About the Journal

Episteme, Journal of the Jean Piaget Center, is an open-access scientific publication co-edited by the Jean Piaget Center of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Geneva (Switzerland) and the DIPHE laboratory, affiliated with the Department of Psychology of Development, Education and Vulnerabilities of the Université Lumière Lyon 2 (France).
Our mission is to keep alive and renew the epistemological and scientific questions that marked the work of Jean Piaget, by fostering an interdisciplinary and critical approach to the knowledge connected with development, education and the construction of knowledge. In a context where the boundaries between disciplines tend to harden and where the transmission of knowledge is sometimes dissociated from reflection on the conditions of its production, Episteme aims to offer a rigorous, open and intellectually demanding space for scientific publication.

On this page

Aims & scope
Peer review process
Open Access
Copyright, licensing and self-archiving
References and persistent identifiers
Publication ethics and scientific integrity
Archiving and preservation
Administration and web configuration

Aims & scope

Episteme welcomes original academic contributions, whether theoretical or empirical, that explicitly or implicitly engage with questions related to the Piagetian tradition. These contributions may deepen, discuss, critically examine or reinterpret Piagetian perspectives in the light of contemporary research.
The journal favours work that brings together perspectives from different disciplines, provided that it maintains theoretical coherence and conceptual rigour. It is particularly open to contributions that lie at the intersection of several fields and that enrich interdisciplinary dialogue.

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Peer review process

Episteme applies a rigorous and transparent peer review process, conceived as a process of critical dialogue within the scientific community, oriented towards strengthening arguments rather than as a mere selection mechanism.

Review model

The review follows a double-blind model: authors do not know the identity of the reviewers, and reviewers do not know the identity of the authors. This approach ensures the fairness and impartiality of the process.

Reviewers may choose to remain anonymous or to sign their report voluntarily, according to their preference.

Stages of the process

Preliminary editorial assessment: all manuscripts undergo an initial assessment intended to verify their relevance to the journal's scope, the clarity of the research question and compliance with minimum formal requirements.
Peer review: manuscripts that pass the preliminary editorial assessment are sent to two or three external reviewers specialised in the relevant field.
Editorial decision: after receiving the review reports, the editorial team formulates a decision: acceptance, acceptance with modifications, re-invitation for revision, or rejection.
Revision and re-evaluation: authors are given an agreed period of time to revise their manuscript according to the recommendations. Revised manuscripts are re-evaluated before a final decision.

Evaluation criteria

Reviewers rely on criteria of academic excellence, including:

Scientific quality and methodological rigour
Conceptual and argumentative clarity
Originality and contribution to the field
Relevance to the journal's thematic areas
Compliance with ethical and scientific integrity standards

The complete evaluation grid, with the detailed questions for reviewers, is available on the Evaluation grid page.

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Open Access

Immediate open access

Episteme is an open-access journal following the "Diamond Open Access" model. This means that all its contents are made immediately and freely available to the academic community and the public without any access restriction.

Completely free of charge

Submission, review and publication in Episteme are entirely free of charge. No fees are charged to authors:

No submission fees
No article processing charges (APC)
No review fees
No publication fees
No embargo: articles are accessible immediately after publication

Downloading and reading the texts are free for everyone.

This policy of open and fee-free access reinforces our commitment to the free and equitable dissemination of knowledge, which is particularly important in the humanities and social sciences.

Diamond Open Access. Episteme publishes its contents under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) licence. No fees are charged to authors or to readers.

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Copyright, licensing and self-archiving

All articles published in Episteme are published under the international licence Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). Authors retain the copyright of their article and grant the journal only the right of first publication.

The contents published in Episteme may be downloaded, saved, reproduced and shared free of charge for non-commercial purposes, provided that the author, the original source, the journal and the licence are credited. Any commercial reuse requires prior authorisation.

Episteme supports and encourages the self-archiving of articles after publication by their authors in open repositories of their choice, whether the submitted version, the accepted version or the published version of the contribution.

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References and persistent identifiers

DOI identifier

Each article published in Episteme receives a unique and persistent DOI (Digital Object Identifier). This number ensures the stable citation and traceability of the article in the long term, independently of any changes of address or format.

Reference format

The bibliographic references of all articles must be formatted according to the style of the American Psychological Association (APA), 7th edition. To strengthen the traceability and interoperability of academic content, each reference must include the DOI of the resource when one exists, in accordance with the principles of the Initiative for Open Citations (I4OC).

ORCID identifiers

In order to facilitate the persistent identification of researchers and to prevent confusion between namesakes, Episteme strongly encourages authors to:

Obtain an ORCID identifier (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) if they do not already have one
Provide their ORCID identifier upon submission
Systematically include their ORCID in their contributions

The use of ORCID identifiers improves the visibility and traceability of each researcher's scientific contribution.

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Publication ethics and scientific integrity

Episteme is firmly committed to the highest ethical standards and to scientific integrity. We adhere to the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and to the ethical standards of the University of Geneva.

Ethical principles

Originality and honesty: authors guarantee that their contributions are original and have not been published elsewhere.
Responsibility and transparency: all authors are responsible for the content and must declare any potential conflict of interest.
Consent and protection: research involving human participants or sensitive data must have received the approval of a competent ethics committee.
Compliance with guidelines: empirical studies must comply with the ethical standards accepted in their field.

Management of plagiarism and misconduct

Episteme uses plagiarism detection tools to verify compliance with originality standards. In cases of suspected plagiarism or other breaches of scientific integrity, the editorial team initiates an investigation process in accordance with COPE guidelines.

Authors suspected of ethical misconduct have the right to be heard and to provide explanations before any final decision.

Corrections and retractions

Episteme maintains the integrity of the scientific record by publishing corrections for errors discovered after publication and retractions for articles presenting serious problems of scientific integrity. Corrections and retractions are dated, clarified and linked to the original articles.

Complaints and appeals policy

Authors who have concerns about the editorial process or review decisions have access to a formal appeals procedure. Appeal requests must be justified and will be examined by the editorial team outside the normal review process.

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Archiving and preservation

Episteme is committed to ensuring the long-term preservation of its contents so that future generations of researchers can access the research. To this end, the journal benefits from the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN) service, which guarantees the secure archiving and lasting preservation of all published content.

This commitment to the durability of the archive reflects our conviction that scientific research is a public good that must be preserved and remain accessible beyond institutional or technological changes.

Hosting and technical platform

Episteme is hosted by the University of Geneva Library on behalf of the Jean Piaget Center of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Geneva. The journal uses a customised version of OJS (Open Journal Systems) from the Public Knowledge Project (PKP), an open-source software dedicated to open-access academic publishing.