About the Journal

 

Aims and Scope

The Journal of Open, Flexible and Distance Learning (JOFDL) is the flagship, refereed, scholarly journal of the Flexible Learning Association of New Zealand (FLANZ). JOFDL publishes scholarly submissions on open, flexible, and distance learning, broadly defined. The readership is primarily academic colleagues across all educational sectors. Although JOFDL aims to share scholarly insights from diverse sectors and contexts, submissions must have the potential to make a substantive and original contribution to the field, with explicit reference to their relevance to colleagues in Oceania.

See the Submission page for an outline of JOFDL's definition of scholarship and an outline of manuscript styles. 

JOFDL invites submissions that make a valid contribution to the field. Single or multiple-authored pieces are considered regardless of the institutional affiliations of the authors.

Mission

As the scholarly agent of the Flexible Learning Association of New Zealand (FLANZ), JOFDL disseminates scholarly work that advances the theory and practice of open, flexible, and distance education. The journal is committed to open scholarship and publishes under the provisions of the Creative Commons License, and does not charge article processing charges (APCs) or submission fees.

Vision

The Journal of Open, Flexible, and Distance Learning (JOFDL) aims to serve as an outlet for world-class scholarship in open, flexible, and distance learning and as the preferred venue for publishing OFDL scholarship.

Double-Anonymous Peer Review

We are committed to the integrity of our peer review processes. This requires that neither the authors nor the reviewers are identifiable to each other. Wherever possible, submissions should attempt to ensure they cannot be identified. Clearly, this is problematic when a submission is practice-based or a localised case study is undertaken, but authors are encouraged to do as much as possible to ensure anonymity.

Please see details of how submissions should be prepared for anonymous peer review.

 

Publication Ethics & Malpractice

Crossmark

As of July 2025, the journal has implemented Crossmark, a verification service provided by Crossref. The JOFDL Crossmark Policy page is at: https://jofdl.nz/index.php/JOFDL/Crossmark

Academic malpractice and misconduct are taken seriously. We take all reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred, including but not limited to plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication, among others.

Authorship and contributorship

The journal's policy ensures that contributors who have made substantive intellectual contributions to any submission are given credit and that contributors understand their role in taking responsibility and being accountable for what is published. 

JOFDL credits contributors in two ways:

    • Authorship – a list of authors’ names at the beginning of the paper in the byline
    • Contributorship – a contributorship statement at the end of the paper (when appropriate), giving details of who, other than the authors, is contributing to planning, conducting, and reporting the work. We recommend that authors conform to the CRediT framework. Details available at https://cridet.niso.org

Authors are those who have:

  1. made Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
  2. have drafted the work or revised it critically for important intellectual content, AND
  3. have final approval of the version to be published, AND
  4. agree 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

Declarations of Artificial Intelligence Usage

As of July 2025, all authors are required to declare the extent to which their submissions have made use of generative artificial intelligence applications. Except for spell-checking and grammar assistance, any text or image generated by AI tools requires a declaration of the system and version used, and, where appropriate, the prompts used, following APA 7 guidelines. 

Complaints and appeals

If any third party brings an allegation of research misconduct to the editors' attention regarding a published article in their journal, the editors will follow the COPE Guidelines in addressing the allegation.

Conflicts of interest / competing interests

The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) states in its Guidelines on Good Publication Practice (2003) that:

‘Conflicts of interest arise when authors, reviewers, or editors have interests that are not fully apparent and that may influence their judgments on what is published. They have been described as those which, when revealed later, would make a reasonable reader feel misled or deceived.’

Examples of conflicts of interest may include the following (not an exhaustive list):

  • Having received fees for consulting.
  • Having received research funding.
  • Having been employed by a related company.
  • Holding stocks or shares in a company which might be affected by the publication of your paper.
  • Having received funds to reimburse you for attending associated symposia or conferences.

Authors are required to declare any conflicts of interest at the point of submission.

Data sharing and reproducibility

Authors are encouraged to share or make available any data and materials supporting the results or analyses presented in their submissions.

It is acknowledged that data should only be shared if it is ethically permissible to do so, provided that this does not violate the protection of human subjects or raise other valid ethical, privacy, or security concerns.

Ethical oversight

Ethical oversight includes "but is not limited to, policies on consent to publication, publication on vulnerable populations, ethical conduct of research using animals, ethical conduct of research using human subjects, handling confidential data and ethical business/marketing practices" (COPE website).

All authors are required to verify that appropriate ethical procedures have been followed.

JOFDL is entirely open access, and copyright and intellectual property rights remain with the author.

From July 2025 onwards, in line with Diamond Open Access protocols, Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 appears at the bottom of each article assigned to the author. This allows for the sharing of articles providing:

  • Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

Prior to July 2025, Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 appeared at the bottom of each article assigned to the author. This allows for the sharing of articles providing:

  • Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  • NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
  • NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.

Post-publication discussions and corrections

The publishing platform OJS enables post-publication engagement to facilitate discussions with authors after publication, eliminating the need for individual email contacts.

Any corrections are handled through subsequent editorials.

Editing and formatting services are applied to all approved submissions. This includes validation of citations. Reviewers are encouraged to question the validity of data, as well as the presentation and the value of findings.

Governance

The International Editorial Advisory Board meets asynchronously over a week each year to review the journal's progress and ensure that the editors have remained true to its mission and values.

 

Publication Schedule

JOFDL has historically produced at least two full issues each calendar year and intends to maintain that pattern in the future.

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. The journal adheres to best practices associated with Diamond Open Access publishing.

Archiving

This journal utilises the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries, permitting those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration. It is also archived at the National Digital Heritage Archive at the National Library of New Zealand. 

Authors are permitted to archive their work in their institutional repositories. following these guidelines:

  • Pre-print Version (Author’s Original Manuscript - AOM): This is the version before peer review. Authors are permitted to deposit pre-prints in any repository, personal website, or preprint server, with a clear indication of the fact that the publication has yet to be reviewed. Please disclose any preprint posting and subsequent updates with publication details in an email to jofdl-editor@flanzorg.nz.

  • Post-print Version (Accepted Manuscript - AM): This version has undergone peer review and been accepted by the journal but has not yet been copyedited or formatted by the JOFDL. Authors are allowed to deposit post-prints in institutional repositories or on personal websites.

  • Final Published Version (Version of Record - VOR / Publisher’s PDF): This is the definitive, peer-reviewed, accepted, copyedited, and formatted version with a DOI. JOFDL does allow immediate deposit of the VOR in repositories, subject to the terms of the Creative Commons license (e.g., CC-BY, CC-BY-NC).

  • Repository Selection: Authors are generally encouraged to use institutional repositories, subject-specific repositories, or recognised platforms. Note that articles are automatically posted to the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).

  • Authors must adhere to the attributed license terms when depositing articles and include accurate metadata (e.g., journal name, volume, issue, page numbers) and the DOI to ensure proper attribution, discoverability, and linking back to the official published version.

  • JOFDL aims to maximise research dissemination while balancing author rights and journal interests.

Using the OJS platform enables the journal to permit aggregating journal databases (such as Google Scholar, ERIC, DOAJ, and Informit) to harvest articles in accordance with the principles of open access.

Ownership, Management and Funding

JOFDL does not accept payment for advertisements or sponsored content. The costs of operating the journal are met by the Flexible Learning Association of New Zealand (FLANZ). Minimal royalties derived from aggregating databases (e.g. Informit) are received by FLANZ to partially offset the cost of hosting the journal.

There are no fees for authors.

Direct Marketing

Solicitation of submissions is conducted through announcements on the journal's site, social media platforms, the FLANZ newsletter and website, and professional mailing lists. All contacts are made organically, and no lists are purchased or third parties are used to solicit submissions.

Reviewers

All authors are invited to serve as reviewers and have the ability to opt out of this process via their own profile page. Others who wish to review for the Journal are asked to add this to their profile and email the Editor to advise their intentions. The list is periodically reviewed to ensure currency. Reviewers’ details are held securely within OJS. The list of reviewers (82 reviewers on 9 June 2025) is not made public. Details and support for reviewers are available here.