This Digest, intended as an instructional aid for beginning research students and a refresher for researchers in the field, identifies key factors that play a critical role in determining the credibility that should be given to a specific research study. The needs for empirical research, randomization and control, and significance testing are…

The appropriate use of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) necessitates thoughtful researcher judgment concerning a number of analytic decisions. This paper reviews some of the fundamental decisions necessary to conduct an EFA and examines reporting practice in published research across four journals. In general, insufficient information was given…

Appropriate use of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) requires a series of thoughtful analytical decisions. Adequate reporting of an EFA would allow external evaluation of the decisions made by the analyst. This paper briefly reviews some of the decisions necessary in an EFA. It provides an empirical review of reporting practice in three…

This digest discusses the common sections of a research report and highlights frequently made mistakes. At every stage of the research activities, the researchers should think about the eventual research report. The report should be planned to focus on a single important finding or a highly related group of findings. Suggestions are made for the…

Abstracts of a document have been generally considered a valuable aid to the reader in quickly determining the relevance of a document. A test of this hypothesis in three military laboratories was not supported. (71 references) (Author/SJ)

The two objectives of this study were to determine the acceptability of the microfiche format as a medium for reading technical reports among a representative group of engineers and scientists, and to measure the effects of using this medium as the reading habits of the group. (6 references) (Author)

Discusses 10 rules of thumb for writing educational research reports that are concise and accessible. The principles include writing in terms of people, emphasizing the positive, editing for simplicity, and breaking any of the previously discussed rules when necessary. (HTH)

The author reviews research on the relevance of teaching grammar to improve composition skills and finds that research studies conducted over the past 75 years have indicated there is no correlation between ability in grammar and quality of composition. (KC)

Although they express some reservations, the authors report that a consistent pattern of evidence from 10 studies suggests that implementation of a positive reinforcement program is accompanied by some reduction in employee absenteeism. (Author/IRT)

Reviews four aids to reading: notetaking, underlining, inserted questions, and organizers in text. For each method, investigations on the key variables are discussed and generalizations from the literature are drawn. (AO)

Discusses reliability issues in light of recent studies and debates focused on psychometrics versus datametrics terminology and reliabilities generalization. Discusses the way multiple perspectives on score reliability may affect research practice, editorial policies, and reliability generalization across studies. (SLD)

Comments on the evaluation by Margaret Mead of the first Salzburg Seminar (1947). Notes the strength and clarity of Mead's evaluation report, which was written without the aid of the many tools on which today's evaluators draw. (SLD)

Reviews the other articles of this theme issue and considers the transformation of the "Review of Educational Research" from annotated bibliography to gatekeeper and referee of educational research. The development of the journal echoes the development of the field of educational research. (SLD)

Provides advice on writing a research paper when structural equation models are being used in empirical work. Focuses on what information should be reported and what can be deleted without much loss of judgment about the quality of the research and validity of conclusions. (SLD)