brycewang-stanford Journal of Educational Psychology Workflow Router (jedpsych-workflow)
The orchestrator for a Journal of Educational Psychology (JEP) submission. JEP is the APA's flagship outlet for original, primary psychological research on learning and instruction across all ages. Its defining features are masked review, an educational-relevance bar (the result must matter for real learners in real settings), and a credibility regime built on APA 7th, JARS reporting standards, and a required Transparency and Openness subsection — the router makes sure each is handled from the start, then sends you to the matching skill.
When to trigger
- Starting a new JEP paper and unsure where to begin
- Mid-project and unsure which skill applies next
- Choosing among manuscript types (single study, multi-study, meta-analysis)
- Returning with a decision letter (route to
jedpsych-rebuttal)
First question: manuscript type
| Situation | Type | Route note |
|---|---|---|
| Completed experiment / field trial / longitudinal study | Primary empirical article | main pipeline below |
| Several studies building one cumulative claim | Multi-study article | each study must add inference, not repeat |
| Cluster-randomized / classroom intervention, not yet run | Prospective field trial | pull jedpsych-study-design + jedpsych-review-process forward; consider preregistration |
| Exceptionally important synthesis | Meta-analysis | follow APA MARS; jedpsych-data-analysis (meta route) |
| Reliability/validity of one test | Usually out of scope | JEP does not typically publish single-instrument validation |
Routing map (stage → skill)
Fits JEP's learning/education scope? → jedpsych-topic-selection
Theory + hypotheses stated up front? → jedpsych-theory-and-hypotheses
Where does it sit in the field? → jedpsych-literature-positioning
Design / nesting / power / measures? → jedpsych-study-design
Multilevel/SEM sound + effect sizes? → jedpsych-data-analysis
Exhibits (APA 7th, models, growth)? → jedpsych-tables-figures
Fits 12,000 words, masked, APA? → jedpsych-writing-style
Data/materials/code + TOP statement? → jedpsych-open-science-and-transparency
How will it be judged? → jedpsych-review-process
Ready to submit (Editorial Manager)? → jedpsych-submission
Got an R&R / decision? → jedpsych-rebuttal
Default order
topic-selection → theory-and-hypotheses → literature-positioning → study-design → data-analysis → tables-figures → writing-style → open-science-and-transparency → review-process → submission → rebuttal
For a prospective cluster-randomized trial, pull study-design and review-process forward — power
for nesting and a registration/analysis plan should be settled before schools are recruited.
Worked micro-example — routing a live project (illustrative)
A team has a cluster-randomized reading-comprehension intervention (48 classrooms, ~1,100 students), pretest covariate, and a reviewer worried about power and clustering. The router walks them:
Type: Primary empirical article (field trial, results in hand).
Entry: not idea-stage → skip topic-selection; they are at design/analysis.
Route: study-design (nesting, ICC, cluster-level power, baseline equivalence)
→ data-analysis (multilevel model, cluster-robust inference, effect size)
→ tables-figures (model table + growth/forest exhibit)
→ writing-style (fit 12,000 words, APA 7th, masked)
→ open-science-and-transparency (TOP subsection, deposit + IDs)
→ submission (Editorial Manager preflight) ; on R&R → rebuttal.
Flag: power and the effect size must be at the CLUSTER level; a student-level
power claim is the classic JEP design error.
Stage-triage table (symptom → skill)
| What the author says | Stage | Route to |
|---|---|---|
| "Is this educational enough for JEP?" | fit | jedpsych-topic-selection |
| "My intro reads like a textbook chapter" | positioning | jedpsych-literature-positioning |
| "Reviewer says I ignored clustering" | design/analysis | jedpsych-study-design + jedpsych-data-analysis |
| "What goes in the Transparency statement?" | transparency | jedpsych-open-science-and-transparency |
| "My paper is 14,500 words" | format | jedpsych-writing-style |
| "I have an R&R" | revision | jedpsych-rebuttal |
Routing pitfalls specific to this venue
- Sending a classroom-intervention project straight to
jedpsych-data-analysisbeforejedpsych-study-designhas fixed the nesting and cluster-level power — at JEP the multilevel structure must be designed in, not patched in analysis. - Treating the result as interesting psychology with no argument for why it matters for learning, teaching, or educational practice — JEP's scope screen is educational relevance, not psychology alone.
- Deferring
jedpsych-open-science-and-transparencyto the end; the Transparency and Openness subsection is built from live deposits and persistent identifiers, not promised at acceptance.
Anti-patterns
- Powering and reporting at the student level when randomization was at the classroom/school level
- A finding with no clear implication for education (better fits a general psychology outlet)
- Forgetting the Transparency and Openness subsection (data, materials, analysis code availability)
- Submitting a single-instrument reliability/validity study (typically out of scope for JEP)
Output format
【Stage】fit / theory / positioning / design / analysis / exhibits / writing / transparency / review / submit / rebut
【Type】Primary empirical / Multi-study / Prospective trial / Meta-analysis
【Route to】jedpsych-<skill>
【Why】one line
【Then】the next skill after that
Supplementary resources
../../resources/external_tools.md— power for nested designs, multilevel/SEM software, preregistration, repositories../../resources/official-source-map.md— official APA Journal of Educational Psychology URLs behind every fact in this pack