Informatics in Education

Journal statistics: definitions & methodology (INFEDU)

INFEDU publishes annual editorial statistics to support transparency, responsible metrics, and good stewardship of reviewer time. Statistics are compiled from the journal’s editorial management system and reflect all manuscript submissions (including desk rejections).

Key definitions

• Submission: an initial manuscript submission (Version 1). A manuscript invited to resubmit as a new submission (“Reject & Resubmit”) is counted as a new submission if resubmitted.

• Desk rejection / editorial decline: rejection without external peer review (out of scope, insufficient contribution, ethics/policy issues, or quality threshold not met).

• Sent to external peer review: a manuscript for which the journal initiates an external review round (review process started).

• Reject & Resubmit: a decision requiring a new manuscript submission (not a revision in the same record). For statistics, this is treated as a rejection outcome for that submission record.

• Withdrawn/Closed: manuscript withdrawn by authors, or administratively closed after missed revision deadlines and unsuccessful reminders.

Two complementary reporting views

• Submission cohort (year of submission): tracks what happened to manuscripts submitted in a given year (some may still be in process at the reporting cut‑off).

• Decision year (year of final decision): tracks final editorial outcomes decided in a given year. This matches common publisher practice where acceptance rate is calculated by final decision date and includes desk rejections.

Acceptance rate: formulas

All acceptance rates are expressed as percentages using the general formula: (numerator ÷ denominator) × 100%. Values are typically rounded (e.g., to one decimal place).

• Submission cohort acceptance rate (Accepted / all submissions)
  Acceptance rate = (Accepted ÷ All submissions) × 100%
  where All submissions includes every Version 1 submission received in that submission year, regardless of whether it was desk rejected, sent to peer review, withdrawn/closed, or still in process at the reporting cut‑off.

• Submission cohort acceptance rate (Accepted / closed cases only)
  Acceptance rate = (Accepted ÷ Closed cases) × 100%
  where Closed cases are submissions from that cohort that have reached an endpoint by the reporting cut‑off:
  Closed cases = Accepted + Rejected (desk and/or after peer review) + Reject & Resubmit + Withdrawn/Closed
  Manuscripts still under evaluation / in peer review are excluded from the denominator in this view.

• Decision year acceptance rate (Accepted / final decisions)
  Acceptance rate = (Accepted decisions ÷ Final editorial decisions) × 100%
  where Final editorial decisions are outcomes decided in that decision year:
  Final editorial decisions = Accepted + Rejected (desk and/or after peer review) + Reject & Resubmit
  Withdrawn/Closed cases are reported separately (where relevant) and are not included in the denominator, because they are not editorial accept/reject decisions.

Statistics are updated annually and the methodology is stated alongside each table to avoid ambiguity.

INFEDU editorial statistics (Submission cohort)

INFEDU editorial statistics (Decision year)