The Journal of Educational Research publishes manuscripts that describe or synthesize research of direct relevance to educational practice in elementary and secondary schools. Special consideration is given to articles that focus on variables that can be manipulated in educational settings. All varieties of research are considered—experiments, evaluations, ethnographies, narrative research, replications, etc. Rigorous assessments of the validities of claims for products, testing materials, and educational practices are of particular interest. The editors invite essays dealing with issues that have been raised in JER.

1. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th edition, the American Psychological Association, 2001, should be used as a style reference in preparation of manuscripts. Authors should use the Active Voice, as noted in Section 2.06 of the manual.

2. Contributors should submit their manscript electronically through Manuscript Central by visiting http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/heldref/jer. For further information about the program, note the following Web site: http://www.scholarone.com/products_manuscriptcentral.html. The manuscript should be double spaced with wide margins.

3. Each manuscript must be accompanied by an Abstract of about 100 words. It should precede the text and include brief statements of the problem, the method, the data, and conclusions. In the case of a manuscript commenting on an article published previously in JER, the Abstract should state the topics covered and central thesis.

4. Figures (graphs and charts) must also be submitted through Manuscript Central. Tables should be prepared and captioned exactly as they are to appear in the journal.

5. Avoid explanatory notes whenever possible by incorporating their content in the text. For essential notes, identify them with consecutive superscripts and list them in a section entitled NOTES at the end of the text.

6. All manuscripts are blind reviewed. Accepted manuscripts are normally published within six months of acceptance. Authors will be able to obtain online access of their article by logging on to http://heldref.metapress.com and then creating a user name and password. Authors will then receive a Metapress ID. After doing this, authors should send their user name and MetaPress ID via an e-mail to our communications director, Christine Polcino, at cpolcino@heldref.org; she will then arrange access to the article for that author. Reprints also are available through JER. Accepted mauscripts must be double-spaced Word files with minimal formatting in Times or Times New Roman. Do not use word-processing styles, forced section or page breaks or automatic footnotes.

7. If any of the findings reported in this manuscript have been published elsewhere, or if there are plans to use any or all of the findings in other manuscripts for publication, the author(s) should explain the intent and the circumstances at the time of first submission.