Reviewer guidelines

Thank you for reviewing for Journal of Educational Science and Development. Reviewers are essential to the quality of the journal. These guidelines explain what we ask of you, following COPE's Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers.

Before accepting an invitation

• Accept only if the manuscript is within your expertise and you can return the review by the deadline.
• Declare any conflict of interest. Decline if you work at the authors' institution, have recently collaborated with them, or have any interest that could affect your judgement.
• If you cannot review, please reply quickly and suggest other qualified reviewers if you can.

What to assess

• Relevance to the journal's aims and scope.
• Originality and significance of the contribution.
• Soundness of the methods and of the statistical analysis, and whether the work can be reproduced.
• Whether the results support the conclusions.
• Quality and relevance of the references, including important work that is not cited.
• Ethical issues: ethics approval, consent, data availability, possible plagiarism or duplicate publication.
• Clarity of the writing, structure, figures and tables.

Writing the report

1. Start with a short summary of the manuscript and its main contribution, in your own words.
2. Give your main comments, the major issues that affect the validity or importance of the work, numbered so the authors can reply to each.
3. Add minor comments on presentation, wording, figures and references.
4. Give your recommendation to the editor: accept, minor revision, major revision or decline, with the reasons. Confidential comments to the editor go in the separate field.

Be specific, constructive and polite. Criticise the work, not the authors, and avoid requesting citations of your own work unless they are genuinely needed.

Confidentiality

• The manuscript is confidential: do not share it, discuss it with others, or use its content before publication.
• Do not upload the manuscript or your report to AI tools or other services that may store it.
• Do not contact the authors directly. If you involve a colleague or student, ask the editor first and name them.

Recognition

Reviewers may receive a certificate of review and can add verified reviews to their ORCID or reviewer profiles where the journal supports it.