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TRANSPARENCY AND OPENNESS PROMOTION (TOP) GUIDELINES

JREE supports the movement in the scientific ecosystem toward empirical research that is more transparent, open, and reproducible. Consistent with JREE’s values, it is our view that open science facilitates the alignment of scientific practice with scientific ideals, accelerates scientific discovery, broadens access to scientific knowledge, and improves the credibility of empirical research on the effectiveness of educational interventions. To operationalize this support of open science, JREE is a signatory of the TOP Guidelines: a set of modular standards for moving published empirical research toward greater openness.

Starting April 1, 2022, JREE is a “Level 1” implementer of all standards in the TOP Guidelines. As a “Level 1” implementer, JREE requires authors to disclose whether or not they have used open science practices in the TOP Guidelines. We recommend (but do not require) that authors use these open science practices, when possible. To implement this policy, all accepted manuscripts will be required to complete and submit a TOP Guidelines Disclosure Form as a condition of publication, in which authors will disclose whether or not their study included the following open science practices codified in the TOP Guidelines:

  • Study and Analysis Plan Registration: whether or not the study was registered—and, if so, whether the registration was prospective and included an analysis plan. Examples of independent, institutional registries include the Registry of Efficacy and Effectiveness Studies and OSF Registries.
  • Data, Code, and Materials Transparency: whether or not the data, code, and other materials (e.g., questionnaires, surveys, instructions) used to conduct the research are publicly available—and, if available, where and how to access them. Please use these templates to develop these availability statements.
  • Citation Standards: citation of data, code, and other materials in-text and in the references section, if possible. Please use this style guide for formatting in-text citations and reference section entries. We recognize some data, code and materials are not citable.
  • Design and Analysis Reporting Guidelines: for randomized trials, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses, authors are encouraged to use the following checklists to write their manuscripts prior to submission to the journal. These checklists will help JREE ensure consistency in the evaluation of submitted work:
  • Publication Bias: confirmation that the manuscript is an honest, accurate, and transparent account of the study being reported.
  • Replication: indication of whether the study is a replication of a previous study—and, if so, provide a citation to that study.

JREE welcomes replication studies as well as papers with strong methods that find null or negative results.

The TOP Guidelines Disclosure Form and relevant checklists (if applicable) are required at the revise and resubmit stage and should be uploaded as “Supplementary Material for Review.” Retroactive forms for content already published or in production will not be accepted.

If you submit a TOP Guidelines Disclosure Form, please be aware that anonymity cannot be guaranteed during peer review.

Authors with any questions about JREE’s open science policies should email the Methodological Transparency Editor, Sean Grant: spgrant [at] uoregon [dot] edu.