LLT Guidelines for Articles Reporting on Research
General guidelines for conducting CALL research are available here:
LLT editors’ Research Workshop slides
The Editors of LLT recommend that authors of manuscripts based on quantitative research consider the general guidelines outlined in Chapter 1 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th edition. 2009. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, pp. 9-20).
In particular, a quantitative research report should generally include the following sections:
An Introduction that
- states the problem to be investigated
- contextualizes the research by describing the underlying theoretical framework and reviewing previous studies
- defines the variables and research hypotheses
A Method Section that describes
- the participants (e.g., demographics, selection criteria, and group assignment)
- the materials (e.g., task[s], equipment, instruments, including a discussion of their validity and reliability, if appropriate)
- the procedures employed in the study such as treatment(s)
A Results Section that includes
- graphs and tables that help to present and explain the results
- descriptive and inferential statistics used to analyze the data, including the following:
- name of the statistic used and in the case of an uncommon statistical procedure, a reference to a discussion of the procedure
- appropriate statistics required to interpret the generalizability of the obtained results (e.g., statistical significance, confidence intervals, etc., depending on your methods)
- measures of effect sizes
- how all necessary assumptions were met
A Discussion Section that includes
- an interpretation of the results
- an explanation of the results, including alternative explanations when appropriate
- a statement relating the results obtained in the study to original hypotheses
- theoretical implications
- limitations of the study
A Conclusion that includes
- general implications of the study
- limitations of the study
- suggestions for further research
References
Appendices
Please see this Quantitative Research Guideline, added July 2022, for more detailed points of advice.
Qualitative Research
The editors of LLT recommend that authors of manuscripts reporting on qualitative research generally include the following sections in their articles:
- An introduction that states the problem to be investigated
- Statement of the research questions examined in the study
- Description of the theoretical framework(s) underlying the research question
- Description of the methodological traditions in which the study was conducted
- Relationship between the study and previous work in the area under investigation
- Detailed description of the participants and research site
- Detailed description of data collection and analysis procedures
- Report of findings
- Limitations of the study
- Implication(s) of the study
- Suggestions for further research
- References
- Appendices
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