European Journal of Psychology of Education - Checklist for authors
Your paper is requested to meet the advice given in our Instructions for Authors and Guidance Notes which are available online. Authors whose first language is not English are strongly advised urged to have their manuscript thoroughly checked before submission. Papers that are poorly written cannot be sent out to reviewers and will be returned to the authors without review. The following list of criteria is aimed to support authors in preparing their submission for EJPE. It provides a check list of the key aspects and important criteria that will be used in the first screening of papers submitting to the EJPE based on which the editorial team will decide whether it will be accepted for review.
The paper should meet the following formal criteria:
-The paper is aligned with the Journal’s aims and scopes (http://link.springer.com/journal/10212). If you are uncertain about the relevancy of your paper for publication in this Journal, please read our Aims and Scope, also available online. It is therefore helpful to include citations of relevant papers previously published in this journal.
- The paper is aligned with the APA reference style guide (http://www.apastyle.org/ and http://www.apastyle.org/learn/tutorials/basics-tutorial.aspx).
-APA ethical standards in regards to conducting a research have been met (http://www.apa.org/ethics/code/).
Theoretical background
- Theoretical section is based on relevant and recent literature. - In the analysis of findings from previous research authors take into account the effect size and not only its statistical significance. Overgeneralization in interpretation of findings is avoided.
- Open issues are identified, based on the analysis of current knowledge in the field.
- Description of the study aims and research questions is accompanied with justification of how the study is supposed to contribute improvement of knowledge related to the open issues that have been previously identified.
- If the paper contains hypothesis these are justified using theories, concepts and research findings analysed in the introductory section.
Method
- Research design is aligned with the study aims and allows answering research questions.
- Methodological aspects of the study (design, participants, instruments, procedure) are described with enough details, enabling other scholars to replicate the study.
- In the description of the sample, all relevant characteristics of participants that could contribute to understanding of the study results are described.
- For the quantitative studies, if a well-established instruments (e.g. tests, scales, questionnaires, etc.) are used in the study, all relevant psychometric characteristics of the instruments are presented.
- For the quantitative studies, if a new instrument(s) is used in the study, authors need to justify why existing instruments are considered inappropriate, how the new instrument(s) was developed and to provide evidences about validity and reliability of the instrument(s) used.
Results
- Results section is organized in line with the research questions and/or hypothesis.
- The statistical analysis used is optimal taking into account the nature of the data collected and the research questions (e.g. authors did not use several t-tests instead of one ANOVA test or a regression analysis if they could have applied SEM analysis instead).
- When quantitative analysis is performed, for each conducted analysis all relevant statistical information is provided (statistical parameters, degrees of freedom, significance with confidence interval, and effect sizes).
- When qualitative analysis is performed, criteria for the selection of the gathered material are explicitly presented, including the information on how presented examples were selected from data corpus.
Interpretation and discussion
- Results are interpreted in accordance with the research questions and/or hypothesis.
- Claims made in the article are justified by the methods that were used.
- In the interpretation of the quantitative results, authors took into account the effect size and not only its statistical significance, thus avoiding overgeneralization of the findings.
- Interpretation and discussion of results took into account limitations of the research design, size and structure of the sample, validity and reliability of instruments used, procedures for the data collection, and context within which the study was conducted.
- Results are discussed in the light of theories, concepts and previous findings analysed in the introductory section.
- The discussion of the results includes its theoretical and practical implications.
- Authors have identified issues that have remained open for future investigations based on the discussion of the results, or new issues that have emerged based on the research findings of the study that has been presented.
Conclusion
- Authors summarize what the topic of research was and what the main findings are.
- Authors specify how the study contributes to the existing knowledge in the field by answering to some of the open issues identified in the introductory section.
- Authors specify the most important implications of the research findings for educational practice.
- Authors reflect on limitations of their study and the way these can be overcome in future studies.