Evaluation Journal of Australasia
The purpose of the Evaluation Journal of Australasia (known as EJA) is to further the aims of the AES in promoting the theory, research and practice of evaluation. To do so it publishes articles of professional merit on any subject connected with evaluation, together with book reviews and example of professional practice.
| John Guenther | Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, Australia |
| Kwadwo Adusei-Asante | Edith Cowan University, Australia |
| Anthea Rutter | The University of Melbourne, Australia |
| Ming Hwa Ting | Yayasan Mendaki, Singapore |
| Yvonne Zurynski | Macquarie University, Australia |
| Jeff Adams | Eastern Institute of Technology, New Zealand |
| Ghislain Arbour | The University of Melbourne, Australia |
| Anona Armstrong | Victoria University, Australia |
| Brad Astbury | The University of Melbourne, Australia |
| Sandra Ayoo | The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA |
| Scott Bayley | Scott Bayley Evaluation Services, Australia |
| Michael Cole | Department of Social Services, Australia |
| Rick Cummings | Murdoch University, Australia |
| Liz Curran | Nottingham Trent University, UK |
| Kim Grey | Department of Social Services, Australia |
| Andrew Hawkins | ARTD Consultants, Australia |
| Ye He | The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA |
| Leanne Kelly | Australian Red Cross, Australia |
| Ruth McCausland | University of New South Wales, Australia |
| Ralph Renger | Just Evaluation Services, USA |
| Mark Robinson | University of Queensland , Australia |
| James Smith | Flinders University, Australia |
| Kathleen Stacey | Kathleen Stacey & Associates, Australia |
| John Stoney | The University of Melbourne, Australia |
| Cat Street | Curijo, Australia |
| David Turner | New Zealand |
| Gill Westhorp | Charles Darwin University, Australia |
| Yvonne Zurynski | Macquarie University, Australia |
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Evaluation Journal of Australasia
Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/evja to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Evaluation Journal of Australasia will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that Evaluation Journal of Australasia does not accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers.
- What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your article - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Ethics and cultural safety
4.4 Supplemental material
4.5 Spelling and abbreviations
4.6 Reference style
4.7 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
6.1 Sage Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article - Further information
Before submitting your manuscript to Evaluation Journal of Australasia, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
Academic article
An academic article is defined as one that is theory or philosophy based and/or draws on empirical findings, contributes to the literature within evaluative thinking and practice and makes a contribution to the field of evaluation. Academic articles should normally be between 3000-8000 words in length.
Review article
Review articles describe current topics of importance and provide a balanced account of prior research. A range of review types (e.g., scoping, systematic, meta-analysis) are acceptable. Authors should clearly describe the search strategy employed. Review articles do not include the author’s personal experiences. Review articles must follow the PRISMA guidelines (available from http://www.equator-network.org/). Review articles should not exceed 8000 words in length.
Practice article
A practice article is defined as one that applies an evaluation theory, describes the evaluation and presents the findings of a program or project and disseminates practice. Manuscripts that report innovative methods and/or practice are particularly welcomed. Practice articles should be between 3000-5000 words in length.
Book review
A book review is defined as a critical analysis or evaluation of the content, structure and purpose of a publication from the reviewer’s viewpoint. Book reviews should be between 1000-1500 words in length.
The Editors reserve the right to return manuscripts to authors where they exceed word limits. Submission of a manuscript to another journal while under review by the Evaluation Journal of Australasia is unethical. Breach of this principle will result in the manuscript being removed from consideration for publication in Evaluation Journal of Australasia. Each manuscript must be accompanied by a signed statement that it has not been published previously and that it has not and will not be sent for consideration by another journal while submitted to the Evaluation Journal of Australasia.
The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
For information and guidance on how to make your article more discoverable, visit our Gateway page on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
Evaluation Journal of Australasia operates an anonymous peer review process in which manuscripts are reviewed by at least two appropriate referees. Ensure your manuscript does not contain any author identifying information.
Evaluation Journal of Australasia maintains a transparent review system, meaning that all reviews, once received, are forwarded to the author(s) as well as to the reviewers.
The review process usually takes six to eight weeks, depending on reviewer response. Decisions on manuscripts are taken as quickly as possible on receipt of reviews.
Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used by reviewer without the express written author consent. Reviews should be conducted objectively, and observations formulated clearly with supporting arguments. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative or other relationships, or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the manuscripts.
All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.
Authors are required to disclose the use of generative Artificial Intelligence (such as ChatGPT) and other technologies (such as NVivo, ATLAS. Ti, Quirkos, etc.), whether used to conceive ideas, develop study design, generate data, assist in analysis, present study findings, or other activities formative of qualitative research. We suggest authors provide both a description of the technology, when it was accessed, and how it was used. This needs to be clearly identified within the text and acknowledged within your Acknowledgements section. Please note that AI bots such as ChatGPT should not be listed as an author. For more details on this policy, please visit ChatGPT and Generative AI.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:
- Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, organisation and level of input
- Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
- Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.
Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
Evaluation Journal of Australasia requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
Evaluation Journal of Australasia encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway
Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.
3.1.1 Plagiarism
Evaluation Journal of Australasia and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
3.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publicationPlease refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway.
3.3 Open access and author archiving
Evaluation Journal of Australasia offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.
4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
- Left justified, single column, minimal formatting
- Bold headings and identify heading levels (using a heading hierarchy) so that heading levels are distinguishable.
- A-level headings should be in block capitals + bold;
- B-level headings in title case + bold;
- C-level headings in sentence case + bold;
- D-level headings sentence care + italics
- Use 12-point font size for text and 1.5 line spacing
- Include figures and tables in the main article to show placement. Label figures as Figure 1, Figure 2, etc. Label tables as Table 1, Table 2, etc. Labels should be above figures and tables. Also, refer to each figure/table in the text preceding it, such as ‘... as shown in Figure 1’ or ‘Table 1 shows ...’
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
Evaluation Journal of Australasia is published both online and in print. Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. Illustrations are reproduced in print in black and white as default. If you wish your illustrations to be reproduced in colour in print, you will need to notify your Sage Production Editor once your article has been accepted. You will receive information regarding the costs of this from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.
4.3 Ethics and cultural safety
All manuscripts reporting the results of an evaluation that includes human participants must provide a statement confirming ethical review was undertaken (e.g., by an institutional ethics review committee) or otherwise provide a brief statement of how the evaluation was conducted in compliance with appropriate ethical standards. In Australia this might include reference to the AES ethical guidelines .
As appropriate manuscripts should report on how cultural safety principles informed the evaluation. In Australia Indigenous evaluations would normally be conducted in accordance with the Australian Evaluation Society First Nations Cultural Safety Framework (Gollan & Stacey, 2021).
4.4 Supplemental material
This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g., datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information, please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files.
4.5 Spelling and abbreviations
Authors should use Australian spelling in their manuscript (e.g., program, organisation). Please avoid the use of abbreviations as they can hinder readability and can be misunderstood.
Evaluation Journal of Australasia adheres to the most recent version APA reference style. View the APA guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
4.7 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
Evaluation Journal of Australasia is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/evja to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
Please submit book reviews directly to eja@aes.asn.au .
1. Manuscripts should be submitted with the name and affiliation of the author as a supplementary document title page to preserve anonymity. Please include your title, affiliations and address and contact details.
2. Manuscripts submitted should be accompanied by an unstructured abstract, not exceeding 200 words, which should be confined to important findings or innovations and (where applicable) a brief identification of the research, project or activity covered in the article. Abstracts should refer only to the content of the manuscript and should avoid making observations about the broader subject area.
3. All manuscripts (except book reviews) should include two sections (each consisting of 2 to 3 bullet points) after the abstract. Each section should include 2 to 3 short bullet point statements addressing:
- What we already know
- The original contribution the article makes to theory and/or practice
4. All manuscripts should be proofed for spelling and grammar, avoid jargon, and be written concisely using plain English.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID IDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID ID you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID ID will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID ID is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID ID please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic or professional affiliations (as appropriate) for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.
6. On acceptance and publication
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit or by email, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
OnlineFirst allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.
6.3 Access to your published article
Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your article and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the editorial office as follows: eja@aes.asn.au