Journal profile
The Professional Educator
ISSN 0196-786X · eISSN 2162-6618 · Truman Pierce Institute · United States
The Professional Educator: diamond open access (no APC); no APC; review about 8 weeks (community reports); 3 articles in 2025.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
The Professional Educator is published by Truman Pierce Institute. By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Teacher Education and Leadership Studies, Teacher Education and Assessments and Teacher Professional Development and Motivation, together about 48% of its articles. Its main subfields are Education. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
The Professional Educator is a peer reviewed research journal focusing on education in the Southeastern U.S. The journal is divided into three sections: Instructional Leadership, Critical Studies of Education, and Book Reviews. The Aims and Scope of each section are listed below. Instructional Leadership Section Editor: Amy Serafini, Ed.D., Auburn University, USA The aim of the Instructional Leadership section is to promote and publish scholarship across multiple disciplines and contexts to inform the field of educational leadership. Our definition of education and schooling is expansive, including early childhood, K-12, higher education, adult education, informal learning, and other educational contexts. We invite manuscripts on topics including: Research on leadership preparation pedagogy, programs, and professional development; Innovative approaches and techniques for leadership preparation pedagogy, programs, and professional development; Thorough and critical reviews that stimulate lively, thoughtful, topical, practical, and controversial discussion; Analysis of current policy trends influencing leadership preparation and development; Comparative studies of leadership preparation pedagogy, programs, and professional development. The section publishes qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, and multi-method research, in addition to theoretical work and systematic reviews of the literature on topics related to our aims. We also invite “Notes from the Field” manuscripts from current practitioners that are responsive to scholarship published in this section. Critical Studies in Education Section Editor: TBD Aims and Scope: This section publishes manuscripts involving research and scholarship centered on understanding cultural, institutional, and structural dynamics that create and perpetuate injustice, inequity, and oppression in education and schooling in the Southeastern U.S. Our definition of education and schooling is expansive, including early childhood, K-12, higher education, adult education, informal learning, and other educational contexts. We invite manuscripts featuring scholarship that interrogates, subverts, and works to transform all systems that oppress, dehumanize, and subjugate, including hegemonic systems of white supremacy, cisheteropatriarchy, ableism, linguicism, imperialism, settler colonialism, and capitalist neoliberalism. We invite manuscripts that work to create liberatory futures and possibilities in schools, education, and so
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named United States 5 (5 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Teacher Education and Leadership StudiesSocial Sciences30.3%
- Teacher Education and AssessmentsSocial Sciences13.2%
- Teacher Professional Development and MotivationSocial Sciences4.5%
- Education Pedagogy and PracticesSocial Sciences4.2%
- Critical Race Theory in EducationSocial Sciences4.2%
- Reflective Practices in EducationSocial Sciences4.2%
- School Leadership and Teacher PerformanceSocial Sciences4.2%
- Evaluation of Teaching PracticesSocial Sciences3.7%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
Database indexing
DOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- h-index
- 22OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 46OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 0OpenAlex ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 0%LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 203 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| 2025 | 3 | 3 | 90 |
| 2024 | 2 | 2 | 158 |
| 2023 | 1 | 1 | 168 |
| 2022 | 8 | 8 | 159 |
| 2021 | 12 | 12 | 204 |
Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 8 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 8 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Double anonymous peer reviewDOAJ
Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Diamond open access (no APC)DOAJ
Every article is open access and authors pay no article processing charge.
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | No APC | No | CC BY-NC-ND | |
| LetPub | No APC | No | — | |
| Publisher website | No APC | — | — |
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
What to prepare5 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- 100–120 words
- Keywords
- ≥ 3
- Manuscript length
- ≤ 8,000 words
- Reference style
- APA
- First submission
- Free format: the journal's layout is not required
Article types accepted2, with length limits
- book reviewtypically be 2,000 to 3,000 words. For Book Reviews, the total length should typically be 1,000 to 2,000 words. Manuscripts submitted for review must be anonymi…main text ≤ 2,000 words
- research articlet for commonly-known abbreviations. For Research Articles, the total length should typically be 4,000 to 8,000 words. For Notes from the Field, the total length…main text ≤ 8,000 words
Policy excerpts from the journal's websitePublication ethics, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review
- Publication ethics Publication Ethics
The Professional Educator has a commitment to publication ethics and practices consistent with the COPE Core Practices. The journal also endorses and complies with the APA Code of Ethics and the AERA Code of Ethics. In particular, the journal fully endorses and utilizes the APA and AERA Codes of Ethics with regard to allegations of misconduct, authorship credit, complaints and appeals, conflicts o…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Copyright Policy
Authors submitting work for publication in The Professional Educator agree to assign the exclusive right to publish, reproduce, and license the work to the journal. The journal publishes all works under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. All articles in the journal are open access, and may be freely downloaded and shared in their original version for any non-commercial purpose, provided that the journal i…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access
Peer-reviewed, open-access journal Model summary
The Professional Educator, is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal published by the Truman Pierce Institute at Auburn University.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer Review Policy
The Professional Educator utilizes doubly-anonymous peer review. This means that reviewers read anonymized manuscripts that shield the identity of authors, and authors do not know the identity of reviewers. Once a manuscript is received, it is evaluated by an editor or associate editor to determine whether it fits with the aims and scope of the journal and merits being sent out for peer review. Fo…
Source ↗Publisher website ·
Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- Truman Pierce Institute
- Country or region
- United States
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 0196-786X
- Electronic ISSN
- 2162-6618
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗LetPub
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about The Professional Educator
How long does peer review take at The Professional Educator?
Authors report an average review time of about 8 weeks. Article statistics cover accepted papers only, publisher figures follow the journal's own definitions, and community reports come from authors' own submissions; none is a promise from the journal.
What are the manuscript requirements of The Professional Educator?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: 100–120 words; Keywords: ≥ 3; Manuscript length: ≤ 8,000 words; Reference style: APA; First submission: Free format: the journal's layout is not required. A model extracted these from the author guidelines and each was checked against the text; check the latest version on the journal's website before submitting.
Where are the editorial board members of The Professional Educator based?
Of the 5 board members whose country the journal's board page names, none are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United States (5). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index The Professional Educator?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, The Professional Educator is indexed in DOAJ.
Is The Professional Educator open access, and what is the APC?
The Professional Educator is a diamond open-access journal (no APC). It charges no article processing charge.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, OpenAlex, DOAJ, Publisher website; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-26). Last updated: .