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Guidelines for Authors

We require all authors to use the following Word templates which also contain detailed instructions. Please read these Author’s Guidelines carefully before submitting your text.

• Template & guidelines for target articles (5000 to 9000 words)
• Template & guidelines for book reviews
• Template & guidelines for open peer commentaries on target articles

Note that it is not permissible to use content-generating AI tools, such as ChatGPT, to write any part of the submitted paper. However, using AI tools to check and improve spelling and grammar is permitted.

Send all material to submission/at/constructivist.info. Important: Make sure that the attached file is not bigger than 5MB.

Manuscripts must correspond to the Aims and Scope of the journal.

The journal publishes the following types of manuscripts:

Occasionally the journal publishes special issues focusing on a specific topic.

If you want to guest edit a special issue in Constructivist Foundations please contact us at special/at/constructivist.info with details about the topic of the special issue and a list of potential contributors and commentators.

Checklist

• We require all authors to use the Word template
• Please make sure to have carefully read the editorial policies before submitting your manuscript. In particular:
• Before submitting and while reviewing is still in progress authors must not post their submitted manuscripts (nor any draft versions of it) to any public preprint servers (including websites such as academia.edu and ResearchGate), nor on authors’ or institutional websites.
• Also, please note the journal's Publication Reuse Policy, in particular the part regarding Author Self-Archiving.

Before submitting your manuscript make sure that it contains the following parts.

• Title, optionally subtitle
• Author(s) with affiliation and email
• Structured abstract of about 200 words and up to 10 key words
• Introduction: The first chapter initializes the contact between author and reader, and should be guided by the question: “Why should the reader get involved with my paper?”
• Main text: Ideas should be presented in a logical sequence — “Is there a clearly defined progression of information? Does one paragraph lead smoothly into the next?”
  The writing style should be simple, using as few words as possible. Conciseness and brevity are valued.
• Conclusion:
  • Discusses the paper’s relevance — “How is my paper related to constructivist approaches?”
  • Optionally it may provide an outlook — “What could be done next?”
• Optional: Acknowledgement to people who have contributed but do not meet the criteria of authorship.
• Funding information listing all project and institutional funding the author(s) received while writing the manuscript.
• Declaration of competing interests regarding all competing interests in relation to the work presented.
• Alphabetical list of references. References must not be included as foot-/endnotes
• Biographical note of each author (please do not include photographs of the authors)
• List of up to 5 potential reviewers who are not in a direct work relation with (any of) the author(s) and who are qualified for double-blind peer-reviewing the manuscript
• Declaration of good scientific practice and against (self-)plagiarism.

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Reviewing Process

It is our philosophy that the articles published in Constructivist Foundations must withstand the scrutiny of the scientific community. Therefore, we apply a three-stage reviewing process (cf. Constructive Three-Stage Double-Blind Peer Reviewing):

Step 1

Upon arrival we screen submitted manuscripts for their general appropriateness and provide the author with editorial comments if needed.

Step 2

All regular articles that have been editorially accepted are subject to double-blind peer-reviewing. We encourage reviewers to produce fair and constructive assessments that anticipate possible objections of the audience.

Step 3

Authors of (conditionally) accepted papers are asked to revise their manuscript based on the constructive criticism of the reviewers. The revised version will be forwarded to the original reviewers for a final assessment. Together with the editors' evaluation they determine the final acceptance or rejection of the manuscript.

Finally, all manuscripts accepted for publication are copy-edited.

Since Volume 9, all published articles are accompanied by about four to ten Open Peer Commentaries (OPC) in which commentators openly discuss the content of the target article. OPCs provide a concentrated constructive interaction between the target author and commentators on a topic judged to be of broad significance to the constructivist community. The issues raised by the commentators are addressed in the Author’s Response to the commentaries.

Last update: 25 July 2025