Articles: Submissions of up to 7,000 words on evaluation theory and practice, including innovative methodological approaches, standards of practice, strategies to enhance the implementation, reporting and use of evaluations. Articles reporting original empirical research on evaluation are of particular interest.

Submitted manuscripts will be evaluated through double-blind peer review in relation to:

• Interest and relevance to evaluation practice in Canada and abroad - the articles must focus on areas of evaluation theory and practice of interest to evaluation scholars, students or practitioners.
• Clarity and conciseness of the article.
• Originality of the issue, method or practice reported in the article.
• Please note that the Journal does NOT publish evaluation summaries or reports.
• The Journal publishes articles in both French and English. For specific Manuscript Submission Guidelines please see next section.

Research and Practice Notes: A Research and Practice note is a brief, structured description and analysis of a subject of importance to evaluation practice. This type of manuscript results from the systematic examination of one or many dimensions of evaluation practice and seeks to share lessons learned with other practitioners and researchers.

These papers should be no longer than 3,000 words including references. The dimensions of evaluation practice that could be the subject of a practice note include (but are not limited to): managing an evaluation function, planning evaluation work, designing evaluation methods and data collection strategies, engaging evaluation stakeholders, employing innovative evaluation methods and strategies, conducting evaluation projects, reporting and communicating evaluation results, fostering evaluation use, and teaching evaluation.

Research and Practice Notes should be structured in the following way:

• Introduction and/or context section to orient the reader
• Brief description of the dimension(s) of practice being examined, with references to relevant literature
• Overview of method(s) used to systematically examine or analyze the dimension(s) of practice to extract what was learned (e.g., reflective case study, post-mortem, key informant interviews, analysis against theoretical model or framework, etc.)
• Description and analysis of what was learned, with emphasis on highlighting the factors that are thought to account for success (or lack of success)
• Conclusions and implications for evaluation practice, theory and/or research, in Canada or elsewhere

Manuscripts will be subject to double-blind peer review. The evaluations will be based on the following criteria:

• Relevance to the practice of evaluation
• Credibility of the analysis
• Validity of conclusions and implications
• Originality
• Clarity and conciseness
• Reader interest

Book Reviews: Reviews of current publications relevant to theory and practice in program evaluation are reported in most issues. Reviewers are solicited directly by the Book Review Editor. Book reviews should be no longer than 1,000 words and include a basic description of the book's contents as well as an original critique of the book.

Roots and Relations

Last updated: 15 February 2025

About Roots and Relations

Roots and Relations (R&R) has been publishing Indigenous contributions since 2023. The purpose of R&R is to honour our lineage, grow our kinship and sustain our intergenerational legacies of Indigenous wisdom and practices in and through evaluation. R&R will work to sacredly hold traditional knowledge, celebrate and make visible culture and language utilization, protect and assert sovereignty, provide space for Indigenous voices and celebrate Indigenous wisdom and innovations in and through the lens of evaluation.

The vision for R&R is that it will:

• Develop and sustain a welcoming and safe space for any Indigenous led contributions to be considered, discussed, reviewed, and published in order to keep evaluation decolonized and with an Indigenous focus (p. 353, Bowman, Dodge Francis, and Tyndall, 2015).
• Establish a place of Indigenous branded scholarship where Indigenous contributors can offer a diverse offering of published evaluation work that is not limited only to text submissions.
• Utilize a blended model for the editorial process that incorporates a traditional Indigenous framework and review process for the purposes of curious inquiry, holistic human development, engaged learning, and kinship supports on the pathway to future publication.
• Inclusion of intergenerational relationships (youth or young adults through Elders) so the origins and purposes of RR remains rooted in traditional knowledge and language, cultural protocols and practices, nation-to-nation (Bowman, 2019) and inclusion of Tribal/First Nation sovereignty, and Indigenous ethics as a sustainable, regenerative, and celebratory pathway for publishing representative Indigenous scholarship.

All R&R submissions are aligned with the four directions of the Medicine Wheel (Bowman, 2018) that help us have a holistic and traditionally rooted perspective as we view evaluation:  

• Eastern Door: Be a Good Relative. We come to the work rested and ready in ways that reflect traditional, cultural, and spiritual ways of knowing as a process where we respectfully listen and seek to understand first, then decide on best pathways together.
• Southern Door: Be of Good Mind. This is the awakening, rooting, and centering of pre-contact and post-contact Indigenous and community- centered and created knowledge and practices that are restorative, regenerative, strength based, protect the privacy, and respect the sovereignty of Indigenous nations related to data, cultural, intellectual, human, and non-human.
• Western Door: Do Good Work. This supports the development of culturally specific responsive and regenerative strategies, studies, policies, processes, and work products that align with the need for healthy, reciprocal, respectful and relevant Indigenous approaches to evaluation.
• Northern Door: Be on a Good Journey. Using the wisdom of our Ancestors and Elders, we will be grounded in traditional knowledge to celebrate and share what is working and embrace and learn from challenges. We will support walking on sacred pathways for innovative and sustainable Indigenous evaluation that inspires the next Seven Generations.

Possible topics or content addressed by the submissions includes origin stories; traditional knowledge; oral history; Indigenous theories, frameworks, ethics; working nation to nation; treaties; oral agreements, innovative approaches to Indigenous evaluation; traditional ways of sense making; sustainability; environmental stewardship; and differentiating what “wisdom” is (our Elders) vs. simply the production of more knowledge (western ways).

Author Guidelines:

Types of R&R Submissions:

• Journal Article Submission (variable length)
• Visual Submission: Artbook, regalia digital photos, digital artwork, data visualization, etc.)
• Audio or Video Submission: Music files, video files, vlog, oral story, story mapping, dance or performance art, etc.
• Other Submission: Poetry or a combination of submission types

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check their submission's compliance with all of the following items. Submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines:

All Contributions

• I declare that I am the lead author and I identify as an Indigenous person.
• My submission is connected to program evaluation.
• My submission includes an abstract.
• My submission addresses at least one of the doorways described above.
• You will be prompted to provide a brief description of how your submission aligns with each doorway in our online submission portal.
• My manuscript is written in English or French.
• The manuscript is submitted through our online portal.
• My submission includes a reference list.
• References are cited consistently and DOIs have been provided, where available.
• Where appropriate, Indigenous authors, scholars, and evaluators have been cited in my submission.
• The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (
• The manuscript and files for review have been completely de-identified.
• De-identification instructions can be found in the Evergreen Call or requested from cjpe@evaluationcanada.ca. 

Traditional Journal Articles, Poetry, and Other Text-Based Contributions

• The submission file is in doc or docx format.
• All figures, tables, and illustrations must be numbered and placed in the manuscript where they should appear. 
• All figures, tables, and illustrations must also be uploaded in separate files as “supplementary files not for review.” Should your article be accepted, these high-quality files will be used in the publishing process.
• Figures and illustrations should be uploaded as individual JPG, TIF, or PDF files with a minimum of 300-dpi resolution.
• Tables should be uploaded as OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, RTF, WordPerfect, or Excel document file format.

Multimedia Contributions:

• If this is an audio- or video-recorded contribution, the submission file is in mp4, mov, wmv, avi, or flv format.
• If this is a creative and/or cultural contribution, the submission file is in mp4, mov, wmv, avi, flv, jpg, png, or svg format.

Peer Review Process 

All submitted manuscripts will be subject to a double blind peer review by up to four expert members of the Roots and Relations community. Authors are required to ensure that all clues to their identity are removed from manuscripts submitted for potential publication. Copies of the reviewer's comments will be sent to authors with identities withheld

As outlined in the Author Guidelines, the manuscript and files for review must be completely de-identified before submission. De-identification instructions can be found in the Evergreen Call or requested from cjpe@evaluationcanada.ca. 

Our reviewers provide input on how the submission meets the following guidelines:

• Addressing Indigenous traditional knowledge, language, culture, theories, methods, and celebrating traditional ways of knowing, being and doing, and/or contemporary lifestyles.
• Contributing to reconciliation, Nation-to-Nation, Indigenous data sovereignty, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, or other First Nations and/or Indigenous-developed policy and/or governance frameworks.
• Engaging authentically with communities on issues that Indigenous community members, Indigenous governments, or Indigenous organizations want investigated (e.g., education, community wellness, justice, impact of climate change).
• Providing communities with solutions to current and upcoming concerns.
• Speaking to issues of equity, diversity, inclusion, and sustainability.
• Influencing public debate and helping to shape or impact public policy.

• After providing comments, reviewers rank the submission as one of the following:
• Ancestor Tree: This submission is ready for publication
• Adult Tree: This submission needs light editorial support and minor modifications in order to be ready for a second review and future publication
• Sapling Tree: This submission needs strong editorial support, may benefit from a little mentoring with an Elder, and would require moderate changes in structure and/or content in order to be ready for a second review and future publication.
• Seedling Tree: This submission needs strong and caring editorial and Elder mentoring support to help bring clarity, structure, and/or content inputs into the submission in order to be ready for a second review and future publication.

The peer review process is a volunteer-driven effort to ensure that emerging scholarship is of utmost quality. We thank our reviewers for donating their time to support the ongoing production and sharing of knowledge in our discipline.

Further Assistance

R&R Submissions: 

Larry Bremner (Métis): larry@proactive.mb.ca

Nicole Bowman (Lunaape/Mohican): nicky@bpcwi.com

Technical Support:

Paisley Worthington: cjpe@evaluationcanada.ca

Jeremy Acree, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Courtney Amo, Atlantic Canada Opportunity Agency 

Tim Aubry, University of Ottawa

Isabelle Bourgeois, University of Ottawa

Ayesha Boyce, Arizona State University

Nancy Carter, Evaluation Scientist

Brad Cousins, University of Ottawa

Gédéon Dosson Djissa, Canadian Institutes of Health Research

Sarah Earl, YMCA GTA

Paul Favaro, York University

Steve Jacob, Université Laval

Marlène Laeubli, LAUCO Evaluation & Training

Chris Lovato, University of British Columbia

James McDavid, University of Victoria

Michael Obrecht, Independent Consultant

Burt Perrin, Independent Consultant

Cheryl Poth, University of Alberta

Lynda Rey, École nationale d'administration publique

Lucie Richard, Université de Montréal

Valéry Ridde, Université de Montréal

Ray Rist, The World Bank

Michelle Searle, Queens University

Mark Seasons, University of Waterloo

Robert Schwartz, University of Toronto

Daniela Schröter, Western Michigan University

Sandra Sellick, Royal Roads University

Sanjeev Sridharan, The Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation