About the Journal

Journal of Early Childhood Education Research welcomes a wide range of research articles with multiple approaches to societal, pedagogical, professional, or educational questions related to early childhood education. The scope of the journal also covers leadership in ECE organizations. JECER mainly addresses questions related to growth, development, education, learning, and well-being of young children up to 8 years of age.

The aim of the journal is to promote scientific dialogue, deliver information, and contribute to developing the field of early childhood education. JECER offers international perspectives on early childhood education; it also aims to enhance the awareness and accessibility of early childhood education research and to highlight the possibilities for research-based decision-making and quality improvement.

The journal publishes peer-reviewed theoretical, empirical and review articles  in Finnish and English. These articles go through a peer review by two anonymous external experts. The evaluation follows a so-called double-blind procedure, in which the reviewers and the authors do not know each other's identities. The journal also publishes non-peer-reviewed articles.

From 1 January 2026 onwards, manuscripts submitted to the journal for peer review will be processed in three stages: 1) technical review, 2) editorial board meeting and 3) the actual editorial process.

In the technical review, a member of the editorial board goes through the articles submitted to the journal, checking that they are followed by the journal's guidelines, anonymized and that the articles are suitable for the journal. If the article has been carefully written according to the instructions and it seems suitable for the journal, the article will be discussed at the editorial board meeting. The writer will not be notified of this. Only manuscripts that correspond in all respects to the journal's writing guidelines, 2) that have been prepared using the journal's template , 3) that have been sent both with author information and a thoroughly anonymized version, and 4) that are suitable for the journal in terms of their theme. If the manuscript is rejected at this stage due to the above-mentioned factors, the author must carefully correct all deficiencies in the manuscript before sending it to JECER for re-evaluation. 

Articles that have been found to be suitable for the journal and written in accordance with the guidelines are discussed in monthly meetings of the editorial board, where the editor-in-chief and deputy editors-in-chief work together to decide on the progress of the articles to the journal's actual editorial process and peer review. The editorial board's decision-making is based on the scientific quality and novelty value of the articles, as well as the article's suitability for publication in JECER. The goal is that only articles from JECER that are of high quality and well-written and whose themes are closely related to early childhood education are sent for peer review. The editor-in-chief and deputy editors-in-chief may also make use of the thematic or methodological expertise of the members of the editorial board when making decisions on the progress or rejection of articles. After the editorial board meeting, the author will receive a message about the progress of their article in the journal's process or its rejection on the grounds described above. If the manuscript is rejected at this stage on the grounds of suitability or scientific novelty or quality, the author must typically develop the manuscript thoroughly before possibly submitting it for re-evaluation to JECER.

After the editorial board meeting, the articles that progress in the process are allocated to the editorial board member responsible for carrying out the editorial and peer review processes. The member of the editorial board responsible for the process of the article is independently responsible for carrying out the process, selecting the peer reviewers and making the final decision on the publication of the article. However, if the editor in charge of the process decides to propose the rejection of the article during the process, the rejection proposal will be discussed at a meeting of the editorial board before the final decision is made. The editor responsible for the article's process sends a message to the author in the journal's electronic system when they start looking for peer reviewers for the article and also informs the author during the editing process if the finding of peer reviewers is unreasonably delayed. The editorial and peer review process usually takes a lot of time, and writers should be prepared to wait several months to receive the first reviews.  

From 1 January 2026 onwards, short articles will be edited by a separately appointed editor, who will be independently responsible for the editing and approval process of short articles. Short articles also go through the technical inspection of a member of the editorial board for compliance with the instructions and suitability for the journal.

There are no meetings of the editorial board and no articles are discussed in June, July or December.

For special issues, we follow the same peer review procedure described above, with the difference that the guest editors of the thematic issue review the articles in the thematic issue at all stages supported by the editor-in-chief or a member of the editorial board appointed by her.

Articles by the editorial board, international board, and peer reviewers of the journal are reviewed in the journal according to the same process, so that the author of the article never participates in the review of his or her article at any stage described above.

JECER is an open access journal; as such, all its content is available for the user or their background organization freely and without cost. The users may read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link the full articles or use them legally, as outlined by BOAI’s definition of open publishing, without the permission of the publisher or the author.

Publisher of the Journal of Early Childhood Education Research is the Early Childhood Education Association Finland ECEAF