Focus and Scope

Gateway Papers is a peer-reviewed journal that reflects critically on learning and teaching in the changing contexts of education. These contexts include, but are not limited to, higher education, colleges, prisons, community settings and schools. We are interested in developing work that is both critical in analysis and practitioner-focused, developmental and cooperative. The journal offers space to reconsider issues of professional, lifelong and workplace learning, including critiques and theoretical analyses.

The journal invites students, staff and practitioners to explore their pedagogic and education practices in the light of changes in their institutions, national education policies, the strategies of international agencies and developments associated with the ‘knowledge economy’. The journal is interdisciplinary in scope.

The readership spans teaching practitioners, researchers and students. It includes undergraduates and postgraduates interested in analysing their experience at university, early career academics, experienced teachers in higher education, and researchers engaged in a range of education settings.

The journal welcomes submissions in a variety of formats, including multimedia and text. Where appropriate, a range of methodological approaches are welcomed, including action research, participatory action research, ethnography, grounded theory, case studies, and narrative theory. Submissions are grouped into three sections.

Full papers including critiques of policy, reports of research, case studies, and theoretical and methodological discussions of pedagogic and education research. These papers will be between 3-5000 words.
Sharing practice papers with accounts and reflections on pedagogic practice, such as trials of new technologies, engagements with research-informed teaching, or the idea of students-as-producers. These papers are focused upon the early adoption of innovations and will be between 1500-3000 words
Review papers providing critical discussions on new resources for those involved in pedagogic and education research and/or practice. These papers might take the form of emergent reportage, speculation or horizon-scanning, and will be between 1500-3000 words.

The aims of the journal are:

to foster and support dialogue between members of the global, academic community (for instance academic staff and learning developers, UG and PGR students, and external project partners) engaged in pedagogic and education research in the full-range of settings for learning;
to act as a bridge between REF, TEF and KEF activities, by establishing a distinctive scholarship culture and sharing innovative practice;
to enable collaborative, interdisciplinary and cooperative pedagogic and education research; and
to provide a stepping stone for further external publication at both national and international-levels.

In particular, we would advise authors to consider:

theoretical development;
methodological innovation;
original data that illuminates something unique; and

the presentation of recommendations for action.

Publication Frequency

The journal is published online as a continuous volume and issue throughout the year. Articles are made available as soon as they are ready to ensure that there are no unnecessary delays in getting content publically available.

Special collections of articles are welcomed and will be published as part of the normal issue, but also within a separate collection page.

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. There is no embargo on the journal’s publications. Submission and acceptance dates, along with publication dates, are made available on the PDF format for each paper.

Authors of articles published remain the copyright holders and grant third parties the right to use, reproduce, and share the article according to the Creative Commons license agreement.

Authors are encouraged to publish their data in recommended repositories. For a list of generic and subject-specific repositories that meet our peer review criteria, visit the Open Access Directory or datacite.org.

Journal Archiving

Sponsors

The journal would like to thank the following organisations for their support.

Journal History

Two issues of Gateway Papers were originally published in 2010 at De Montfort University, under the leadership of Dr Will Curtis. It was the outcome of a DMU Teacher Fellow project, which underpinned Will’s National Teaching Fellowship award. After Will left to join the University of Warwick, the journal fell into abeyance. Following conversations with educational researchers in the School of Applied Social Sciences, and pedagogic researchers across the institution, a partnership with the Centre for Academic Innovation saw the journal relaunched as part of the DMU Press, in 2021.

Issue Archive