The editors invite original, scholarly articles and research papers within the aim and scope of the journal.  Articles, etc. that have not been published previously or submitted elsewhere, and that are not under review for another publication in any medium (e.g. printed journal, conference proceedings, electronic or optical medium) should be submitted to the Chief Editor, Indian Journal of Open Learning (IJOL).  The author(s) should obtain copyright clearance for materials used in their article.  It will be assumed that submission of an article to this journal implies that all the foregoing conditions are applicable.

Peer Review:  All contributions submitted will be subjected to peer review.  To allow anonymous refereeing, please submit author(s) identification, affiliation, etc. in a separate sheet (not in the main text of the article).

Format: Papers (5000-7000 words normally, upto 10000 words in exceptional cases), short communications (2000-3000 words) on new ideas/new areas of work/innovations/action research/ongoing investigations/conference and seminar and workshop outcomes, and book reviews (1000-2000 words) should be neatly typed on one side of A4 size paper with double spacing and a wide margin to the left. 

Organisation: The general organisation of research papers should be as follows: the nature and scope of the study should be stated first, then the details of methods, materials, tools, procedures and/or equipments used, followed by findings, discussion and conclusion.  Appendices may be used to amplify details where appropriate.  Scholarly papers should have introduction, main sections and sub-sections, and conclusion/implications.

Submission: Papers should be submitted through email attachment to Chief Editor, Indian Journal of Open Learning in compatible Word 7.0 document format and also send a back up hard copy by post. Author(s) are expected to give an undertaking that the paper is original, and is not under consideration for any other journal, and all the sources used in the paper are duly acknowledged and referenced. No part of the submission should contain material for which the author has not obtained copyright from the owner.

Tables and Figures should be typed in separate sheets and their position in the text should be indicated clearly.  Please supply camera-ready copy of all figures, as these shall not normally be redrawn.

Footnotes to the test should be avoided, but where used, should be numbered consecutively and presented as endnotes.

Citations of other works should be limited to those strictly necessary for arguments.  Short quotations should be included in the text within inverted commas (“ “) and quotations of more than 30 words should be placed in a separate paragraph indented from the main body of the text.  However, all quotations should be accompanied by precise references, in author date style.  The authors, wherever applicable, shall obtain copyrights of others’ works in the text.

References should be indicated in the text by giving the name of author(s), with the year of publication of parentheses.  If more than one paper by the same author(s) from the same year are cites, a,b,c, etc. should be put after the year of publication.  All references should be alphabetically listed at the end of the paper in the following standard format.

Books: Keegan, D. (1986). Foundations of Distance Education. London: Croom Helm

Journal Articles: Jegede, Olugbemiro (1995). Anxiety levels and factors which engender them among tertiary distance learners. Indian Journal of Open Learning, 4 (1), 1-6.

Book Chapters: Ram Reddy, G. (1988). Distance education: what, why and how. In Koul, B.N. et al (Eds), Studies in Distance Education. New Delhi: AIU & IGNOU.

Conference Papers: Gooler, Dennis D. (1981) ‘Critical issues in evaluating distance education’. Discussion paper presented at the Regional Symposium on Distance Teaching in Asia, University Sains Malaysia, 4-7 May.

Dissertations: Singh S.K. (1994) ‘Problems of women pursuing university degree course through distance education in India’. MEd Dissertation, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.