Research Studies in Music Education
This internationally peer-reviewed journal promotes the dissemination and discussion of high-quality research in music and music education. The journal encourages the interrogation and development of a range of research methodologies and their application to diverse topics in music education theory and practice
The journal covers a wide range of topics across all areas of music education, and a separate "Perspectives in Music Education Research" section provides a forum for researchers to discuss topics of special interest and to debate key issues in the profession.
Since 2008 Psychology of Music (POM) and Research Studies in Music Education (RSME) have been sold together as a joint institutional subscription. Both journals are owned by the Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research (SEMPRE). Both are relevant to music psychologists and music educators alike. Music and psychology departments can benefit from having the additional content provided by both journals.
View the institutional subscription rates: The subscription to the journals is available in the usual 3 SAGE subscription models: print and online combined, print only, and e-access only. The SAGE institutional e-access only subscriptions are discounted further. Individual subscribers can purchase the journals separately in print only.
If you are interested in becoming a member of SEMPRE and receiving a subscription to Psychology of Music as part of your membership dues please contact the SEMPRE membership secretary at: membership@sempre.org.uk
This journal accepts supplementary materials, e.g. audio/video files, datasets, additional images etc. For more information please see our guidelines
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
Research Studies in Music Education is an internationally peer-reviewed journal that promotes the dissemination and discussion of high quality research in music and music education. The journal encourages the interrogation and development of a range of research methodologies and their application to diverse topics in music education theory and practice.
The journal covers a wide range of topics across all areas of music education, and a separate "Perspectives in Music Education Research" section provides a forum for researchers to discuss topics of special interest and to debate key issues in the profession.
This journal accepts supplementary materials, e.g. audio/video files, datasets, additional images etc. For more information please see our guidelines.
| Julie Ballantyne | University of Queensland, Australia |
| Alexis Kallio | Griffith University, Australia |
| Elizabeth MacGregor | University of Oxford, UK |
| Margaret S. Barrett | Monash University, Australia |
| Liane Hentschke | Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil |
| Raymond A.R. MacDonald | School of Music, University of Edinburgh, UK |
| Kathryn Marsh | The University of Sydney, Australia |
| Heidi Westerlund | Sibelius Academy, Finland |
| Randall Everett Allsup | Teachers College, Columbia University, USA |
| Janet Barrett | University of Illinois, USA |
| Sture Brandström | Luleá Tekniska Universitet, Sweden |
| Liora Bresler | University of Illinois, USA |
| Pamela Burnard | University of Cambridge, UK |
| Nicole Canham | Monash University, Australia |
| Jane Davidson | University of Melbourne, Australia |
| Samantha Sebastian Dieckmann | University of Oxford, UK |
| Sergio Figueiredo | State University of Santa Caterina, Brazil |
| Eva Georgi-Hemming | Örebro University, Sweden |
| Lucy Green | University of London, UK |
| Wilfried Gruhn | Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, Germany |
| Susan Hallam | University of London, UK |
| David J. Hargreaves | Roehampton University, UK |
| Beatriz Ilari | University of Southern California, USA |
| Dag Jansson | Oslo Business School, Norway |
| Sidsel Karlsen | Norwegian Academy of Music, Norway |
| Alexandra Lamont | Department of Psychology, Keele University, UK |
| Samuel Leong | Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Hong Kong |
| Chee Hoo Lum | National Institute of Education, Singapore |
| Roger Mantie | University of Toronto Scarborough, Canada |
| Hiromichi Mito | Meiji Gakuin University, Japan |
| Graça Mota | Polytechnic of Porto, Portugal |
| Jeananne Nichols | Western Carolina University |
| Susan O'Neill | Institute of Education, University College London, UK |
| Oscar Odena | University of Glasgow, UK |
| Kelly Parkes | Columbia University, New York City, NY, USA |
| Richard Parncutt | Karl-Franzens-University Graz, Austria |
| Sandra Stauffer | Arizona State University, USA |
| Johannella Tafuri | Conservatory of Bologna, Italy |
| Maria Varvarigou | Mary Immaculate College, Limerick |
| Michael Webb | University of Sydney, Australia |
| Peter Webster | University of Southern California, USA |
| Graham F Welch | UCL, UK |
| Jackie Wiggins | Oakland University, USA |
| Aaron Williamon | Royal College of Music, UK |
| Susan Young | Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK |
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Research Studies in Music Education
This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics
Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/rsme 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 Research Studies in Music Education 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 Research Studies in Music Education may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy.
If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.
- What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
2.6 Research ethics and participant consent
2.7 Redundant publication
2.8 Research Data - 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 Supplemental material
4.4 Reference style
4.5 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
- Feedback, Complaints & Appeals
Before submitting your manuscript to Research Studies in Music Education, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
Manuscripts should be up to 6000 words in length, excluding Abstract and reference list.
RSME publishes two types of articles: original research articles, and perspectives articles. All articles are double blind peer refereed, and expected to contribute something significant and novel to the field.
Research papers published by RSME follow the format of a standard journal article, and must be based on empirical research (all research methodologies are welcome).
The Perspectives Series is a scholarly forum for authors to present ideas and perspectives in music education. Perspectives may seek to engender debate from a personal values position or stake a claim on a new methodological, philosophical or pragmatic ‘space’.
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
When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
RSME operates a strictly anonymous peer review process in which the reviewer’s name is withheld from the author and, the author’s name from the reviewer. The reviewer may at their own discretion opt to reveal their name to the author in their review but our standard policy practice is for both identities to remain concealed. Each manuscript is reviewed by at least two referees.
Each manuscript is reviewed by at least two referees, who will recommend to the Editor whether a manuscript should be accepted, revised (major or minor revisions), or rejected. The Editor will make a decision on the manuscript based on the recommendations from the expert referees. Please note that the Editor’s decision on a manuscript will be final.
Authors of manuscripts given a minor or major revision decision are invited to submit their revised manuscript via the journal’s submission site. The responsibility for submitting the revised manuscript lies with the corresponding author.”
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.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
Research Studies in Music Education is trialing the publication of CRediT author contribution statements. At submission stage, there will be the ability to list the roles that each author was responsible for. Please refer to the CRediT Gateway page for more information. You should not include an author contribution statement in your manuscript as this will be added at Production stage. This does not replace the Acknowledgements section.
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.
Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.
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, company 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.
2.3.2 Writing assistance
Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance”).
It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.
Research Studies in Music Education 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
Research Studies in Music Education encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
2.6 'Research ethics and participant consent'
Ethical approval statement
Upon submission, authors will be asked to state the relevant ethics committee or institutional review board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the approval number. Where exemption from ethics approval has been granted by an appropriate body, this should be specified and the reason for exemption should be provided. Manuscripts should include statements that provide a clear explanation as to why ethics approval and/or informed consent was not sought for a given study in a specific country or region.
Informed consent
Authors are required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent (for inclusion, collection/use of data or samples, and/or publication, as applicable) and whether the consent was written or verbal.
2.7 Redundant publication
The Editors of Research Studies in Music Education ask authors to declare if any data reported in their submission have been published previously wholly or in part. For example: the reanalysis of a previously published dataset by a different set of authors would need to be declared. The publication of multiple articles using the same dataset with somewhat related outcomes could be considered inappropriate. Within the cover letter and methods section, authors should declare if datasets or participants reported in their submission overlap with any prior published work to help a thorough Editorial assessment of the study.
The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.
Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:
- share your research data in a relevant public data repository
- include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
- cite this data in your research
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
Research Studies in Music Education 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 publication. Please 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
Research Studies in Music Education 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.
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.
Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.
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 supplemental files
Research Studies in Music Education adheres to the APA reference style. View the APA guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
4.5 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.
Research Studies in Music Education is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/rsme 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.
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 affiliations 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 paper. 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 sent by PDF 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.
Online First 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 paper 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 Research Studies in Music Education editorial office as follows:
Julie Ballantyne, Editor
Email: j.ballantyne@uq.edu.au
Dr Nicole Canham, Assistant Editor
Email: n.canham@uq.edu.au
8. Research Studies in Music Education Complaints and Appeals
For information on the journal's appeals procedure please click here.