About the Journal

Focus and Scope

Education and Lifelong Development Research (ELDER) publishes theoretical and practical papers on education, human development, and the interplay between these two aspects throughout the lifespan. The journal primarily accepts empirical papers while occasionally considering theoretical and review papers. These contributions present the latest research findings on educational innovation and psychological development, encompassing the following fields (but not limited to):

i) Education policy, governance and sustainable development

ii) Engineering education and educational psychology

iii) Student development and mental health

iv) Online education and lifelong learning

v) Measurement and assessment in education and psychology

vi) Application of information technology in education

Vii) Student mobility and international Education

Peer Review Integrity

All submissions undergo rigorous editorial screening. Those selected proceed to anonymous expert peer review. We employ a double-blind system to ensure fair evaluation.

Under the guidance of the reviewers’ comments and recommendations, the Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the final decision on each manuscript regarding revision, acceptance or rejection of articles.

Publication Frequency

Education and Lifelong Development Research was launched in 2024 and is published quarterly.

Open Access Policy

Education and Lifelong Development Research is a fully open-access journal. We are deeply grateful for the generous sponsorship of our Editor-in-Chief, Professor Zhefeng An, which allows authors to publish without any charges and ensures that all research is freely accessible worldwide.

This journal operates on the principle that making scholarly work available without barriers supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. All articles are published online immediately upon acceptance and are permanently free for anyone to read, download, and share.

The journal adopts the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). Under this license, users must give appropriate credit to the author and cite the original publication. The material cannot be used for commercial purposes, and if it is shared, it must remain unchanged and in its original form.

Archiving

This journal utilizes the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration.

Publication Ethics Statement

Education and Lifelong Development Research is committed to obeying the code of ethics at all stages of the publication process. Authors are expected to comply with the best ethical publication practices when publishing with Yandy Scientific Press.

We follow the Guidelines on Good Publication Practice provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), an organisation that provides advice and resources on all aspects of publication ethics and research and publication misconduct.

The editors enforce a rigorous and anonymous review process together with strict ethical policies and standards to ensure that only high-quality scientific works are published. Education and Lifelong Development Research adopts a zero-tolerance policy regarding cases of plagiarism, data falsification, image manipulation, and inappropriate authorship credit. All submitted papers are checked for duplication from existing publications using relevant software.

The following guidelines outline the publishing ethics and responsibilities adopted by Education and Lifelong Development Research, and imposed upon its authors, peer reviewers, and editors. Papers submitted to this journal must abide by the following principles:

Authors

Simultaneous submission of the same manuscript to more than one journal is not tolerated.

A submission translated from already published papers in other languages is not permitted. Moreover, republishing or splitting of the same research is not tolerated.

Any possible conflict of interest of the author(s) must be clearly disclosed at the point of initial submission.

Data and methods used in an article should be presented to a level of completeness that enables other researchers to replicate the findings.

Papers should accurately present their research findings and include an objective discussion of the significance of their findings.

If inaccuracies are found after publication, the authors need to promptly contact the journal and submit a formal corrigendum.

Manuscripts should, where possible, not contain any elements that have already been published, including figures and images. If they wish to do so, the necessary permissions from the copyright holder should be obtained.

Data fabrication, plagiarism, and image manipulation are not tolerated.

If irregular image manipulation is identified and confirmed during the peer review process, the manuscript will be rejected. If irregular image manipulation is identified and confirmed after publication, we may correct or retract the paper.

Plagiarism includes copying text, ideas, images, and data from another source without giving due credit to the original source.

Reuse of text that is copied from another source must be placed between quotation marks and the original source must be cited.

If plagiarism is detected during the peer review process, the manuscript will be unconditionally rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, the paper will be retracted.

Upon submission of a paper, all authors are expected to confirm their involvement and verify their affiliations. Any malpractice in this regard, e.g., providing false affiliations or including authors without their consent, will lead to papers being rejected or retracted.

Upon submission of a paper, all sources of funding must be accurately and fully disclosed. Any malpractice in this regard, e.g., failing to acknowledge funding sources or misrepresenting financial support, will lead to papers being rejected or retracted.

Prior to acceptance and publication, the specific contributions of all the listed authors to a paper must be clearly explained. Individuals that have not made any contributions to the paper must not be included as authors. Editors may reject papers if they consider that one or more of the authors has not been involved in the preparation of the paper.

Editors

The Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editors are committed to ensuring that all manuscripts undergo a fair, unbiased, and rigorous double-blind peer-review process.

Editorial decisions are made based solely on the scholarly merit, originality, and significance of the work, without regard to the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy.

The editors maintain strict confidentiality of all submitted manuscripts and do not disclose any information about a manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, and editorial staff.

The editors follow COPE guidance and industry best practices when handling ethical issues, corrections, retractions, and expressions of concern.

The editors promptly investigate any suspected ethical violations (e.g., plagiarism, data fabrication, image manipulation) and take appropriate action.

The editors decline to handle manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest (e.g., authored or co-authored by the editor, family members, or colleagues). Such submissions are handled independently by other editors.

Reviewers

Peer reviewers play a critical role in maintaining the quality and integrity of the journal.

Reviewers must treat all manuscripts as confidential documents and not share or discuss them outside the review process.

Reviewers should provide constructive, objective, and timely feedback that helps authors improve the scholarly quality of their work.

Reviewers must disclose any potential conflicts of interest and decline to review when such conflicts exist.

Reviewers should report any suspected ethical violations, such as plagiarism, redundant publication, or data fabrication, to the editor.

Reviewers must not use generative AI tools to evaluate manuscripts or generate reviews, as doing so may infringe upon the authors' intellectual property and compromise the confidentiality of the review process.

Reviewers must not use any information obtained during the review process for their own research or personal advantage.

Reviewers must decline to review manuscripts that fall outside their area of expertise.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools

Education and Lifelong Development Research recognises the potential of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in scholarly research and manuscript preparation. Authors may use AI tools to support their work, subject to the following conditions:

AI tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors. In accordance with COPE's position statement, large language models cannot be credited with authorship as they cannot be accountable for the integrity, originality, and accuracy of the work.

Authors must declare the use of generative AI tools in the manuscript preparation process upon submission. The declaration should be included in the Methods section (or, if a Methods section is not available, in a suitable alternative part of the manuscript) and should specify the tool name, version, purpose, and extent of use.

Authors remain fully responsible and accountable for all contents of their work, including the accuracy, comprehensiveness, and impartiality of all AI-generated output.

AI tools must only be applied with human oversight and control. They must never be used as a substitute for human critical thinking, expertise, and evaluation.

The use of AI for AI-assisted copy editing (i.e., improvements to grammar, spelling, punctuation, and tone of human-generated text) does not need to be declared.

Reviewers and editors are prohibited from uploading any portions of submitted manuscripts to generative AI systems, as doing so may infringe upon the authors' intellectual property. AI tools must not be used by reviewers or editors to evaluate manuscripts or make editorial decisions.

Complaints and Appeals Policy

Education and Lifelong Development Research is committed to maintaining the highest standards of transparency, fairness, and integrity in all aspects of its publication process. We take all concerns and complaints seriously and handle them in a fair, timely, and transparent manner.

Authors, reviewers, readers, and any affected parties may submit a complaint or raise a concern regarding any aspect of the journal's policies, procedures, or published content.

All complaints should be submitted in writing to the Editor-in-Chief via email at: ylzhangaaron@foxmail.com. The complaint should include a clear description of the concern or issue, relevant documentation or evidence, contact information of the complainant, and preferred resolution outcome.

All complaints will be acknowledged within five (5) business days of receipt. The complaint will be reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief and, where appropriate, the Editorial Board. The complainant will receive a final response within a reasonable timeframe (typically within 30 days). All complaints will be handled confidentially and without retaliation.

Authors may submit a formal appeal against an editorial decision (e.g., rejection of a manuscript). Appeals must be submitted within 30 days of the editorial decision, provide a clear rationale and supporting evidence for the appeal, and be limited to one appeal per submission. The appeal decision will be final and will be communicated to the author in writing.

Correction and Retraction Policy

Education and Lifelong Development Research is committed to preserving the absolute integrity of the academic record. Post-publication changes to published articles are permitted only in exceptional circumstances and in accordance with the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

A formal correction (Erratum or Corrigendum) will be issued when a substantive error is identified in a published article that does not invalidate the overall findings, when author information requires correction (e.g., misspelled name or incorrect affiliation), or when minor errors in data, figures, or references are discovered. Correction notices will be published and electronically linked to the original article to ensure transparency for readers and researchers.

A published article will be formally retracted if the Editorial Board secures conclusive evidence of severe plagiarism or redundant publication, data fabrication or falsification, image manipulation that compromises the integrity of the findings, major methodological errors that invalidate the conclusions, or serious ethical violations. The purpose of retraction is to correct the literature and maintain the integrity of the academic record, rather than to punish authors. Retraction notices will clearly state the reasons and grounds for the retraction, specify who is retracting the article, and be published and linked to the original article.

Authors who discover errors in their published work are expected to promptly contact the journal and submit a formal request for correction or retraction.

All correction and retraction decisions will be made by the Editor-in-Chief in consultation with the Editorial Board, following COPE guidelines.

Reporting Misconduct

Anyone who believes that research published by Education and Lifelong Development Researchhas not been carried out in line with these principles should formally submit their concerns to the Editor-in-Chief, or send them via email to ylzhangaaron@foxmail.com. Any allegations of publication misconduct will be carefully assessed by the journal's office, and the concerns raised will be communicated to the authors, and, if necessary, to the authors' institutions and funders. If evidence of misconduct is found, appropriate action will be taken to correct or retract the publication.

Submission Checklist

Before submission, the authors are clearly requested to review the journal policies as detailed on the journal’s website and included in the relevant section of the Guide for Authors. Authors are also advised to carefully review the Focus and Scope of the journal to determine whether their manuscript is suitable for the journal or not. Authors are also instructed to ensure that all authors have approved the content of the manuscript prior to its submission, and have appropriately considered issues relating to publication ethics, copyright, authorship, figure formats, and references format.

For more details, please consult to see Author Guidelines.

Submission Declaration and Verification

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published elsewhere and is only being considered by this journal. The submitting author is responsible for ensuring that the article’s submission has been approved by all the other coauthors and has all necessary institutional approvals. if the submitted manuscript is accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, It is a condition of submission that the authors permit the journal to conduct editing of the manuscript to improve its readability, if necessary.

Types of Publications

The journal considers the following types of articles for publication: Original Articles (6,000–7,000 words of text) and Review Articles (7,000–8,000 words of text).

Proofs after Acceptance

After acceptance, one set of page proofs (as PDF files) will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author. That proof is confidential and is only to be used for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes for accepted manuscripts will be considered at this stage only with permission from the Editor. Corrected proofs must be returned to the publisher within two to three days of receipt. The publisher team make best efforts to ensure that each accepted article is published quickly and accurately. To achieve this, it is essential that the authors check the entire proof thoroughly and ensure that all identified corrections are promptly sent back to the journal in one communication from the corresponding author.

How to Cite

To make sure that references from this journal are correctly recorded and resolved, please use the full title or "Educ. Lifelong Dev. Res" as an abbreviated title in any citations.

Article Processing Charge (APC)

We adhere to a non-profit publishing model. Since the journal's launch in 2024, all articles in Education and Lifelong Development Research have been published in full Open Access. We explicitly state that authors are not required to pay any article processing charges for Open Access publication.

Conflicts of interest

Corresponding authors, responsible for co-authors declaring their interests, must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Authors must declare all relevant interests that could be perceived as conflicting. Authors should explain why each interest could represent a potential conflict. If no conflicts exist, the authors should state this.

Whether or not they actually had an influence, all authors of a submitted manuscript must declare all potential interests in the conflicts of interest section, which should explain why the interest may be a conflict. If there are none, the authors should state: “The author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this article”. Declared conflicts of interest will be considered by the editor and reviewers, and included in the published article.

Authors should declare current or recent funding and other payments, or services that might influence the work submitted. All funding must be declared in the funding statement. The involvement of anyone other than the authors in the commissioning, conception, planning, design, conduct, or analysis of the work, the preparation or editing of the manuscript, or the approval to submit a paper for potential publication must be declared at the time of initial submission.

Clearly, all submissions involving Editorial Board members are rigorously and independently reviewed according to the journal’s stated review and decision-making procedures. Such Board-member authors are at no stage involved in the review and decision making process associated with manuscripts for which they are authors or co-authors, including the selection of potential reviewers. Moreover, the reviewers involved in such reviews are not disclosed to such board-member authors at any stage.