The American Educational Research Journal (AERJ) publishes original empirical and theoretical studies and analyses in education. The editors seek to publish articles from a wide variety of academic disciplines and substantive fields; they are looking for clear and significant contributions to the understanding and/or improvement of educational processes and outcomes. Manuscripts not appropriate for submission to this journal include essays, reviews, course evaluations, and brief reports of studies to address a narrow question.

The AERJ's section on Teaching, Learning, and Human Development (TLHD) publishes research articles that explore the processes and outcomes of teaching, learning, and human development at all educational levels and in both formal and informal settings. This section also welcomes policy research related to teaching, learning, and learning to teach. It publishes articles that represent a wide range of academic disciplines and use a variety of research methods.

The AERJ's section on Social and Institutional Analysis (SIA) publishes scholarly research that addresses significant political, cultural, social, economic, and organizational issues in education. It welcomes analyses of the broad contextual and organizational factors affecting teaching and learning, the links between those factors and the nature and processes of schooling, and the ways that such "external" domains are conceptualized in research, policy, and practice. The editors invite articles that advance the theoretical understandings of the social and institutional contexts of education and encompass the diverse communities of schooling and educational research. They welcome research across a wide range of methodological paradigms, including ethnographic, historical, narrative, legal, experimental/quantitative, critical, and interpretive approaches; they also invite studies that make the nature and uses of educational research itself a subject of social and cultural inquiry.