About the Journal
Psychology, Education, and Human Development in Schools is an international, scholarly, open access journal devoted to advancing theoretical, empirical, and applied knowledge concerning psychological, educational, developmental, and behavioral processes within school and school-related contexts. The journal provides a multidisciplinary platform for researchers, educators, school psychologists, counselors, educational administrators, policymakers, and other professionals interested in understanding and improving the experiences, development, learning, adjustment, and well-being of children, adolescents, teachers, families, and school communities.
The journal recognizes schools as complex developmental environments in which psychological, social, educational, cultural, organizational, and contextual factors continuously interact. Accordingly, it welcomes research that examines not only academic learning and educational outcomes but also the broader processes that influence human development in educational settings. Particular attention is given to studies that contribute to evidence-based educational practice, psychological intervention, student development, inclusive education, mental health promotion, teacher effectiveness, family–school relationships, educational equity, and the creation of supportive and developmentally appropriate learning environments.
Psychology, Education, and Human Development in Schools is published on a bi-monthly basis, with six issues published each year. The journal accepts original research articles, review articles, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, methodological studies, theoretical and conceptual papers, and other scholarly contributions that fall within its aims and scope.
All manuscripts submitted to the journal are evaluated according to principles of academic quality, methodological rigor, originality, ethical integrity, and relevance to the journal's readership. Manuscripts considered suitable for further evaluation undergo a double-blind anonymous peer-review process, in which the identities of both authors and reviewers are concealed. Each manuscript is normally evaluated by two or three independent reviewers with appropriate expertise in the subject area.
The journal is committed to maintaining responsible and transparent scholarly publishing practices. Editorial decisions are based on the academic merit of submitted manuscripts and are made without discrimination on the basis of nationality, institutional affiliation, gender, ethnicity, religion, political perspective, or other personal characteristics unrelated to scholarly quality.
As an open access publication, the journal seeks to increase the accessibility, visibility, dissemination, and practical impact of research in psychology, education, and human development. All published articles are made freely available to readers through the journal website, allowing researchers, practitioners, students, policymakers, and members of the wider academic community to access and use published scholarship without subscription barriers.
Aims and Scopes
The primary aim of Psychology, Education, and Human Development in Schools is to promote high-quality scholarship that contributes to a deeper understanding of psychological, educational, and developmental processes occurring within schools and related educational environments. The journal seeks to connect research with educational practice by publishing studies that offer meaningful theoretical, empirical, methodological, or practical contributions to the development of students, teachers, families, educational organizations, and school communities.
The journal covers research in educational and school psychology, including learning, motivation, cognition, academic achievement, educational assessment, self-regulated learning, student engagement, academic emotions, school adjustment, classroom behavior, psychological assessment, and psychological services in educational settings. Research concerning developmental processes during childhood and adolescence, particularly where these processes influence educational participation, interpersonal functioning, psychological adjustment, or school performance, is also strongly encouraged.
Another important area of interest is mental health and psychosocial development in schools. The journal welcomes studies addressing psychological well-being, resilience, stress, anxiety, depression, emotional regulation, behavioral difficulties, social competence, loneliness, bullying, school violence, peer relationships, school belonging, prevention programs, counseling interventions, and school-based mental health promotion. Research evaluating psychological and educational interventions designed to improve student well-being or developmental outcomes is particularly relevant.
The scope of the journal also includes teaching, learning, and teacher development. Appropriate topics include instructional practices, teacher motivation, teacher self-efficacy, occupational well-being, professional development, classroom management, teacher–student relationships, burnout, educational leadership, pedagogical innovation, technology-supported learning, and factors affecting teaching quality and educational effectiveness.
The journal encourages scholarship examining family, social, and contextual influences on education and development, including parental involvement, family functioning, socioeconomic circumstances, school climate, cultural influences, social support, community participation, family–school collaboration, and environmental factors affecting educational and developmental outcomes.
Research concerning inclusive education and individual differences is also within the journal's scope. This includes studies involving students with disabilities, special educational needs, gifted learners, neurodevelopmental differences, culturally and linguistically diverse populations, marginalized students, and educational practices intended to promote equity, accessibility, participation, and inclusion.
The journal additionally welcomes interdisciplinary research integrating psychology and education with fields such as developmental science, counseling, sociology of education, educational technology, public health, social work, neuroscience, educational management, and related disciplines, provided that the study has a clear connection to schools, education, learning, or human development.
Both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies are welcomed, as are mixed-methods studies, longitudinal research, experimental and quasi-experimental studies, psychometric research, structural equation modeling, intervention studies, case-based investigations, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and theoretically grounded conceptual contributions. Manuscripts should demonstrate methodological appropriateness, ethical research conduct, clarity of reporting, and a meaningful contribution to existing knowledge.
Open Access Statement
Psychology, Education, and Human Development in Schools is a fully open access journal. All articles published by the journal are made immediately and permanently available online without subscription charges or other access restrictions.
Readers may access the full text of published articles through the journal website without registration or payment. The journal believes that unrestricted access to scholarly knowledge strengthens scientific communication, promotes international collaboration, supports evidence-based educational and psychological practice, and increases the potential social and academic impact of research.
Open access also enables teachers, school psychologists, counselors, educational administrators, students, policymakers, researchers, and members of the public to benefit from scholarly findings regardless of institutional access to commercial databases or subscription services.
The journal does not impose access fees on readers. Any applicable publication-related charges are described separately under the journal's Article Processing Charges (APCs) policy.
Copyright and License
Authors publishing in Psychology, Education, and Human Development in Schools retain full copyright ownership of their published work. Submission and publication in the journal do not require authors to transfer copyright ownership to the journal.
Published articles are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Under this license, users may read, download, copy, share, distribute, reproduce, and adapt the published material for non-commercial purposes, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author or authors and the original source of publication is properly acknowledged. Users should also provide an appropriate reference to the applicable Creative Commons license and indicate whether modifications have been made where relevant.
Commercial use of published material is not permitted under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license unless separate authorization is obtained from the copyright holder.
Authors remain responsible for ensuring that any copyrighted materials, figures, tables, instruments, images, or other third-party content incorporated into their manuscripts are used with the necessary permissions where such permission is legally required.
The journal's copyright policy is intended to protect authors' ownership rights while facilitating broad scholarly dissemination and responsible non-commercial reuse of published research.
Plagiarism
Psychology, Education, and Human Development in Schools is committed to maintaining high standards of academic integrity and does not tolerate plagiarism, inappropriate duplication, unauthorized use of previously published material, or other forms of unethical textual appropriation.
Submitted manuscripts may be screened using iThenticate, a professional similarity-detection and plagiarism-screening system used in scholarly publishing. Similarity reports are evaluated by the editorial team as part of the journal's quality-control and publication-ethics procedures.
Similarity percentages are not interpreted mechanically. A similarity report may contain legitimate matches resulting from references, standard methodological terminology, names of instruments, commonly used academic phrases, properly quoted material, or text derived from an author's previous work. Therefore, editorial assessment focuses on the nature, extent, location, and context of textual similarity, rather than relying solely on a numerical similarity score.
Forms of misconduct may include direct copying without attribution, close paraphrasing of another source without appropriate acknowledgment, presenting another person's ideas or findings as one's own, inappropriate reuse of previously published text, duplicate publication, and excessive text recycling or self-plagiarism.
If potentially problematic overlap is identified before peer review, the manuscript may be returned to the authors for clarification or revision or may be rejected where the issue is substantial. If concerns arise during peer review or after publication, the editorial team may investigate the matter and take appropriate action in accordance with accepted principles of publication ethics. Depending on the seriousness of the issue, such action may include correction, rejection, retraction, or other appropriate editorial measures.
Authors are responsible for ensuring that their submissions are original, appropriately cited, and compliant with academic and publication-ethics standards.
Article Processing Charges (APCs)
Psychology, Education, and Human Development in Schools operates under an open access publishing model. To support the editorial, peer-review management, publication, digital hosting, online accessibility, technical maintenance, and long-term dissemination of accepted articles, the journal applies an Article Processing Charge (APC) of 3,000,000 Tomans for each article accepted for publication.
The APC is payable only after the manuscript has successfully completed the peer-review process and has received a final acceptance decision. Payment of the APC does not influence editorial evaluation, reviewer recommendations, or the decision to accept or reject a manuscript.
There is no guarantee of publication associated with payment, and manuscripts are evaluated exclusively according to their scholarly quality, originality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, relevance to the journal's scope, and contribution to knowledge.
The APC supports the journal's open access model, under which the final published article is freely accessible to readers without subscription fees.
Authors are responsible for ensuring that payment arrangements are completed following acceptance and according to the instructions provided by the journal's editorial office.
Peer-Review Process
Psychology, Education, and Human Development in Schools uses a rigorous double-blind anonymous peer-review process. Under this model, the identities of the authors are not disclosed to reviewers, and the identities of reviewers are not disclosed to authors.
After submission, each manuscript first undergoes an initial editorial assessment. During this stage, the editorial team evaluates whether the manuscript falls within the journal's aims and scope, complies with submission requirements, demonstrates an acceptable level of academic and methodological quality, and satisfies basic ethical and scholarly standards. Manuscripts that clearly fall outside the scope of the journal or do not meet minimum editorial requirements may be declined without external peer review.
Manuscripts considered suitable for further evaluation are normally sent to two or three independent expert reviewers. Reviewers are selected on the basis of subject expertise, research experience, methodological competence, and absence of inappropriate conflicts of interest.
Reviewers are asked to evaluate relevant aspects of the manuscript, including originality, theoretical significance, methodological rigor, appropriateness of research design and analysis, quality of interpretation, clarity of presentation, adequacy of the literature review, ethical considerations, and the contribution of the study to psychology, education, human development, or school-related scholarship.
Following peer review, reviewers may recommend acceptance, revision, or rejection. Where revisions are requested, authors are normally expected to provide a revised manuscript together with a clear response addressing reviewer and editorial comments. Revised manuscripts may be returned to the original reviewers when additional expert evaluation is necessary.
The final publication decision is made by the journal's editorial authority after consideration of the reviewers' reports, the authors' responses, the quality of revisions, and the manuscript's overall scholarly merit. Reviewer recommendations provide essential expert guidance, but the final editorial decision remains the responsibility of the journal.
The journal seeks to ensure that peer review is constructive, confidential, impartial, and based on academic criteria. Reviewers are expected to treat manuscripts as confidential documents and must not use unpublished information obtained through the review process for personal or professional advantage.
Where a reviewer identifies a potential conflict of interest that could compromise objective evaluation, the reviewer should decline the invitation or inform the editorial office.
The journal may appoint an additional reviewer when initial reports differ substantially, when specialized methodological expertise is needed, or when further assessment is necessary to reach a well-supported editorial decision.
Archiving and Repository Policies
Psychology, Education, and Human Development in Schools recognizes the importance of long-term accessibility, preservation, and dissemination of scholarly research. Published articles remain available through the official journal website, which serves as the journal's primary publication and access platform.
The journal also supports author self-archiving. Authors may deposit and share appropriate versions of their articles in institutional repositories, university repositories, disciplinary repositories, personal academic websites, or other non-commercial scholarly archives, consistent with the journal's open access and licensing policies.
Because authors retain copyright and published articles are licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0, authors may archive the final published version of their articles for non-commercial scholarly purposes, provided that the original publication in Psychology, Education, and Human Development in Schools is appropriately acknowledged and bibliographic details of the journal publication are included.
Authors are encouraged to provide a clear citation to the journal version when depositing their work in repositories. Repository copies should accurately identify the article's authorship, title, journal name, publication year, volume and issue information where available, and other relevant publication details.
The journal's archiving and self-archiving policy is intended to increase the visibility, discoverability, preservation, and accessibility of published scholarship while maintaining accurate attribution to the original journal publication.
Through publication on the journal website and permission for responsible self-archiving, Psychology, Education, and Human Development in Schools seeks to ensure that published research remains widely accessible to the scholarly community and can continue to contribute to research, education, professional practice, and future scientific inquiry.
