Informatics in Education

INFORMATICS IN EDUCATION (INFEDU) publishes peer-reviewed research in informatics (computer science) education and related "computing in education" studies. The journal is published in English.

INFEDU does not impose a formal word limit at initial submission. Manuscript length should be proportionate to the contribution. For the final publication version, most full-length articles should aim for 6,000–8,000 words and should generally not exceed 10,000 words; this is guidance, not an absolute ceiling. See the final-publication length guidance and counting convention.

INFEDU is a Diamond Open Access journal: there are no submission fees and no APCs. Articles are published under CC BY 4.0.

Front-matter requirements: The structured-abstract and labelled contribution requirements below apply to new submissions received on or after October 8, 2026. For manuscripts already under consideration, the handling editor will specify any proportionate presentation updates. These requirements do not reopen settled scientific issues.

Submission system and peer review 

INFEDU uses the Electronic Journal Management System (EJMS) to manage submissions and the entire review process. Authors can track progress by logging in and using the "Author" role.

INFEDU uses a blind peer-review process. All manuscript files submitted for review must be anonymised (no author names, affiliations, acknowledgements, or other identifying information).

Revisions deadline: If revisions are requested, authors should submit the revised manuscript and a point-by-point response within 30 days (minor revisions) or 60 days (major revisions) from the decision date, unless the handling editor specifies otherwise. If you need more time, please request an extension before the deadline. If the deadline is missed and no extension has been granted, the submission will be withdrawn.

Two-step submission process  

Step 1 - Initial submission (for peer review)

Goal: fast, low-friction submission for review.

Format: initial submission requires two PDFs - an anonymised review manuscript and a separate confidential Title Page.

Required files (Step 1)

1) Manuscript (ANONYMISED) - PDF

Include all content needed for review:

• Title without author names; follow the title guidance.
• An English structured abstract of 150–250 words, excluding the four heading labels.
• 4–6 keywords, immediately after the abstract.
• Contribution and implications for informatics education: 3–5 labelled, full-sentence bullets immediately after the keywords, no more than 150 words including the labels.
• Main text with clear headings. There is no formal word limit at initial submission.
• References in APA format.
• Tables and figures, embedded in the PDF or placed at the end.

Title

Use a concise, informative title that identifies the principal educational subject and the paper’s specific focus or contribution. Where useful, indicate the setting or type of inquiry. Place recognisable subject terms early. Avoid unexplained acronyms, promotional claims and wording that implies stronger evidence than the paper provides. A coined framework or project name should not displace the recognisable scholarly subject.

Aim for about 12–20 words where practicable; this is guidance, not a minimum or an eligibility limit. Shorter or longer titles may be appropriate. Do not add a disciplinary term solely for visibility when the manuscript does not establish that connection. The manuscript, separate Title Page and submission metadata must use the same title.

Abstract

Provide an English structured abstract of 150–250 words, excluding the heading “Abstract” and the four short heading labels. Use four short paragraphs, each beginning with a bold label, in the following order:

1. Problem and aim: State the particular educational, scholarly or design problem or knowledge need, and the paper’s specific aim or question.
2. Approach: Explain how the inquiry was conducted or the argument or synthesis was developed: relevant setting, participants, materials or sources, evidence, and analytical or conceptual procedure, as appropriate.
3. Findings: State the principal empirical findings, design outcomes or analytical results—not merely the topics investigated or analyses performed.
4. Conclusions: State what the findings, synthesis or argument establish, the principal contribution to existing knowledge, why it matters for informatics education, and the principal warranted implication. Include any qualification essential to interpreting the central claim.

For conceptual or theoretical papers, Main argument may replace Findings. For review or synthesis papers, Synthesis may replace Findings. Use only one third heading and retain the other three headings. These labels organise reporting; they do not prescribe a research paradigm, an experimental design or the section structure of the main article.

The abstract must be understandable without the contribution section. State the core contribution and its educational significance in the abstract itself; do not leave essential information or the only recognisable terms for the contribution exclusively in the bullets. Give priority to substantive findings or argument over generic background. Where a numerical result is central, report its magnitude and relevant uncertainty when available and appropriate, rather than significance alone.

Do not include citations, footnotes, tables, figures, unexplained abbreviations, unsupported claims or promotional assertions. Distinguish observed or demonstrated outcomes from proposed uses or potential benefits. Avoid statements that merely announce that results or implications are discussed.

Keywords

Provide 4–6 keywords or keyword phrases immediately after the abstract, preferably separated by semicolons. A multiword phrase counts as one keyword. Choose recognisable terms identifying the educational domain, central phenomenon or construct and, where useful, a distinguishing population, setting, method or contribution type.

Natural overlap with the title and abstract is appropriate. Avoid filling the list with near-synonyms, generic praise or unexplained project acronyms. Use important subject terms naturally in the title and abstract as well; do not rely on the contribution section alone to communicate what the paper is about.

Contribution and implications for informatics education

Immediately after the keywords, include Contribution and implications for informatics education as a separate section containing 3–5 full-sentence bullets, no more than 150 words in total including their lead-in labels. Exclude the section heading from the count. About 100–150 words is a drafting guide, not a minimum. Include the section from initial submission; it will accompany the published article.

Begin each bullet with a bold lead-in label. Introduce the following three labels in this order, each at least once:

• Knowledge contribution: State the particular finding, insight, distinction, correction or new capability. Explain what the paper adds beyond existing work, not merely that a study was conducted or a tool was developed.
• Educational and community value: Identify who needs this knowledge and which educational problem, question or judgement it helps address. Explain why this result matters, rather than why the general topic is important.
• Implications for CS education: State what readers can reasonably understand, consider, do or investigate because of the result. Distinguish supported implications from applications or benefits that remain untested.

For a fourth or fifth bullet, repeat the appropriate label for a distinct point, or use Conditions and limits: as an optional final bullet. Keep essential qualifications with the claims they qualify. The labels do not require three independent discoveries, demonstrated societal impact or a classroom-effectiveness study.

Keep the language direct. Prefer familiar words and explain an indispensable technical term. Include a number only when it helps readers understand the contribution. Avoid method inventories, unexplained acronyms, promotional adjectives and generic promises to improve education. Do not include citations. Precision matters more than polished academic phrasing.

Keep the claims supported. Each point must be established or justified in the manuscript, not merely repeated there. The body should show how the evidence or argument supports the contribution and its proposed use. Worked cases, procedures, decision rules or inspectable resources may provide that support where appropriate. Distinguish observed, reconstructed, simulated and illustrative examples in the body, and explain what they establish. Citations and plausible examples do not replace the authors’ reasoning.

Make the addition clear. Compare the contribution with the closest relevant scholarship. A new name, diagram, combination of familiar ideas or set of examples does not by itself establish an advance. A replication, correction, synthesis, conceptual clarification or useful negative result can contribute without a new theory or an immediate classroom application.

A proposed workflow is not evidence of its use; a working tool is not evidence of improved learning. Describe proposed benefits as proposals and attach any qualification needed for accuracy to the relevant statement. A separate limitations bullet cannot repair an overstated promise elsewhere.

Reader check: Could a computing educator outside your methodological speciality explain what was learned, why it matters and what follows after reading these bullets? Clear wording cannot substitute for a worthwhile contribution.

The abstract must still state the core contribution and its educational significance without relying on these bullets. This section does not replace the Discussion or the Author contributions declaration.

Note for double-blind review: do not include any identifying information (author names, affiliations, ORCID, emails, acknowledgements, funding, or ethics committee/institution names) in the anonymised manuscript PDF submitted for review.

2) Title page (NOT for review) – PDF, upload as a supplementary PDF file

This file is for the Editorial Office only (not sent to reviewers). It may include:

Author(s) details

• Full title of the manuscript.
• Main-text word count, calculated using the INFEDU counting convention. At initial submission, this is editorial information, not an eligibility limit.
• For each author: full name, institutional affiliation(s) (department/institution, city, country), and ORCID iD (required; provide a valid, accessible ORCID link).
• Optional identifiers: Web of Science ResearcherID / Publons / other persistent identifiers (recommended).
• Corresponding author: clearly mark one corresponding author and provide a valid email address.
• Submission metadata: please also enter each co-author’s email in the EJMS submission system for editorial communication and authorship verification.

Author statements

• Acknowledgements and funding information (if any).
• Conflict of interest statement (or “The authors declare no conflict of interest.”).
• Ethics approval & consent statement (required when human participants / minors / school settings / identifiable personal data are involved; see ethics guidance below).
• Data/materials availability statement (if applicable).
• Generative AI disclosure statement (if applicable; per INFEDU policy).
• Author contributions statement.

Author declaration    

Include the following short declaration in the Title page:

“By submitting this manuscript, the corresponding author confirms that:

• (i) the work is original and not under consideration elsewhere;
• (ii) all authors have approved the submission and the author list;
• (iii) any conflicts of interest and required ethics approvals are disclosed;
• (iv) any use of generative AI tools is declared as required by INFEDU policy.”

Anonymisation checklist (Step 1)

Please ensure the anonymised manuscript PDF:

• does NOT contain author names, affiliations, emails, ORCID, acknowledgements, funding details, or institutional identifiers;
• removes identifying information from file properties/metadata where possible;
• avoids self-identifying wording (e.g., replace "in our previous work..." with neutral phrasing; cite your own work in a standard third-person way);
• removes identifying information from figures, appendices, and supplementary materials (if any).

Step 2 - After acceptance (final files, within 2 weeks)

Goal: provide production-ready source files for copy-editing, metadata, DOI, and publication.

Final publication length and concision

INFEDU does not impose a formal word limit at initial submission. The following guidance concerns the final publication version: most full-length articles should aim for 6,000–8,000 words and should generally not exceed 10,000 words, using the counting convention below. Shorter articles are welcome when the contribution is adequately reported; there is no minimum length.

Longer final articles may be appropriate when the scope, evidence, methodological requirements, multiple studies, qualitative or contextual detail, synthesis or conceptual argument genuinely require additional space. The 10,000-word figure is guidance, not an absolute ceiling. A submission exceeding it does not require advance permission or a separate length justification at initial submission.

During editorial assessment or revision, authors may be asked to remove unnecessary repetition, excessive background, duplicated results or material that does not contribute substantially to the argument. Shortening must not remove information needed to understand or evaluate the methods, evidence, context, limitations or contribution. Supplementary files should contain supporting detail, not information essential to the main argument.

Counting convention: count the article body from the introduction through the conclusion, including headings, in-text citations, quotations, footnotes/endnotes, text in tables, and table and figure captions. Also count appendices retained within the article, regardless of their position. Exclude the title page, abstract, keywords, Contribution and implications for informatics education section, reference list, acknowledgements, declarations and separate online supplementary files. Report the count on the separate Title Page and update it for the final version supplied for publication.

After a paper is accepted, authors will be asked to submit the final materials within two weeks:

Required files (Step 2) 

A) Final editable manuscript source (choose ONE)

1) Microsoft Word (.docx)

• Please provide an editable, clean .docx (not a scanned PDF).
• We strongly recommend using a reference manager (e.g., Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote) to avoid citation/reference mismatches.
• Use APA 7th edition (author-date) referencing style consistently.
• Ensure all in-text citations have matching reference entries and vice versa.
• INFEDU Microsoft Word demos are available here  files.infedu.lt

OR

2) LaTeX bundle (single .zip) using INFEDU template

Use one complete current INFEDU LaTeX package from biblatex/Biber or BibTeX/natbib, following that package’s README. Include the main source, bibliography, figures and required local support files, including infedu.cls and infedu-authoring.sty. Do not mix support files from the two workflows.

Submit one ZIP that includes:

• your main .tex file
• compiled PDF
• .bib and/or .bbl
• all figure files (EPS/PDF/PNG as appropriate)
• any additional style files you used (if not standard)

Template and instructions are available here: files.infedu.lt

B) Figures and tables (if applicable)

• Provide figures in publishable quality. Raster images should be at least 300 dpi.
• Preferred formats: PNG/TIF for raster, PDF/EPS for vector figures (where applicable).
• Tables should be editable (not embedded as images) whenever possible. 

C) Final front-matter (only after acceptance)

The accepted final version must include:

• full author names and affiliations (including emails for the corresponding author)
• acknowledgements (if any)

Final front-matter consistency: Supply the same approved title, complete structured abstract, keyword list and labelled contribution section in the final source and compiled manuscript. Keep the contribution section separate from the abstract and from the Author contributions declaration. When an input field accepts plain text only, retain all four abstract labels and all their text in one abstract field; do not submit only the first paragraph or append the contribution bullets to the abstract.

References (APA 7, author-date)

• Use author-date citations in the text, e.g. (Surname, 2020), (Surname & Surname, 2021), (Surname et al., 2022).
• Provide a complete reference list in alphabetic order.
• Include DOIs where available.
• Use Latin characters in the reference list.

Research integrity and policy statements

Originality

Submissions must contain original, unpublished work and must not be under review elsewhere.

Plagiarism screening

All submissions may be screened for plagiarism (e.g., using iThenticate): https://www.ithenticate.com/

Generative AI policy (mandatory disclosure)

The use of generative AI or AI-assisted tools in writing, editing, or data analysis must be declared in the manuscript. Authors remain fully responsible for the content and integrity of their work. AI tools cannot be credited as authors.

Ethics approval

If your study involves human participants (including minors and school settings) or uses identifiable personal data, you must include an ethics statement. The statement should specify:

• the name of the approving ethics committee / IRB (and institution, country);
• approval number / protocol ID (if available) and date of approval (if available);
• how informed consent was obtained (written / verbal / online consent), and for minors: parental/guardian consent and participant assent (as applicable);
• if approval was waived or the study was exempt: the name of the authorised body granting exemption and the reason for exemption;
• whether data were anonymised/pseudonymised and key privacy safeguards.

Ethics approval/exemption documentation is not published, but the Editors may request a redacted copy for verification (for example, if required by publisher policies or in case of concern).

Contact

Institute of Data Science and Digital Technologies, Vilnius University

Akademijos St. 4, 08412, Vilnius, Lithuania

E-mail: editorial@infedu.lt