EEPA Launches New "Briefs" Article Format
EEPA Launches New "Briefs" Article Format
 
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September 2019

At its June meeting, AERA Council enthusiastically approved the addition of Briefs as a new manuscript type for Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis (EEPA). Council approved this new format for EEPA at the recommendation of the Journal Publications Committee.

The idea for Briefs emanated from the current editor team: Joseph R. Cimpian (New York University), Paco Martorell (University of California, Davis), Julie A. Marsh (University of Southern California), and Morgan Polikoff (University of Southern California). In developing the idea to incorporate Briefs, the editors agreed that many articles in EEPA could be shortened without sacrificing rigor or thoroughness.

Like the Briefs in Educational Researcher, EEPA Briefs will be approximately 2,500 words in length and will present work that is of very high quality but does not necessarily break new theoretical or methodological ground or require more lengthy exposition. The Journal Publications Committee agreed with the editors that the new format would be especially suitable for replications and for papers showing null effects—both of which the committee believed merited more consideration in AERA journals.

Although Briefs will be held to the same rigorous publication standards as any other submission to EEPA, they will receive a much faster turnaround for review.

“We are excited about the opportunities offered by the new Brief format,” said Polikoff. “Often, academic writing can expand to fill the available pages; in contrast, these Briefs will be concise and direct, answering important policy questions clearly and succinctly.”

As noted in the manuscript guidelines, Briefs can cover the range of paper topics normally considered by EEPA and will typically have much shorter introductions, literature reviews, and theoretical frameworks, and will focus primarily on the empirics.

Authors may choose to submit a Brief for various reasons. For example, a study may be a replication in a previously studied area, and a lengthy literature review section may not be needed; the research design may not necessitate a long set of robustness checks; or the topic may be of immediate policy relevance and a shorter format may be more accessible to policy makers without sacrificing rigor.

To learn more about EEPA Briefs, potential authors can contact the current editor team at EEPAeditors@aera.net.