About the Journal

Content Guidelines

Journal of Childhood Studies is a peer reviewed, open access digital journal that sustains and advances urgent conversations about the ethical, political, systemic, conceptual, material, and relational conditions that shape - and refigure - the complex and ever-changing terrain of childhood and childhood studies. 

Publishing contributions from researchers and practitioners, Journal of Childhood Studies advances the collective work of studying, responding to, and re-inventing neoliberal and neocolonial childhoods. Articles published in JCS resist the dominant Euro-Western logics that constrain prevailing conceptualizations of childhood and locate childhood within and against the powerful structures that govern everyday life (ex. citizenship, capitalism, oppression, climate crisis, ongoing settler colonialism). Importantly, JCS invites manuscripts that actively engage with refusal, speculation, invention, relations, and local knowledges - and other generative and transformative methods - to offer proposals and possibilities for sustaining and co-creating more just and equitable childhoods. 

Journal of Childhood Studies takes seriously its role as a scholarly journal in both international and Canadian childhood studies, and works to be accountable to (and interrupt) the power dynamics, discernment, and exclusions that often thread through taken-for-granted academic publishing pathways. Accordingly, JCS publishes diverse manuscripts, including pieces that purposefully stand outside the well-established theoretical, content, and methodological boundaries and conceptions of expertise (ex. career level, theorist vs. practitioner) that have long influenced conventional scholarly publishing. 

  • Acknowledging the lived knowledge that children hold and the histories of extractive research on children, JCS requires that all submissions that directly engage with children (ex. children as participants, research with educators in a classroom of children) clearly address the ethics and politics of integrating children’s perspectives and realities into scholarly research. In Canada, this is consistent with an emerging push to center young people’s role in research processes (please see the Canadian Journal of Public Health’s statement).  
  • JCS works at opening space for alternative, critical, and contradictory engagements with children and childhoods by encouraging submissions from practitioners, students, early career academics, and established scholars worldwide. We utilize distinct review processes to provide specific support for authors who submit their work to particular sections of the Journal. 
  • JCS encourages submissions from those who study across disciplines connected to childhood (including, but not limited to, education, pedagogy, geography, ecology, policy, activism, history, and media) and who foreground the political and situated character of studying childhood (including, but not limited to, Black studies, Indigenous studies, Global South knowledges, DisCrit, anti- and post-colonialism, feminist perspectives, queer studies, postdevelopmentalism, and countering anthropocentrism). 
  • JCS accepts research articles, conceptual work, multimedia essays, discussions of emerging ideas, and practice-oriented contributions that bring an innovative edge to their engagements with childhood. 
  • JCS publishes guest-edited special issues that foreground timely issues, questions, or proposals consistent with the Journal’s Focus, Scope, and Content Guidelines. 

 

Focus and Scope

Journal of Childhood Studies invites articles that:

  • Study and re-figure childhoods while addressing urgent ethical and political complexities 
    • Attend to and situate childhood amid political, social, and fiscal histories, fluctuating contemporary times, and uncertain futures  
    • Decenter human supremacy and anthropocentrism 
      • Value children’s lived experiences and knowledges without recourse to the grandiose rational, all-knowing human/man
    • Resist and interfere with taken-for-granted Euro-Western, neoliberal, neocolonial, and capitalist conceptualizations of childhood
      • Counter child development as universalizable, scalable knowledge 
      • Interrupt power relations that sustain oppression, discrimination, bias, and/or white supremacy (ex. normativity, ableism, anti-Black racism)
      • Trace how structural conditions, systems, and histories regulate childhood (ex. childhood innocence, citizenship) 
      • Complexify status-quo practices that place responsibility for justice and transformation solely on individuals (ex. environmental stewardship, self-advocacy)
      • Think with interdisciplinary, eclectic, local, and cultural knowledges that are outside the bioscientific frames of developmentalism (ex. innovative pedagogies, co-constructed knowledge, Indigenous knowledges)
  • Study and re-figure everyday engagements with children as world-making
    • Take seriously how children participate (and what is made possible and impossible for their participation) within ethical, political, epistemic, and ontological contexts 
    • Respond to situated realities and inequities with children (ex. environmental precarities, social justice)
    • Study and unsettle how structures and spaces that children often interact with (ex. education/schooling, healthcare, outdoor yard) dictate the ‘good’ child subject and govern ‘quality’ learning, knowledge, relations, and ‘ideal’ bodies 
    • Continually work at crafting local pedagogies and practices that traffic in collectivity, accountability, resistance, liberation, diversity, justice, and uncertainty 
  • Study and re-figure research and scholarship with children
    • Consider and discuss methodologies, theories, and outcomes as ethical and political practices
    • Foreground the complexities of ‘data’ and the figurations of childhood allowed and made invisible through data collection and analysis (ex. objectivity, representation, discerning children’s authentic voice)  
    • Move beyond only critical analysis
      • Answer to situated inheritances with children 
      • Explore otherwise possibilities, envision futures
    • Contest demands for scalable, universalized, technocratic, instrumental, and decontextualized research practices; think locally
    • Invent and speculate to imagine more just modes of living collectively
      • Provoke and do not prescribe
      • Keep robust, slippery, disorienting, or indeterminate encounters alive

 

Journal Sections and Types of Manuscripts

To support meaningful peer review, publication, and knowledge dissemination processes, Journal of Childhood Studies has four sections: (1) Articles from Research, (2) Ideas from Practice, (3) Notes, Proposals, and Pauses for Dialogue, and (4) Reviews of Books and Resources. 

Articles from Research
Content Guidelines: Manuscripts submitted to Articles from Research should be theoretically-grounded and/or research-based analyses relevant to the Journal’s Focus, Scope, and Content Guidelines. Manuscripts that utilize theoretical approaches, methodologies, data, and/or concepts in apolitical, instrumental, or universalizable ways or that do not confront the epistemological politics and consequences of the research and/or conceptual process employed in the article might not be appropriate for publication in Journal of Childhood Studies. 

Technical Instructions: 

  • Manuscripts for Articles from Research should be 6000-8000 words in length (reference list not included in word count)
  • Articles must be anonymized by the author before submission 
  • An abstract should be included at the start of the manuscript and not exceed 100 words.
  • 4-5 keywords should be included following the abstract 
  • Please include a brief biographical sketch (4-5 sentences) including the author(s) full name, title, professional affiliation, and other relevant information

Peer Review Process: Articles from Research undergo an initial review by the Editors and then, if appropriate, a double anonymized peer-review process with two peer reviewers. Articles are evaluated by well-regarded reviewers for subject matter, timeliness and context, connection to extant literature, character/depth of analysis, appropriateness for publication in JCS, and writing style/organization. Reviews are then evaluated by the Editors, collated, and shared with authors alongside specific recommendations for revisions. Authors are asked to provide a summary of how the reviewers’ comments were addressed when submitting their revised manuscripts. Revised manuscripts may be subject to an additional peer review before a publication decision is made.

Ideas from Practice
Content Guidelines: Ideas from Practice shares articles that are overtly grounded in the everyday practices of educators, practitioners, and researchers. Manuscripts should think with theoretical provocations and everyday moments, reaching beyond familiar descriptive forms of documenting children’s learning to engage with the Journal’s Focus, Scope, and Content Guidelines. 

Technical Instructions: 

  • Manuscripts for Ideas from Practice are between 1500-3500 words in length (reference list not included in word count)
  • An abstract should be included at the start of the manuscript and not exceed 100 words.
  • 4-5 keywords should be included following the abstract 
  • Please include a brief biographical sketch (4-5 sentences) including the author(s) full name, title, professional affiliation, and other relevant information

Peer Review Process: Submissions to Ideas from Practice participate in a non-anonymized peer review process. Manuscripts are initially evaluated by the editors, and authors are then paired with a ‘critical friend’ who will work with the author to prepare the submission for publication. Reviewers will work collaboratively with the author to address issues of subject matter, applicability to practice, critical thinking, and writing style/organization. Authors and reviewers are expected to communicate via email during this process. After concluding this collaborative review process, Editors will evaluate revised manuscripts a final time before a publication decision is made. 

Notes, Proposals, and Pauses for Dialogue
Content Guidelines: Submissions to the "Notes, Proposals, and Pauses for Dialogue" section provide concise discussions of ongoing work that does not yet meet the criteria for Articles from Research but aligns with the Journal's Focus, Scope, and Content Guidelines. These manuscripts present theoretical, research, or practice-oriented work in progress and engage with existing literature or contemporary events, concerns, and debates in childhood studies. They should encourage readers to participate in a discussion about this emerging scholarship.

Technical Instructions: 

  • Manuscripts for Notes, Proposals, and Pauses for Dialogue are between 1000 and 1500 words in length (reference list not included in word count)
  • An abstract should be included at the start of the manuscript and not exceed 100 words.
  • 4-5 keywords should be included following the abstract 
  • Please include a brief biographical sketch (4-5 sentences) including the author(s) full name, title, professional affiliation, and other relevant information

Peer Review Process: Notes, Proposals, and Pauses for Dialogue undergo an initial review by the Editors and then, if appropriate, a double anonymized peer-review process with one peer reviewer. Well-regarded reviewers evaluate manuscripts for subject matter, timeliness and contribution to ongoing concerns/debates/collectives, robust theorization and/or storytelling/description, and propositional/dialogical character. The peer review is evaluated by the Editors. The Editors might add additional feedback, and share it with authors alongside specific recommendations for revisions. Authors are asked to provide a summary of how the reviewers’ comments were addressed when submitting their revised manuscripts. Revised manuscripts may be subject to an additional peer review before a publication decision is made.

Reviews of Books and Resources
Content Guidelines: Book reviews should engage with the Journal’s Focus, Scope, and Content Guidelines and with the format outlined below. The Editors also welcome reviews that put two or three books in conversation or that think with “resources” created for use by those working with children. Authors of Reviews of Books and Resources articulate a rigorous, critically-informed, generous, and collective-sustaining review that both analyses the book/resource and puts the book/resource to work in imagining alternative futures for childhood studies. 

Technical Instructions: 

  • Manuscripts for Reviews of Books and Resources are between 1500-3500 words in length (reference list not included in word count)
  • An abstract should be included at the start of the manuscript and not exceed 100 words. 
  • 4-5 keywords should be included following the abstract. 
  • Please include a brief biographical sketch (4-5 sentences) including the author(s) full name, title, professional affiliation, and other relevant information

Format: 

  • Provide an overview of the reviewed book/resource
    • Situate how the book/resource fits within contemporary childhood studies (how it participates in ongoing debates, speaks to policy, furthers emerging research, ties to extant literature)
    • Discuss the theoretical framework and context of the piece
    • Highlight some key overarching takeaways or excerpts 
    • Give a summary of central or most generative ideas (either chapter by chapter, or synthesized within core ideas throughout the piece)
    • Outline the important contributions that the article makes to current practice or research and/or to the lives of practitioners working with children and families, including the possible impact of the book/resource on the field
  • Discuss the author’s critical reflections or engagement with the piece
    • Connections between the piece and the reviewer’s work (how the author sees the piece mobilized and active in their own thinking)
    • Are there other theories (or art, music, poetry) the author wants to think this book/resource with? What happens when you do?
    • Is there a contemporary concern/moment the author wants to think this book/resource alongside? What happens when you do?
  • Questions or reflections that the piece generated for the author to carry forward

Peer Review Process: Manuscripts submitted to Reviews of Books and Resources will be evaluated by the Editors. This process typically involves the author working closely with an Editor, often over a few months, to prepare the Review for publication.

 

Guest-Edited Special Issues

Journal of Childhood Studies is currently accepting proposals for special issues. To propose a special issue, we ask that Guest Editors please:

  • Ensure that at least one Guest Editor holds a PhD
  • Send a short (500 words) statement of interest, including a description of the proposed special issue, to journalofchildhoodstudies@gmail.com. 
  • Editors will review the proposed special issue, provide feedback, and make an editorial decision on proceeding. 
  • Once a special issue is accepted, Guest Editors will:
    • Create a Call for Papers that aligns with the JCS’ Focus, Scope, and Content Guidelines  
    • Promote the special issue within their networks; invite submissions 
    • Oversee the review and publication process with the assistance of the Editorial Assistant
    • Publicize and share the published special issue 

 

Journal Policies

AI Policy
We acknowledge that our understandings of AI (of all types -  from repetitive through generative) are situated and continually shifting. This is especially true in childhood, research with children, and in academic research institutions. Knowing that we are not outside of AI’s impacts, what is of most concern to Journal of Childhood Studies is how we utilize AI in our scholarly publishing processes towards fostering social, ecological, and planetary justice.

Journal of Childhood Studies allows the use of AI during the creation or editing of manuscripts only when this AI use directly supports inclusion, equity, or justice. Examples include language translation to counter linguistic imperialism in scholarly publishing or accessibility tools that address ableist conventions in writing/research.    

Journal of Childhood Studies does not allow AI for methodological or interpretative tasks (ex. conducting systemic reviews, performing data analysis) or for general writing/copyediting (ex. framing, clarity, enhancing writing style). 

If authors choose to use AI for an equity-oriented reason, AI cannot be used to directly produce any part of the manuscript. All manuscripts must be written (dictated, produced) by the authors. AI cannot be cited as an author. 

Authors are responsible for clearly declaring AI use and are accountable for all scholarly outcomes resulting from their use of AI (ex. published responses or critiques). 

If used AI is during the research, preparation/writing, or editing of a manuscript, a statement clearly describing the following is required at the beginning of the article:

  • Which AI has been used, exactly how AI has been used, and how this AI use contributes to equity
  • Ethical measures the authors have used
    • For example: Research Ethics Board approval to use AI; practices to ensure that all authors, participants, and cited authors consent for having their insights/work used in an AI tool
  • How the authors addressed issues of transparency, accountability, privacy, and authorship/citation/attribution/intellectual property

 

Copyright Ownership Policy

JCS operates under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. Authors are asked to complete a publishing agreement to grant the Canadian Association for Young Children (the Publisher for JCS) non-exclusive right to publish the Version of Record of the article. As defined by Creative Commons, the CC BY-NC license allows for authors to share and adapt their JCS publication for non-commercial purposes if attribution to JCS is provided. 

Author Self-Archiving Policy
Consistent with the CC BY-NC license, JCS encourages authors to post items accepted to the Journal on personal websites or institutional repositories both prior to and after publication. Attribution to JCS must be noted. 

Open Access Policy
This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Users have the right to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles in this journal, and to use them for any other lawful purpose.

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement
Journal of Childhood Studies follows the Code of Conduct and Guidelines for Reviewers, Editors, and Publishers as set by the Committee on Publication Ethics. In addition, Journal of Childhood Studies follows the relevant publication ethics and malpractice guidelines outlined by Elsevier.

Publication Frequency
Journal of Childhood Studies currently publishes a minimum of four issues a year.

Publication Fees
Journal of Childhood Studies does not charge Article Processing Charges (APCs) nor article submission charges to its authors for publication.

Editor and Editorial Board Policy
The Journal of Childhood Studies is a journal of the Canadian Association for Young Children (CAYC) and therefore collaborates with the CAYC Board of Directors. Additionally, the Board appoints the Publications Chair whose responsibility is to liaise between the Journal and Board of Directors.

The Journal (Co)Editors are appointed in dialogue with the Canadian Association for Young Children and serve two year-long renewable terms. 

The Editorial Board is appointed by the Editors for a three year period that can be continued into additional three year-long terms. The term for the current Editorial Board will end in December 2025. 

An Editorial Assistant (available at journalofchildhoodstudies@gmail.com) manages everyday administrative tasks including contact with authors and reviewers, managing peer review and revision timelines, coordinating copyediting and formatting, supporting special issue Guest Editors, and website maintenance. 

 

Journal History

Journal of Childhood Studies continues a 50 year-long history of generating and sustaining critical discussions regarding research, policy, and theory pertaining to the care and education of young children from multiple perspectives and in multiple settings. Canadian Children, the original title of Journal of Childhood Studies, was published in print form and shared via subscription by the Canadian Association of Young Children from 1975 through to 2016. Throughout its tenure, Canadian Children was the only national journal focused on the education and well-being of children. 

In January 2016, Canadian Children changed its title to Journal of Childhood Studies to better respond to the evolving landscape of childhood studies, and renewed its mandate to expand its international influence while attracting innovative, critical, and relevant submissions that more accurately reflect the diversity of the field. The Journal maintains its association with the Canadian Association for Young Children and the Journal’s Publications Chair role is held by a member of the Association. 

Transforming into Journal of Childhood Studies positions the Journal within a multidisciplinary, international collective of childhood studies stakeholders. Shifting from the boundaries set by the previous title, Journal of Childhood Studies addresses political concerns around the exclusivity of identifying a single nationality and instead opens up to publications that address the contested politics of globalized childhoods. Key to this mandate, Journal of Childhood Studies transitioned from a subscription-based print format to an open-access digital platform in an effort to better target an international audience and to be relevant and sustainable in an age of rapid knowledge transmission coupled with urgent ecological concerns.

Since 2014, Journal of Childhood Studies has been supported by the Aid to Scholarly Journals program from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (2014 - 2018; 2018-2021; and 2021-2025).