Policies

A.  REVIEW POLICY

All manuscripts submitted to COUNS-EDU: The International Journal of Counseling and Education undergo a double-blind peer review process, in which the identities of both authors and reviewers are concealed throughout the review. This policy is applied to ensure objectivity, fairness, and academic integrity in the evaluation of scholarly work.

Research articles and other substantive contributions are subject to peer review. Correspondence and published corrections may also be peer-reviewed at the discretion of the editors. To be considered for publication, a manuscript must demonstrate a clear contribution to knowledge and offer an advancement in understanding that has the potential to influence scholarly thinking and professional practice within the field, in line with the journal’s aims and scope.

Reviewer selection is a critical component of the editorial process. Reviewers are chosen based on their subject-matter expertise, academic reputation, specific recommendations, and prior experience with the journal. The editorial board seeks reviewers who provide timely, careful, and well-reasoned evaluations, and avoids individuals who consistently demonstrate delays, superficial assessments, or unsubstantiated judgments.

Potential reviewers are contacted in advance to confirm their availability before a manuscript is assigned. All review invitations and materials are treated as confidential, and reviewers are expected to maintain the confidentiality of the manuscript and the review process.

Authors are informed of the review outcomes as promptly as possible. Under normal circumstances, initial editorial decisions are communicated within approximately two weeks. However, due to a high volume of submissions, the review process may take up to three months in certain cases.

For general inquiries or comments regarding the peer-review process or editorial policies that are not addressed on the journal website, authors and reviewers are encouraged to contact the editorial office directly.

 

B.  REVIEW GUIDELINES

We are committed to prompt evaluation and publication of fully accepted papers in COUNS-EDU: The International Journal of Counseling and Education. To maintain a high-quality publication, all submissions undergo a rigorous review process. Characteristics of the peer review process are as follows:

  1. Simultaneous submissions of the same manuscript to different journals will not be tolerated.
  2. Manuscripts with contents outside the aim and scope will not be considered for review.
  3. Papers will be refereed by at least 2 experts as suggested by the editorial board.
  4. In addition, Editors will have the option of seeking additional reviews when needed. Authors will be informed when Editors decide further review is required.
  5. All publication decisions are made by the journal's Editors-in-Chief on the basis of the referees' reports. Authors of papers that are not accepted are notified promptly.
  6. All submitted manuscripts are treated as confidential documents. We expect our Board of Reviewing Editors and reviewers to treat manuscripts as confidential material as well.
  7. Editors and reviewers involved in the review process should disclose conflicts of interest resulting from direct competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with any of the authors, and remove oneself from cases in which such conflicts preclude an objective evaluation. Privileged information or ideas that are obtained through peer review must not be used for competitive gain.
  8. Our peer review process is confidential and identities of reviewers cannot be revealed.

Manuscripts judged to be of potential interest to our readership are sent for formal review, typically to two or three reviewers, but sometimes more if special advice is needed (for example on statistics or a particular technique). The editors then make a decision based on the reviewers' advice, from among several possibilities:

  1. Accept, with or without editorial revisions;
  2. Invite the authors to revise their manuscript to address specific concerns before a final decision is reached;
  3. Reject, but indicate to the authors that further work might justify a resubmission, and;
  4. Reject outright, typically on grounds of specialist interest, lack of novelty, insufficient conceptual advance or major technical and/or interpretational problems.

     

C.   PUBLICATION FREQUENCY

COUNS-EDU: The International Journal of Counseling and Education is published three times for a year (March, June, September, and December) in English

 

D.    ARTICLE POSTING

We routinely modify our policies based on the demand and to respond the needs of the scientific communities. They are mainly related with addition, deletion, rearrangement of author names in the authorship or uploading newer form of the article based on the editorial/reviewer’s comments.

If there is any request to add, change, rearrange the name of the authors before publication of the article, it must be sent to the editor of the journal by corresponding author with reason behind such changes and a written confirmation of agreement from all other authors.