How does research get published?

One of the most common ways for research to find an outlet is through academic journals, although this can create problems

Research gets published via several different routes. One of the most common is through an academic journal, which involves authors submitting their manuscript to an editor, who then determines whether the article will be reviewed by the editorial board or external reviewers. Often academics are asked to revise and resubmit.

The EEF view: what are the implications for education research?

The academic publication process makes interpreting research challenging for a number of reasons.

The first is that it takes a long time. The average period it takes to decide whether the research will be published is six to eight weeks, with many articles delayed for months after they are complete.

The second challenge is the incentives created by the publication process. Journals might look for novel articles or interesting results.

This has created what is known as the “file-drawer” effect, whereby studies with null results end up not being published. As a result, when we come to review the evidence base, we might only be seeing a sample of the high-impact results - with the low-impact ones stuck in the file drawer, unpublished.

Some journals are now accepting articles prior to seeing findings to try to combat this problem.

In seeking out new research, the academic publication process can also disincentivise replication studies, which examine whether repeating a study reaps the same findings.

A final challenge of academic publishing is that many of the articles are difficult for teachers to access because they are locked behind online paywalls.

Not all research outputs are published through academic journals. Research funders, think-tanks and big non-governmental organisations, such as the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) will often commission and publish findings outside of academia. This can mitigate some of the risks, through targeting research effectively, publishing everything, making research free to access and ensuring that it is written in plain language.

Where can I see the research publication process in action?

To give a recent example from the EEF, in 2021, it commissioned a team at the University of Birmingham to conduct a systematic, evidence and practice review on cognitive science approaches in the classroom.

The research was commissioned to find out what the evidence says about an increasingly influential way of developing classroom practices.

The EEF published a study protocol on its website, setting out the objectives of the research, the methodology the researchers would use and the planned timeline for the work.

It went through a peer-review process before it was published on the EEF website.

The review looked at the impact that cognitive science-based approaches - such as spaced practice and retrieval practice - have in the classroom. It found that there is value in teachers having working knowledge of cognitive science principles.

However, it also concluded that the evidence for the application of those principles in everyday classroom conditions is limited, with uncertainties and gaps about the applicability of specific principles across subjects and age ranges.

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