Assessment for Effective Intervention (AEI) is the official journal of the Council for Educational Diagnostic Services, a division of the Council for Exceptional Children. The editorial board of AEI will review manuscripts relevant for practicing educational diagnosticians, special educators, school psychologists, academic trainers, and others interested in psychoeducational assessment. The primary purpose of the journal is to publish empirically sound manuscripts that have implications for practitioners. AEI is published quarterly.
Types of Articles
The editor welcomes manuscripts that center on practitioner-developed assessment procedures and papers that focus on published tests. Manuscripts that describe the relationship between assessment and instruction, innovative assessment strategies, diagnostic procedures, relationships between existing instruments, and review articles of assessment techniques, strategies, and instrumentation are particularly desirable. Implications for the practitioner should be clearly communicated. Manuscripts should be no more than 30 typed, double-spaced pages, and should be accompanied by an abstract of 100 to 150 words.
Special Series. Special series are thematic issues composed of articles by different authors. A special series is conceptualized, coordinated, and guest edited by an author with recognized expertise in a particular area. Authors who wish to guest edit a special series should first submit a vita and a proposal that includes the following: overview, article-by-article content with abstract, and proposed authors. The editor should be consulted prior to submission concerning the appropriateness of the proposed topic.
Test Reviews: AEI will accept unsolicited test reviews. Only reviews of recently published tests will be considered. When writing a test review, the author should address relevant test construction guidelines described in the most recent edition of Standards for Educational and Psychological Tests, published by the American Educational Research Association, the American Psychological Association, and the National Council on Measurement in Education. Test reviews should be written with the practitioner’s needs in mind. Test review manuscripts should be no more than 10 typed, double-spaced pages.
Brief/Psychometric Reports: This section is oriented toward articles that may be of interest to scholars and practitioners but that do not offer theoretical contributions or implications for practice. Examples include (a) simple reliability studies for a new or modified measure, (b) criterion-related validity comparisons between a new or modified test and an established one, or (c) a review of relationships between tests (e.g., curriculum-based measurement and state test scores). Authors are also encouraged to think of more creative submissions in addition to the examples listed here. Submissions should be between 15 and 18 double-spaced pages, including references, tables, and figures, and should not be a portion of a more comprehensive study published elsewhere.
Acceptance Criteria
The editor and associate editors will screen each manuscript for appropriateness of content, as well as adherence to publication guidelines. A manuscript that meets criteria will be sent to three consulting or guest editors for blind peer review. The editor will consider reviewers’ comments and the associate editor's recommendation when making an editorial decision. All reviewers’ comments are sent to the author and reviewers of the manuscript. Authors are typically notified about the status of the manuscript within 8 weeks of submission.
Manuscript Preparation
AEI prefers to receive all manuscript submissions electronically.
Please note: This journal does not accept Microsoft Word 2007 (for Vista operating system) documents at this time. Please use Word’s “Save As” option to save your document as an older (.doc) file type.
Guidelines specified in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA; 6th edition, 2010) should be followed. Pay particular attention to the sections concerning guidelines for nonsexist language, avoiding ethnic bias, and disabilities. AEI will not be following the rule of two spaces between sentences.
Authors who want to refine the use of English in their manuscripts might consider utilizing the services of SPi, a non-affiliated company that specializes in editing and correcting English-language manuscripts written by authors with a primary language other than English. Visit http://www.prof-editing.com for more information. (Please be aware that SAGE has no affiliation with SPi and makes no endorsement of the company. An author’s use of SPi’s services in no way guarantees that his or her submission will ultimately be accepted. Any arrangement an author enters into will be exclusively between the author and SPi, and any costs incurred are the sole responsibility of the author.)
General
1. Because this journal uses blind peer review, make sure that the files you load during submission DO NOT CONTAIN ANY IDENTIFYING INFORMATION, such as author names, acknowledgments, or bios. You will provide this information later if your manuscript is accepted for publication. Make sure your file names do not include an author name.
2. Articles should be double spaced, using left alignment, a nonproportional font, and 12-pt. type. Include the title of the paper, an abstract of no more than 150 words, and 4 to 5 keywords.
3. Set all margins to 1 inch.
4. Format for 8½ in. x 11 in. paper. Do not format for A4 paper.
5. Please type all copy upper and lower case—do not use all capitals or small capitals.
6. Place all figures and tables in separate files. Tables need not be double spaced, but please use Word's table function. Indicate the location of tables and figures in text in boldface, enclosed in angle brackets, on a separate line.
Example: <Fig. 1 here>
7. Please use your tab key and centering functions to do head alignment, paragraph indents, etc. DO NOT USE THE SPACE BAR.
8. Use endnotes as sparingly as possible. Number them with Arabic numerals starting with 1 and continuing through the article; for example: “(see Note 1).” Do not use footnotes.
Artwork
Figures must be provided as production-ready. Do not use rules or tick marks smaller than 1 point in size. Acceptable electronic formats for figures or other art are: TIFF, EPS, Word, or Excel. If you have trouble loading Excel files, copy and paste them into a Word document. Scans must be at least 300 dpi (also sometimes called lpi). Scans done at lower resolutions will have a very poor print quality even if they look crisp and clear on a laser printout.
Permissions
Obtaining written permissions for material such as figures, tables, art, and extensive quotes taken directly—or adapted in minor ways—from another source is the author’s responsibility, as is payment of any fees the copyright holder may require. Because permissions often take a considerable amount of time to be granted, authors should start the request process as soon as possible. Authors should never assume that material taken from software or downloaded from the Internet may be used without obtaining permission. Each source must be investigated on a case-by-case basis. Authors can download the Sage Permissions Request form at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/aei. The form has been written to cover all necessary provisions; however, copyright holders may require use of their own form. In these cases, the author should read any forms carefully to make sure that the language is broad enough to allow publication in all formats, worldwide, as well as in both electronic and print versions. Failure to obtain permission will result in either removal of the particular item or the article being pulled from the journal issue.
Manuscript Submission
Manuscripts should be submitted online through ScholarOne Manuscript.
Starting the Submissions Process
1. Launch your Web browser (Internet Explorer 5 or higher, Netscape 6 or higher, or Mozilla Firefox) and go to the journal's ScholarOne Manuscript homepage (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/aei).
2. Log in or click the “Create Account” option if you are a first-time user of ScholarOne Manuscript.
3. If you are creating a new account:
• After clicking on “Create Account” enter your name and e-mail information and click “Next.” Your e-mail information is very important. Continue entering information as prompted.
• Enter a user ID and password of your choice (we recommend using your e-mail address as your user ID) and then select your areas of expertise. Click “Finish” when done.
4. Log in and select “Author Center.”
Submitting Your Manuscript
Make sure you have the following items and information available: your original manuscript files; keywords for the manuscript subject matter; all coauthors’ full names, addresses (city/state), and e-mail addresses; # of figures, # of tables, # of manuscript pages; if the manuscript is for a special issue; if you submitted manuscript previously, and if so, ID number assigned by the journal editorial office.
5. After you have logged in, go to the Author Center and click the “Submit a Manuscript” link.
6. Enter data as prompted, clicking the “Next” button to save your work and advance.
7. You will be prompted to upload your files:
• Click on the “Browse” button and locate the file on your computer.
• Select the description of the file in the drop down next to the Browse button.
• When you have selected all files you wish to upload, click the “Upload” button.
8. Review your submission (in both PDF and HTML formats) before sending. Click the “Submit” button when you are done reviewing.
Copyright
After your article has been accepted for publication, please go to the journal’s ScholarOne Manuscripts Web site to obtain the Transfer of Copyright form. Please download, fill this out, and send it to the AEI editorial office: Fax: 612/624-8241.
Ordering Reprints
Information regarding reprints will be sent with the complimentary printed copy of the journal issue in which your article appears.
Journal Contact Information
Matthew K. Burns, PhD
Editor, Assessment for Effective Intervention
School Psychology Program
University of Minnesota
341 Education Science Building
56 East River Road
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Burns258@umn.edu
(612) 626-7324
Fax (612) 624-8241
