The ICPC Journal of Competitive Learning (JCL), published by the ICPC Foundation, is a peer-reviewed open-access journal advancing research and practice at the intersection of competition and learning.

Mission and scope

JCL provides a rigorous interdisciplinary forum for researchers, educators, practitioners, and program designers studying how structured competition can support learning, motivation, collaboration, skill development, and professional performance. Relevant topics include competitive programming, contests and olympiads, gamification, curriculum and assessment design, learning analytics, psychology and cognition, educational technology, equity and inclusion, and the ethical use of competition.

Article types

• Research Articles: original empirical or theoretical scholarship.
• Review Articles: systematic, scoping, or critical syntheses of prior work.
• Curriculum and Practice Articles: evaluated curricula, teaching methods, contest designs, tools, and interventions.
• Short Articles: concise, peer-reviewed reports of emerging results or methods.
• Problem Sets and Data Articles: reusable problem collections, datasets, benchmarks, and accompanying validation.
• Editorials: invited perspectives from the editors.

Peer review

Research, review, curriculum, short, problem-set, and data submissions are screened by an editor and normally evaluated by at least two independent reviewers under an anonymous-reviewer/anonymous-author process. Editors assess relevance, originality, methodological rigor, clarity, ethics, reproducibility, and contribution to the field. Editorials are reviewed internally and are clearly identified as non-research content. Full details appear in the Editorial and Publication Policies.

Open access, copyright, and fees

JCL provides immediate open access to its published content. The journal currently charges no submission fee, article processing charge, or publication fee. Copyright and license information is stated on each published article. Unless an article states otherwise, JCL content is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Editorial independence

Editorial decisions are based on scholarly merit and fit with the journal's scope. The ICPC Foundation, sponsors, and institutional affiliations do not control individual editorial decisions. Submissions authored by an editor or editorial-board member are handled by an independent editor who has no conflict with the work.

Policies and contact

Authors and reviewers should consult the Author Guidelines, Editorial and Publication Policies, and Privacy Statement. Questions may be directed to the journal's contact team.