Evaluation
Over the last two decades, evaluation has become a major issue for academics, governmental and public organizations and businesses throughout the world. This has, however, resulted in a body of knowledge scattered across disciplines, professions and countries.
To promote dialogue internationally and to build bridges within this expanding field, Evaluation: The International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice was launched in July 1995.
Interdisciplinary
Evaluation is interdiciplinary, bringing together contributions from across the social sciences and related disciplines, including, but not limited to:
- politics, economics and public administration
- psychology, sociology and anthropology
- education, health and law
- information science and information technology
The journal publishes multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and issue-based contributions.
Interconnective
Evaluation encourages dialogue between different evaluation traditions such as program evaluation, technology assessment, auditing, value-added studies, policy evaluation and quality assessment.
The journal also bridges domains where evaluation is currently taking place, including:
- education, science and technology policy
- criminal justice
- healthcare and social services
- vocational training
- regional development
International
Edited from a European base, Evaluation is an international journal which promotes exchange between European, North American, Asian and Australasian voices within the evaluation community.
Subscribe to Evaluation for
- Special Issues - Occasional Special Issues examine important topics in depth.
- Visits to the World of Practice - This is an occasional feature based on visits by members of the editorial team to important centres of evaluation practice.
- News from the Community - The journal will inform you about the activities and plans of different evaluation societies and associations.
- Reviews - The book review section in alternate issues will keep you in touch with the latest publications in your field.
- Speeches and Addresses - This is an occasional feature, not in article format, in which presentations at conferences and other public gatherings are brought to a wider audience.
- Debates, Notes and Queries - In this feature you are invited to share your views and enter into debate with other readers.
Evaluation is available on SAGE Journals Online.
The journal Evaluation launched in 1995, publishes fully refereed papers and aims to advance the theory, methodology and practice of evaluation. We favour articles that bridge theory and practice whether through generalizable and exemplary cases or theoretical and methodological innovation.The journal’s objectives include:
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Integrating theory and practice in evaluation
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Intellectual openness and excellence
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Building bridges across the different traditions of the global evaluation community
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Identifying synergies across different disciplinary and policy domains
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Reinforcing evaluative thinking across professional, scholarly and institutional settings
Evaluation publishes cutting-edge articles, revisits and advances professional and scholarly debates and engages with the world of evaluation practice. We are based in Europe and cooperate closely with the European Evaluation Society but remain an independent voice, committed to encouraging dialogue between different evaluation traditions worldwide.
The journal is interdisciplinary drawing for example on political science, sociology, psychology, economics, anthropology and the philosophy of science. Over the last 20 years evaluation has become integral to many public-policy, regulatory and civil-society institutions. The journal Evaluation therefore welcomes innovative submissions from interconnected fields such as policy analysis, social work, technology development, education and auditing.
The journal also publishes Special Issues on topics that will help advance thinking and practice in evaluation.
| Elliot Stern | FAcSS, Emeritus Professor of Evaluation Research, University of Lancaster, UK |
| Murray Saunders | Centre for the Study of Education and Training, Lancaster University, UK |
| Nicoletta Stame | University of Rome, 'La Sapienza', Italy |
| Brad Astbury | The University of Melbourne, Australia |
| Barbara Befani | Independent Consultant and Visiting Researcher, University of Surrey, UK |
| Maria Bustelo | Compultense University of Madrid, Spain |
| Eleanor Chelimsky | Independent Consultant for Evaluation Policy and Methodology, USA |
| Jill Anne Chouinard | University of Victoria, Canada |
| Rick Davies | Independent Consultant, UK |
| Thomas Delahais | Quadrant Conseil, France |
| Kim Forss | Andante-Tools for Thinking AB, Sweden |
| Emily Gates | Boston College, USA |
| Luke Georghiou | Programme of Policy Research in Engineering, Science and Technology, University of Manchester, UK |
| Ernest R House | University of Colorado at Boulder, USA |
| Wilhelm Krull | Secretary General, Volkswagen Foundation, Hanover, Germany |
| Stefan Kuhlmann | Department of Science, Technology, and Policy Studies, University of Twente, Netherlands |
| Daniele Lamarque | EES President and European Court of Auditors, France |
| Frans L. Leeuw | Law and Public Law, Maastricht University, Netherlands |
| Sebastian Lemire | Abt Associates, USA |
| Arnold J Love | Independent Evaluation Consultant, Toronto, Canada |
| Ray Pawson | University of Leeds, UK |
| May Pettigrew | European Commission, Belgium |
| Patricia Rogers | BetterEvaluation, Australia |
| Thomas A. Schwandt | University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA |
| Peter van der Knaap | IOB Evaluation Institute, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Hague, Netherlands |
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Evaluation
Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/evi to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Evaluation will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.
- What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests - 2.6 Research Data
- Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Your Title, Keywords and Abstracts: Helping readers find your article online
4.4 Supplementary material
4.5 Reference style
4.6 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
6.1 Sage Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article - Further information
Before submitting your manuscript to Evaluation, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
1.2 Article Types
In addition to peer-reviewed research articles and occasional special issues, Evaluation publishes news from the community, reviews, speeches, addresses and debates.
Articles should normally be between 5000 and 8000 words in length, including a 100/150- word abstract and about five key words. Note, this word length does not include figures, tables and references, although these should also be limited with care taken to ensure they are necessary to present the article argument.
The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online
Evaluation adheres to a rigorous double-anonymize reviewing policy in which the identity of both the reviewer and author are always concealed from both parties.
Because of the broad range of subject-matter covered by the journal, authors are encouraged to supply the names of one or more potential referees. Doing so in no way guarantees that the editor will request reviews from these individuals, although such referees may be called upon in addition to those of the editor's choosing.
All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:
- Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
- Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
- Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.
Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
Evaluation requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
Evaluation encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway
The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.
Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:
- share your research data in a relevant public data repository
- include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
- cite this data in your research
Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway
3.1.1 Plagiarism
Evaluation and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
3.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway
3.3 Open access and author archiving
Evaluation offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.
4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines
Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.
4.3 Your Title, Keywords and Abstracts: Helping readers find your article online
Please provide an abstract of 100-150 words, and five key words. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring that readers find your article online through online search engines such as Google. Please refer to the information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords by visiting Sage's Journal Author Gateway Guidelines on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files
Evaluation adheres to the Sage Harvard reference style. View the Sage Harvard guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Harvard EndNote output file.
4.6 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
Evaluation is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/evi to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities ensuring that their work is recognised.
The collection of ORCID IDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID ID you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID ID will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID ID is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID ID please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.,/p>
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway
6. On acceptance and publication
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.
6.3 Access to your published article
Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Evaluation editorial office as follows:
E-mail: evaluationjournal@outlook.com