Our Review Process

All papers submitted to Curriculum Inquiry are reviewed internally by the editorial team. Following the internal review, editors may decide to send a manuscript out for external peer review, request that the author make revisions before being considered for peer review, or decide to reject the manuscript in its current form.

All manuscripts that are ultimately published in Curriculum Inquiry are anonymously peer reviewed by external experts. The editors rely heavily on the judgments of external peer reviewers but are not bound by them.

Curriculum Inquiry's policy is to present original publications that are available for the first time through our journal. For these reasons, during the online submission process, authors must confirm that the submitted manuscript is an original work, has not been published before (including electronically), and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. Notwithstanding the foregoing, sharing print or electronic copies of the unpublished manuscript (as long as acknowledgment of submission to Curriculum Inquiry is clearly visible) with a limited audience, such as colleagues or students, but not including posting to a widely accessible website, would not prejudice acceptance. If unsure, please reach out to us at curriculum.inquiry.oise@utoronto.ca

Our Review Criteria​

While we welcome formats and approaches that differ from what we usually publish, manuscripts that we consider for publication generally include the following:

  • A clear central question or problem (in keeping with our aims and scope)​

  • Justification of how addressing the problem contributes to curriculum studies scholarship​

  • Articulation of theories and concepts used to define problem(s)​

  • Integration of theories/concepts into the analytic process that address research questions or problems (methodology)​

  • Justifying of choice of method​

  • Clarifying how author positionality shapes processes of asking/answering central question​(s)

  • Answering the question/unpacking the problem​

  • Clear summative argument (answering the “so what” question)​

Rejection Decisions

The three most common reasons we reject manuscripts are:

  1. The manuscript does not critically engage with contemporary debates in the field of curriculum studies.

  2. The manuscript is a curriculum/policy/program efficacy evaluation, scoping review, literature review, or bibliometric analysis. We typically do not publish this type of work.

  3. The manuscript does not satisfy our review criteria (outlined above).