Author Guidelines

Learning Communities — International Journal of Learning in Social Contexts welcomes original, rigorous, and ethically conducted scholarly work that contributes to understanding learning, education, communities, cultures, institutions, and the social contexts in which learning takes place.

Authors are requested to read these guidelines carefully before submitting a manuscript. Submissions that do not comply with the journal's basic requirements may be returned to the authors for correction before editorial assessment or peer review.

Aims and Scope

The journal publishes scholarly research concerned with learning as a social, cultural, institutional, community-based, and interdisciplinary phenomenon. Contributions may examine learning across formal, informal, professional, community, workplace, digital, cultural, and other social settings.

Manuscripts should demonstrate a clear relationship to the journal's scope and make a meaningful contribution to scholarship, policy, professional practice, theory, methodology, or understanding of learning in social contexts.

Types of Manuscripts

The journal may consider a range of scholarly manuscript types, including:

• Original research articles
• Qualitative research studies
• Quantitative research studies
• Mixed-methods studies
• Theoretical and conceptual articles
• Critical literature reviews
• Systematic or structured reviews
• Case studies
• Policy analyses
• Practice-based and community-based research
• Methodological papers
• Scholarly perspectives and critical commentaries
• Book reviews or other scholarly reviews where invited or considered appropriate

Authors should ensure that the structure and reporting style of the manuscript are appropriate for the type of study being submitted.

Originality of Submission

Manuscripts submitted to the journal must represent original scholarly work. Authors must appropriately acknowledge all sources, ideas, data, quotations, figures, tables, methods, and other material derived from previous work.

Submission of a manuscript confirms that the work has not been published in substantially the same form elsewhere and is not simultaneously under consideration by another journal.

Where a submission is related to a previously published article, conference paper, thesis, dissertation, preprint, report, dataset, or other publication, the authors should disclose the relationship and appropriately cite the related work.

Language of Submission

Manuscripts should be written in clear, professional, and academically appropriate English.

Authors whose first language is not English are encouraged to obtain appropriate language editing before submission where necessary. Language editing does not guarantee acceptance, and editorial decisions are based primarily on scholarly quality, relevance, originality, methodological rigor, and ethical compliance.

Manuscript File

Authors should submit the manuscript in an editable document format accepted by the journal's online submission system.

The manuscript should be presented consistently and should contain all essential sections, tables, figures, references, declarations, and supplementary information required for evaluation.

General Manuscript Preparation

Authors should prepare manuscripts using a clear and consistent academic structure. Unnecessary formatting should be avoided.

Pages should be numbered where possible, and headings and subheadings should be used logically to organize the manuscript.

Abbreviations should be defined at first use unless they are universally recognized within the relevant discipline. Excessive use of abbreviations should be avoided.

Measurements, statistical notation, terminology, capitalization, symbols, and numerical presentation should be used consistently throughout the manuscript.

Recommended Manuscript Structure

The exact organization of a manuscript may vary according to the study design, disciplinary tradition, and article type. For original research articles, authors are generally encouraged to use the following structure where appropriate:

1. Title
2. Author information
3. Abstract
4. Keywords
5. Introduction
6. Literature review or theoretical framework, where appropriate
7. Materials and methods or methodology
8. Results or findings
9. Discussion
10. Conclusion
11. Implications or recommendations, where appropriate
12. Limitations
13. Acknowledgements, where applicable
14. Funding statement
15. Conflict of interest statement
16. Author contributions, where applicable
17. Ethics statement, where applicable
18. Informed consent statement, where applicable
19. Data availability statement, where applicable
20. AI-use disclosure, where applicable
21. References
22. Appendices or supplementary material, where applicable

Title

The title should be concise, informative, specific, and representative of the principal subject of the manuscript.

Authors should avoid unnecessarily long titles, unexplained abbreviations, ambiguous wording, promotional language, and claims that exceed the evidence presented in the manuscript.

Author Names and Affiliations

The full name of each author should be provided together with the appropriate institutional affiliation.

Affiliations should normally identify the department, school, faculty, institution, city, and country, where applicable.

The corresponding author should be clearly identified and should provide a valid email address for editorial and publication correspondence.

Authors are encouraged to provide an ORCID iD where available.

Authorship

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial scholarly contributions to the work and who are prepared to accept responsibility for their contributions.

All listed authors should approve the submitted version of the manuscript, agree to its submission to the journal, approve the final version before publication, and accept appropriate accountability for the work.

Guest authorship, honorary authorship, purchased authorship, and ghost authorship are not acceptable.

Changes to Authorship

Requests to add, remove, or rearrange authors after submission should be supported by a clear explanation and agreement from all affected authors.

The journal may request written confirmation from all authors before approving an authorship change.

Authorship changes requested after acceptance or publication will be considered only where a legitimate and adequately documented reason exists.

Corresponding Author Responsibilities

The corresponding author is responsible for communication with the journal during submission, peer review, revision, production, and post-publication processes.

The corresponding author should ensure that all co-authors are aware of the submission, approve the manuscript, agree with any revisions, and are informed of important editorial decisions.

Abstract

Every research manuscript should normally include an abstract that provides a concise and accurate summary of the article.

Depending on the nature of the manuscript, the abstract should communicate the research background or problem, objective, methodology, principal findings, and conclusion.

The abstract should accurately reflect the content of the manuscript and should not contain claims or results that are absent from the main text.

Undefined abbreviations, unnecessary citations, lengthy methodological details, and excessive background information should generally be avoided in the abstract.

Keywords

Authors should provide appropriate keywords that accurately represent the major concepts, population, context, methodology, or subject of the manuscript.

Keywords should assist indexing and discovery and should therefore be specific, relevant, and suitable for scholarly database searching.

Introduction

The introduction should clearly establish the context and importance of the study. It should identify the research problem, summarize relevant scholarship, explain the gap or need addressed by the study, and state the purpose, objectives, questions, or hypotheses where applicable.

The introduction should provide sufficient background for readers to understand the rationale for the research without becoming an unnecessarily extensive literature review.

Literature Review

Where a separate literature review is appropriate, authors should critically engage with relevant scholarship rather than merely list or summarize previous studies.

The literature review should demonstrate the relationship between the manuscript and existing knowledge, identify relevant gaps or debates, and establish the scholarly basis for the study.

Authors are encouraged to use relevant and sufficiently current literature while also acknowledging important foundational scholarship where appropriate.

Theoretical or Conceptual Framework

Where a theoretical or conceptual framework is used, it should be clearly identified and adequately explained.

Authors should demonstrate how the framework relates to the research questions, methodology, analysis, interpretation, or broader scholarly contribution of the manuscript.

Research Objectives and Questions

Research objectives and questions should be clear, focused, academically relevant, and consistent with the methodology and analysis presented in the manuscript.

Authors should avoid introducing objectives or research questions that are not subsequently addressed by the study.

Methodology

The methodology section should provide sufficient information for readers and reviewers to understand how the study was designed and conducted.

Depending on the research design, authors should describe relevant elements such as:

• Study design
• Research setting or context
• Study population
• Sampling strategy
• Sample size and its justification where relevant
• Eligibility criteria
• Recruitment procedures
• Research instruments or measures
• Data collection procedures
• Validity and reliability considerations
• Qualitative rigor or trustworthiness procedures
• Data analysis methods
• Statistical procedures
• Software used for analysis where relevant
• Ethical approval
• Informed consent procedures

Methods should be described transparently and with sufficient detail to allow readers to assess the reliability and appropriateness of the research.

Quantitative Studies

Quantitative studies should clearly describe the study design, variables, measurements, sampling procedures, statistical analyses, and procedures used to address potential bias or confounding where relevant.

Statistical methods should be appropriate for the research question and data. Authors should report sufficient information to permit meaningful interpretation of the results.

Where appropriate, estimates should be accompanied by measures of uncertainty, confidence intervals, effect sizes, or other relevant statistical information rather than relying solely on significance testing.

Qualitative Studies

Qualitative research should clearly describe the methodological approach, participant selection, setting, data generation methods, analytical procedures, and strategies used to support credibility and rigor.

Where relevant, authors should address reflexivity, researcher positioning, saturation or information adequacy, coding procedures, thematic development, triangulation, member engagement, or other methods appropriate to the chosen qualitative tradition.

Mixed-Methods Studies

Mixed-methods studies should clearly explain the rationale for combining quantitative and qualitative approaches.

Authors should describe how the components were designed, conducted, analyzed, and integrated, and should explain how integration contributes to answering the research questions.

Results or Findings

Results should be presented clearly, accurately, logically, and without unnecessary duplication.

The results section should report findings directly relevant to the stated research objectives or questions.

Tables and figures should complement rather than unnecessarily repeat information provided in the text.

Authors should distinguish clearly between observed results and interpretations that are more appropriately discussed in the discussion section.

Discussion

The discussion should interpret the principal findings in relation to the study objectives, relevant literature, theoretical or conceptual framework, and broader academic context.

Authors should explain the significance of the findings without overstating their implications.

Where appropriate, the discussion should address similarities and differences between the present findings and previous research and should consider plausible explanations for important findings.

Causal claims should not be made when the study design does not support causal inference.

Conclusion

The conclusion should provide a concise synthesis of the principal findings and their contribution.

Conclusions should be directly supported by the evidence presented in the manuscript and should not introduce major new results, arguments, or references that have not been discussed previously.

Implications and Recommendations

Where appropriate, authors may discuss implications for education, policy, professional practice, community development, theory, methodology, or future research.

Recommendations should arise logically from the findings and should not exceed what can reasonably be supported by the study.

Study Limitations

Authors should acknowledge relevant limitations that may affect interpretation, validity, transferability, generalizability, or applicability of the findings.

Limitations should be discussed transparently without unnecessarily diminishing the legitimate contribution of the research.

Tables

Tables should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they are first mentioned in the manuscript.

Each table should have a concise and informative title and should be understandable without excessive reliance on the main text.

Abbreviations, symbols, statistical notation, and explanatory information should be defined in table notes where necessary.

Authors should avoid unnecessary duplication between tables and the main text.

Figures

Figures should be numbered consecutively according to first citation in the text and should include clear, descriptive captions.

Figures should be of sufficient quality and resolution for editorial assessment and publication.

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted figures, photographs, illustrations, maps, or other visual material where permission is required.

Equations and Mathematical Material

Mathematical expressions and equations should be presented clearly and consistently. Equations that are referred to elsewhere in the manuscript should be numbered sequentially.

Variables, symbols, abbreviations, and specialized notation should be defined when first introduced.

Footnotes and Endnotes

Footnotes and endnotes should be used sparingly and only where they provide information that cannot be incorporated naturally into the main text.

They should not be used as a substitute for proper citation or for extensive discussion that belongs in the main manuscript.

Citation and Reference Style

The journal uses APA conventions for the formatting of bibliographic details while using numerical citations according to the order in which sources first appear in the text.

This is a journal-specific reference system. Authors should therefore not use the standard APA author-date citation system in the main text unless specifically instructed by the editorial office.

In-Text Citations

References should be assigned a number when they are first cited in the manuscript. The first source cited should be reference 1, the second new source should be reference 2, and numbering should continue consecutively throughout the manuscript.

When a source is cited again later in the manuscript, authors should use the same number originally assigned to that source.

A source must not receive a new reference number each time it is cited.

Reference List

The reference list should be arranged in numerical order according to the sequence in which sources first appear in the text.

References should not be arranged alphabetically.

Although the reference list is numbered, the bibliographic information contained in each reference should follow the journal's adopted APA formatting conventions for authors, publication year, title, journal or book information, volume, issue, pages, publisher, DOI, and URL where applicable.

Reference Accuracy

Authors are responsible for the accuracy and authenticity of every reference.

Before submission, authors should verify:

• Author names
• Publication year
• Article or chapter title
• Journal or book title
• Volume and issue information
• Page range or article number
• Publisher details where applicable
• DOI or URL where applicable

Every source appearing in the reference list should be cited in the manuscript, and every source cited in the manuscript should appear in the reference list.

Fabricated, unverifiable, misleading, or AI-generated references that do not correspond to genuine sources are unacceptable.

Use of DOIs

Authors are encouraged to provide the DOI for references where one is available and relevant to the journal's formatting requirements.

DOI information should be checked for accuracy before manuscript submission.

Research Ethics

Research involving human participants, identifiable personal information, or other ethically regulated activities must comply with applicable institutional, national, and international ethical requirements.

Where ethical review is required, authors should provide the name of the approving ethics committee or institutional review board and the approval number or reference where available.

Informed Consent

Authors are responsible for obtaining appropriate informed consent from research participants where required.

Where identifiable photographs, quotations, personal information, case details, audio, video, or other identifiable material are published, appropriate consent for publication should be obtained where required.

Research Involving Vulnerable Participants

Studies involving children, individuals with reduced decision-making capacity, dependent populations, marginalized communities, or other potentially vulnerable groups should demonstrate appropriate ethical safeguards.

Authors should clearly explain relevant consent, assent, confidentiality, safeguarding, and risk-minimization procedures.

Privacy and Confidentiality

Personally identifiable information should not be included in a manuscript unless it is academically necessary and appropriate consent has been obtained.

Authors should anonymize or de-identify research data where appropriate and comply with relevant privacy and data-protection requirements.

Data Availability

Authors should retain sufficient research records to support the accuracy and integrity of their findings.

Where appropriate and ethically permissible, authors are encouraged to deposit supporting data in a recognized repository or explain how the data may be accessed.

A data availability statement may be included in the manuscript. Where data cannot be shared because of privacy, confidentiality, ethical, legal, contractual, or commercial restrictions, the reason should be stated where appropriate.

Data Fabrication and Falsification

Fabrication, falsification, deliberate manipulation, selective alteration, inappropriate omission, or misleading presentation of research data is prohibited.

Authors must ensure that results, statistical outputs, images, quotations, transcripts, figures, and other evidence are represented accurately.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism in any form is unacceptable.

Authors must properly acknowledge words, ideas, methods, results, data, figures, tables, and other intellectual material originating from other sources.

Manuscripts may be evaluated using similarity-detection or plagiarism-screening systems as part of the editorial process.

Similarity percentages are not interpreted mechanically. Editorial assessment may consider the nature, extent, location, and attribution of overlapping material.

Self-Plagiarism and Text Recycling

Authors should avoid excessive or misleading reuse of their own previously published material.

Where previously published methods, descriptions, or other material must be reused, appropriate citation and transparent attribution should be provided.

Duplicate and Redundant Publication

Authors should not submit substantially the same manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously.

Substantial overlap with previously published work should be disclosed to the editorial office and properly cited.

Preprints

Where authors have previously posted a version of the manuscript as a preprint, they should disclose this during submission and provide relevant information where requested.

The existence of a legitimate preprint does not necessarily constitute prior publication, subject to the journal's editorial assessment.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors should disclose any financial, personal, institutional, professional, academic, or other relationships that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research or its interpretation.

Where no relevant conflict exists, authors may include a statement indicating that they have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Funding Statement

Authors should identify all financial support, grants, sponsorship, institutional funding, or other material support received for the research.

Where applicable, authors should describe the role of the funding organization in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or the decision to submit the manuscript.

Where no external funding was received, authors may state this explicitly.

Acknowledgements

Individuals or organizations that contributed to the research but do not meet the criteria for authorship may be recognized in an acknowledgements section.

Authors should obtain permission from individuals who are named in the acknowledgements where appropriate.

Author Contributions

Authors are encouraged to provide a clear description of individual contributions where appropriate.

Contributions may include conceptualization, methodology, data collection, analysis, investigation, software, validation, visualization, supervision, project administration, funding acquisition, drafting, and critical revision.

Use of Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI

Authors may use artificial intelligence and generative AI technologies only in a responsible, transparent, and academically ethical manner.

AI tools, including large language models, generative writing systems, image generators, automated coding tools, translation systems, and similar technologies, cannot be listed as authors or co-authors.

Authorship requires accountability for the accuracy, originality, integrity, ethical compliance, and final content of a scholarly work. These responsibilities must remain with human authors.

Author Responsibility for AI-Assisted Content

Authors remain fully responsible for all material submitted to the journal, including material created, rewritten, translated, summarized, coded, analyzed, or otherwise assisted by an AI system.

Authors must critically evaluate and verify AI-assisted material before including it in a manuscript.

In particular, authors must independently verify factual claims, quotations, calculations, statistical results, references, citations, data interpretation, and other information generated with AI assistance.

Disclosure of AI Use

Where generative AI has made a material contribution to manuscript preparation, authors should disclose its use transparently.

The disclosure should identify the AI tool where appropriate and briefly explain how it was used.

Routine spelling correction, basic grammar checking, conventional reference formatting, and comparable minor language-support functions may not require detailed disclosure unless requested by the editors.

Prohibited Uses of AI

Artificial intelligence must not be used to fabricate or falsify:

• Research data
• Study participants
• Interviews
• Survey responses
• Quotations
• References
• Ethical approvals
• Statistical results
• Clinical or observational records
• Images presented as genuine research evidence
• Any other scholarly evidence

AI-generated references should never be included without independent verification that the source exists and supports the claim for which it is cited.

AI-Generated Images and Media

AI-generated or AI-modified images, audio, video, graphics, or other media used as part of the research methodology should be clearly identified and appropriately explained.

Artificially generated material must not be presented as authentic observational, documentary, experimental, or empirical evidence.

Image Integrity

Figures, photographs, graphs, and other visual materials must not be manipulated in a manner that misrepresents the underlying data or evidence.

Legitimate adjustments should be applied consistently and should not selectively remove, add, obscure, or exaggerate information.

Copyright and Permissions

Authors are responsible for ensuring that submitted material does not unlawfully infringe the copyright, privacy, confidentiality, trademark, or intellectual property rights of another person or organization.

Authors must obtain written permission to reproduce copyrighted tables, figures, photographs, illustrations, questionnaires, or other third-party material where permission is legally required.

Copyright Retention

Authors publishing in Learning Communities — International Journal of Learning in Social Contexts retain copyright in their published work unless otherwise stated.

Authors grant the journal the right of first publication.

Creative Commons License

Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

The license allows others to copy, share, distribute, adapt, transform, and build upon published material for lawful purposes, including commercial use, provided appropriate attribution is given to the original authors and source.

Additional information about the license is available at: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International .

Open Access Policy

Learning Communities — International Journal of Learning in Social Contexts is a fully Diamond Open Access journal.

All published articles are made freely available online immediately upon publication without subscription charges or reader paywalls.

Article Processing Charges

The journal does not charge authors an article processing charge for standard publication.

Authors are not required to pay submission fees, publication fees, or standard open access fees.

An author's ability or inability to pay does not influence editorial assessment, peer review, or publication decisions.

Self-Archiving

Authors may deposit and share their published articles in institutional repositories, subject repositories, personal websites, academic profiles, and other lawful scholarly archives in accordance with the CC BY 4.0 license.

Authors are encouraged to acknowledge the journal as the original place of publication and provide the DOI or permanent article link where available.

Peer Review Process

The journal operates a single-blind peer review process.

Under this system, reviewer identities are not disclosed to authors, while reviewers may have access to author names and affiliations.

Manuscripts that pass initial editorial screening are normally sent to suitably qualified reviewers for independent scholarly evaluation.

Reviewers may evaluate originality, academic contribution, methodology, analysis, presentation, ethical compliance, relevance, and the validity of conclusions.

Review Speed

The journal aims to conduct the initial editorial screening within approximately 7 days of manuscript submission.

The average peer-review process is approximately 90 days. Actual review times may vary according to reviewer availability, manuscript complexity, revision requirements, and author response times.

Following formal acceptance and completion of the required publication procedures, the journal normally aims to publish an article within approximately 15 days.

These periods represent typical processing times and should not be interpreted as guaranteed deadlines.

Editorial Decisions

Following editorial assessment and peer review, a manuscript may receive a decision such as:

• Accept
• Minor revision
• Major revision
• Resubmit for further review
• Reject

The final decision regarding publication rests with the journal's editorial team.

Revision of Manuscripts

Authors invited to revise a manuscript should address reviewer and editor comments carefully and systematically.

A revised submission should normally be accompanied by a response explaining how each substantive comment has been addressed.

Where an author disagrees with a reviewer recommendation, a respectful and evidence-based explanation should be provided.

Response to Reviewers

Authors should respond professionally to peer-review comments.

The response should clearly identify revisions made to the manuscript and indicate where significant changes can be found.

Authors should not make personal remarks about reviewers or attempt to identify or contact anonymous reviewers.

Resubmission After Revision

Submission of a revised manuscript does not guarantee acceptance.

Revised manuscripts may be returned to the original reviewers or evaluated by additional reviewers if the editor considers further assessment necessary.

Proofs

After acceptance, authors may receive proofs for final checking before publication.

Proof correction is intended primarily to identify production errors, formatting problems, or minor inaccuracies.

Major changes to the content, authorship, results, interpretation, or conclusions should not normally be introduced at the proof stage without editorial approval.

Corrections After Publication

Authors should notify the journal promptly if they discover a significant error in a published article.

Depending on the nature and significance of the issue, the journal may publish a correction, clarification, expression of concern, or retraction.

Retractions

Retraction may be considered where reliable evidence indicates that published findings are substantially unreliable because of serious error, fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, unethical research, duplicate publication, major copyright infringement, or other significant misconduct.

Retraction is intended to preserve the integrity of the scholarly record rather than to punish authors.

Complaints and Appeals

Authors may raise legitimate concerns regarding editorial decisions, peer review, ethical matters, or journal procedures.

Appeals should provide a clear academic justification and should directly address the reasons provided for the original editorial decision.

An appeal does not guarantee that the original decision will be changed.

Citation Manipulation

Authors must not add irrelevant references solely for the purpose of increasing citation counts of particular individuals, journals, institutions, research groups, or publications.

References should be included because they are genuinely relevant to the manuscript.

Peer Review Manipulation

Attempts to manipulate the peer-review process are prohibited.

Authors must not provide false reviewer identities, fabricated email addresses, misleading reviewer information, impersonate researchers, or otherwise attempt to interfere with independent peer review.

Submission Checklist

Before submitting a manuscript, authors should confirm that:

• The manuscript falls within the aims and scope of the journal.
• The work is original and has not been submitted simultaneously elsewhere.
• All listed authors meet appropriate authorship requirements.
• All authors have approved the submitted manuscript.
• The title accurately represents the manuscript.
• An appropriate abstract and keywords have been provided.
• The manuscript is organized clearly and logically.
• The methodology is described adequately.
• Ethics approval and informed consent are reported where required.
• Results are presented accurately.
• Conclusions are supported by the evidence.
• Important limitations are acknowledged.
• Tables and figures are numbered and cited in the manuscript.
• Permission has been obtained for copyrighted third-party material where required.
• Conflicts of interest have been disclosed.
• Funding information has been provided where applicable.
• AI use has been disclosed where required.
• All references cited in the text appear in the reference list.
• All references listed are cited in the manuscript.
• References are numbered according to first appearance in the text.
• Bibliographic details follow the journal's adopted APA conventions.
• References have been checked for accuracy and authenticity.
• The manuscript does not contain fabricated or unverifiable references.
• The corresponding author's contact information is accurate.
• All required declarations have been included.

Submission Declaration

By submitting a manuscript to Learning Communities — International Journal of Learning in Social Contexts, the authors confirm that the submission is made in good faith, that the information provided to the journal is accurate, and that the manuscript complies with the journal's publication ethics and authorship requirements.

Authors also agree to cooperate with reasonable editorial requests relating to peer review, verification, ethical assessment, corrections, and preservation of the scholarly record.

Final Responsibility of Authors

Authors remain responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, legality, ethical compliance, references, data, interpretations, and conclusions contained in their manuscripts.

Acceptance and publication by the journal do not transfer responsibility for the scholarly content from the authors to the editors, reviewers, journal, or publisher.

Contact and Submission Support

Authors who require clarification regarding manuscript preparation, submission, peer review, revisions, publication ethics, licensing, or other editorial matters should contact the journal through the official contact information provided on the Learning Communities — International Journal of Learning in Social Contexts website.