Review of Education is pleased to launch our ‘Behind the Scenes’ Early Career Researcher Scheme that aims to build early career researchers’ capacities in academic peer reviewing. This scheme reflects our commitment to inclusion, equity, and justice in academic publishing.

We will pair an early career researcher with one of the editors of Review of Education. The early career researcher will shadow the editor who handles the peer review process of two to three manuscripts submitted to the journal including initial assessment of the manuscripts, invitation of peer reviewers, review of the comments received, and making the editorial decision. Throughout the process, the early career researcher will have the chance to meet online with the editor they are paired with to discuss the various stages of peer review and the manuscripts concerned. Please note that these manuscripts will be handled solely by the editor, with the decision made by the editor being final. Early career researchers who participate in this scheme need to agree to treat everything they read and discuss with the editors about submissions with absolute confidentiality. They will be asked to sign a short agreement to this effect.

This scheme seeks to provide early career researchers with training on peer reviewing skills, increase their participation in academic peer reviewing and, with mentorship, promote their engagement not only with Review of Education, but also the wider educational research community. Different from other schemes that focus only on giving feedback on manuscripts, we aim to provide early career researchers with an overview of the operation and decision-making of the whole journal peer review process.

It is a support- rather than competition-oriented scheme, so there are no selection criteria except that we expect the early career academics’ research areas to align with Review of Education’s aims and scope. We also take an open approach to interpretation of an early career researcher and welcome expressions of interest from anyone who considers themselves as needing support to build their capacity related to academic peer reviewing. However, priority will be given to doctoral students and academics who are recently in post.

Please note, in the first phase of this scheme, we are offering this opportunity to those currently studying/working in UK institutions or UK-based independent/practitioner researchers. We are committed to extending the scheme to international applicants subject to its satisfactory progress and further review. For this round, we aim to recruit three to four early career researchers.

If interested, please click ‘Apply now’ at the top of this page to submit your CV (no more than two pages) and a short paragraph (no more than 200 words) explaining why you are interested in the scheme. We encourage interested early career researchers to also suggest the editor whom they might wish to work with as part of this scheme. If you have any questions, please contact the Support for ECR Lead of the journal, Professor Sin-Wang Chong (swc5@st-andrews.ac.uk).

The deadline for applications is 14 June 2024.

The scheme will last for one year (with no more than three manuscripts handled by the mentee-mentor dyad) and upon completion, the early career researcher will receive the following recognition and benefits:

• Name on the Review of Education website listed as a participant of the Early Carer Researcher Mentorship Scheme
• A certificate of participation from Review of Education