Special Issue: “When is it acceptable to make prescriptive statements in educational research articles?”

Guest editors: Jonna M. Kulikowich and Rayne A. Sperling, The Pennsylvania State University

Deadline for manuscripts: January 1, 2010

Deadline for final drafts: March 1, 2010

Targeted publication date: September 2010

Prescriptive statements frequently appear in the discussion/conclusion sections of educational research articles and consist of a recommendation for practice that states or implies that if educators or students engage in a particular behavior, then a particular positive student outcome is likely to occur. Alternately, a prescriptive statement might consist of an admonition to avoid a particular behavior so that a positive student outcome is likely to occur. This issue addresses the type and amount of empirical evidence that is needed before researchers are justified in making a prescriptive statement.

We plan to solicit manuscripts from educational researchers with diverse methodological orientations who will describe in 10 pages or less when it is acceptable to make prescriptive statements and why they feel they are appropriate. Authors will also provide examples of what they think are appropriate and inappropriate uses.

We will also invite editors of several leading educational research journals to provide a brief (4-6 pages) commentary on the collection of papers. If you would like to contribute to this special issue, please contact the guest editors:Jonna Kulikowich, jmk35@psu.edu or Rayne Sperling, rsd7@psu.edu