Research Guidelines
LLT Guidelines for Articles Reporting on Research
General guidelines for conducting CALL research are available here:
LLT editors’ Research Workshop slides
Quantitative Research
The Editors of LLT recommend that authors of manuscripts based on quantitative research consult the general guidelines of the American Psychological Association Journal Reporting Standards for Quantitative Research. In addition, we highly recommend consulting these specific points of advice for CALL research.
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)
- Data collection (sampling procedures, sample size, power)
- Measures and covariates
- Data diagnostics, analytic strategies
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
- theoretical and pedagogical 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 consult the general guidelines of the American Psychological Association Journal Reporting Standards for Qualitative Research. In general, a qualitative research research report should generally include the following sections:
- An introduction that states the problem to be investigated
- Statement of the research questions examined in the study
- When appropriate, a description of the theoretical framework(s) underlying the research question
- Relationship between the study and previous work in the area under investigation
- Description of the methodological traditions in which the study was conducted, including the research design, identifying pertinent topics and trends
- Detailed description of the data sources or the study participants, including research site and recruitment
- Detailed description of data collection and data analytic strategies and procedures
- Report of findings and discussion of results
- Limitations of the study
- Implication(s) of the study
- Suggestions for further research
- References
- Appendices
Mixed Methods Research
The editors of LLT recommend that authors of manuscripts reporting on mixed method research consult the general guidelines of the American Psychological Association Journal Reporting Standards for Mixed Method Research. In general, a mixed method research report should generally include the following sections (see above two sections for further details):
- An introduction that states the problem to be investigated
- Statement of the research questions examined in the study
- A method section that includes:
- Research design
- Participants or other data sources
- Participant recruitment
- Data collection
- Data analysis
- A findings/results section
- A discussion section
- A conclusion
- References
- Appendices
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