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Author Guidelines

Author Guidelines

Scope and types of contributions

RELAdEI – Revista Latinoamericana de Educación Infantil publishes original scholarly contributions addressing Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) from educational, pedagogical, psychological, sociological, historical, cultural, policy and interdisciplinary perspectives.

Manuscripts should address a clearly defined problem and make an identifiable contribution to knowledge, theory, methodology, policy or educational practice.

RELAdEI welcomes different forms of scholarly inquiry, including:

  • empirical studies using quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods;

  • intervention studies, programme evaluations and design-based research;

  • theoretical and conceptual papers;

  • systematic, scoping, integrative, critical and other forms of literature review;

  • comparative and cross-national studies;

  • historical and humanities-oriented research;

  • methodological contributions;

  • practice-based research and theoretically grounded analyses of educational practice.

Practice-based contributions should go beyond the description of an experience or project. They should articulate a clear problem or question, connect the practice to relevant scholarship, describe the educational context and intervention with sufficient precision, and critically examine its implications, limitations and transferability.

Manuscript length

Manuscripts should normally not exceed 6,000 words, excluding the abstract, references, tables, figures and appendices.

Longer manuscripts may be considered where justified by the nature of the study and should be agreed with the Editors in advance.

Languages

Manuscripts may be submitted in English, Spanish, Italian or Portuguese.

For manuscripts written in Spanish, Italian or Portuguese, the title, abstract and keywords must also be provided in English.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that manuscripts are written in clear, accurate and academically appropriate language.

Title, abstract and keywords

Each manuscript should include:

  • a concise and informative title;

  • an abstract of approximately 150–200 words;

  • 4–6 keywords.

The abstract should make the nature of the contribution immediately identifiable. For empirical studies, it should normally indicate the research problem or objective, methods, main findings and implications. For theoretical, review, historical or practice-based contributions, it should state the problem addressed, the analytical approach adopted, the main argument or findings and the contribution of the paper.

Structure of the manuscript

RELAdEI does not prescribe a single structure for all manuscripts. The organisation of the paper should be appropriate to the type of scholarly contribution.

Empirical studies

Empirical manuscripts should clearly report:

  • the research problem, objectives or research questions;

  • the relevant theoretical and empirical background;

  • research design and context;

  • participants or data sources;

  • instruments and/or procedures for data collection;

  • analytical procedures;

  • ethical considerations;

  • results;

  • discussion in relation to the research questions and previous literature;

  • limitations and implications for research, policy or practice.

Authors should distinguish carefully between what is directly supported by the data and broader interpretations or implications.

Theoretical and conceptual papers

Theoretical papers should identify a specific conceptual or theoretical problem and make clear what analytical operation the article performs.

A theoretical contribution should not consist solely of a summary of previous literature or the juxtaposition of existing concepts. Authors should explain the basis on which relevant literature and theoretical perspectives have been selected, how concepts or theories are analysed and related, and what new distinction, framework, model, explanation or theoretical proposition results from the analysis.

Literature reviews

Authors should explicitly identify the type of review conducted and adopt procedures appropriate to that form of review.

Systematic and scoping reviews should report, as appropriate, the research question, databases or sources searched, search strategy, period covered, inclusion and exclusion criteria, study selection process and procedures used to analyse or synthesise the literature.

Narrative, critical, integrative or theoretically oriented reviews should likewise make explicit their purpose, principles of literature selection and analytical approach. Authors should not describe a review as “systematic” unless systematic procedures have actually been employed.

Comparative studies

Comparative contributions should be organised around a genuine comparative question. Authors should identify the cases or systems being compared, justify their comparability, specify common analytical dimensions and use sufficiently comparable sources or evidence.

The parallel description of two or more countries, institutions or educational systems does not in itself constitute comparative research.

Historical and humanities-oriented research

Historical, philosophical, interpretative and other humanities-oriented contributions are welcome. Authors should clearly identify the problem addressed, the sources or corpus examined, the interpretative or argumentative procedure adopted and the basis on which conclusions are warranted.

Practice-based contributions

Practice-based papers should specify the educational problem addressed, context, participants, theoretical rationale and characteristics of the practice or intervention.

Where empirical data are collected, methods of data collection and analysis should be reported. Where the contribution is primarily reflective or conceptual, authors should make clear how the analysis moves from the documented practice to broader professional or educational knowledge.

The implementation of an activity, training programme or educational project should not itself be presented as evidence of its effectiveness.

Manuscript preparation

Manuscripts should be submitted as an editable Microsoft Word (.docx) file.

For the review version:

  • use a clear, readable 12-point font;

  • use 1.5 line spacing;

  • use a single-column layout;

  • number all pages;

  • use clear hierarchical headings and subheadings;

  • do not attempt to reproduce the final graphic layout of the journal.

Author names, affiliations, ORCID identifiers and contact information should be entered in the submission metadata and, where required, in a separate title page. The manuscript submitted for anonymous review should not contain information that directly identifies the authors.

Tables, figures and images

Tables and figures should be numbered consecutively, cited in the text and accompanied by a clear title or caption.

Tables should be editable rather than inserted as images. Figures and photographs should be of sufficient quality for publication.

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted material and for ensuring that photographs or other materials involving identifiable individuals may legally and ethically be published.

References

RELAdEI follows the APA Style, 7th edition for in-text citations and references.

Authors are responsible for checking the accuracy and completeness of all references. Where available, DOI identifiers should be included in the reference list in URL format (https://doi.org/...).

Works cited in the text must appear in the reference list and all works included in the reference list must be cited in the manuscript.

Research ethics

Research involving human participants must comply with the ethical and legal requirements applicable in the country or institution in which the research was conducted.

Where appropriate, manuscripts should report:

  • ethics committee or institutional approval;

  • procedures for informed consent;

  • procedures adopted to protect confidentiality, privacy and personal data.

Where formal ethical approval was not required, authors should nevertheless describe the ethical procedures adopted when these are relevant to the study.

Particular care is required in research involving children, families, students, educational professionals, audiovisual recordings, autobiographical materials and data originally produced in teaching or assessment contexts.

Transparency and declarations

Where applicable, manuscripts should include statements concerning:

  • funding;

  • conflicts of interest;

  • data availability;

  • ethical approval and informed consent;

  • acknowledgements.

Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality and integrity of the submitted manuscript.

Originality and peer review

Submitted manuscripts must be original, must not have been previously published and must not be simultaneously under consideration by another journal.

All submissions undergo an initial editorial assessment for relevance, scientific quality and compliance with the journal guidelines. Manuscripts considered suitable are submitted to peer review.

Acceptance of an abstract or proposal for a Special Issue does not constitute acceptance of the final manuscript. Full manuscripts are subject to the journal’s standard editorial and peer-review procedures.

Submission Preparation Checklist

All submissions must meet the following requirements.

  • This submission meets the requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.
  • This submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration.
  • All references have been checked for accuracy and completeness.
  • All tables and figures have been numbered and labeled.
  • Permission has been obtained to publish all photos, datasets and other material provided with this submission.

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.

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