On the afternoon of December 5, 2025, a lecture titled "Running the 'Education under the Rule of Law' Column Well to Serve the Construction of a Strong Educational Nation" was successfully held in Conference Room 434, Xingmin Building, Xianlin Campus, Nanjing Normal University. The lecture specially invited Director Zhang Shuguang, Director of the Editorial Department of the Journal of Educational Science of Hunan Normal University, editor of the "Education under the Rule of Law" column, and master's supervisor at the School of Educational Science of Hunan Normal University, as the keynote speaker. Teacher Wang Youhai from Nanjing Normal University Law School served as the moderator. Student editors from the Law School's Jinling Law Review editorial department and undergraduate and graduate students from all years actively participated, jointly discussing how to better run the "Education under the Rule of Law" column.

At the beginning of the lecture, the moderator, Teacher Wang Youhai, extended a warm welcome to Director Zhang Shuguang and pointed out that against the backdrop of comprehensively advancing the construction of a strong educational nation, in-depth exploration of research on education under the rule of law holds significant theoretical importance and practical value. Director Zhang Shuguang then systematically elaborated on the column's construction ideas, construction achievements, sources of topic selection, and submission precautions.
First, Director Zhang Shuguang introduced the basic profile of the Journal of Educational Science of Hunan Normal University. Founded in 2002, the journal adheres to the philosophy of "academic innovation and practical application to the world" and is committed to building a journal development path centered on featured columns. Currently, the journal has become an academic platform with multiple authoritative recognitions, including being a CSSCI source journal, Peking University Chinese core journal, and an AMI comprehensive evaluation A-core journal of Chinese humanities and social sciences journals.
Regarding column construction, Director Zhang Shuguang focused on sharing the construction ideas and achievements of the "Education under the Rule of Law" column. He specified six aspects for column construction: (1) key support to form distinctive features; (2) focusing on issues and paying attention to current trends; (3) inviting scholars to serve as hosts; (4) cultivating authors and providing a platform; (5) relying on teams and strengthening cooperation; (6) developing directions to support the discipline. At the same time, he emphasized that the field of educational law is currently showing a booming trend, and hoped that colleagues in the field would pay more attention to research in educational law, enhance the academic visibility and influence of the field by publishing and promoting outstanding achievements, and jointly strengthen the disciplinary foundation of educational law.
Subsequently, Director Zhang Shuguang pointed out that under the guidance of the correct ideas, the column construction has achieved remarkable results. As of January 2025, the column has planned more than 30 special topics and published 95 articles, of which 56 have been reprinted by Xinhua Digest, University Academic Abstracts of Higher Education Institutions, and Renmin University of China photocopying materials, achieving a reprint rate as high as 59%. The column has also received multiple honors, including the "Featured Column Award" from the Hunan University Journal Research Association and the Excellent Column Award of the 8th Hunan Provincial Journals, demonstrating its academic influence in the field of education under the rule of law.
Regarding sources of topic selection, Director Zhang Shuguang proposed a "five-from" approach: from research projects at various levels, from in-depth reading, from the policies of the Party and the state, from work and study exchanges, and from journal review feedback. He emphasized that the quality of topic selection is a key benchmark for measuring a journal's level, and high-quality topics should possess theoretical depth, practical relevance, and policy height, truly responding to the needs of the times.
In terms of submission norms, Director Zhang Shuguang pointed out that scholars can find the correct submission channels by checking the journal's official WeChat public account, the organizer's official website, and the CNKI online submission system, but they should not submit multiple manuscripts at once or submit the same manuscript to multiple journals. He also reminded scholars to take review comments seriously and preferably respond to each external review comment point by point. Finally, he emphasized that scholars must be vigilant and prudently verify when paying publication-related fees. Regarding the review mechanism, Director Zhang Shuguang vividly summarized it as "experts are single-minded, editors are half-hearted." He explained that expert reviews focus on academic quality, while editors need to comprehensively consider multiple factors such as topic value, structural logic, political awareness, language expression, and column fit, balancing academic quality with the overall layout of journal development.
During the interactive session, student Chen Chunhe raised a question based on the teacher's sharing: "In the face of new challenges brought by artificial intelligence, technology ethics, and others to education, how will the column plan its future topic selection directions?" Director Zhang Shuguang pointed out that smart education is both a frontier direction of educational law and a national strategic priority. To this end, the column will further strengthen topic planning in this field and strive to build a high-end platform for legal research on smart education. At the same time, he encouraged young scholars to actively follow the national process of education under the rule of law, engage in high-quality research, and provide intellectual support for the construction of a strong educational nation.
At the end of the lecture, Teacher Wang Youhai delivered a concluding speech. He pointed out that Director Zhang's lecture not only showed us the construction process of the "Education under the Rule of Law" column of the Journal of Educational Science of Hunan Normal University from scratch and from good to excellent, but also unreservedly shared its mature column operation mechanism and effective journal management ideas, which are highly inspiring and referential for column construction in the fields of law and education.
The lecture was informative and professionally angled, not only deepening the understanding of the attending teachers and students regarding the operation mechanism of academic journal columns but also providing useful references for promoting innovation in the theory and practice of education under the rule of law. The event concluded successfully with warm applause.