Manuscript Requirements

Manuscripts are expected to report original research that significantly extends the body of knowledge in the field of engineering education. Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research designs are accepted. The journal typically publishes two types of manuscripts: research investigations and research reviews.

Research investigations should state the questions addressed and their context relative to the body of knowledge on the subject. The relevant theories should be presented, research design described, limitations acknowledged, and research methods and instruments discussed so as to permit evaluation of the validity and reliability of the evidence offered. Ethical considerations in data collection, analysis, and reporting involving human subjects should be addressed. A description of any statistical analyses, discussion of the uncertainties, and the significance of the results to advancing engineering education research or practice should be provided.

Research reviews should state the propositions addressed in the review and their context relative to the body of knowledge reviewed. A review might include a critical analysis, synthesis, or evaluation of previous research to provide new perspectives, a new knowledge structure, general conclusions or overarching principles, or new research directions. Reviews using meta-analytic approaches are encouraged. An explanation of the significance of the insights gained to advancing engineering education research or practice should be provided.

Submitted manuscripts must include the following:

• the manuscript title
• a 250 word structured abstract properly formatted (CLICK HERE FOR INSTRUCTIONS PDF: 40KB);
• an introduction section following the abstract and preceding the main body of the manuscript;
• the main body of the manuscript, appropriately divided into sections;
• a conclusion or summary section following the main body of the manuscript;
• a section listing the references; and
• black and white figures and tables, if any, either embedded at appropriate locations within the manuscript or collected together and appended at the end of the manuscript.

Manuscripts should be prepared in 12 point font, double-spaced, and formatted in one column. Manuscripts may also include appendices, a glossary of symbols, and acknowledgments, as deemed appropriate by the authors.

The journal uses double-blind peer review; that is, authors will not know the names and affiliations of the reviewers and the reviewers will not know the names and affiliations of the authors. Therefore, authors should review their manuscripts carefully before submission to ensure that their names and affiliations are not revealed in the manuscript directly or indirectly. In some cases, pseudonyms or indirect references may be necessary. For example, rather than state the name of an institution directly, which might reveal the identity of an author(s), the institution could be referenced as follows, “The research involved a sophomore-level engineering statics course offered at a large public university in the western United States.” Should the manuscript contain references to citations written by the authors, the references may contain the authors’ names, however, the references should be written so as to not reveal that the citations refer to the authors. For example, a reference written as, “In our prior research (Smith and Jones, 2010), we showed that…,” could be written more suitably as, “Research by Smith and Jones (2010) showed that…”.

A comprehensive reference for considerations of composition and presentation may be found in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th edition; a more concise source is The Elements of Style, 4th edition, by Strunk and White. Authors are strongly encouraged to carefully proofread their manuscripts before submission. The journal does not use endnotes, and footnotes are discouraged. If the material is important enough for a reader to seek it out, then it is important enough to be included in the body of the text. Footnotes are to be used only if they are deemed essential.

The journal generally discourages the publication of a body of research in a series of dependent parts. Authors should either identify components of the research suitable for publication as independent articles or prepare a condensed manuscript and encourage interested readers to contact the authors for additional information supporting the research reported. If the presentation of the research in a series of dependent parts is deemed essential, authors should first contact the editor to discuss their approach before submitting their manuscripts.

A detailed Style Guide will be provided to authors of accepted manuscripts to prepare their final versions for typesetting.