About the Journal

Focus and Scope

The Canadian Journal of Higher Education/La Revue canadienne d’enseignement supérieur (ISSN 0316-1218; 2293-6602) is a peer-reviewed and open-access publication of the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education. CJHE is indexed in Scopus. The journal’s aim is to contribute to research and scholarly debate on higher education in Canada.

The Journal's articles employ a range of theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of higher education. Representative of the multidisciplinary nature of the field, they address a variety of problems and consider different units of analysis to further understanding of Canadian higher education topics such as public policy, institutional governance and administration, community engagement, student success, the curriculum, and organizational change.

The Journal publishes articles reporting original research and book reviews in English and French. We welcome the submission of manuscripts that:

  • Make an original contribution to the higher education literature
  • Report on original empirical research studies grounded in theory
  • Address a significant research problem that is relevant for, and set within the context of, Canadian higher education

Authors are to closely follow the author guidelines when preparing their manuscript for submission.  We do not publish:

  • Reports on institutional programs or initiatives
  • Essays
  • Literature reviews
  • Unsolicited book reviews

Special Issue Proposal Guidelines

The Journal reviews proposals for special issues on an ongoing basis. For full guidelines on proposing a special issue, please refer to this document.

Peer Review Process

All submissions are initially assessed by the Editors to ensure their appropriateness and adherence to the Journal and its author guidelines. Manuscripts deemed suitable are reviewed by at least two referees by way of a double-anonymized review procedure. The Editors make final decision on articles.

Publication Frequency

The Journal is published three times a year in April, August, December; articles are published on an on-going basis and gathered into issues every four months.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. CJHE is also available open-access through Érudit, which is the largest disseminator of French-language resources in North America.

Copyright and Redistribution

Creative Commons License

Copyright in the article is vested with the Author under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/. Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

Ethics Statement

Publication ethics

CJHE is committed to upholding the integrity of the publication process. We adopt the Tri-Agency Framework: Responsible Conduct of Research (2016) guidelines[1] for the promotion of research integrity, which stipulate that:

Researchers shall strive to follow the best research practices honestly, accountably, openly and fairly in the search for and in the dissemination of knowledge. In addition, researchers shall follow the requirements of applicable institutional policies and professional or disciplinary standards and shall comply with applicable laws and regulations. At a minimum, researchers are responsible for the following:

  1. Rigour: Scholarly and scientific rigour in proposing and performing research; in recording, analyzing, and interpreting data; and in reporting and publishing data and findings.
  2. Record keeping: Keeping complete and accurate records of data, methodologies and findings, including graphs and images, in accordance with the applicable funding agreement, institutional policies, laws, regulations, and professional or disciplinary standards in a manner that will allow verification or replication of the work by others.
  3. Accurate referencing: Referencing and, where applicable, obtaining permission for the use of all published and unpublished work, including theories, concepts, data, source material, methodologies, findings, graphs and images.
  4. Authorship: Including as authors, with their consent, all those and only those who have made a substantial contribution to, and who accept responsibility for, the contents of the publication or document. The substantial contribution may be conceptual or material.
  5. Acknowledgement: Acknowledging appropriately all those and only those who have contributed to research, including funders and sponsors.
  6. Conflict of interest management: Appropriately identifying and addressing any real, potential or perceived conflict of interest, in accordance with the institution’s policy on conflict of interest in research, in order to ensure that the objectives of the RCR Framework (Article 1.3) are met.

The following are considering infringements of the research integrity framework:

  1. Fabrication: Making up data, source material, methodologies or findings, including graphs and images.
  2. Falsification: Manipulating, changing, or omitting data, source material, methodologies or findings, including graphs and images, without acknowledgement and which results in inaccurate findings or conclusions.
  3. Destruction of research records: The destruction of one’s own or another’s research data or records to specifically avoid the detection of wrongdoing or in contravention of the applicable funding agreement, institutional policy and/or laws, regulations and professional or disciplinary standards.
  4. Plagiarism: Presenting and using another’s published or unpublished work, including theories, concepts, data, source material, methodologies or findings, including graphs and images, as one’s own, without appropriate referencing and, if required, without permission.
  5. Redundant publication or self-plagiarism: The re-publication of one’s own previously published work or part thereof, including data, in any language, without adequate acknowledgment of the source, or justification.
  6. Invalid authorship: Inaccurate attribution of authorship, including attribution of authorship to persons other than those who have made a substantial contribution to, and who accept responsibility for, the contents of a publication or document.
  7. Inadequate acknowledgement: Failure to appropriately recognize contributors.
  8. Mismanagement of conflict of interest: Failure to appropriately identify and address any real, potential or perceived conflict of interest, in accordance with the institution’s policy on conflict of interest in research, preventing one or more of the objectives of the RCR Framework (Article 1.3) from being met.

The submission of manuscripts for consideration for publication in CJHE entails the agreement of authors that they follow the guidelines above. CJHE reserves the right to address breaches to these guidelines by taking measures that may include retracting the article, publishing a correction, or addressing the matter with the appropriate authority at the author’s institution or academic society.

[1] See the Tri-Agency Framework: Responsible Conduct of Research (2016) guidelines from to Panel on Responsible Conduct of Research from the Government of Canada: http://www.rcr.ethics.gc.ca/eng/framework-cadre.html

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