jedpsych-workflow

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-analysis before jedpsych-study-design has 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-transparency to 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