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Guidelines for Authors

Basic Information

  • The journal publishes three types of articles: (1) research articles (including review and methodological articles); (2) discussion articles; (3) practical articles. Additionally, subject to agreement with the editorial office, it is possible to publish non-peer-reviewed items such as reviews, polemics, commentaries, reports from events concerning evaluation, and information on ongoing evaluation studies.
  • Texts are published in Polish and English, in a full open access model, without any publication fees.

Characteristics of Article Types

Research articles present original basic research in which the authors independently collect and analyse data. The text should be between 5000 and 7000 words, including figures, tables, and references. Each research article must include the following sections:

  • Abstract: up to 150 words, written in full sentences, containing information about the topic and the main theses of the article, and additionally 4–6 keywords. Both of these elements should be provided in Polish and English.
  • Theoretical background: explanation of the nature and significance of the research question addressed, usually including a summary of the current state of knowledge on the topic (in the form of a concise literature review or references to published reviews) and the presentation of relevant theoretical or epistemological positions.
  • Methods: regardless of whether quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods were used, sufficient information should be provided on how the data were collected and analysed so that the reader can clearly understand what was done and why, and be assured of methodological rigour. The choice of methods should be justified.
  • Results: presentation of the results in a clear manner, using visualisations where necessary.
  • Discussion and conclusions: description of the key findings, strengths and weaknesses of the study, reference to other relevant studies, and contribution to key debates in the interdisciplinary field of knowledge on evaluation. It should also include conclusions and any implications or recommendations for policy, practice, or further research.

Discussion articles are opinion-forming texts concerning issues that are new, developing, controversial, little known, representing new trends or proposals related to evaluation practice, methodology, or research, addressed to the academic community or practitioners. They should take a clear position on the issue presented and provide arguments in its support. For example, they may focus on the application of a particular methodology, introduce concepts from new fields into the evaluation debate, or discuss the effects of changes in legislation or evaluation practice on how it is conducted or how evidence is used. The text should be between 4000 and 6000 words, including figures, tables, and references. Each discussion article must include the following sections:

  • Abstract: up to 150 words, written in full sentences, containing information about the topic and the main theses of the article, and additionally 4–6 keywords. Both of these elements should be provided in Polish and English.
  • Background: explanation of the nature and significance of the issue addressed and a discussion of previous work in this area (if any), together with appropriate references.
  • Discussion, conclusions and implications of the article.

Practical articles are a description and evaluation of a project or process in the field of evaluation practice, e.g. identification of research needs, commissioning evaluation, conducting evaluation, use of its results, presented from a practitioner’s perspective. Each practical article must have at least one co-author from outside the academic community. The text should be between 3000 and 5000 words, including figures, tables, and references. The structure of such articles is flexible, and potential authors are encouraged to contact the editorial office for guidance before submitting the text; however, as a rule, each practical article must include an abstract, keywords, and a discussion and conclusions understood as in the above types of articles.

Preparation of he Article

  • The article must fall within the thematic scope of the journal and be of appropriate quality – otherwise it will not be sent for review. Please familiarise yourself with the aims and scope of the journal to check whether the prepared text fits within them.
  • The journal accepts original texts that have not been previously published and have not been submitted for publication in another journal. Authors must hold the rights to the work and obtain and be able to provide all necessary permissions for the reproduction of copyrighted works that are not their own, including drawings, illustrations, tables, long quotations, or other materials previously published elsewhere.
  • Formatting of the text should be limited to the necessary minimum. The text should be prepared in .doc or .docx format. The text should be written in Calibri 11 pt font, line spacing 1.5, margins 2.5 cm on each side, footnotes in Calibri 9 pt. Illustrative materials such as tables, diagrams, and charts should be numbered and have titles, and authors should refer in the text to their numbers. Numbering and titles should be placed above the illustrative materials, and the source – below. Foreign words and terms should be written in italics. Quotations should be written in plain text and enclosed in quotation marks. A quotation within a quotation should be marked with >…<.
  • Footnotes should be placed at the bottom of the page, numbered with Arabic numerals. The footnote number should be placed before the punctuation mark, i.e. a comma or a full stop. Individual elements of the footnote should be separated by commas, and the footnote should end with a full stop.
  • Citations and references to other authors should be indicated in the text by providing the author’s surname and the year of publication (e.g. Kowalski 1998, Nowak 1976a) in accordance with the rules of the Harvard style. In the case of quotations, the page number should additionally be provided and the quoted fragment should be placed in quotation marks. A full bibliography should be attached at the end of the article, and all items cited in the text should correspond exactly to the items in the bibliography.
  • The title page must contain the full list of authors, together with their names, surnames, and affiliations. The affiliation should refer to the institution where the research was conducted. All those who meet the criteria for authorship must be included in the text. It is also necessary to indicate the contact details of the corresponding author: name, surname, institutional address, telephone, e-mail.
  • The article should include: a statement on conflicts of interest, a statement on sources of funding and, if relevant: an acknowledgements section, a statement on approval by an ethics committee, and data availability.

Submission of the Article

  • The text should be submitted exclusively in electronic form to the address: [ppe@pte.org.pl](mailto:ppe@pte.org.pl).
  • The email should indicate the type of article: research, discussion, practical – this affects the scope of the review.
  • In the case of multi-author articles, please send a copy of the submission email to the other co-authors of the article (e.g. by entering their email addresses in the “Cc” field, etc.).
  • By submitting the text, its authors declare that they are its actual and sole authors and that the text is original, has not been published anywhere before, and has not been submitted for publication in any other journal, regardless of the nature of the publication and the language of publication. The editorial office reserves the right to verify the truthfulness of this declaration (including through the use of anti-plagiarism software).
  • In the case of multi-author articles, the person submitting the text also declares that they are authorised to do so by the other co-authors. Submission of the article for publication means that the authors have familiarised themselves with the principles of publication ethics and declare their compliance with them both during the preparation of the article and the review procedure.

Procedure for Reviewing the Article

  • The submitted article will undergo an initial assessment carried out by the editorial office. If it does not meet the requirements set out in these guidelines, it will be returned for correction before review. Texts may be rejected at this stage without review if they fall outside the thematic scope of the journal or are otherwise inappropriate.
  • Each publication that passes the initial stage of assessment is reviewed by at least two independent reviewers from outside the institution affiliated with the author of the publication.
  • The review process is conducted in accordance with the principles of the double blind process – the author or authors of the publication and the reviewers do not know each other’s identities; in other cases, the reviewer signs a declaration of the absence of a conflict of interest, whereby a conflict of interest is understood as direct personal relations (in particular kinship up to the second degree, marriage), relations of professional subordination, or direct scientific cooperation within the last two years preceding the year of preparation of the review.
  • The names of reviewers of individual publications or issues of the journal are not disclosed.
  • The review is prepared in written form using a review form containing criteria for qualifying or rejecting the publication, which is available on the journal’s website and is provided to the reviewer together with the text submitted for review.
  • The written review contains a clear conclusion of the reviewer regarding the conditions for accepting the article for publication or its rejection, indicating one of the following recommendations to the editorial office: (1) accept in the current version, (2) accept after minor revisions, (3) resubmit after major revision, (4) reject.
  • An article is accepted for publication if both reviews contain the recommendation “accept in the current version”; if at least one review contains the recommendation “accept after minor revisions”, publication of the article is possible after addressing the comments raised by the reviewer(s); if at least one review contains the recommendation “resubmit after major revision”, publication of the article is possible after addressing the comments raised by the reviewer(s) and re-evaluation of the revised article by the same reviewer; if both reviews contain the recommendation “reject”, the article is not directed to publication or revision; if one of the reviews contains the recommendation “reject”, a third reviewer is appointed to assess the article; if the review of the third reviewer contains the recommendation “reject”, the article is not directed to publication or revision.

Digital Accessibility of the Article

Submitted articles should be prepared in accordance with accessibility standards, ensuring, among others:

  • the possibility of correct machine reading of the content of the publication, including by screen readers used by persons with visual impairments,
  • alternative text for photos, illustrations, tables, charts, maps,
  • left-aligned text,
  • in the case of tables, the use of the “insert table” function and specification of the header row[1].

[1] Good practices for preparing documents ensuring digital accessibility can be found at: [www.gov.pl/web/dostepnosc-cyfrowa/jak-t…](http://www.gov.pl/web/dostepnosc-cyfrow…)

Copyright

By submitting the text, its authors also declare that they hold the copyright to the article or review (work), and that the text (work) does not infringe the copyright of third parties. Written confirmation of this is required only for articles accepted for publication, in the form of a (personally signed by the authors) licence agreement (non-exclusive licence) with the publisher of the Review. Authors retain full copyright and publishing rights to their articles. The agreement is sent to the authors during the further editorial work on subsequent issues of the Review.

Licence

Submission of the text is tantamount to consent to making the text available together with metadata under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution–ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) licence. Authors retain all rights to their text. Authors have the right to deposit published articles in services and repositories of their choice.

Before publication of the text, the Author is required to submit a personal questionnaire together with statements (including on the originality of the text and consent to the processing of personal data).
 

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