Open Journal of Educational Psychology: Giving psychology away

In this blog we introduce the Open Journal of Educational Psychology (OJEP) and talk a little about why you might want to write for us.

What is OJEP and where did it come from?

The Open Journal of Educational Psychology (OJEP) is an open-access journal for psychologists, educators, and the wider research community about topics related to educational psychology.

OJEP came from a desire to disseminate high quality research papers to the wider EP community, many of whom did not have access to journal articles through a university. The development of the profession is hamstrung by the dominance of subscription journals and OJEP seeks to address this issue. OJEP also wishes to broaden public awareness of the profession to increase our efficacy and ability to enact change.

OJEP is completely open access

OJEP is a Diamond Open Access journal (Fuchs & Sandoval, 2013), which means that it is free to publish and access any article with the journal. As such, OJEP subscribes to the philosophy of ‘giving psychology away’ (Evans, 2020). This philosophy entails sharing the broad benefits that psychological science has to offer as a means to enhance society and improve the lives of others. This is especially pertinent for educational psychology, given its direct relevance to a fundamental part of society: education.

Why you should think about writing for OJEP

Submitting an article to OJEP gives authors the opportunity to share their original research and insights with the wider community. They can help improve the field and develop our understanding of important issues within education.

Educational Psychologists are in a unique position to use their knowledge of both research and education systems to enact change. Trainees are encouraged to submit and this will allow them to gain valuable experience writing and publishing.

OJEP offers a rigorous but supportive peer review process wherein we will work extensively with the authors to ensure your article is high standard. The peer review process is also double-blind to alleviate any potential conflict of interests and reduce bias in scientific publishing (Setchell, 2015).

Write for OJEP

The journal welcomes submissions which address:

• child development
• teaching and learning
• emotional health and wellbeing
• organisational change in educational settings
• psychological practice.

Previous articles include an analysis of the association between socioeconomic status and pupils’ mental health (Bhardwaj, 2021) and an evaluation of a Mindfulness-Based intervention (Weir & Rogers, 2021).

OJEP accepts submissions under the following headings

• Literature Reviews, of up to 6000 words, addressing theory, policy, or practice.
• Original Research Articles, of up to 6000 words
• Brief Research Articles, of up to 2000 words, which present findings from original research studies.
• Practice Reviews, of up to 4000 words, which describe new or innovative ways of applying Educational Psychology.

More information can be found on our website, as well as previous editions. We look forward to reading your submissions.

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References

Bhardwaj, A. (2021). Socioeconomic status and pupils’ mental health: exploring the association and how to improve outcomes for those from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds. Open Journal of Educational Psychology, 5(1), 1-17.

Evans, A.C. (2020). What does it mean to give psychology away? Available at: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2020/11/ceo

Fuchs, C., & Sandoval, M. (2013). The Diamond Model of Open Access Publishing: Why Policy Makers, Scholars, Universities, Libraries, Labour Unions and the Publishing World Need to Take Non-Commercial, Non-Profit Open Access Serious. TripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. 11 (2), 428–443. https://doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v11i2.502

Setchell, J.M. (2015). Editorial: Double-Blind Peer Review and the Advantages of Sharing Data. International Journal Primatology, 36, 891–893 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-015-9860-2

Weir, F., & Rogers, O. (2021) A Single Site Evaluation of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention Within a Secondary School Cognition and Learning Resource Base: Evaluating the Impact on Student Wellbeing. Open Journal of Educational Psychology, 5(1), 40-57.

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