About the Journal
Focus and Scope
Focus/Aims. Focus/aims of the journal is to provide readers with a better understanding of Early Childhood and Character Education through the publication of articles from various perspectives.
Scope. This journal publishes a research article and discourses around the subject of early childhood and character education. The subject cover law, matter, development, curriculum, assessment, values in early childhood, and character education from various perspective likes psychology, sociology, anthropology, and education. This journal warmly welcomes contributions from scholars of related disciplines.
Subject Journal of Early Childhood and Character Education is research, study and analysis related to early childhood include;
- Multiple intelligences for early childhood,
- Neurosains for early childhood,
- Growth and development child,
- Art skills, music and culture of early childhood,
- Development of moral and religious values of early childhood,
- Physical motor development of early childhood,
- Emotional social and cognitive development of early childhood,
- Language development of early childhood,
- Artistic and creative development of early childhood,
- Parenting for early childhood education,
- Management institution of early childhood education,
- Early child development assessment,
- Child development psychology and child empowerment,
- Learning strategy of early childhood education
- Educational tool play of early childhood education,
- Instructional media and innovation of early childhood education,
- Character education of early childhood,
- Various fields related to Early Childhood and Character Education,
- Psychology education,
- Sociology education,
- Anthropology education.
- Early Islamic Education
Peer Review Process
The research article submitted to this journal will be peer-reviewed at least 2 (two) or more expert reviewers. The reviewers give scientific valuable comments improving the contents of the manuscript.
Final decision of articles acceptance will be made by Editors according to reviewers comments. Publication of accepted articles including the sequence of published articles will be made by Editor in Chief by considering sequence of accepted date and geographical distribution of authors as well as thematic issue.
Publication Frequency
Journal of Early Childhood and Character Education is a peer-reviewed journal, published twice a year by Education and Teacher Training Faculty of UIN Walisongo Semarang, Indonesia
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.
Publication Ethics
Our Publication Ethics are based on COPE’s Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.
Duties of Authors
Reporting Standards: Authors should present an accurate account of the original research performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Researchers should present their results honestly and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation. A manuscript should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable. Manuscripts should follow the submission guidelines of the journal.
Originality and Plagiarism: Authors must ensure that they have written entirely original work. The manuscript should not be submitted concurrently to more than one publication unless the editors have agreed to co-publication. Relevant previous work and publications, both by other researchers and the authors’ own, should be properly acknowledged and referenced. The primary literature should be cited where possible. Original wording taken directly from publications by other researchers should appear in quotation marks with the appropriate citations.
Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publications: Author should not in general submit the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently. It is also expected that the author will not publish redundant manuscripts or manuscripts describing same research in more than one journal. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Multiple publications arising from a single research project should be clearly identified as such and the primary publication should be referenced.
Acknowledgement of Sources: Authors should acknowledge all sources of data used in the research and cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work. Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given.
Authorship of the Paper: The authorship of research publications should accurately reflect individuals’ contributions to the work and its reporting. Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to conception, design, execution or interpretation of the reported study. Others who have made significant contribution must be listed as co-authors. In cases where major contributors are listed as authors while those who made less substantial, or purely technical, contributions to the research or to the publication are listed in an acknowledgement section. Authors also ensure that all the authors have seen and agreed to the submitted version of the manuscript and their inclusion of names as co-authors.
Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: All authors should clearly disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.
Fundamental Errors in Published Works: If the author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in the submitted manuscript, then the author should promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.
Hazards and Human: The author should clearly identify in the manuscript if the work involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use.
Duties of Editor
Publication Decisions: Based on the review report of the editorial board, the editor can accept, reject, or request modifications to the manuscript. The validation of the work in question and its importance to researchers and readers must always drive such decisions. The editors may be guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editors may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision. Editors have to take responsibility for everything they publish and should have procedures and policies in place to ensure the quality of the material they publish and maintain the integrity of the published record.
Review of Manuscripts: Editor must ensure that each manuscript is initially evaluated by the editor for originality. The editor should organize and use peer review fairly and wisely. Editors should explain their peer review processes in the information for authors and also indicate which parts of the journal are peer reviewed. Editor should use appropriate peer reviewers for papers that are considered for publication by selecting people with sufficient expertise and avoiding those with conflicts of interest.
Fair Play: The editor must ensure that each manuscript received by the journal is reviewed for its intellectual content without regard to sex, gender, race, religion, citizenship, etc. of the authors. An important part of the responsibility to make fair and unbiased decisions is the upholding of the principle of editorial independence and integrity. Editors are in a powerful position by making decisions on publications, which makes it very important that this process is as fair and unbiased as possible.
Confidentiality: The editor must ensure that information regarding manuscripts submitted by the authors is kept confidential. Editors should critically assess any potential breaches of data protection and patient confidentiality. This includes requiring properly informed consent for the actual research presented, consent for publication where applicable.
Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: The editor of the Journal will not use unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript for his own research without written consent of the author. Editors should not be involved in decisions about papers in which they have a conflict of interest
Duties of Reviewers
Confidentiality: Information regarding manuscripts submitted by authors should be kept confidential and be treated as privileged information. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.
Acknowledgement of Sources: Reviewers must ensure that authors have acknowledged all sources of data used in the research. Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. The reviewers should notify the journal immediately if they come across any irregularities, have concerns about ethical aspects of the work, are aware of substantial similarity between the manuscript and a concurrent submission to another journal or a published article, or suspect that misconduct may have occurred during either the research or the writing and submission of the manuscript; reviewers should, however, keep their concerns confidential and not personally investigate further unless the journal asks for further information or advice.
Standards of Objectivity: Review of submitted manuscripts must be done objectively and the reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments. The reviewers should follow journals’ instructions on the specific feedback that is required of them and, unless there are good reasons not to. The reviewers should be constructive in their reviews and provide feedback that will help the authors to improve their manuscript. The reviewer should make clear which suggested additional investigations are essential to support claims made in the manuscript under consideration and which will just strengthen or extend the work
Disclosure and Conflict of Interest: Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers. In the case of double-blind review, if they suspect the identity of the author(s) notify the journal if this knowledge raises any potential conflict of interest.
Promptness: The reviewers should respond in a reasonable time-frame. The reviewers only agree to review a manuscript if they are fairly confident they can return a review within the proposed or mutually agreed time-frame, informing the journal promptly if they require an extension. In the event that a reviewer feels it is not possible for him/her to complete review of manuscript within stipulated time then this information must be communicated to the editor, so that the manuscript could be sent to another reviewer.
Abstracting & Indexing
Policy of Screening for Plagiarism
All manuscripts must be free from plagiarism contents. All authors are suggested to use plagiarism detection software to do the similarity checking. Editors check the plagiarism detection of articles in this journal by using a Turnitin software.
Author Fees
Article Submission: Rp 0
Authors are not charged any fee for submitting or reviewing manuscripts.
Article Processing Charge (APC): Rp 500,000
Starting from Vol. 6 No. 2 (October 2026), authors pay this fee only after their manuscript is accepted. Payment is made at https://pembayaran.walisongo.ac.id/home.php?modul=rajawali:
- Choose Article Processing Charge (APC) Publikasi Jurnal.
- Choose Journal of Early Childhood and Character Education (FTIK) – Rp 500,000.
- Choose 1 article accepted.
- Write your ID card number (Nomor KTP).
- Write your full name, WhatsApp number, email, and article title.
- Enter the Captcha code and submit.
Authorship Criteria
Authorship must be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. In accordance with COPE guidelines, all authors must meet the following four criteria:
- Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data.
- Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
- Final approval of the version to be published.
- Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
All individuals who contributed significantly to the work but do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgements section with their explicit permission.
Manuscript Type
The journal accepts several categories of submissions, including but not limited to:
- Original Research Articles: Detailed reports of original empirical or theoretical research.
Each manuscript type is subject to rigorous peer review unless explicitly designated as an invited editorial.
Electronic Filing
All manuscripts must be submitted electronically through the journal’s online submission system (e.g., Open Journal Systems - OJS). Submissions sent by email will not be considered. Authors must submit:
- Main text in editable formats (
.doc,.docx). - High-resolution figures and vector graphics where applicable.
- Supplementary data files in accessible formats.
All electronic interactions, including peer review feedback, revision tracking, and decision notifications, are managed strictly within the official editorial platform.
Copyright
Authors agree to transfer the copyright of the article to journal upon publication. The journal then holds the copyright for the published version of the article.
All published articles are made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction, and adaptation in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This open license ensures that the content remains freely accessible and reusable in accordance with the principles of open access.
License
All articles published by the journal are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Allegations of Research Misconduct
The publisher takes all allegations of misconduct seriously. Misconduct includes, but is not limited to: plagiarism, data fabrication/falsification, citation manipulation, duplicate/redundant publication, and unauthorized use of copyrighted materials.
- The publisher follows COPE Flowcharts when investigating allegations raised before or after publication.
- An independent institutional or editorial investigation will be initiated upon receipt of credible allegations.
- If misconduct is proven, appropriate actions will be taken, ranging from manuscript rejection to formal retractions, institutional notifications, and public notices.
Conflict of Interest (Competing Interests)
Transparency is essential for maintaining integrity in scientific reporting.
- Authors: Must declare all financial, professional, or personal relationships that could influence or be perceived as influencing their work upon submission. If no conflict exists, authors must state: "The authors declare no competing interests."
- Reviewers: Must decline to review manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with any of the authors or institutions connected to the papers.
- Editors: Must recuse themselves from editorial decisions on manuscripts where a personal or financial conflict exists.
Post-Publication Discussion
The journal encourages academic discourse and robust debate.
- Readers are invited to submit Letters to the Editor or formal comments regarding articles published in the journal.
- The original authors will be invited to submit a response to address raised points.
- Both the critique and the response may undergo peer review before being published together to provide a balanced discussion.
Correction and Retraction
When errors or misconduct are identified in published articles, the publisher will issue statements in accordance with COPE Retraction Guidelines:
- Corrections (Erratum or Corrigendum): Issued if a minor error (e.g., typesetting mistake, honest error in data/author name) is detected that does not invalidate the study's conclusions.
- Retractions: Issued if the main findings are invalid due to major scientific errors, data fabrication, plagiarism, or unapproved ethical practices. Retracted articles will remain accessible in the digital archive marked clearly with a "RETRACTED" watermark, accompanied by a formal Retraction Notice explaining the reasons.
- Expressions of Concern: Issued if an investigation into potential misconduct is ongoing or inconclusive, but significant concerns remain.
Ownership and Management
- The journal is owned and managed by Universitas Islam Negeri Walisongo Semarang.
- Information regarding ownership, organizational hierarchy, advisory boards, and financial support is fully disclosed on the journal's official website.
- The publisher ensures that commercial or political factors do not influence editorial decisions or compromise academic independence.
