The journal Research in Pedagogyis dedicated to publishing research papers in the field of pedagogy and other relevant educational areas.

The journal Research in Pedagogypublishes original scientific articles that have not been published previously. Research in Pedagogyis an open access journal that doesn’t charge any fees either to readers to read, nor to authors to publish.

Encouraging interdisciplinary approach, the journal publishes papers connecting pedagogy with psychology, sociology, didactics, innovations in education, artificial intelligence reaches and limitations, reflecting trends of European research and EU educational initiatives. Its open-access and international online availability make it relevant not only for European dialogue in pedagogy, but also for global scientific community. Papers published in the journal offer empirical and theoretical grounds for improvement of educational strategies and pedagogical practices both in Europe and worldwide. 

Contributions to the journal shall be submitted in the English language.  The journal is open to all researchers globally, regardless of gender, career stage or ethnic and religious affiliation. Each published article is assigned a DOI (Digital Object Identifier).

Until 2026 the journal was published biannually in June and December, from 2026 the journal is published four times a year, in March, June, September and December. Each issue (as a rule, except in justified cases—such as a special issue, etc.) contains at least five scientific (research) articles. From 2026 the articles in the journal Research in Pedagogy will be published only in the English language.

The submitted manuscripts are subject to a peer review process. The purpose of peer review is to assist the Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communication with the author it may also assist the author in improving the manuscript.

Anonymous peer review is conducted, i.e., double-blind review. Each manuscript is reviewed by two reviewers. If one review is positive and the other negative, the manuscript is sent to a third reviewer. The deadline for completing a review is two weeks.

During the main review stage, the Editor-in-Chief forwards the submitted manuscript to two experts in the relevant scientific field. The review form includes a series of questions to be answered, guiding reviewers toward the key aspects that should be considered when deciding on the outcome of a manuscript. In the final section of the form, reviewers are required to provide their observations and recommendations for improving the manuscript. Reviewers’ identities remain unknown to the authors before, during, and after the review process. Likewise, authors’ identities remain unknown to the reviewers before, during, and after the review process. Authors are advised to avoid wording in their manuscripts that could reveal their identity. The Editor guarantees that, prior to sending the manuscript for review, the authors’ personal data (primarily the name and affiliation) will be removed, and that all reasonable measures will be taken to ensure that the authors’ identities remain concealed from reviewers until the completion of the review process.

If the decisions of the two reviewers are not the same (accept/reject), the Editor-in-Chief may assign additional reviewers.

During the review process, the Editor-in-Chief may require authors to provide additional information (including raw data) if they are necessary for the evaluation of the scholarly merit of the manuscript. These materials shall be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain.

All submissions should be sent to the following e-mail: submission@research.rs.

Papers that receive a positive evaluation are published on the journal’s website, www.research.rs, within individual volumes (Vol.), which are finalized four times a year.

Paper Format

The entire paper should be prepared in Times New Roman, 12-point font. The text should be fully justified and formatted with single line spacing. The first line of a paragraph should not be indented, while a new paragraph should be indicated by additional spacing, that is, by a blank line (the so-called block format).

Figures and tables should be placed in an appropriate position within the text as an integral part of the paper, which means that they should be prepared in Word or in a compatible program; if generated in statistical packages, they should be converted into a Word format. Each table, scheme, image, and graph must be understandable without reading the main text; accordingly, each must have a number, a title (precise and no longer than one line), and a legend (explaining symbols, codes, and abbreviations). Presenting the same data both in tabular and graphical form is not acceptable. Images should be prepared in electronic form, with a resolution of 300 dpi, in jpg format. The results of statistical analysis should be presented in the form customary in the statistics of pedagogical and psychological research, as in the following example: F=25.35, df=1,9, p<.001 or F(1,9)=25.35, p<.001. All photographs, graphs, and/or diagrams must be referred to as Figures, and figures should be labeled numerically: Figure 1, Figure 2, etc. Full and descriptive titles of figures should be given below the figure. Each table should be numbered as follows: Table 1, Table 2, etc. Full and descriptive titles of tables should be given above the tables. Tables and figures should be referred to in the text by their number and in the order in which they appear in the paper.

The title page should contain general information about the author(s) in the upper left corner, including the author’s full name followed by a footnote marker. The footnote should contain the author’s email address and a link to the author’s ORCID profile. Below the author’s name, the institution where the author is employed should be stated. The full official name and the seat of the institution should be provided, and, if applicable, also the name of the institution where the research was conducted. Independent researchers and authors for whom scientific research is not their primary profession should also indicate their status. In the case of complex organizations, the full hierarchy of the organization should be stated (from the full registered name to the internal organizational unit). If there is more than one author and some of them come from the same institution, it must be clearly indicated, by special markers or in another appropriate way, from which of the listed institutions each author comes.

The title of the paper should be written three lines below the author information, centered and in capital letters. The title may contain a maximum of 15 words. After two blank lines, the abstract should follow. It should not exceed 350 words and should not contain any undefined abbreviations and/or vague references. For papers reporting the results of empirical research, the following should be briefly stated:

  • the type of research;
  • the basic theoretical framework;
  • the instruments, and the type of sample;
  • the main aim;
  • the problem under investigation or the question the research is intended to answer;
  • the methods and procedures used;
  • the number of participants;
  • the main findings and results.

Below the abstract, three to five keywords or short phrases should be provided in alphabetical order.

Article structure

The IMRAD structure should be implemented. It is a standard model for organizing a scientific paper, enabling clear, coherent, and logical presentation of research. The acronym stands for Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion.

In the Introduction, the author defines the research topic, presents the problem, explains the significance of the study, outlines the relevant theoretical and research context (provides findings from other studies that help situate the aim and the problem, that is, the research question, and the hypothesis, if any), and states the aim of the study, research questions, and, where appropriate, hypotheses.

The Methods section describes how the research was conducted. It usually includes information about the sample, instruments, research procedure, methods of data collection, and data analysis. The purpose of this section is to ensure transparency, reliability, and the possibility of replicating the study.

In the Results section, the findings are presented clearly and systematically, often with the help of tables, graphs, or other forms of data display. This part focuses on presenting the obtained data objectively, without extensive interpretation.

In the Discussion, the results are analyzed and interpreted in relation to the research aims/problem, hypotheses, and findings of previous studies. This section highlights the scientific contribution of the paper, addresses the limitations of the research, and suggests possible directions for further study.

The paper should also include an abstract, keywords, a conclusion, and references, while IMRAD constitutes its core structural framework. This organization contributes to consistency, clarity, and easier understanding of the research process.

Citing References in the Text

The bibliography, that is, the references cited by the author, should be provided in accordance with the APA (American Psychological Association), 7th edition format (see: www.apa.org).

Only the basic forms of citing references in the text and in the bibliography are given here, with a minimal number of examples. Authors are advised to consult the material available at the following electronic address for additional information on APA style: apastyle.apa.org/learn.

References should be cited in the text in alphabetical order according to the authors’ surnames, and then in chronological order (e.g. Gojkov, 2010; Gojkov & Stojanović, 2010; Stojanović & Gojkov, 2011). They should also be listed in alphabetical order in the bibliography section at the end of the paper.

If a work has one or two authors, the surnames of both authors are cited in the text, e.g. Walker and Allen (2008) or, when given in parentheses, (Walker & Allen, 2008). If a work has three or more authors, the surname of the first author followed by the abbreviation et al. is used from the very first citation, e.g. Wasserstein et al. (2005) or, when given in parentheses, (Wasserstein et al., 2005). In the reference list at the end of the paper, all authors up to a maximum of 20 should be listed in accordance with APA 7 standards.

A comma is used between two or more references by the same author cited within the same parentheses (e.g. Gojkov, 2000, 2002). When the author refers to a specific page of the cited work, the page number is given after the author’s surname and the year of publication (e.g. Gojkov, 2008, p. 5; Walker, 2007, p. 32).

In accordance with APA 7, when multiple references cited in the paper have the same first author and the same year of publication, and the abbreviated citation form using et al. leads to ambiguity, it is necessary to include as many author names in the text as needed to clearly distinguish the references from one another.

In such cases, the abbreviated form (et al.) is not used; instead, the citation is expanded by including additional authors until the distinction between the references becomes unambiguous. For example, if the reference list contains the following references:

  • Popović Šević, N., Šević, A., Slijepčević, M., i Krstić, J. (2025)…
  • Popović Šević, N., Šević, A., Slijepčević, M., i Mamula Nikolić, T. (2025)…

It is incorrect to use in the text the following:

  • Popović Šević et al. (2025)

because this form does not enable the differentiation of the references.

The correct citation in the text is:

  • Popović Šević, Šević, Slijepčević, i Krstić (2025)
  • Popović Šević, Šević, Slijepčević, i Mamula Nikolić (2025)

That is, in parantheses:

  • (Popović Šević, Šević, Slijepčević, & Krstić, 2025)
  • (Popović Šević, Šević, Slijepčević, & Mamula Nikolić, 2025).

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements to individuals, institutions, projects, grants, and funding bodies should be provided in a separate section, before the reference list.

List of References (Bibliography)

At the end of the paper, a list of references used should be provided, arranged in alphabetical order according to the surname of the first author. Only those references that are cited in the text, as well as those analyzed in a review paper, should be included in the reference list.

When the same author is cited more than once, the references should be arranged in chronological order, according to the year of publication. If several works by the same author were published in the same year, they should be distinguished by letters added to the year of publication (e.g. 2019a, 2019b).

Citing unpublished works is not recommended, except in cases where the work is in press. For all sources for which it is available, the DOI must be provided in the form of a full URL, in accordance with the APA 7 standard, as in the following example:

Carretié, L., Hinojosa, J. A., Martín-Loeches, M., Mercado, F., & Tapia, M. (2004). Automatic attention to emotional stimuli: Neural correlates. Human Brain Mapping, 22(4), 290–299. doi.org/10.1002/hbm.20037

According to APA style, references should be formatted with a hanging indent, so that the first line of each entry is aligned with the left margin, while all subsequent lines are indented by 1.27 cm (0.5 inches).

All sources cited in the text and in the reference list should be given consistently in the original language, in the form in which they were originally published, in accordance with the APA 7 citation standard.

Examples of Acceptable Reference List Entries

Journal Articles

Format:

Surname, A. A. (year). Title of the article. Journal Title, volume(issue), first–last page. https://doi.org/xxxxx

Examples:

Mitranić, N. (2016). Smernice za društvenu podršku dečjoj igri. Nastava i vaspitanje, 65(2), 411–425.

Andrews, J., & Higson, H. (2011). Graduate employability: Soft skills versus hard business knowledge. Higher Education in Europe, 33(4), 411–422.

Books

Format:

Surname, A. A. (year). Title of the book. Publisher.

Examples:

Gojkov, G. (2013). Fragmenti visokoškolske didaktike. Visoka škola strukovnih studija za vaspitače „Mihailo Palov”.

Houston, R. W., & Howsam, R. B. (1972). Competency-based teacher education: Progress, problems and prospects. Science Research Associates.

Edited Books / Volumes

Format:

Author, A. A. (year). Title of the chapter. In A. A. Editor & B. B. Editor (Eds.), Title of the book (pp. xx–xx). Publisher.

Examples:

Lang, P. J., Bradley, M. M., & Cuthbert, B. N. (1997). Motivated attention: Affect, activation, and action. In P. J. Lang, R. F. Simons, & M. Balaban (Eds.), Attention and orienting: Sensory and motivational processes (pp. 97–135). Erlbaum.

Jovetić, S., & Janković, N. (2011). Značaj naučno-tehnološkog razvoja za društveno-ekonomski razvoj zemlje. In V. Matejić (Ed.), Tehnologija, kultura i razvoj (pp. 142–151). Udruženje „Tehnologija i društvo”.

The author is an institution/ organization

Example:

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). APA.

Electronic Sources

In APA 7 style, electronic sources should include the author, year, title, and URL or DOI. If a DOI is available, it should be given instead of the URL. The access date is provided only for content that is subject to frequent changes.

Example (website):

Purdue Online Writing Lab. (2023). APA style introduction. owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/

Appendices

Supplementary material should be listed and attached in the Appendix section.

The Editorial Board reserves the right to make technical adjustments to the paper in accordance with the general editorial rules of the journal, as well as the standards of the English language.

Inclusive Language

The journal Research in Pedagogy promotes accessible, and inclusive language to ensure that scientific research is widely understood and respectful of all individuals. To promote accessibility, authors should:

  • Use clear, simple language that is understandable across disciplines and for non-native English speakers;
  • Avoid overly technical or unnecessary terminology, unnecessary complexity, long sentences, repetition, uncommon acronyms and abbreviations, stereotypes, idiomatic speech, slang, and cultural assumptions;
  • Explain technical terms when needed;
  • Respect diversity and avoid implying superiority of any group based on gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, health status, age, or socio-economic background.
  • Use inclusive and appropriate language in relation to race and ethnicity and provide participants with a comprehensive range of categories and subcategories to choose from when collecting self-reported racial or ethnic identity data, as well as the option to select multiple, not mutually exclusive categories;
  • Be cautious in generalizing findings from studies to groups simply on the basis of a shared identity category and provide the rationale behind any racial or ethnic groupings used in the Methods section;
  • Where it is necessary to make reference to the indigenous identity of a person or group, use the terms preferred by the person or group. If in doubt, ask the person or group;
  • Make a distinction between biological sex and socially constructed gender. Use self-identified pronouns and gender-neutral terms (e.g., „chairperson“ instead of „chairman“);
  • Use „impairment“ for medical conditions and „disability“ for societal barriers. Avoid discriminatory language and offensive terms (derogatory labelling, depersonalising, stereotyping and emphasising the disability) in relation to the portrayal of people with disabilities (e.g. use ‘a person diagnosed with cancer’ rather than ‘a cancer victim’);

Consult also additional resources from C4DISC (Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communications): c4disc.org/toolkits-for-equity

Authorship

Authors must make sure that only contributors who have significantly contributed to the submission are listed as authors and, conversely, that all contributors who have significantly contributed to the submission are listed as authors. If persons other than authors were involved in important aspects of the research project and the preparation of the manuscript, their contribution should be acknowledged in a footnote or the Acknowledgements section.

As a guide, authors should refer to the criteria for authorship that have been developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). In order to be named on the author list one must have:

  • made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
  • contributed to the drafting the work, or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
  • provided final approval of the version to be published; AND
  • agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved; AND
  • agreed to be named on the author list, and approved of the full author list.

Each author’s contribution must be detailed using the CRediT taxonomy.

The addition or removal of authors during the editorial process will only be permitted only if a justifiable explanation is provided to the editorial team and publisher. Attempts to introduce ‘ghost’, ‘gift’ or ‘honorary’ authorship will be treated as cases of misconduct.

Conflict of interest

Authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might have influenced the presented results or their interpretation. If there is no conflict of interest to declare, the following standard statement should be added: ‘No conflict of interest was disclosed’.

Conflict of interest may be of non-financial or financial nature. Examples of the conflict of interest include (but are not limited to):

  • individuals receiving funding, salary or other forms of payment from an organization, or holding stocks or shares from a company, that might benefit (or lose) financially from the publication of the findings;
  • individuals or their funding organization or employer holding (or applying for) related patents;
  • official affiliations and memberships with interest groups relating to the content of the publication;
  • political, religious, or ideological competing interests.

Authors from pharmaceutical companies, or other commercial organizations that sponsor clinical or field trials or other research studies, should declare these as competing interests on submission. The relationship of each author to such an organization should be explained in the ‘Conflict of interest’ section. Publications in the journal must not contain content advertising any commercial products.

Fundamental errors in published works

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal Editor or publisher and cooperate with the Editor to retract or correct the paper.

By submitting a manuscript the authors agree to abide by the Research in Pedagogy’s Editorial Policies.

Copyright

Once the paper has been accepted for publication, the author(s) will be asked to sign the Author statement in which they confirm that they have reviewed and complied with the relevant Instructions to Authors and the Authors’ Responsibilities defined in the Editorial Policy and are also aware of the publisher’s retraction policy and Publishing Ethics and Malpractice Statement. The authors must also sign the Conflict of Interest Statement and License Agreement (the journal Research in Pedagogy is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY)).