Australasian Journal of Early Childhood

Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site to submit your manuscript. If manuscripts do not conform to the guidelines they will be sent back for revision.

All contributions should be original and should not be under consideration elsewhere.

There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.2 below.

1. What do we publish?
   1.1 Aims & scope
   1.2 Readership
   1.3 Article types and word length
   1.4 Selection criteria
   1.5 Writing your paper
2. Editorial policies
   2.1 Peer review policy
   2.2 Research ethics
   2.3 Authorship
   2.4 Funding
   2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
   2.6 Research Data
3. Publishing policies
   3.1 Publication ethics
   3.2 Open Access and author archiving
4. Preparing your manuscript
   4.1 File formats
   4.2 Formatting within the document
   4.3 Writing style and spelling
   4.4 Inclusive/universal language
   4.5 De-identifying your manuscript
   4.6 Reference style
   4.7 English language editing services
5. Submitting your manuscript
   5.1 ORCID
   5.2 Information required for completing your submission
   5.3 Permissions
6. Review and revision process
7. On acceptance and publication
   7.1 Conditional acceptance and final acceptance
   7.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement
   7.3 Sage Production
   7.4 Online publication
   7.5 Access to your published article
   7.6 Promoting your article
8. Further information

 

1. What do we publish?

The Australasian Journal of Early Childhood (AJEC) is a peer-reviewed journal publishing in all aspects of research in the early years (birth to eight years). Papers considered for publication in the journal must create and disseminate new knowledge that encourages the critical exchange of ideas amongst an international community of scholars.

AJEC invites submissions from a variety of disciplines, including: early childhood education and care; psychology; sociology; physiology; and allied health, or family support concerned with the birth to eight years age group.

AJEC welcomes submissions from authors who identify as Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, First Nations or Australian South Sea Islanders.

1.1 Aims & Scope

Before submitting your manuscript to Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.

Authors intending to submit to AJEC are also encouraged to read:

Standards for Reporting on Empirical Social Science Research in AERA Publications: American Educational Research Association. (2006). Educational Researcher, 35(6), 33–40. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X035006033

1.2 Readership

The target audience of AJEC includes:

• Australasian and international early childhood professionals;
• university and TAFE lecturers, professors and students;
• children’s services directors and practitioners;
• government agencies; and
• researchers and person/s working in fields related to the care and education of young children from birth to eight.

1.3 Article types and word length

Authors must identify in which category their article belongs.

Types of articles we publish include:

• Primary research
  Word length: 3,000–3,500 words OR 6,000–6,500 words
  Articles reporting on high-quality research projects with the potential to contribute new knowledge to the field. All primary research articles must include an ethics section that identifies where ethics approval was obtained (including approval number). Primary research articles reporting evaluations of a product or intervention need to address the theoretical implications of the product/intervention and demonstrate how it adds to current theoretical understandings as well as how it enhances practice.
• Research notes
  Word length: 1,000–1,500 words OR 3,000–3,500 words
  These may be shorter than primary research articles and could report on research in progress as well as completed projects. Students and graduate students are encouraged to submit articles on their research, as are first-time authors and practitioners engaged in reflective practice or practice research.
• Commentaries
  Word length: 3,000–3,500 words OR 6,000–6,500 words
  This category includes critical scholarly writing as well as practitioner papers. The category is characterised by a secondary rather than primary research focus.

The word count includes: body text, tables, graphs, references, appendices, and any supplemental materials. Because AJEC does not host supplemental materials online, any supplemental materials submitted with your manuscript will count towards the total word count.

Manuscripts exceeding the upper word limit will be returned to authors.

Additionally, an abstract of maximum 150 words is to be entered at the online Abstract field during the submission process.

1.4 Selection criteria

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of AJEC will be reviewed. Selection criteria include:

• congruence with Early Childhood Australia’s Code of Ethics;
• relevance to Australasian researchers and practitioners;
• issues relevant to Australasian early childhood education and care;
• results being evidence-based and data-driven;
• a valid interpretation of results;
• potential for contribution to the international academic early childhood field;
• current and seminal citations and references;
• appropriateness of topic;
• methodology that is congruent with academic standards (including theoretical and/or conceptual frameworks, limitations, ethical considerations);
• establishing a context, rationale and relevance;
• adherence to AJEC formatting, writing style, reference style and word length;
• freedom from commercial interest—the article is not selling or promoting a particular product.

1.5 Writing your paper

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.

1.5.1 Making 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 to make your article more discoverable, visit our Gateway page on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online

2. Editorial policies

2.1 Peer review policy

AJEC adheres to a rigorous double-anonymize reviewing policy in which the identity of both the reviewer and author are always concealed from both parties. To maintain this standard, please ensure you do not include a title page in your main manuscript document and ensure any identifying information is masked.

All manuscripts are reviewed initially by the Editors and only those papers that meet the editorial standards of the journal, and fit within its aims and scope, will be sent for outside review.

For more detail on the review and revision process and timeline, see ‘Review and revision process’, below.

2.2 Research ethics

During the online submission process, authors are required to declare that Ethical Committee approval was sought where necessary. In addition, all primary research articles must include an ethics statement that identifies where ethics approval was obtained (including approval number) within the body of the manuscript. The section should identify any specific ethical issues in relation to the project - e.g. parental consent for children and how children’s assent was managed, how children’s rights were respected, etc.

2.3 Authorship

All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. It is the responsibility of the corresponding (submitting) author to ensure all co-authors are added and ordered correctly during the online manuscript submission process at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ajec. Listing the names of authors on a submitted title page is not sufficient—all authors/co-authors must be added along with the primary or corresponding author within the online submission system.

When adding a co-author, enter the person’s institutional email address and the system will advise if the author has an existing user account or if a new account needs to be created. Be mindful that if an author has recently changed institutions, they may have an existing account under a previous email address. Anyone who has reviewed or authored for the Journal in the past year will already have an account with AJEC. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

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.

2.3.1 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section, immediately before the reference list. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help or a department chair who provided only general support.

Ensure personal acknowledgements are masked to facilitate anonymous peer review or upload section as a supplementary file.

2.3.2 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 authorised the submission of their manuscript via the third party and approve any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

Where appropriate, AJEC reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

2.4 Funding

During the submission process, the Journal requires all authors to acknowledge any funding associated with their submission, including the funder details and grant/award number.

2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

Corresponding authors are required to declare any potential or perceived conflicts of interest in relation to the research during the submission process. The Journal also encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway. For more information identifying such conflicts please visit https://au.sagepub.com/en-gb/oce/declaration-of-conflicting-interests-policy 

2.6 Research Data

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 Research Data Sharing Policies https://au.sagepub.com/en-gb/oce/research-data-sharing-policies

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; and
• cite this data in your research.

NB. the Journal does not host supplementary materials.

3. Publishing policies

3.1 Publication ethics

Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics https://publicationethics.org/resources/resources-and-further-reading/in... and to view Sage’s Ethics & Responsibility page here https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/ethics-responsibility

3.1.1 Plagiarism

The Journal and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism and 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 plagiarized 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 see Sage’s guidelines on prior publication and note that the Journal may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers. Please include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the submission process and alert the Editorial Office by email below when submitting. 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.

3.2 Open access and author archiving

The Australasian Journal of Early Childhood (AJEC) 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

4.1 File formats

The preferred document format for your manuscript is a Word file (.DOC or .DOCX). Manuscripts converted to Portable Document Format (.PDF) will not be accepted

4.1.1 Tables, figures, charts and other artwork

Illustrations, pictures and graphs should be supplied in the highest quality and in an electronic format that helps us to publish your article in the best way possible. Please follow the guidelines below to enable us to prepare your artwork for the printed issue as well as the online version:

• Captions: Please provide captions (callouts) for all figures (e.g. Figure 1. Title; Figure 2. Title) and tables (e.g. Table 1. Title; Table 2. Title).
• Table format: Tables should be editable (i.e. not pasted in as images or uploaded as PDFs). If produced in Word, insert the table where it is required to appear in the manuscript. If produced outside Word (e.g. Excel), upload file in original format (e.g. .XLS) and indicate position the table(s) are required to appear in the manuscript placeholder note in the running text (i.e. ‘[insert Figure 1.]’)
• Image format: TIFF or JPEG are preferred for pictures (containing no graphs or text). EPS is preferred for graphs and line art.
• Placement: Figures, charts and tables created in Word should be included in the main text rather than at the end of the document. Figures and other files created outside Word (i.e. Excel, PowerPoint, JPG, TIFF and EPS) should be submitted separately.
• Resolution: JPEG or TIFF files require a resolution of at least 300 dpi (dots per inch). EPS files should be supplied with a minimum resolution of 800 dpi.

• Colour: Please note that images supplied in colour will be published in colour online and black and white in print (unless otherwise arranged). Therefore, it is important that you supply images that are comprehensible in black and white as well (i.e. by using colour with a distinctive pattern or dotted lines). The captions should reflect this by not using words indicating colour.

• Dimension: Check that the artworks supplied match or exceed the dimensions of the journal. Images cannot be scaled up.

• Fonts: The lettering used in the artwork should not vary too much in size and type (usually sans serif font, e.g. Arial).

4.2 Formatting within the document

Avoid over-formatting with superfluous underlining, bold or all-caps in the body of text. Refer to titles of publications in the text only in italics.

Use only one space after a full stop before a new sentence.

Use only one paragraph return at the end of each paragraph; do not insert additional empty paragraph returns between paragraphs.

Please do not use hard spaces or multiple tabs to spread text across a page.

4.2.1    Headings

Please mark headings, subheadings and paragraphs clearly. For example:

This is a section/chapter heading (first-level heading) (Bold)

This is a subheading or side heading (second-level heading) (Italics, bold, first letter of the word is capital)

This is a subheading (third-level heading) (Italics, no bold)

4.3 Writing style and spelling

AJEC requests that all manuscripts conform to the current Australian Government Style manual and the Macquarie dictionary

4.3.1    Numbers and measurement

• Zero to nine (0–9) should generally be expressed as words, but 10 onwards should be written as figures, e.g. ‘there were 23 children in the room, but five people saw them’. Variations may be used, such as Year 1 students, Table 1 etc. Do not begin a sentence with a numeral. Spell out if a sentence is to start with a number. Example: ‘Twenty-one students were present.’ Large numbers: 200 (two hundred); 5,000 (five thousand); 9,000,000 (nine million); 10,000. It is better to write 2.5 million instead of 2,500,000.
• The use of metric measurement is preferred. As a general rule, figures rather than words should be used for:
• Sums of money: $5.08 or 25c, $2000, $10,000, $25 million (not $25 m)
• Dates: 14 September 1994 (day, month, year)
• Mass: 250t, 120 kg, 50 g
• Measures: 56 litres, 25 mL, 26 km, 25 cm, 16 mm, 56 kilometres or 56 km
• Inclination (degrees): angle of 45 degrees or 45°
• Temperature: 35°C
• Percentages: 9%
• Age: 60 years old; an eight-year-old, four years, four years old, four-year-old, one- to four-year-olds, birth to one-year-olds, birth to one-year-old infants, a 35-year-old car or a thirty-five year old car (not: a thirty-five-year-old car)
• Decimal fractions: 6.95, 3.002
• Non-decimal fractions: one-third, one and three-quarters, an eighth, ¾ (not 3/4)
• Ordinal numbers: the third example, the twenty-fifth student, the two-hundredth case
• Statistics: n = 7
• Probability: p > 0.5
• Ratios: Children before parents/staff 10:2
• Schooling: Year 1, K–12
• Mathematical signs: 15 – 9 = 6, -50

4.3.2    Expressions of time

• Time of day: 10.30 am, 50 minutes, eleven o’clock, 9.30 am–11.00 pm
• Date(s): 14 September 1994, 5 June 2002 (no commas), 1980s (not ‘80s), 2–4 June (en dash)
• Eras: 44 BC, 1788 AD, the third century AD, the third century CE
• Centuries and decades: the eighteenth century or the 18th century, the twenty-first century, 1990s, 2000s
• Time frequency: twice weekly, fortnightly, every two months (not bimonthly)

4.3.3    Footnotes and endnotes

AJEC does not include footnotes. Endnotes are restricted to reference list only.

4.3.4    Acronyms

When using an acronym, the first occurrence must be spelt in full with the acronym quoted in parentheses. Subsequent occurrences should use the acronym.

4.4 Inclusive/universal language

AJEC acknowledges the breadth and diversity of those studying and working within the early childhood field. Authors should be aware of this diversity when writing their submissions by adopting inclusive and culturally competent language.

Where appropriate, articles should be inclusive of and relevant to a variety of settings such as those of family day carers, centre-based programs for young children and primary school educators working with children under eight years of age.

AJEC’s readership comprises those from all states of Australia, New Zealand and Asia as well as farther afield. Authors should be mindful of using localised terms in which the meaning may not translate to other contexts or a broader international audience. Where appropriate, authors should use general terms such as ‘early childhood settings’, ‘early childhood educators’, etc., and aim to be as clear as possible when using ambiguous terms such as ‘Prep’, ‘kindergarten’, etc.

4.5 De-identifying your manuscript

To facilitate double-anonymize peer review, the submitted manuscript should be anonymised for submission to prevent identification during the review process.

Anonymisation includes: masking the names of contributors listed in an Acknowledgments section; masking the institution where Ethics approval was obtained; masking self-references that identify the author/s within in-text citations and the reference list.

References to your own prior work that you do not identify in text as your work should not be masked for review. Therefore, mask only self-references that could be identifying (such as when you are citing your own dissertation or referencing your own work using first person pronouns). Only citations that contain self-references should be masked with an Author citation. In the reference list, the masked citation should appear only as ‘Author. (Year).’ In text, this should appear as ‘(Author, Year).’

4.6 Reference style

All submissions must adhere to the current APA referencing style. The APA website describes the correct use of italics, punctuation and capitalisation and offers clear examples of variations to standard reference types. It is the responsibility of the author(s) to ensure all reference details are correct, including page numbers for journal articles or articles in books.

In-text citations

Reference should be made only to the author(s) and the year of publication (Johnson & Johnson, 1992) or Johnson and Johnson (1992). If a direct quote is cited, a page number is added (Johnson & Johnson, 1992, p. 139) or Johnson and Johnson (1992, p. 139).

Where a work has three or more authors, ‘et al.’ shall be used for all references, e.g. (Edwards et al., 1992).

Please consult the APA website to check the formatting of in-text citations.

Reference list

Notable changes between APA v6 and APA v7 for reference lists are listed below, but authors should visit the APA website to check that each reference is correctly formatted:

• place of publication is not required
• DOIs or URLs are to be rendered as complete clickable hyperlinks at the end of the reference (i.e., beginning with ‘http:’ or ‘https:’, not ‘doi:’ or ‘DOI:’ before the DOI number) and should not be punctuated with a full stop at the end; and
• do not include the words ‘Retrieved from’ or ‘Accessed from’ before a DOI or URL, or indicate a retrieval date (EXCEPT when there is not a persistent link or the link is not publicly accessible (e.g. a private social media post).

4.7 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.

5. Submitting your manuscript

AJEC is hosted on Sage Track, a web-based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ajec to login and submit your article online.

IMPORTANT: Please search for your name in the system first to check whether you already have a user account in the system before creating a new account. Similarly, when adding a co-author, first search for their name in case they have an existing user account in the system before creating a new account. Anyone who has reviewed or authored for AJEC in the past year will already have an account. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

5.1 ORCID

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 recognised.

The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of AJEC. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that with 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. NB, this is not the same as logging in with your ORCID iD.

It takes seconds to associate your ORCID iD with your AJEC account. 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 register to create one or visit Sage’s ORCID information page to learn more.

Co-authors will need to log into their account to associate their ORCID iD with their Sage author entry.

5.2 Information required for completing your submission

You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for ALL authors via the submission system and to identify who is to be the corresponding author.

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.

During the submission process, you will also be required to:

• report any funding associated with this submission, including the funder and grant/award number;
• confirm that the manuscript has been submitted solely to AJEC and is not published, in press or submitted elsewhere
• confirm that you have checked these manuscript submission guidelines and complied with any specific policy requirements specified;
• confirm that you have prepared an Anonymous Main Document that: (a) DOES NOT INCLUDE a title page with author information, contributor acknowledgements or contain running headers with authors name/s; and (b) DOES MASK all self-references to the author/s in the reference list or in-text citations, as well as the institution where Ethics approval was obtained which might identify the author/s, if cited (EXCEPT where the editors have made the decision of ‘conditional accept’ and have therefore specifically requested a Final De-anonymised Production-Ready Document);
• confirm there is no potential or perceived conflicts of interest;
• confirm that Ethical Committee approval was sought where necessary and is acknowledged within the text of the submitted manuscript;
• confirm that guidelines on patient consent have been met and any details of informed consent obtained are indicated within the text of the submitted manuscript; and
• enter the DOI if this paper has been posted to a preprints server.

5.3 Permissions

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. Review and revision process

Submissions undergo an initial compliance checklist. Submissions that do not meet the basic submission criteria (document file format, word count, ethics statement, anonymisation, current APA referencing) may be rejected outright or returned to draft status in the corresponding author’s author centre for the author to make the required changes to ensure submission guidelines are met before reconsideration.

Manuscripts that successfully complete the compliance checklist are then considered by the editorial executive. The editors may first request one or more rounds of revisions to the paper before it is sent to external review.

All manuscripts submitted to AJEC, whether solicited or unsolicited, undergo an external, blind peer-review process.

All referees’ comments and feedback are considered by the editors and the author is notified of the required revisions within 12 weeks. (If delays are incurred, the author will be notified).

Reviewers’ and editors’ comments are intended to assist authors in revising their work for publication. Authors should upload their revised manuscript via the Sage Author Gateway where the manuscript ID will be appended with ‘R’ and the revision number.

The author is required to submit their revision accompanied by a list or table of changes, specifically identifying how the recommendations have been addressed and a rationale for any changes which have not been made. This list of changes should be uploaded as the Author’s Response field.

The editors again review the revised paper and additional editorial revisions may be requested if refinements are necessary.

Not all submissions are guaranteed acceptance in this process.

7. On acceptance and publication

7.1 Conditional acceptance and final acceptance

Submissions eventually accepted for publication will normally receive a decision of ‘conditional acceptance’ before full acceptance. When conditionally accepted, authors are required to ready their paper for publication. Authors should:

• ensure all in-text citations and references are in the current APA format;
• de-anonymise their manuscript by re-inserting author and contributor names in in-text references and reference lists;
• re-insert omitted names of institutions (such as in Ethics section);
• remove any track-changes, highlighting, bolding or comments from the revision process;
• upload images (e.g. JPEG, GIF, TIFF, TIF) at print-quality resolution (i.e. at least 300 dpi);
• upload original file formats for tables, figures or graphics ONLY if they have been produced outside Word (e.g. XLS for graphs or tables); and
• submit their paper as a Final De-anonymised Production-Ready Document for consideration for final acceptance.

7.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement

Following final acceptance and prior to 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 the 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

7.3 Sage Production

Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available 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. 

Ultimate responsibility remains with the author to check references are correct and to proof their work for final publication.

7.4 Online publication

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.

7.5 Access to your published article

Sage provides authors with online access to their final article. Visit the Sage User Gateway for rules concerning the posting of the accepted version of an article to the author’s/s’ institutional repository.

7.6 Promoting your article

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.

The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources.

7. Further information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the AJEC editorial office as follows:

publishing@earlychildhood.org.au