All papers appearing in EWPA undergo a peer review process that is intended to last a maximum of one month from when the paper is submitted by the author to when publishing decision is made. Papers appearing in EWPA are considered to be working papers. Accordingly, papers need not be in their finalized state, and authors are encouraged to submit their papers to journals. The short reviewing cycle is essential to EWPA’s mission and is meant to ensure that the papers are relevant.

A paper must meet three criteria in order to be considered for publication by EWPA: 

1. Empirical work. EWPA is a forum for empirical research on education policy. While qualitative research and general literature reviews are important to the field of education policy, they are not within the scope of EWPA’s mission.
   
   
2. Relevance. The paper must speak to an ongoing public education policy debate. EWPA seeks to be relevant to policymakers and the public by focusing on issues that are of immediate interest or by introducing new issues that should be considered in the policy discussion. Papers that discuss purely technical research problems in public policy are unlikely to be relevant to EWPA’s mission.
   
   
3. Professional standards. The paper must meet professional research standards. This standard is ensured by a) the Research Editor’s initial review of the paper and b) the peer review process.

All articles published by Education Working Paper Archive are subject to a double-blind peer review process to ensure quality. All submitted articles that meet editorial standards for quality and relevance to EWPA’s mission are sent to referees for review. The Research Editor chooses referees for each paper among members of the editorial board and other scholars who are experts in the paper’s subject. The identities of the paper’s author and the referees are unknown to one another. Authors are provided with reviewer comments.

Publication decisions are made from referee recommendations and the editors’ determination of the paper’s quality.

1. Papers can be sent to jbutcher@uark.edu. Authors will be directly notified of the paper’s receipt via email.
   
   
2. Within 7 days of submission the editors will notify the author of whether the paper meets the standards (described above) necessary to begin the peer review. If the paper does meet these standards it will immediately be sent to 3 referees selected by the editors. Beginning the peer review process in no way guarantees that the article will be published.
   
   
3. Referees are instructed to complete their review of the paper and provide comments within 2 weeks of receipt. The author will be informed of any delays in this process.
   
   
4. Upon consideration of referee comments, and within 1 month of original submission, the editors will make a publication decision about the article. Accepted articles are formatted to fit EWPA’s style and are posted on its website immediately after formatting.

Though papers appearing in EWPA go through a peer review process and are posted by EWPA, they are considered to be working papers in progress. Therefore, authors may feel free to submit their article to other journals while the paper is being considered by EWPA and also after it has appeared on the Archive website.

EWPA utilizes the APA formatting style. Papers should conform to this style before submission. For information on the APA style, see www.APAStyle.org or the latest edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.