Reviewer guidelines

Information for peer reviewers

The History Education Research Journal (HERJ) is an international, open-access, peer reviewed journal that focuses on the global significance and impact of history education. It covers all aspects of history education theory, practice, scholarship, and pure and applied research. Articles of around 8,000 words in length address contemporary issues, concerns, policies and practice, drawing upon the full range of research methodologies relating to history education research. 

The journal particularly welcomes papers that include attention to the implications for policy and practice that arise from theoretical and empirical work. Themes of interest include (but are not limited to) curriculum, teaching and teachers, academic progression, didactics, historical consciousness, the intersection between education and public history, community history, national and international perspectives, historical literacy, disciplinary history and the history of history education. 

The journal aims to be the leading forum for dissemination of research related to all aspects of history education. It will be of primary interest to anyone involved in history education research and will offer many insights to history educators. While the journal accepts historical research on history education, it does not accept papers that are solely focused on the history of education in general or on history itself. 

Your review

Please focus on the following points in your comments.

1. Is the article relevant to HERJ’s aims and scope, as set out above?
2. Does it offer an original contribution to the field? Is it breaking new ground? If so, how?
3. Does it engage with recent scholarship?
4. What are the strengths of its argument and analysis? Do you have suggestions for improvement?
5. Is the overall style and presentation good? Do you have suggestions for improvement?
6. Is the article’s length appropriate for what it has to say? Suggestions for shortening papers that extend over 7,000 words (excluding references) are welcome. 

Annotating the PDF file

You can annotate or mark-up your comments directly into the PDF file and upload this back into the reviewer form, alongside your general comments entered into the reviewer comments text box, should you wish to do so. Please note that when entering annotating a PDF file, your name may be recorded as the author of the comment. Please try to remove your name from the comments (typically by going into the files preferences/settings and clearing identifiable data). If you have any issues with this please contact the journal at herj@ucl.ac.uk.