussions are permitted no more than a week before the publication date, in line with our embargo conditions. Editors reserve the right to halt the consideration or publication of a paper if this condition is violated. When self-archiving, authors must ensure that the version made publicly available is the final accepted version, not the pre-print version, unless otherwise specified by the journal. Authors should provide proper attribution by citing the published article in EJE and including a link to the official journal website for readers to access the final version. EJE encourages authors to use institutional or disciplinary repositories that adhere to open-access principles, ensuring the long-term availability and discoverability of their work. The journal is committed to promoting the dissemination of research and supporting authors in making their work accessible to the wider academic community through responsible self-archiving practices.

Plagiarism

All submissions are screened for plagiarism using tools like Turnitin. Manuscripts with clear evidence of plagiarism will be rejected, and if detected post-publication, the Editorial Board will notify the author's institution and funding agencies.

Funding Information

If a paper is a result of the funded project, authors are required to specify funding sources according to their contracts with the funder.

Conflict of Interest

Authors submitting to the Ethiopian Journal of Education (EJE) are required to disclose any financial, personal, or professional relationships that could potentially influence their research or its interpretation. A conflict of interest may arise when an author’s obligations to the integrity of the research may be compromised by competing interests, including but not limited to financial support, employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, or personal relationships.

Authors must include a conflict-of-interest statement in their manuscript, even if there are no conflicts to declare. In such cases, the statement should read, "The authors declare no conflict of interest."

The editorial team, reviewers, and the Editorial Board are also required to disclose any potential conflicts of interest that could affect the impartiality of the review or decision-making process. 

Transparency in disclosing conflicts of interest ensures the credibility of the research published in EJE and upholds the journal’s commitment to academic integrity.

Research Data Policy

The Ethiopian Journal of Education (EJE) encourages authors to share research data that are required for confirming the results published in the manuscript and/or enhance the published manuscript under the principle ‘as open as possible, as closed as necessary’. EJE encourages authors to share supporting software applications, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound or video clips, large appendices, data tables and other relevant items that cannot be included in the article.

Authors submitting manuscripts to EJE are required to include a Data Availability Statement specifying the availability of their data. This statement should outline where the data is stored, how it can be accessed, and any restrictions that apply. In cases where data cannot be shared due to legal, ethical, or confidentiality concerns, authors must provide a clear explanation. Specifically, if data access is restricted for ethical or security reasons, the manuscript must include:

• a description of the restrictions on the data;
• any guidance provided by the relevant Institutional Review Board (IRB) or equivalent body regarding data sharing; and
• all necessary information for readers or reviewers to apply for access to the data, along with the conditions under which access will be granted.

EJE strongly recommends the use of trusted and accessible data repositories for data storage. Authors should ensure that these repositories comply with ethical and legal standards, including the anonymization of sensitive information and adherence to institutional or governmental data-sharing policies. Proper citation of datasets used in the research is also required to acknowledge the data sources and maintain transparency.

During the peer review process, reviewers may request access to the research data to validate the findings. Authors should provide secure and appropriate access to the data, ensuring confidentiality is maintained. Post-publication, EJE encourages authors to grant long-term access to their datasets, ideally through open-access repositories, to support ongoing scholarly dialogue and research validation. Authors who fail to comply with the journal's data-sharing guidelines may face delays in publication or, in some cases, rejection of their manuscript.

Complaints and Appeals

The Ethiopian Journal of Education (EJE) is dedicated to addressing complaints and appeals promptly, transparently, and fairly. Complaints, which may include concerns about editorial decisions, processing delays, or ethical issues, must be submitted in writing to the Editor-in-Chief via the official journal email, accompanied by clear details and evidence. Appeals, limited to disagreements over manuscript rejections, will undergo an independent review if necessary. Upon receiving a complaint or appeal, the journal will acknowledge receipt within five working days and aim to resolve the matter within 30 working days. Investigations may involve consultation with authors, reviewers, and editors, and if ethical concerns arise, the matter may be referred to the IER’s Institutional Review Board (IRB). Resolutions will be communicated in writing, outlining findings and any corrective actions. In cases of dissatisfaction, complainants may request further review by an independent advisory board or the publisher, whose decision will be final. All complaints and appeals are handled confidentially and impartially to ensure fairness and maintain the integrity of the publication process.

The following procedures outline the process for handling complaints and appeals: