CHICAGO – At the AERA 2023 Annual Meeting, IEA and ETS are delighted to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of its open-access journal Large-scale Assessments in Education, also known as the IERI journal, in an evening reception and panel discussion reflecting on the topic of International Large-Scale Assessments: Limitations and Potentials for Secondary Analysis.
Open-access publishing of educational research enables the dissemination of best scientific practices internationally and supports building research capacities in regions where funding research in education can be challenging.
With over 251,520 article downloads in 2022 and an editorial board spanning experts from ten countries, the IERI journal has established itself as a trusted open-access resource for diverse stakeholders in education, including: international researchers and students working on large-scale comparative studies in education; global and national educational organizations unable to afford expensive journal subscriptions; policymakers, journalists, educators, and parents seeking evidence-based and reliable insights from the field of educational research.
The IERI journal publishes articles that conduct analyses of the databases published by international and national large-scale assessment programs in education, as well as the methods, procedures, implementation, and use involved in these programs. Examples of large-scale assessments that feature in the journal include IEA’s TIMSS, PIRLS, ICCS, and ICILS studies; US’ NAEP; OECD’s PISA, PIAAC, IELS, TALIS, and TALIS Starting Strong Survey; SACMEC, PASEC, and ERCE. By supporting the analyses of data collected by international comparative studies, including and beyond IEA studies, the journal provides a platform for international researchers to engage with and learn from different large-scale assessments for evidence-based insights on how best to improve the educational outcomes of all students.
Marius Jung, Senior Publisher at Springer Nature Group, commended the exponential growth of the journal:
“It has been a continuous pleasure to work with the editorial staff of Large-Scale Assessments in Education. Over the last ten years, the journal has evolved to a leading open-access publication that serves as an international platform for the research community.
This growth has been accelerated with the launch of the journal’s special issue series edited by topical research experts in 2020. The journal’s special issues have highlighted topics such as the opportunities of analyzing process data, effective and equitable school practices in Nordic countries, and investigating the effect of COVID-19 disruption in education using REDS data.
The diversity of regions and countries represented in article submissions and its authors reflects the diversity of IEA data and how they can be used to better understand and improve education. With the release of ICCS 2022 results coming up in late 2023, we especially look forward to launching a special issue on using ICCS 2022 data that will delve into the implications of these results for civic and citizenship education in 23 countries that participated in this cycle of the study.”
IEA Executive Director and one of the journal’s Editors-in-Chief, Dr. Dirk Hastedt, added that the collaboration between IEA and ETS through the IERI Research Institute extends beyond the journal, highlighting the IERI Training Academies:
“Professional development and training are extremely important for the development and implementation of large-scale assessments. Through the joint IERI Research Institute, IEA and ETS organize and conduct training on topics related to the field of large-scale assessments. We invite recognized field experts to conduct training seminars, both in-person and online, better-known as the IERI Academies.
A combination of seminars and workshops, IERI Academies offer young and experiences researchers an opportunity to connect with their peers and ask questions to the international large-scale assessment data experts. The IERI Academies have taken place at least twice a year since 2007, focusing on topics such as the use of international large-scale assessment databases for secondary analysis, item response theory and population modeling in large-scale assessments, use of hierarchical linear models in large-scale assessments, sampling methods in large-scale assessments, among others.
The IERI Research Institute sees these training activities as a complementary aspect to the Large-scale Assessments in Education journal as they support researchers with the specific methodological and theoretical tools needed to publish their research—either as open-access in the IERI journal, or elsewhere. We hope that the IERI Academies motivate researchers to publish open-access as IEA and ETS remain committed to open sharing of the data and findings from large-scale assessments in our aspiration to reach equitable educational opportunities for all.”
IEA and ETS invite authors to submit their articles to the journal and share their findings with international stakeholders working in the field of educational research. We look forward to reviewing your submissions!