Coeditors’ statement

Throughout its history, Educational Psychologist has held a unique and important place in the scholarly literature and discourse. Contributions to this journal have established new directions in educational research (e.g., Elliot, 1999), synthesized large bodies of empirical research (e.g., Valentine, DuBois, & Cooper, 2004), challenged conventional thinking within and beyond the field of educational psychology (e.g., Kirschner, Sweller, & Clark, 2006), and pushed scholars to broaden and deepen their perspectives (e.g., DeCuir-Gunby & Schutz, 2014) as well as their methodologies for exploring those perspectives (e.g., Hodis & Hancock, 2016). All of these works, and the many others that have been published in Educational Psychologist, share a focus on synthesizing, representing, refining, and extending the conceptual and methodological grounding upon which novel research is built. As Coeditors, we are honored to work with our Editorial Board, reviewers, special issue editors, and authors to continue the history of excellence and influence established by past editors of Educational Psychologist.

We seek creative, bold, comprehensive, and well-argued individual submissions that advance the theories and methods guiding empirical research and practice. Submissions of meta-analyses of large bodies of empirical work that make substantial theoretical contributions are also welcomed. Additionally, we are eager to receive proposals for Special Issues that catalyze the collaborative insights of multiple scholars. We recognize the storied history of the journal and lofty goals of its purpose can discourage not only early career but also many seasoned scholars from submitting their ideas for review. Nonetheless, the entire field suffers when promising ideas never reach the scholarly discourse that Educational Psychologist affords. Therefore, we strongly encourage authors who may be unsure as to whether their potential article is appropriate for Educational Psychologist to contact us directly and submit a one-page conceptual abstract for our review and feedback. We are strongly committed to increasing the diversity of ideas presented in Educational Psychologist and we are committed to helping all scholars, from early to late career, develop those ideas. To those ends, we have two particular emphases for our tenure as Coeditors: broadening Educational Psychologist’s authorship and audience and deepening the contribution of its Special Issues.

Broadening Educational Psychologist’s authorship and audience

Consistent with the goals of prior editors (e.g., Chinn, 2011; Wentzel, 2016), we seek to maintain the journal’s strong grounding within core areas of educational psychology (e.g., cognition and learning, self-regulation, motivation, socio-emotional processes) while also attracting both submissions and readership from scholars in related disciplines. Given the interdisciplinary focus of the field of educational psychology, our research is strengthened when we bring in related research from other disciplines. For instance, research in the fields of the learning sciences, cognitive science, developmental science, improvement science, and educational technology relates to the core underlying vision of educational psychology. Moreover, the application of psychological processes to the field of education remains a central focus of research in educational psychology, but there is growing recognition of the need to broaden conceptualizations beyond the individual to acknowledge the importance of how learning and development occur within the broader context (see for example Turner & Nolen, 2015) and to refocus and reimage fundamental concepts and theories within educational psychology to account for cultural, racial, and ethnic diversity (e.g., DeCuir-Gunby & Schutz, 2014). These broader perspectives help to reify the importance of understanding education from a holistic, emergent, and interactionist viewpoint. As such, we encourage scholars who work both at the core of educational psychology as well as in these related disciplines to submit manuscripts.

Deepening the contribution of special issues

The special issues published within Educational Psychologist have had major influences upon the field of educational psychology (e.g., special issues on public understanding of science, computer-supported collaborative learning, situated perspectives, transfer, self-regulation, and motivation and identity). In keeping with prior editors, we encourage forward-thinking scholars to submit special issue proposals. At the same time, we plan to challenge some conventions of special issues. As but one example, our analysis of public data revealed that introduction and commentary articles are typically cited 30% less often than other types of articles in Educational Psychologist. Citation rates are not the sole or best way to measure impact, but this finding aligns with our own sense that introduction and commentary articles have significant unmet potential for advancing the field. We expect introduction articles to place emphasis on synthesizing the current theory and literature in the field (e.g., Bromme & Goldman, 2014; Turner & Nolen, 2015), as opposed to serving primarily as a summary of articles in the special issue. Introduction articles focused on synthesis rather than summary make their own unique contribution to the scholarly discourse while also freeing up other special issue authors to build arguments upon that synthesis, as opposed to each article including a recapitulation of the synthesis or its main points. Likewise, we believe commentaries should not only advance the scholarly discourse established in the other articles in the special issue, they also should make their own contributions to how the education research community does it work, including theory, research, and practice (e.g., Hofer, 2017; Usher, 2018). We encourage all special issue editors and authors to take advantage of the truly unique opportunities afforded by Educational Psychologist to engage in rigorous development of new syntheses, critiques, and directions for the field via dialog within and across articles, modeling in writing the kinds of thinking and interactions that typify a vigorous and vibrant field of scholarly inquiry.

Conclusion

We would like to acknowledge the significant contributions that Kathryn Wentzel has made as editor of Educational Psychologist. Under her leadership, the journal has continued to thrive and grow in its impact. Dr. Wentzel has also broadened the focus of the journal, drawing in scholars from other disciplines related to policy, socio-emotional learning, and developmental psychology, to name a few. We are grateful for her outstanding leadership as editor. Articles in this issue and the next three issues were accepted by Dr. Wentzel. We look forward to accepting submissions for publication beginning on January 1, 2020 in anticipation of our first issue in 2021: Volume 56, Issue 1. In closing, we are excited and humbled to serve as coeditors of Educational Psychologist and look forward to continuing and broadening this journal’s prominent place as a thought-leader within the field of educational psychology.