Educational Researcher
Educational Researcher (ER) publishes scholarly articles that are of general significance to the education research community and that come from a wide range of areas of education research and related disciplines. ER aims to make major programmatic research and new findings of broad importance widely accessible.
ER encourages submissions of three types of research articles—feature articles, reviews/essays, and briefs. Technical comments may also be submitted. In addition, ER publishes commentary articles under the demarcations of policy forum, letters, and books et al.
Research Articles
Feature Articles present important new research results of broad significance. Feature articles should include an abstract, an introductory paragraph, up to five figures or tables, and up to 40 references, with text totaling no more than 5,000 words. Significant feature articles may be somewhat longer than 5,000 words at the discretion of the editors. Methods need to be sufficiently presented in research article to warrant results, but information should usually be included in supplementary online material to further support the paper's conclusions. All Feature Articles undergo peer review; they may be solicited or unsolicited.
Reviews/Essays describe new developments of broad significance and highlight unresolved questions and future directions. Reviews/Essays are research-based and aim to convey new developments in the state of the knowledge and its implications, whether theoretical, empirical, or methodological. Reviews/Essays should include an abstract, an introduction that outlines the main point, brief subheadings, and up to 40 references, with text totaling no more than 4,000 words. All Reviews/Essays undergo peer review; they may be solicited or unsolicited.
Briefs are brief analyses focusing on a specific topic or question using new data or existing databases (e.g., available from the National Center for Education Statistics). Briefs should include a brief introduction of the issue or question, a brief discussion of the data, up to two figures or tables, and a maximum six references, with text totaling no more than 1,000 words. Titles should be no more than eight words in length. Authors should also submit an abstract of 100 words or less. Methods (quantitative and/or qualitative) should be included in supporting online material. Manuscripts are peer-reviewed in the usual manner.
Technical Comments discuss articles published in ER within the previous 6 months. Technical Comments should have no more than two figures or tables; authors should submit a brief abstract of no more than 50 words to accompany their comment, with text totaling no more than 1,000 words. The authors of the original ER article are given an opportunity to reply. Comments and responses are peer reviewed and edited as needed.
Other Works. Authors are encouraged to contact the editors directly if they wish to prepare an article of a genre or length that does not readily fit within the above submission types.
Commentaries
Policy Forum presents issues related to the intersections between education research and policy. Essays should be 1,000-2,000 words long plus 1-2 figures. Submissions may be solicited or unsolicited.
Letters discuss material published in ER in the last 3 months or issues of general interest. Letters may total up to 300 words. Submissions are unsolicited.
Books et al. presents reviews of current books, multimedia, exhibitions, and films of interest to ER readers. They may total up to 1,000 words. Submissions are solicited.
Special Issues or Sections
On occasion, Educational Researcher can publish special issues or sections on topics that are sufficiently compelling or of broad-based significance for the field or for the advancement of education research that they deserve wide attention and dissemination. Please contact the editors for guidance. Special Issues or Sections also require review and approval of the AERA Publications Committee.
All issues of ER are available to browse online.
Educational Researcher publishes scholarly articles that are of general significance to the education research community and that come from a wide range of areas of education research and related disciplines. ER aims to make major programmatic research and new findings of broad importance widely accessible. It is published nine times per year.
ER encourages submissions of three types of research articles—feature articles, reviews/essays, and briefs. Technical comments may also be submitted. In addition, ER publishes commentary articles under the demarcations of policy forum, letters, and books et al.
Research Articles
Feature Articles present important new research results of broad significance. Feature articles should include an abstract, an introductory paragraph, up to five figures or tables, and up to 40 references, with text totaling no more than 5,000 words. Significant feature articles may be somewhat longer than 5,000 words at the discretion of the editors. Methods need to be sufficiently presented in research article to warrant results, but information should usually be included in supplementary online material to further support the paper's conclusions. All Feature Articles undergo peer review; they may be solicited or unsolicited.
Reviews/Essays describe new developments of broad significance and highlight unresolved questions and future directions. Reviews/Essays are research-based and aim to convey new developments in the state of the knowledge and its implications, whether theoretical, empirical, or methodological. Reviews/Essays should include an abstract, an introduction that outlines the main point, brief subheadings, and up to 40 references, with text totaling no more than 4,000 words. All Reviews/Essays undergo peer review; they may be solicited or unsolicited.
Briefs are brief analyses focusing on a specific topic or question using new data or existing databases (e.g., available from the National Center for Education Statistics). Briefs should include a brief introduction of the issue or question, a brief discussion of the data, up to two figures or tables, and a maximum six references, with text totaling no more than 1,000 words. Titles should be no more than eight words in length. Authors should also submit an abstract of 100 words or less. Methods (quantitative and/or qualitative) should be included in supporting online material. Manuscripts are peer-reviewed in the usual manner.
Technical Comments discuss articles published in ER within the previous 6 months. Technical Comments should have no more than two figures or tables; authors should submit a brief abstract of no more than 50 words to accompany their comment, with text totaling no more than 1,000 words. The authors of the original ER article are given an opportunity to reply. Comments and responses are peer reviewed and edited as needed.
Other Works. Authors are encouraged to contact the editors directly if they wish to prepare an article of a genre or length that does not readily fit within the above submission types.
Commentaries
Policy Forum presents issues related to the intersections between education research and policy. Essays should be 1,000-2,000 words long plus 1-2 figures. Submissions may be solicited or unsolicited.
Letters discuss material published in ER in the last 3 months or issues of general interest. Letters may total up to 300 words. Submissions are unsolicited.
Books et al. presents reviews of current books, multimedia, exhibitions, and films of interest to ER readers. They may total up to 1,000 words. Submissions are solicited.
| Thurston Domina | University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA |
| Andrew McEachin | NWEA, USA |
| Dana Thompson Dorsey | University of South Florida, USA |
| Sarah Woulfin | University of Texas at Austin, USA |
| T. Elon Dancy | University of Pittsburgh, USA |
| Suzanne E. Eckes | University of Wisconsin, USA |
| Laura Hamilton | American Institutes for Research, USA |
| Sera Hernandez | San Diego State University, USA |
| Ethan Hutt | University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA |
| Daniel Klasik | The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA |
| Keon McGuire | Arizona State University |
| Charles Munter | University of Missouri, USA |
| Michelle A. Purdy | Washington University in St. Louis, USA |
| Jennifer Russell | Vanderbilt University, USA |
| Erica Turner | University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA |
| Sheneka Williams | Michigan State University, USA |
| Heather Zimmerman | Pennsylvania State University, USA |
| Audrey Poe | American Educational Research Association, USA |
| Tommaso Agasisti | Politecnico di Milano, Italy |
| Adam Alvarez | Rowan University, USA |
| Steven Aragon | Texas State University, USA |
| Dominique Baker | |
| Andrea Bingham | University of Colorado Colorado Springs, USA |
| David Blazar | University of Maryland, USA |
| Angela Boatman | Boston College, USA |
| David Boote | University of Central Florida, USA |
| Christopher Candelaria | Vanderbilt University, USA |
| Deven Carlson | University of Oklahoma, USA |
| Sandy Chafouleas | University of Connecticut, USA |
| Sherice Clarke | University of California, San Diego, USA |
| Julia Cohen | University of Virginia, USA |
| F. Chris Curran | University of Florida, USA |
| Rajeev Darolia | University of Kentucky, USA |
| Pamela Davis-Kean | University of Michigan, Department of Psychology, USA |
| Shayan Doroudi | University of California, Irvine, USA |
| Mimi Engel | University of Colorado, Boulder, USA |
| Abiola Farinde-Wu | University of Massachusetts Boston, USA |
| Tanetha Fisher | University of South Florida, USA |
| Rachael Gabriel | University of Connecticut, USA |
| Liliana Garcés | University of Texas at Austin, USA |
| Lynsey Gibbons | University of Delaware, USA |
| Joanne Golann | Vanderbilt University, USA |
| Bryan Henderson | Arizona State University, USA |
| Nicholas Hillman | University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA |
| Megan Hopkins | University of California, San Diego, USA |
| Huriya Jabbar | The University of Texas at Austin, USA |
| Elham Kazemi | University of Washington, USA |
| Geert Kelchtermans | University of Leuven, Belgium |
| Ayesha Khurshid | Florida State University, USA |
| YJ Kim | University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA |
| Zahid Kisa | Florida State University, USA |
| Julie Kittleson | University of Georgia, USA |
| Kari Kokka | University of Nevada, Las Vegas - USA |
| Matthew A. Kraft | Brown University, USA |
| Megan Kuhfeld | NWEA, USA |
| Sarah Lenhoff | Wayne State University, USA |
| Gerald LeTendre | Pennsylvania State University, USA |
| Guodong Liang | Community Training and Assistance Center, USA |
| Constance Lindsay | The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA |
| Ruth Lopez-Turley | Rice University, USA |
| Sarah Lubienski | Indiana University, USA |
| Catherine Lugg | Rutgers University, USA |
| Thomas Luschei | Claremont Graduate University, USA |
| Christine Mokher | Florida State University, USA |
| Gholdy Muhammad | University of Illinois Chicago, USA |
| Steven Nelson | University of Memphis, USA |
| William Penuel | University of Colorado Boulder, USA |
| Lara C. Perez-Felkner | Florida State University, USA |
| Morgan S. Polikoff | Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California, USA |
| Courtney Preston | Florida State University, USA |
| David Quinn | University of Southern California, USA |
| Gabriela Richard | The Pennsylvania State University, USA |
| Catherine Riegle-Crumb | University of Texas, Austin, USA |
| Jessica Rigby | University of Washington, USA |
| Ricarose Roque | |
| Kai A. Schafft | The Pennsylvania State University, USA |
| Jonathan Schweig | RAND Corporation, USA |
| Tesha Sengupta-Irving | University of California, Berkeley, USA |
| Genevieve Siegel-Hawley | Virginia Commonwealth University, USA |
| Russell Skiba | Indiana University, USA |
| Shannon Snapp | California State University Monterey Bay, USA |
| James Soland | University of Virginia, USA |
| Matthew Springer | Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA |
| Jon Valant | Brookings Institution, USA |
| Christina Weiland | University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA |
| Richard Welsh | Vanderbilt University, USA |
| Marcus Winters | Boston University, USA |
| Alexander Wiseman | Texas Tech University, USA |
| Jim Wyckoff | University of Virginia, USA |
| Peter Youngs | University of Virginia, USA |
| Felice J. Levine | Executive Director, American Educational Research Association, USA |
| John Neikirk | Director of Publications |
For more information on open access options and compliance at Sage, including self author archiving deposits (green open access) visit Sage Publishing Policies on our Journal Author Gateway.
Researchers who intend to submit material for publication by AERA should consult the Standards for Reporting on Empirical Social Science Research in AERA Publications, adopted by the AERA Council in 2006. Submission of a manuscript implies commitment to publish in the journal. Authors submitting to the journal should not simultaneously submit the manuscript to another journal, nor should the manuscript have been published elsewhere in substantially similar form or with substantially similar content. Authors in doubt about what constitutes prior publication should consult the editor. Submit all manuscripts electronically to the editorial team at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/edr.
For questions or inquiries about new or revised manuscript submissions, email the editorial office.
ER encourages submissions of three types of research articles—feature articles, reviews/essays, and briefs. Technical comments may also be submitted. In addition, ER publishes commentary articles under the demarcations of policy forum, letters, and books et al.
Research Articles
Feature Articles present important new research results of broad significance. Feature articles should include an abstract, an introductory paragraph, up to five figures or tables, and up to 40 references, with text totaling no more than 5,000 words. Significant feature articles may be somewhat longer than 5,000 words at the discretion of the editors. Methods need to be sufficiently presented in research article to warrant results, but information should usually be included in supplementary online material to further support the paper's conclusions. All Feature Articles undergo peer review; they may be solicited or unsolicited.
Reviews/Essays describe new developments of broad significance and highlight unresolved questions and future directions. Reviews/Essays are research-based and aim to convey new developments in the state of the knowledge and its implications, whether theoretical, empirical, or methodological. Reviews/Essays should include an abstract, an introduction that outlines the main point, brief subheadings, and up to 40 references, with text totaling no more than 4,000 words. All Reviews/Essays undergo peer review; they may be solicited or unsolicited.
Briefs are brief analyses focusing on a specific topic or question using new data or existing databases (e.g., available from the National Center for Education Statistics). Briefs should include a brief introduction of the issue or question, a brief discussion of the data, up to two figures or tables, and a maximum six references, with text totaling no more than 1,000 words. Titles should be no more than eight words in length. Authors should also submit an abstract of 100 words or less. Methods (quantitative and/or qualitative) should be included in supporting online material. Manuscripts are peer-reviewed in the usual manner.
Technical Comments discuss articles published in ER within the previous 6 months. Technical Comments should have no more than two figures or tables; authors should submit a brief abstract of no more than 50 words to accompany their comment, with text totaling no more than 1,000 words. The authors of the original ER article are given an opportunity to reply. Comments and responses are peer reviewed and edited as needed. .
Other Works. Authors are encouraged to contact the editors directly if they wish to prepare an article of a genre or length that does not readily fit within the above submission types.
Commentaries
Policy Forum presents issues related to the intersections between education research and policy. Essays should be 1,000-2,000 words long plus 1-2 figures. Submissions may be solicited or unsolicited.
Letters discuss material published in ER in the last 3 months or issues of general interest. Letters may total up to 300 words. Submissions are unsolicited.
Books et al. presents reviews of current books, multimedia, exhibitions, and films of interest to ER readers. They may total up to 1,000 words. Submissions are solicited.
Special Issues or Sections
On occasion, Educational Researcher can publish special issues or sections on topics that are sufficiently compelling or of broad-based significance for the field or for the advancement of education research that they deserve wide attention and dissemination. Please contact the editors for guidance. Special Issues or Sections also require review and approval of the AERA Publications Committee.
Submission Preparation Checklist
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission’s compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors who do not adhere to these guidelines.
Style All submissions should follow APA style. The submission file should be in Microsoft Word, RTF, WordPerfect, or LaTeX format. Any supplemental files should be in Microsoft Word, RTF, or Excel format. Please do not upload PDF files unless they accompany LaTeX files.
Contact information Supply complete contact information for all authors on the title page: Name, affiliation, complete street address, email address, fax, phone numbers (the more, the better). Indicate the corresponding author. The title page should be uploaded separately from the main manuscript file. No identifying information should be included in the main manuscript file to allow for anonymize review.
Abstract All manuscripts, except technical comments and commentaries, should include an abstract of 75–120 words. Technical comments and commentaries should contain an abstract of no more than 50 words.
Anonymizing The name(s) of the author(s) should be typed only on the title page to ensure anonymity in the review process. The main manuscript should have no author names but may carry a short article title at the top. Names of authors in citations and references should not be anonymized if the third person voice is used; information in the text that would identify the those references as belonging to the author should be deleted from the manuscript (e.g., text citations of “my previous work,” especially when accompanied by a self-citation; a preponderance of the author’s own work in the reference list). These may be reinserted in the final draft. Information that could help identify any author (e.g. mention of any affiliation) should also be removed. Citations and references to undistributed work that is not available on the Web (e.g. manuscripts under review, unpublished articles, etc.) should be anonymized using “Author, [year]” and realphabetized in the reference list. The author’s name should be removed from the document’s Properties. Acknowledgements and funding information should be included on the title page rather than in the main manuscript file.
Typescript Manuscripts should be typed for 8½” × 11” paper, in upper and lower case, double-spaced, with 1½” margins on all sides. They should be in IBM-compatible MS Word, WordPerfect, or RTF format. Subheads should be used at reasonable intervals to break the monotony of text. Words and symbols to be italicized must be clearly indicated, by either italic type or underlining. Abbreviations and acronyms should be spelled out at first mention unless found as entries in their abbreviated form in Merriam-Webster’s Eleventh Collegiate Dictionary (e.g., “IQ” needs no explanation). Pages should be numbered consecutively.
Notes and references Notes are for explanations or amplifications of textual material. They are distracting to readers and expensive to set and should be avoided whenever possible. They should be typed as normal text at the end of the text section of the manuscript rather than as part of the footnote or endnote feature of a computer program and should be numbered consecutively throughout the article. A reference list contains only references that are cited in the text. Its accuracy and completeness are the responsibility of the author(s). Reference each publicly available dataset with its title, author, date, and a persistent Web identifier such as a digital object identifier (DOI), a handle, or a uniform resource name (URN). If necessary, this last element may be replaced by a web address and an access date. Personal communications (letters, memos, telephone conversations) are cited in the text after the name with as exact a date as possible. Examples of references to a book, a chapter in a book, and a journal article follow, formatted in APA style: Bobrow, D. G., & Collins, A. M. (Eds.). (1975). Representation and understanding: Studies in cognitive science. New York: Academic Press. Crothers, E. (1972). Memory structure and the recall of discourse. In R. O. Freedle & J. B. Carroll (Eds.), Language comprehension and the acquisition of knowledge (pp. 201–238). Washington, DC: Winston. Frase, L. T. (1968). Questions as aids to reading: Some research and a theory. American Educational Research Journal, 5, 319–322.
Tables, figures, and illustrations The purpose of tables and figures is to present data to the reader in a clear and unambiguous manner. The author should not describe the data in the text in such detail that illustration or text is redundant. Figures and tables should be keyed to the text. Tables should each start on a new page and be placed at the end of the manuscript (after the references). Tables will be typeset; they should be editable, not embedded as images. Figure captions should be typed on a separate page (and should not appear in full on the original figures). One high-quality, electronic versions of each figure must be submitted with the manuscript that is to be typeset. Figures are included in color in the online version of the journal only; color printing in the print edition can be arranged with the production editor for an additional fee.
Right of Reply
The right of reply policy encourages comments on recently published articles in AERA publications. They are, of course, subject to the same editorial review and decision process as articles. If the comment is accepted for publication, the editor shall inform the author of the original article. If the author submits a reply to the comment, the reply is also subject to editorial review and decision. The editor may allot a specific amount of journal space for the comment (ordinarily about 1,500 words) and for the reply (ordinarily about 750 words). The reply may appear in the same issue as the comment or in a later issue (Council, June 1980).
If an article is accepted for publication in an AERA journal that, in the judgment of the editor, has as its main theme or thrust a critique of a specific piece of work or a specific line of work associated with an individual or program of research, then the individual or representative of the research program whose work is critiqued should be notified in advance about the upcoming publication and given the opportunity to reply, ideally in the same issue. The author of the original article should also be notified. Normal guidelines for length and review of the reply and publication of a rejoinder by the original article’s author(s) should be followed. Articles in the format “an open letter to …” may constitute prototypical exemplars of the category defined here, but other formats may well be used, and would be included under the qualifications for response prescribed here (Council, January 2002).
Sage Choice and Open Access
For more information on open access options and compliance at Sage, including self author archiving deposits (green open access) visit Sage Publishing Policies on our Journal Author Gateway.
How to get help with the quality of English in your submission:
Authors who would like to refine the use of English in their manuscripts might consider using the services of a professional English-language editing company. We highlight some of these companies at http://www.sagepub.com/journalgateway/engLang.htm.
Please be aware that Sage has no affiliation with these companies and makes no endorsement of them. An author's use of these services in no way guarantees that his or her submission will ultimately be accepted. Any arrangement an author enters into will be exclusively between the author and the particular company, and any costs incurred are the sole responsibility of the author.