Prevalence of Research Design in Special Education: A Survey of Peer-Reviewed Journals

Abstract

Special education policy and scholarship have increasingly emphasized the use of research, which encompasses interdependent methodological approaches designed to address specific questions. Consequently, the knowledge available to practitioners, policymakers, and other consumers is a function of the research designs featured in the literature. This study describes the prevalence of methodological approaches appearing in special education journals ( n = 33). An assessment of a sample of articles ( n = 12,669) published from 1999 to 2019 found that much of the published research ( n = 9,543) emphasizes nonexperimental, quantitative inquiry (57.86%). Experimental research is comparatively less common (25.51%) and encompasses both single-case (14.22%) and group experimental designs (11.29%). Qualitative studies (9.38%) appear far less frequently. Patterns of publication vary based on journal emphasis. A description of results is followed by a discussion of implications for the consumption and generation of evidence in special education.