Diversity research literature on the rise? A review of school psychology journals from 2000 to 2003

School psychologists in the United States are not nearly as diverse demographically as the students they serve (T.K. Fagan & P.S. Wise, 2000). A.H. Miranda and P.B. Gutter (2002) investigated the number of diversity‐related articles in four leading school psychology journals from 1990 to 1999 and found that there was an increase in the percentage of articles in these journals that were diversity related as compared to a study done by R.M. Wiese Rogers (1992) that examined school psychology journals from 1975 to 1990. There was a particular increase in diversity‐related articles appearing from 1995 to 1999. The present study examined school psychology journals from 2000 to 2003 to determine whether this increase was an aberration or an indication of a longer term change. Results indicate a continued trend toward more diversity‐related articles in the school psychology literature, but several gaps remain. Implications for the field are discussed. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

CHARACTERISTICS OF INTERVENTION RESEARCH IN SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY JOURNALS: 2010–2014

The purpose of this study was to provide an updated content analysis of articles published in major journals of school psychology spanning the years 2010–2014, with an emphasis on intervention research (including intervention and participant characteristics). Six journals—School Psychology Review, School Psychology Quarterly, Journal of School Psychology, Psychology in the Schools, School Psychology International, and Journal of Applied School Psychology—were selected for the analysis. Over the 5‐year period, 1,196 articles were published in the selected journals. A total of 65.8% of the articles were empirical articles; intervention studies with school‐age samples comprised 11.1% of all articles. Within the intervention studies, single subject represented the most frequently used research design (40.6%). Further, 58.6% of the intervention studies did not provide sufficient information to discern participants’ disability status. Although the proportion of empirically based articles has increased in recent years, that of intervention articles has remained low.     

Prevalence of mindfulness literature and intervention in school psychology journals from 2006 to 2016

Mindfulness has been gaining momentum in the field of school psychology, however compared to other applied psychology fields, less research on mindfulness interventions has been conducted. This study systematically reviewed mindfulness literature and empirical studies in nine school psychology journals from 2006–2016. The prevalence of mindfulness articles and research specifically focused on mindfulness intervention were examined. Additionally, the type of intervention implemented, tier of intervention, and targets of intervention were examined. Results indicated that .57% of articles during the ten‐year time frame were related to mindfulness (n = 17). Eight of the 17 articles investigated mindfulness interventions, with interventions ranging from informal practices (e.g., Mandala coloring) to specific intervention programs (e.g., Compassion and Attention in the Schools). Majority of interventions were implemented at the universal level for students. Future directions for mindfulness research and the importance of mindfulness in school psychology are discussed.     

Including fathers in school psychology literature: A review of four school psychology journals

It is well documented that fathers have a significant influence on their children's success in school. To examine the ways in which fathers have been represented in school psychology literature, the authors searched over 1,000 recent articles published in four leading U.S. school psychology journals (Psychology in the Schools, School Psychology Review, School Psychology Quarterly, and the Journal of School Psychology) for content on fathers. Fathers were included substantially in nine articles and were the primary focus of only one other article. Reasons for the lack of information on fathers and suggestions for increasing the focus on fathers in school psychology literature are discussed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 575–580, 2004.     

PUBLICATION OUTLETS FOR SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY FACULTY: 2010 to 2015

Many school psychology faculty are required to publish for purposes of retention and promotion. It is useful to have an understanding of the different outlets for scholarly publications. In the present study, we investigated the peer‐reviewed journals in which school psychology faculty were published between 2010 and 2015, the number of articles in each journal, and the acceptance rates and impact estimates for each journal. We identified school psychology faculty using the National Association of School Psychologists website and conducted a search of the publications using EBSCO databases. Results indicated that there were a total of 3,675 articles and a total of 832 peer‐reviewed journals in which school psychology faculty were published during the 6‐year span. Among the peer‐reviewed journals, Psychology in the Schools, School Psychology Quarterly, School Psychology Review, and Journal of School Psychology were the journals in which school psychology faculty members most frequently published. Acceptance rates ranged from less than 5% to 98%, with an average of 29.7%. H‐indexes ranged from 1 to 890, with an average of 52. These results illustrate the variety of journals that publish works from school psychology faculty and the need for school psychology faculty and other authors to consider a variety of options when seeking publication.     

What we know and do not know about supervision in school psychology: A systematic mapping and review of the literature between 2000 and 2017

Supervision is a distinct competency area in professional psychology with a burgeoning research base. Yet it remains unclear to what extent the broad supervision research base generalizes specifically to supervision of psychological services in schools for both preservice trainees and credentialed school psychologists. The purposes of this study were to map and review current evidence regarding supervision in school psychology; consider the evidence in the context of the broader psychology supervision literature; and reflect on next steps for training, practice, and research of supervision in school psychology. A systematic review across school psychology journals and psychological supervision journals found only 37 peer refereed articles (21 empirical and 16 conceptual) published on the topic of supervision in school psychology since the year 2000. The topical coverage of these articles is summarized, including its contributions and limitations. Implications are drawn for future research of supervision in school psychology.     

An alternate look at educational psychologist’s productivity from 1991 to 2002

Previous investigations of the productivity of educational psychologists (Smith et al., 1998, Smith et al., 2003) have used a points system that defines high productivity as having few co-authors and high authorship placement. Due to the increasingly collaborative nature of educational psychology research (Robinson, McKay, Katayama, & Fan, 1998), defining productivity in this way may not fully capture the essence of our work nor provide the most useful information for potential graduate students. In taking a closer look at the most-published persons in educational psychology journals from 1991 to 2002, we found that most also published even more articles in other journals and regularly included co-authors, especially graduate students. Some persons, who have not been recognized as being the most productive in the Smith et al. lists, published considerably more articles than others who have appeared in those lists.     

Diversity research literature in school psychology: 1990–1999

This study is an extension of an initial study conducted by Wiese Rogers in 1992 that examined the diversity literature in school psychology journals. The purpose of this study was to review all research published in four major school psychology journals during the decade of the 90s for diversity content to determine if there had been an increase. Results indicated that 10.6% of the articles have diversity as a focus, a slight increase over Wiese Rogers's findings. Assessment continues to be the area that has the greatest number of diversity articles. Six reasons are proposed for the continued gap in the literature base. Implications for the field of school psychology and suggestions for increasing diversity articles are provided. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Parent training research: An analysis of the empirical literature 1975–1985

This project was designed to provide a retrospective analysis of the parent training literature during the last decade. Eighteen journals with behavioral psychology, clinical/counseling psychology, school psychology, and special education emphases were selected for review. Data related to the number of articles published in each journal, year of article publication, referral problem, and contributing institution were collected. Results indicate that behavioral journals published the most empirically based parent training articles (66%), followed by clinical/counseling psychology (26%), special education (6%), and school psychology (3%) journals. Parents with noncompliant, handicapped, or abused/neglected children comprised the majority (58%) of research participants. Suggestions for involving school psychologists in parent training research and broadening the focus of parent training to include preventive, as well as remedial, efforts are presented.     

THE LEGAL CONTENT OF SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY JOURNALS: A SYSTEMATIC SURVEY

The many challenges that school psychologists face inevitably include legal issues. In light of the agreement between the two primary professional organizations for school psychologists that understanding of law is a critical competency, this study analyzed the extent of law‐based articles in leading school psychology journal articles published from 1970 to mid‐2013. The method was a systematic multi‐step search, selection and coding process. The primary findings included that (a) a very small proportion of the articles in five leading school psychology journals contained a notable level of legal content; (b) the number of these articles initially trended upward but stabilized at a lower level during recent decades; (c) assessment and special education were the most frequent subject categories, and (d) the principal sources of law were federal legislation/regulations and court decisions. The discussion includes implications for professional practice and recommendations for follow‐up research.     

Analysis of author affiliation across four school psychology journals from 2000 to 2008: Where is the practitioner research?

Articles published between 2000 and 2008 in four major school psychology journals—School Psychology Review, Journal of School Psychology, Psychology in the Schools, and School Psychology Quarterly—were classified based on type (empirical or narrative) and on the primary and secondary authors' affiliations. Results showed that more than 90% of the primary and secondary authors were university affiliated with little difference across article type. Although more than 85% of school psychologists are practitioners, these results suggest that their contributions to these school psychology journals are limited because they account for less than 10% of the authors of articles. Discussion focuses on practitioners' involvement in the research base that is intended to inform their professional behaviors. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Age and productivity of university faculties: a case study

This article is a case study of the relationship between the age of persons who are members of the two academic finance associations and the number of articles that they wrote during the period 1975 through 1978. Many of these persons are also known as economists. Attention was focused on articles written in four leading finance journals. Some articles appearing in these journals were written by persons who were not members of finance departments. Their articles in refereed journals other than the leading finance journals were counted also. Productivity of those publishing reached a peak of 0.92 articles per person per year for those able to publish in the four leading finance journals. This peak, which was for the 36- to 40-yr-old group, declined to about half that rate for the 56- to 60-yr-old group. The proportion of the membership who did not publish rose irregularly as a function of age and was above 0.90 for the 61 yr and older group. The reasons for the declining productivity are summarized from a survey of business school deans. Suggestions that have been made for maintaining productivity are reviewed.     

Women's contributions to instructional technology journals

Eleven leading instructional technology journals were examined to determine the percentage of articles written by women during a five-year period, 1988–1992. In addition, where women were either first or second author, the articles were analyzed to identify their main topic and categorized based on the categories used by Ely (1992) in determining the trends of the field. Results of this study indicate that the percentage of women publishing in journals in instructional technology showed no indication of consistency or trends of increase or decrease over the five-year period and averaged 34%, with an annual mean ranging from 27% to 54%. Content analysis revealed that women's publications in instructional technology journals were primarily of a technological nature in educational contexts.     

Experimental research in school psychology internationally: An assessment of journal publications and implications for internationalization

Past studies have examined the contents of journal articles in school psychology, and more recently there has been increased interest in examining the frequency and characteristics of experimental studies appearing in school psychology journals. However, no prior studies have examined the international representation of experimental and intervention studies. This study evaluated every article published from 2002 to 2016 across eight school psychology journals that publish international scholarship. Several research questions were addressed (e.g., what is the frequency of experimental research internationally, what are the characteristics of those studies, and is the scholarship consistent with the global geography of school psychology?). Overall, findings revealed that although the field of school psychology is arguably international, the experimental research reflected in the eight journals selected for review does not adequately represent the global geography of the field, thereby also suggesting that the degree of internationalization in school psychology is relatively poor. The importance of these and related findings is discussed, and recommendations are provided that may help to improve the geographical representation of experimental research in school psychology as well as its overall internationalization.     

The Content of Educational Psychology: an Analysis of Top Ranked Journals from 2003 Through 2007

Educational psychology as a field of study has encountered a lack of distinction by overlapping with other fields of study or disciplines. Consequently, educational psychology continues to have difficulty claiming jurisdiction over bodies of research knowledge and has been encroached upon by other more crystallized disciplines. The purpose of this study is to examine the research literature published across top-ranked educational psychology journals to identify the common ground and current trends in research content and to identify those areas that can be reclaimed by the discipline as its own. Overall, 758 articles published in six journals from January 2003 through December 2007 were included in this study. A combination of statistics-based and linguistics-based methods were used to determine how frequently terms occur in the data and establishing a semantic network which created a probabilistic analysis of the co-occurrence of terms resulting in a constellation of terms showing the relationship and relative importance of the categories of terms. The results showed a consistency of research categories suggesting that in spite of reports to the contrary, there is a collective agreement among educational psychologists demonstrated by the empirical research in the field.     

Engineering education research in European Journal of Engineering Education and Journal of Engineering Education: citation and reference discipline analysis

The authors, citations and content of European Journal of Engineering Education (EJEE) and Journal of Engineering Education (JEE) in 1973 (JEE, 1975 EJEE), 1983, 1993, 2003, and available 2013 issues were analysed. Both journals transitioned from house organs to become engineering education research (EER) journals, although JEE transitioned first. In this process the number of citations rose, particularly of education and psychology sources; the percentage of research articles increased markedly as did the number of reference disciplines. The number of papers per issue, the number of single author papers, and the citations of science and engineering sources decreased. EJEE has a very broad geographic spread of authors while JEE authors are mainly US based. A ‘silo’ mentality where general engineering education researchers do not communicate with EER researchers in different engineering disciplines is evident. There is some danger that EER may develop into a silo that does not communicate with technically oriented engineering professors.     

An updated analysis of author affiliation across four school psychology journals: Is practitioner research increasing?

This study analyzed articles published in four school psychology journals (Journal of School Psychology, Psychology in the Schools, School Psychology Quarterly, and School Psychology Review) between the years 2009 and 2015. Articles were classified based on whether they were narrative or empirical, and affiliation of each author was classified as either practitioner or university. Results were compared to those of a previous study that similarly classified articles from 2000 to 2008. Across the years, the total number of authors increased; however, the proportion of practitioners compared to university affiliates decreased from 9% to 6%. In particular, a regression analysis revealed a large increase in the number of university secondary authors. Discussion focuses on examining the impact that practitioners’ involvement in research has on implementing evidence‐based practices within the schools.