Journal of Special Education Technology
Classroom Applications of Technology | Critical Thinking | Special Needs Teaching Methods
JSET is a referred professional journal that presents up-to-date information and opinions about issues, research, policy, and practice related to the use of technology in the field of special education. JSET supports the publication of research and development activities, provides technological information and resources, and presents important information and discussion concerning important issues in the field of special education technology to scholars, teacher educators, and practitioners
| Joseph R. Boyle | Temple University, USA |
| Michael Kennedy | University of Virginia, USA |
| Soo Ahn | Iowa State University, USA |
| Abigail Allen | Clemson University, USA |
| Kat Alves | Longwood University, USA |
| Zhe (Gigi) An | University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA |
| Tamarah M. Ashton | California State University, Northridge, USA |
| Melinda Ault | University of Kentucky, USA |
| Kevin Ayres | University of Georgia, USA |
| James D. Basham | University of Kansas, USA |
| Laura Bassette | Ball State University, USA |
| Margaret Bausch | University of Kentucky, USA |
| Randall Boone | University of Nevada-Las Vegas, USA |
| Emily C. Bouck | Michigan State University, USA |
| Monica Brown | University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA |
| Allison Bruhn | University of Iowa, USA |
| Jay Buzhardt | University of Kansas, Juniper Gardens Research Center, USA |
| Richard Carter | University of Wyoming, USA |
| Dianne Chambers | University of Notre Dame, Australia |
| David Cihak | University of Tennessee, USA |
| Mari Beth Coleman | University of Tennessee, USA |
| Olivia Coleman | University of Virginia, USA |
| James Collins | University of Wisconsin, Whitewater, USA |
| Sharon F. Cramer | Buffalo State College, NY |
| Therese M. Cumming | University of New South Wales, Australia |
| Lisa Dieker | University of Kansas, USA |
| Chris Doabler | University of Texas, Austin, USA |
| Melissa Driver | Kennesaw State University, USA |
| Dave Edyburn | University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, USA |
| Anya Evmenova | George Mason University, USA |
| Hank Fien | Boston University, USA |
| Sara Flanagan | University of Maine, USA |
| Kim Floyd | West Virginia University, USA |
| Marilyn Friend | University of North Carolina Greensboro, USA |
| James Emmett Gardner | University of Oklahoma, USA |
| Tracy Hall | Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), USA |
| Ted Hasselbring | Vanderbilt University, USA |
| Kyle Higgins | University of Nevada Las Vegas, USA |
| Shanna Hirsch | Clemson University, USA |
| Annemarie Horn | Old Dominion University, USA |
| Brittany Hott | University of Oklahoma, USA |
| Sarah Howorth | University of Maine, USA |
| Maya Israel | University of Florida, USA |
| Tara Kaczorowski | Illinois State University, USA |
| Ryan O. Kellems | Brigham Young University, USA |
| Margaret King-Sears | George Mason University, USA |
| Rachel Kunemund | University of Virginia, USA |
| Paula Lancaster | Grand Valley State University, USA |
| Sean Lancaster | Grand Valley State University, USA |
| Marc J. Lanoyaz | Université de Montréal, Canada |
| Suk-Hyang Lee | Ewha Womans University, Republic of Korea |
| Bianca Della Líbera | Instituto Benjamin Constant, Brazil |
| Charles MacArthur | University of Delaware, USA |
| Matthew T. Marino | University of Central Florida, USA |
| Loretta Mason-Williams | Binghamton University, USA |
| Kevin McFerrin | Northwestern State University of Louisiana, USA |
| Don McMahon | Washington State University, USA |
| Sarah McPherson | New York Institute of Technology, USA |
| Ahmed Hassan Hemdan Mohamed | United Arab Emirates University, United Arab Emirates |
| Cori M. More | University of Nevada Las Vegas, USA |
| Joseph Morgan | University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA |
| Sarah Nagro | George Mason University, USA |
| Nancy Nelson | Boston University, USA |
| Jennifer Newton | Ohio University, USA |
| John O'Rourke | Edith Cowan University, Australia |
| Theresa A. Ochoa | Indiana University, USA |
| Cynthia M. Okolo | Michigan State University, USA |
| Katherine Peeples | Illinois State University, USA |
| Robert Pennington | University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA |
| Kavita Rao | University of Hawaii, Manoa, USA |
| Kelly S. Regan | George Mason University, USA |
| Laila Richman | Towson University, USA |
| Marcie Rock | University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA |
| Wendy Rodgers | Virginia Commonwealth University, USA |
| John Romig | University of Texas Arlington, USA |
| Kristin Sayeski | University of Georgia, USA |
| Cate Smith | University of Tennessee, USA |
| Sean Smith | University of Kansas, USA |
| Renee Speight | University of Arkansas, USA |
| Joseph Stowitschek | University of Washington, USA |
| Matthew Taylor | The College of New Jersey, USA |
| Cathy Newman Thomas | Texas State University, USA |
| Matthew J. Tincani | Temple University, USA |
| Jason Travers | Temple University, USA |
| Toni Van Laarhoven | Northern Illinois University, USA |
| Eleazar (Trey) Vasquez | University of Central Florida, USA |
| Kristen Votava | University of North Dakota, USA |
| Zachary Walker | University College London, UK |
| Margaret Weiss | George Mason University, USA |
| Mira Williams | James Madison University, USA |
| Gulnoza Yakuboya | University of Maryland, USA |
Content
The Journal of Special Education Technology (JSET) is a refereed, professional journal that presents up-to-date information about issues, research, policy, and practice related to the use of technology in the field of special education. We encourage submissions from individuals and group authors who represent the diversity of professional roles within the field. This document replaces all previous versions of submission guidelines for JSET and is effective beginning March 2018.
JSET publishes original scholarly work spanning the broad domain of technology for students with disabilities and related stakeholders that provides (a) specific technology-based instructional and management interventions; (b) strategies for reforming service delivery using technology; (c) ways to leverage technology to foster and/or improve the professional development and/or preparation of practitioners; (d) updates on cutting edge technologies and the implications for supporting outcomes for students with disabilities, and (e) information pertaining to technology-driven aspects of state and federal legislation, rules, and regulations that are of interest to the field.
Authors are encouraged to be mindful that the purpose of a professional journal is not to publish all manuscripts that have merit but to select those that represent the timeliest and important information according to the aims and scope of the journal within the limitations of available space. Authors who have questions about the suitability of their work for JSET should contact the Editors.
All Authors should use “person-first” language: We focus on the person even as we acknowledge the exceptionality, both figuratively and literally. This standard will result in terms such as “people with disabilities” rather than “the disabled” or “students who are gifted” instead of “gifted students.”
All manuscripts should be scholarly in nature, and make a clear contribution to the literature in the field of educational technology for students with disabilities. JSET will publish only those manuscripts that have been peer reviewed and are judged to be of excellent quality. Each issue of JSET may contain one or more of these article types: Original Research, and Technology in Action. Each is introduced below:
Original Research
Manuscripts submitted to the Original Research section should (a) report results from quantitative or qualitative research studies (including single case designs) or (b) contain syntheses/meta-analyses of the literature that relate to the field of technology in teaching and learning for students with disabilities. All manuscripts that report results of new studies should include an introduction (including clear conceptual or theoretical framework) methodology (including detailed description of participants, procedures, design, technologies used, and appropriate psychometric data for measures), results (including effect sizes when appropriate), and discussion (including implications for future research and practice). Syntheses should clearly report all search criteria including rationale for inclusions and exclusions. Replication and conceptual replication studies are welcome to be published in JSET.
Technology in Action
Technology in Action (TIA) is tailored for practitioners. It presents effective and/or promising content designed to help practitioners use assistive and/or instructional technology to improve results for individuals with disabilities. TIA is peer reviewed and manuscripts should not exceed 22 pages, including all references, figures, tables, and text boxes.
TIA has a unique style and focus. While these are not research articles—and therefore should not be written in a research style—they are articles that convey to the reader substantive information that focuses on the “what” and on the “how to.” Manuscripts without a heavy emphasis on the “how to” will not be considered.
As a research-to-practice column, all manuscripts should be grounded in an appropriate research base or founded upon a strong understanding of recent legislation. The key to successful manuscripts for TIA, however, lies in the author’s ability to translate content into actionable guidance for practitioners. Prospective authors are advised to consider the following guidelines prior to the development of a manuscript for TIA:
Appropriate Content for TIA
Manuscripts should be well organized and provide an explicit connection to the current, professional literature on evidence-based practice in the field using technology to support the needs of students with disabilities in some way. Manuscripts that have a simple message with immediate application to practice and provide detailed guidelines that enable practitioners to immediately and easily implement the suggested practices in their own settings work best for TIA. Many manuscripts include scenarios or examples (commonly referred to as “fictional vignettes”) illustrating how suggested practices might be implemented with one or more individuals or in different contexts.
Specifically, successful manuscripts for TIA:
1. Have a specific research-to-practice focus. The focus of TIA is on translating research into practice guidelines using technology. Therefore, authors should provide a direct link between offered recommendations and empirical research. Lengthy reviews of the literature, however, are not appropriate for TIA. The typical structure of a TIA manuscript begins with a presentation of a problem of practice followed by a brief synthesis of relevant, recent empirical research. The bulk of the manuscript is then devoted to the delineation of detailed practice guidelines supplemented with tables, figures, and examples.
2. Reflect a direct focus on students with exceptionalities. TIA’s target audience is special educators and other professionals who work directly with students with exceptionalities. As such, manuscripts should focus on the unique needs of students with identified disabilities.
3. Include graphic elements to facilitate content understanding and application. Tables and figures are used within TIA manuscripts to provide checklists, sample materials, examples, definitions, etc. Tables and figures should be referred to within the narrative (e.g., “see Table 2 for a list of common terms used”).
4. Reference current research. As a general rule, references should reflect work published within the past decade. Older references to seminal research or that demonstrate an extensive research history can be included but should be used sparingly. In addition, strong references come from research journals. As such, the majority of references used within a manuscript should not come from textbooks or research-to-practice journals.
5. Are masked (i.e., “anonymized”). An important aspect of the double-anonymize, peer-review process is that reviewers do not know the identity of authors and visa versa. For TIA, authors should properly cite and reference their own work but should not use phrases such as “In our previous work (Smith, 2011), we presented…,” which identifies the author. Such work should be referred to in the third person, e.g., “Previously Smith (2011) presented…”.
6. Reflect original work. If manuscripts include several tables or figures that have been published elsewhere, their inclusion within the manuscript may reflect a redundancy in the literature—consider their inclusion carefully. Authors who wish to use material for which they do not own the copyright must obtain written permission from the copyright holder.
Tips for Writing a TIA Manuscript
1. Use the JSET Style Guidelines.
2. When setting a context for the topic area, summarize the research and literature base.
3. To enhance readability, use bulleted lists, numbered lists, text boxes, pull-out quotes, vignettes, etc.
4. Think of the “how to” part as a recipe. Include everything a practitioner would need to implement or use the content.
5. Do not write an advertisement for a particular product. If you are referring to a product, make sure that you have framed this as “one of several/many tools that are intended to _____.” Then, list alternate tools that might be chosen for the same purpose.
6. Peruse past issues of TIA for examples. Previous topics—all with the central focus on assistive and/or instructional technology—have included:
• Understanding students’ behavioral problems in the classroom
• Helping young children with disabilities participate in daily activities
• Integrating technology into mathematics and content area literacy instruction
• Using technology to maximize team-based learning
• Managing technology in the classroom
• Using technology to enhance transition planning
• How to use technology supports for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders
• How to select English language acquisition technology for students with disabilities
• How to create electronic text to support comprehension by students with moderate to severe disabilities
• How to increase adaptive access to instructional materials for students with significant disabilities
• How to evaluate educational software for students with differing abilities and disabilities
• How to assess whether the technology is working
• Helping students access instructional technology
• Instructional technology for special education administrators
• Engaging students in science and social studies with instructional technology
• Instructional technology interventions for reading and written language
Style For All Article Types
JSET uses the American Psychological Association’s Publication Manual (7th ed.) style guide. Please be aware that manuscripts without appropriate style usage in text and references may be returned to the author without review.
Documents should be submitted in a current version of Microsoft Word; have 1-inch margins; be double-spaced, including quotations and references; and use a standard 12-point font such as Times New Roman. Each manuscript should be prefaced with an abstract that summarizes the content in 100-150 words. Authors should submit figures and tables as separate files. Please indicate the preferred position of tables, figures, and other graphic elements in the manuscript and reference each as a “call-out” in the narrative. JSET will now allow authors to use footnotes for extraneous text that is not necessarily needed in the narrative of the manuscript. Media files cannot be uploaded to the review system; authors should arrange to host these segments on a separate server and embed links in the manuscript to provide access to the media. Authors will be expected to optimize image files for the web during the submission and review process and also should be prepared to submit hi-res, camera-ready copy of graphic files (e.g., photographs, illustrations). Authors who wish to use material for which they do not own the copyright must obtain written permission from the copyright holder. For rules governing general format, headings, citations and references, and other style components, authors should consult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) (7th ed., The American Psychological Association, 2019). This style guide also includes a detailed Checklist for Manuscript Submission.
Length
Manuscripts submitted to JSET for the Original Research section should be between 25-35 manuscript pages, including references and all content within tables and figures. Technology in Action manuscripts should be no more than 22 pages in length.
Submission
All manuscripts should be submitted via Manuscript Central: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/joset. Authors can expect a first decision on manuscripts approximately six weeks after submission.
Please send all questions regarding JSET to the Co-Editors, Dr. Joe Boyle from Temple University (tue87325@temple.edu), and Dr. Michael Kennedy from University of Virginia (mjk3p@virginia.edu).
Review Process
The selection of manuscripts for publication is based on a double anonymize peer-review process. All manuscripts are screened first by the editors. Manuscripts that do not meet all manuscript requirements, or that are not consistent with the aims and scopes of the journal, are not forwarded for peer review. In such cases, the submitting author is notified that the manuscript is not acceptable for JSET or is requested to make changes to the manuscript so that it meets requirements.
Manuscripts that are consistent with the purpose of the journal and meet all requirements are assigned to two or more reviewers to evaluate the manuscript. Please note: Reviewers will not know the identity of the author(s). While under review, the manuscript should not be submitted elsewhere.
After reading and evaluating the manuscript and the reviews, the editors will e-mail the submitting author a written decision and the reviews. The decision will be one of the following:
- accept, with routine editing;
- accept pending minor revisions;
- revise and resubmit; or
- reject.
Editorial policies
Authorship: All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
Acknowledgements: All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
Funding: Journal of Special Education Technology requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors
Declaration of conflicting interests: JSET encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
Please include any declaration in file separate from the main text, after any acknowledgements, under the heading 'Conflicts of Interest.' When making a declaration the disclosure information must be specific and include any financial relationship that all authors of the article has with any sponsoring organization and the for profit interests the organization represents, and with any for-profit product discussed or implied in the text of the article.
Publishing policies
Publication ethics: Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway. Journal policy prohibits an author from submitting the same manuscript for consideration by another journal and does not allow publication of a manuscript that has been published in whole or in part by another journal.
Plagiarism: JSET and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
Prior publication: If material has been previously published, it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
Please note that this journal does not allow submissions from papers that are already available as a preprint.