ENOHE Research Paper Review Process and Instructions for Authors

For “The Ombuds Chronicle: Dialogues in Higher Education”

Aim and Scope

The ENOHE research paper process provides a platform for ENOHE members and those interested in the work of ombuds in higher education to engage in academic and professional discourse on topics related to the ombuds profession. The ENOHE Research and Publications Committee serves as the Editorial Board for “The Ombuds Chronicle: Dialogues in Higher Education”. The ENOHE Research and Publications Committee (hereinafter referred to as the Editorial Board) has established basic procedures for the review and publication of research papers to ensure consistency and quality of ENOHE, while also creating a process that is accessible and transparent for authors.

We will try to introduce these standards also for upcoming yearbooks and occasional papers.

Open Access:

All publications are completely open access. They will be made available on the ENOHE website without financial, legal or technical barriers to read, download, copy, distribute, print, or use in education. There are no costs for authors or readers (diamond open access).

Licenses:

All articles are published under a CC BY license. This enables reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use.

Authors are provided with the right to republish their work while protecting the rights of ENOHE as the original publisher. After original publication, authors retain the right to republish their article, provided that ENOHE is credited as the original publisher.

If authors are not allowed to retain copyright to their own article, authors should contact the Editorial Board.

Instructions for Authors

Editorial process

ENOHE research papers are peer-reviewed online articles relevant to the work of Ombuds in higher education in Europe and beyond. Papers should highlight insights, practices, ideas, or research that will be of interest and useful to ombuds researchers and practitioners. We do not publish on a schedule, however as authors or papers are identified, and content approved, papers will be made available on the ENOHE website for public consumption.

Eligible contributors

Any ENOHE member can submit an article for consideration. Non members are permitted to serve as co-authors along with ENOHE members. Authors wishing to discuss their submission prior to submission are encouraged to contact the Chair of the Editorial Board.

Review process

The Editorial Board will conduct an initial review of the work. The chair (or designee) will then assign two reviewers for each article. There will be a pool of reviewers available; most of them experienced members of ENOHE.

Reviewers are asked to use the official guide for reviewers (pp. 7 and 8 of this document). Individuals serving on the Research and Publications Committee may serve as reviewers for ENOHE occasional papers. Authors may suggest reviewers if they have not contributed to the article and have no conflict of interest.

Reviews will be sent to the authors, and authors are asked to consider and incorporate the suggestions of the reviewers, if any.

The final version will be reviewed by the Editorial Board for publication decisions.

Type of submissions

We accept a wide variety of submissions, including:

  • Research Articles: Empirical studies and theoretical analyses.
  • Case studies: In-depth examinations of specific Ombuds interventions or practices.
  • Review Articles: Comprehensive reviews of relevant literature.
  • Commentaries: Opinion pieces on current issues and trends in Ombuds work.
  • Book and Media Reviews
  • Essays
  • Short Reports
  • Interviews
  • Policy Features

If you are unsure whether your work fits for the Occasional Papers please contact the chair of the Editorial Board (Vice-President) via email.

Academic Integrity and Professional Standards

The Editorial Board will make every effort to ensure publications are of the highest professional and academic standards. If, through the review process, the editorial board suspects academic or professional misconduct in submissions, the board will conduct an initial review of the concern. If, after initial review, the concern persists, the Chair of the Editorial Board will contact the author in order to discuss the concerns further.

If, after review, the Editorial Board determines that any misconduct was 1) unintentional, and 2) minor in scope, the author may be provided with an opportunity to revise and resubmit the paper. If the Editorial Board determines that the misconduct was intentional, or if in the opinion of the Editorial Board, the breach was more serious, the committee reserves the right to reject the paper.

While the Editorial Board will strive to ensure that the highest standards of academic and professional integrity are met, ultimate responsibility for ensuring these standards falls with the author. If, after publication, the Editorial Board determines academic or professional misconduct, they reserve the right to retract a paper from publication.

Submitting a Manuscript    

Manuscripts must be submitted using APA format, and they should be proofread for clarity, and sources must be properly cited. The Editorial Board will make every effort to ensure that manuscripts uphold the highest standards of academic and professional integrity, and they have the right to reject papers that do not meet this threshold.

  • Language: Papers may be submitted in any language, however as English is the working language of ENOHE, authors are asked to submit a version of the paper translated into English, which will be published alongside the original.
  • Length: Articles should not exceed 10,000 words, including references.
  • Format: Submission must be in Microsoft Word format. Use 12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced text, and 1-inch margins. Pages should be numbered.
  • Title Page: see next heading.
  • Body: Structure the manuscript with clear headings and subheadings. Include an introduction, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion where applicable.
  • References: Follow APA style for citations and references. (Reference examples can be found here: Reference examples)
  • Processing format: Please submit your manuscript in common word processing formats such as .docx.
  • Figures and Tables: Ensure all figures and tables are labeled and referenced in the text. Submit figures and tables as separate files in high resolution (300 dpi).

Submission of a manuscript implies that the work has not been published before in part or in whole; that it is not under consideration for publication in part or in whole anywhere else; that its publication has been approved by all co-authors, if any. Contributors warrant that they have all of the legal rights to all of the parts of their article. ENOHE will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.

Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for the online format and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.

Large Language Models (LLMs), including artificial intelligence platforms, cannot be accepted as authors or co-authors. Any use of an LLM should be properly documented in the article.

Title Page

Please make sure that your title page contains the following information

  • Title (concise and informative)
  • Author information: name(s) of the author(s); affiliation(s) of the author(s) (i.e. institution, department, city, state, country); email address of the corresponding author; if available the 16-digit ORCID of the author(s). Please indicate who is the first author, and the order in which author names will be listed. Authors may request co-first authorship.
  • Abstract: please provide an abstract of 150 to 250 words.
  • Keywords: please provide 4 to 6 keywords which can be used for indexing purposes.
  • Competing Interests: any financial or non-financial interests that are directly or indirectly related to the work submitted.
  • Funding: research grants from funding agencies and/or research support by organizations that may gain or lose financially through publication of this manuscript
  • Acknowledgements.

References and Citation

Please cite references in the text by name and year in parenthesis. Please use APA style for references (https://apastyle.apa.org/).

Some examples:

Accordingly, satisfying lives can be built on morally impermissible actions (Herman, 1993, 41).

Herman (1993) has shown as much.

Discussing justice and equality can be very fruitful (Krebs, 2000; Rawls, 1975).

The list of references should only include works that are cited in the text and that have been published or accepted for publication. Personal communications and unpublished works should only be mentioned in the text.

Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last names of the first author of each work.

Journal names and book titles should be italicized.

If available, please include DOIs as full DOI links in your reference list (e.g. “https://doi.org/abc”).

Some examples:

Monograph:

Zagzebski, Linda (1996). Virtues of the Mind. An Inquiry into the Nature of Virtue and the Ethical Foundations of Knowledge. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139174763.

Journal article:

Silwa, Paulina (2012). In defense of moral testimony. Philosophical Studies, 158(2), 175–195. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-012-9887-6.

Chapter in an Edited Book:

Lackey, Jennifer (2011). Testimony: Acquiring Knowledge from Others. In A.I. Goldman und D. Whitcomb (Eds.), Social Epistemology: Essential Readings (pp. 71–91). Oxford University Press.

Internet source:

Bologna, Caroline (2019, October 31). Why some people with anxiety love watching horror movies. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anxiety-love-watching-horror-movies_l_5d277587e4b02a5a5d57b59e

Tables and Illustrations

All tables are to be numbered using Arabic numerals (e.g. Table 3).

All photographs, graphs and diagrams should be referred to as Figures and should be numbered consecutively in the text in Arabic numbers (e.g. Fig. 3).

Tables should be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.

Identify any previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference at the end of the table caption.

Final Submission

Please submit the final version, reviewed copies, contact information, and expertise description to the Chair of the Editorial Board. The Editorial Board aims at making decisions within three months of submission.

Articles for publication can be sent via email to the Vice-President of ENOHE who chairs the Committee for Research and Publications. Submissions are reviewed and published on a rolling basis.

Review Process

We thank all reviewers in advance for their time and commitment. The following points will help you to write your review and will make reviews more comparable. Of course you are free to add any other comments that you wish to share with the authors. Please note that in the name of transparency, the names of reviewers will be shared with authors. Reviewers will also be acknowledged in the final draft of the paper.

We will ask for formal and substantive criteria:

Formal:

  1. Argumentation: coherence of the argument; well-supported arguments; smooth flow of text
  2. Clear description of the issue that is investigated and the used methods
  3. Structure: sections and paragraphs marked; thorough introduction, investigated issue, methods, outcomes and conclusion; easily recognisable outline of ideas; adequate length
  4. Citation and bibliography: appropriate citations and sufficient bibliography following proper standards
  5. Linguistic quality; language: clear, precise, formal and objective

Substantive:

  1. Overall value: an important contribution to the subject
  2. Relevance of the content for the ENOHE readers
  3. Connection of the author(s) with ENOHE
  4. Originality
  5. Proper use of source material and literature overview

Recommendation:

Please make a final recommendation to summarize your impression of the manuscript. Use one of the following categories for your recommendation:

  •  Accept without revision
  •  Accept with minor revision – please explain the revision that is required (e.g. “include the comments made about the formal aspects of the manuscript”)
  •  Accept with major revision – please explain the revision that is required and why you think that the manuscript in its current form is not fit for publication
  • Reject – please explain why you think the manuscript should be rejected

Ethical Guidelines for Reviewers

Expertise: Before you accept or decline an invitation as a reviewer, consider whether you have the relevant expertise to assess the manuscript in an unbiased and informed way.

Competing interests: Please declare all potential competing or conflicting interests. If you are unsure about a potential competing interest, do raise this with the Chair of the editorial board. Competing interests may be personal, financial, intellectual, professional, political or religious interests.

Time: Make sure that you do currently have the time to review the manuscript within a reasonable timeframe. Please inform the editorial board if you encounter unforeseen circumstances that delay your review.

Confidentiality: Please treat all materials you receive as a reviewer as confidential. Do not share them with anyone without prior authorization from the editorial board. If you want to include others in the review process, please contact the editorial board first.

Suspicion of academic or scientific misconduct: If you are under the impression that the manuscript you are reviewing contains any kind of scientific misconduct (e.g. plagiarism, falsification or fabrication of data) please inform the editorial board immediately.

Generative AI: Please refrain from uploading the manuscript or parts of it into a Generative AI tool like ChatGPT if you cannot guarantee that the materials are treated confidential and will not violate the rights of the authors. 

Download ENOHE Research Paper Review Process and Instructions for Authors