A Decade of Research Literature in Physical Education Pedagogy

Transcription

1 Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 2009, 28, Human Kinetics, Inc. A Decade of Research Literature in Physical Education Pedagogy Pamela Hodges Kulinna, 1 Kristin Scrabis-Fletcher, 2 Stephen Kodish, 3 Sharon Phillips, 4 and Stephen Silverman 4 1 Arizona State University; 2 University of Delaware; 3 Arizona State University; 4 Teachers College, Columbia University The purpose of this study was to provide a detailed analysis of the research literature in physical education for one decade, including data on the research focus (i.e., teaching, teacher education, and curriculum). A database of published research and research-based scholarship was created. Data were coded maintaining 97% or higher agreement levels. There were 1,819 physical education pedagogy research papers published during in 94 different journals, including those that primarily pertain to (a) physical education (56.40%), (b) kinesiology (30.02%), (c) education and social science (9.35%), and (d) heath education and medical (4.23%). Papers represented all three focus areas: teaching (65.31%), curriculum (19.24%), and teacher education (15.45%). Research in physical education pedagogy has increased each year since 1995, including a small presence in education and social science journals as well as health education and medical journals. Keywords: sport pedagogy, impact factor, scholarly publishing The research literature of a field provides a record of published work and accumulated knowledge. There have been a few systematic analyses of the research literature in physical education pedagogy. They, however, have had a limited focus. Silverman and his colleagues (Silverman, 1987; Silverman & Manson, 2003; Silverman & Skonie, 1997) have provided the initial efforts to identify, categorize, and analyze the published papers as well as dissertations pertaining to research on teaching in physical education (RT-PE), and, even though these have provided some insight, they were narrowly focused and there is a need for more current data. The two investigations of dissertations on RT-PE (Silverman, 1987; Silverman & Manson, 2003) provide a quarter of a century of detailed analyses of dissertations in this area. The overwhelming majority of RT-PE dissertations have focused on teacher effectiveness, with many studies comparing teaching methods efficacy on student outcomes, teaching process, or student engagement (Silverman, 1987).There has been a more recent movement to enhance the initial studies on motor skills through studies of student attitude, cognition, decision making, and emotion. Similar to the trends in other education and social science fields, there has been a large increase in the use of qualitative methodologies in dissertation studies over time (Silverman & Manson, 2003). 119

2 120 Hodges Kulinna et al. Similar findings to the dissertation reviews were reported by Silverman and Skonie (1997) in their investigation of published articles on RT-PE. They studied the published literature on teaching in physical education from 1980 to Findings showed that many of the research studies addressed teacher effectiveness and used quantitative methodologies. The primary publication outlet for articles on RT-PE was the Journal of Teaching in Physical Education. These initial, comprehensive research efforts investigating articles and dissertations in the area of RT-PE provide important summary data and have greatly improved our understanding of the body of literature on RT-PE. Various paradigms or ways of thinking and patterns for research (Gage, 1963) are now used to investigate issues in the field of physical education pedagogy. Shulman (1986), in the third Handbook of Research on Teaching, discusses communities of scholars, practitioners, and policy makers whose activities and interests comprise the field of education. These research communities, and how members conceive the problems and methods to investigate them, use research paradigms to conduct scholarship within a field. Macdonald and her colleagues defined and discussed the key paradigms used in the field of PE pedagogy, and these included positivist, interpretative, socially critical, poststructuralist, and feminist (Macdonald et al., 2002). Research communities make decisions about the best ways to study teaching, teacher education, and curriculum based on attributes of participants, context, agenda, and the research paradigm. These choices can lead to substantially different research programs and different reports about antecedents, teaching experiences, and outcomes. One very positive note is the increased use of multiple paradigms to investigate research questions, thus providing complementary perspectives and data (Eid & Diener, 2006). Programs of research are influenced by the dialogs and debates or the conversation among scholars. These occur in print, at national and regional meetings, in sessions of invisible colleges, graduate classes, correspondence, and departmental meetings where colleagues react to each others work (Locke, Spirduso, & Silverman, 2007; Shulman, 1986). When reviewing the body of knowledge in a field, researchers consider the quality of its journals in order to determine which are the most relevant to read and which are the most appropriate to publish our research papers (McGhee & Ormonde, 2004). Journal quality is often judged using one or both of the following measures: (a) peer assessment and (b) impact factor rating (Yue, Wilson, & Boller, 2007). Although there are limitations with peer ratings due to subjectivity, peer evaluations are an accepted form of evaluation used in a variety of disciplines. Impact factors, although sometimes considered a more objective measure, also hold inherent biases (e.g., review articles are at an advantage), and can be artificially inflated (Leff, 2005). In order for papers to have an impact factor, the journal must be selected for inclusion in Scientific Citation Indexes from Thomson Reuters, which is the publisher of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Web of Knowledge. Inclusion in these indices is based on publishing standards, editorial content, international diversity of authorship, and associated citation data (ISI Web of Knowledge, 2007), and a number of years may need to pass before new journals can be considered. Impact factors are calculated by the number of citations in other journals over a 2-year period divided by the total number of articles in that period (Harter &

3 Literature in PE 121 Nisonger, 1997). Thus, for a specific journal in 2007, the number of citations received by the journal in 2007 for articles that were published in 2005 and 2006 is divided by the number of articles that the journal published in 2005 and In some large fields, all journals have larger impact factors than those from a smaller field of scholarship. Therefore, the comparison of impact factors across scholarly fields may be problematic, and it is beneficial to scholars and those evaluating scholarship to have a variety of perspectives on publishing outlets. Journal quality is used in the larger academic community to rank and evaluate journals. In the health sciences, journal impact factor ratings may be more common than peer assessments in evaluating journal quality (Yue et al., 2007), whereas in many other areas peer assessment plays a larger role. These journal quality measures are used by faculty members and administrators in making critical decisions regarding promotion and tenure, funding allocations, merit, and awards (McBride, 2006; Sieck, 2000). Furthermore, the perceived quality of journals in which faculty members have published also reflects on the department, college, and university. This study aims to improve our understanding of published research in physical education pedagogy by providing objective data that can be used by scholars in the area because, as just mentioned, journal selection, citations, and the quality of journals may affect promotion and tenure decisions about faculty members, as well as merit and other awards. This study builds upon the previous work (Silverman, 1987; Silverman & Manson, 2003; Silverman & Skonie, 1997; Ward & Ko, 2006) by adding a global examination of research on physical education pedagogy (R-PEP) across focus areas and type of journal. Having detailed information on publications provides the field with a multifaceted view of scholarship in the field. This expanded understanding can help us identify needs and directions for future study, further document and enhance the conversation in the field, and provide scholars and administrators with greater insight into publication outlets and publishing patterns of faculty. These publishing trends can supplement other indicators of publishing productivity and quality and thus help us make important decisions about faculty members and research programs. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to provide a detailed analysis of the research literature in physical education pedagogy for one decade. Specifically, the purpose was to identify, categorize into type of journal (physical education pedagogy, kinesiology, education and social science, health education and medical) and area of the field (teaching, teacher education, curriculum), and analyze the R-PEP literature from 1995 to Procedures Method Identifying Articles. A database was created of published research and researchbased scholarship that focused on teaching, teacher education, and curriculum in physical education for articles published from 1995 to This decade permitted article identification for all journals even those with a lag for retrieval purposes (the initial data collection began in 2004 and took two members of the research team over 500 hr in a little over 1 year to complete). The first step was to

4 122 Hodges Kulinna et al. create lists of all possible authors and journals needed to conduct searches. This was done using the following resources: (a) American Education Research Association (AERA) Physical Education Special Interest Group member list, (b) all authors and journals identified in the previous review (Silverman & Skonie, 1997), (c) all authors and journals identified in an edited book on research on teaching in physical education (Silverman & Ennis, 2003a) and the physical education chapter in the Handbook of Research on Teaching (Graber, 2001), (d) reviewing various journal and textbook reference lists, and (e) examining university Web sites with known physical education pedagogy programs and reviewing faculty vitas online. This was followed by an initial search of library databases by typing in the phrase physical education to see which journals appeared without looking at the specific articles. In addition, reviews of hard copies of current journal issues were conducted. In this step, the journal title and table of contents were reviewed for relevance. If the journal seemed to be a possible outlet for research in physical education pedagogy, it was added to the list of journals to be reviewed. An extensive literature search was then performed. The search was conducted using electronic databases and by searching hard copies of journals. Computer searches were conducted on authors, journals, and known topics, including physical education, teaching physical education, physical education curriculum, motivation in physical education, learning in physical education, physical education research, and physical education activity. The searches were performed on each of the following databases: (a) ERIC, (b) SportDiscus, (c) ProQuest, (d) Medline, (e) PubMed, (f) PsycINFO, (g) Wilson Web, (h) Ingenta, (i) JSTOR Heath and Science, (j) Education Full Text, (k) Social Sciences Citation Index, (l) Ebsco Host, and (m) Digital Dissertations (to review reference lists). For journals that were identified in previous steps, all relevant journal issues were reviewed. As new authors and journals were identified, they were added to the list and the databases were reviewed again for the new listings. Articles were only included if they reported research or were research based (e.g., review article or methodological paper). Procedures included reading the abstract and determining that the article addressed content related to physical education pedagogy and was research based. When articles were entered into the database, the complete citation was included, as was the type of journal in which it was published. Reliability of Article Inclusion. The search and initial coding into journal type were performed by two of the authors. One author researched and coded articles in physical education, kinesiology, and health education and medical journals, and the other author addressed education and social science journals. To have confidence that each person was including the same material and the search was exhaustive, the agreement of article inclusion was examined. Three years were randomly selected (1995, 1999, and 2004) for the reliability analysis. Both authors who conducted searches independently researched and made decisions for all journals for these three years. The number of agreements and disagreements per journal and for all articles was tabulated and percent agreement calculated. Coding Research Focus. Two different authors independently coded all articles as teaching, teacher education, or curriculum-based studies using the criteria

5 Literature in PE 123 outlined by Silverman and Ennis (2003b) in the introductory chapter of their book on R-PEP. One of the authors also recorded the number of authors for each article into the database. Percent agreement was calculated on the two sets of research focus data. Data Analyses An analysis of the citations in the database was completed by cross-tabulation. Descriptive statistics also were performed on the continuous variable of number of authors. Impact factors were retrieved from the ISI Web of Knowledge. Results Reliability Analysis for Article Inclusion and Focus The initial review of articles included 97 journals across the 3-year period used to calculate percent agreement between the two persons collecting data. Both individuals agreed that three journals did not have R-PEP articles during those 3 years. These 94 journals contained 469 articles used in the analysis. Across articles, there was agreement on 456 papers and disagreement on 13; thus, the percent agreement for the two sets of coding for the 3 years was 97% for the physical education pedagogy articles. For the journals classifications into the four categories of physical education, kinesiology, education and social science, and heath education and medical, there was agreement on 59 journals and there were some disagreements on 8 (1 to 4 disagreements per journal), and thus an overall 88% agreement. When coding research focus whether the article focus was on teaching, teacher education, or curriculum the interrater agreement exceeded 98%. R-PEP Publications The 1,819 physical education pedagogy papers from 1995 to 2004 were published in 94 journals. There was a trend indicating the number of papers increased most years from 1995 to 2004 (see Figure 1). Papers were published in all four journal types: (a) physical education journals (n = 1,026, 56.40%), (b) kinesiology journals (n = 546; 30.02%), (c) education and social science journals (n = 170; 9.35%), and (d) health education/medical journals (n = 77, 4.23%). A complete listing of the 94 journals published during in physical education pedagogy, including classification type, is available in Table 1. Across all journal types, the two journals with the most R-PEP articles from 1995 to 2004 were the Journal of Teaching in Physical Education and the Physical Educator. The majority of physical education papers were published in the area of teaching, 1,188 (65.31%); followed by curriculum, 350 (19.24%); and teacher education, 281 (15.45%). Research focus by journal type is available in Table 2, and research focus over time is presented in Figure 2. The number of authors on physical education pedagogy papers ranged from 1 to 10 (M = 2.19, SD = 1.34). The mean number of authors was similar across journal type for education and social science (M = 2.36, SD = 1.33), kinesiology

6 124 Hodges Kulinna et al. Figure 1 Physical education pedagogy publications by year and journal type. (M = 2.32, SD = 1.42), and physical education (M = 1.94, SD = 1.08), with more authors involved in the health and medical publications (M = 4.22, SD = 1.92). Finally, Table 3 presents the impact factors for all of the journals published in over the 10-year period. Discussion This analysis of research, which differs from a literature review in that it categorizes results rather than synthesizes them, it builds upon the early work of Silverman and Skonie (1997), it adds to the foundation used to understand research trends, and it plans for developments in the field. Similar analyses of research are common in a number of other fields, such as peer assessments of journal quality in, among others, clinical neurology (Yue et al., 2007) and sport management (Shilbury & Rentschler, 2007). The previous study of RT-PE from 1980 to 1994 showed that the number of papers published each year had grown; however, there was a great deal of variability (Silverman & Skonie, 1997). The current study also showed the published research in the larger field of physical education pedagogy (teaching, teacher education, and curriculum) continuing to grow, with a fairly consistent increase in journal publications each year. Our field needs to continue recruiting and training individuals to carry out R-PEP to build our theoretical body of knowledge and understanding of how to help children become and remain physically active for

7 Table 1 Journals by Type and Percent of Publications Type of Journal and Name of Journal Percent of Publications Number of Articles Frequency of Journal Publication Physical Education Pedagogy Journal of Teaching in Physical Education Quarterly Physical Educator Quarterly British Journal of Teaching Physical Education (formerly British Journal of Quarterly Physical Education) European Physical Education Review times/year International Journal of Physical Education Quarterly Journal of International Council for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, Sport and Dance Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy (formerly European Journal of Physical Education) Quarterly times/year Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly Quarterly Avante times/year Physical and Health Education Journal Quarterly Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (research publications times/year only) Journal of Sport Pedagogy No longer in print Journal of Comparative Sport and Physical Education Quarterly Kinesiology Quest Quarterly Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport Quarterly Sport, Education and Society Quarterly (continued) 125

8 Table 1 (continued) Type of Journal and Name of Journal Percent of Publications Number of Articles Frequency of Journal Publication Measurement in Physical Education and Exercise Science Quarterly Australian Council for Health, Physical Education & Recreation Healthy times/year Lifestyles Journal Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise Monthly Pediatric Exercise Science Quarterly Perceptual and Motor Skills Bimonthly Journal of Human Movement Studies Bimonthly Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sport Bimonthly International Journal of Sports Medicine Monthly Clinical Kinesiology Quarterly Exercise and Sport Science Review Quarterly Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology Quarterly Psychology of Sport and Exercise Bimonthly International Sports Journal times/year Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport Bimonthly Journal of Sport Sciences times/year British Journal of Sports Medicine Monthly International Journal of the History of Sport Quarterly Journal of Applied Sport Psychology Quarterly Journal of Sport and Social Issues Quarterly Sociology of Sport Journal Quarterly Journal of Sport Behavior Quarterly (continued) 126

9 Table 1 (continued) Type of Journal and Name of Journal Percent of Publications Number of Articles Frequency of Journal Publication Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness Quarterly The Sport Journal Quarterly Education and Social Science Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis Quarterly Journal of Applied Social Psychology Monthly Teaching and Teacher Education times/year College Student Journal Monthly Journal of Curriculum Studies Bimonthly Education Quarterly Gender and Education Bimonthly Psychological Reports Bimonthly British Journal of Educational Psychology Quarterly Journal of Classroom Interaction times/year Journal of Psychology Bimonthly Women s Studies International Forum Quarterly Elementary School Journal Quarterly Studies in Philosophy and Education Bimonthly Educational Leadership times/year Journal of Educational Psychology Quarterly Journal of Research and Development in Education Quarterly Social Behavior and Personality times/year Behavior Modification Bimonthly (continued) 127

10 Table 1 (continued) Type of Journal and Name of Journal Percent of Publications Number of Articles Frequency of Journal Publication Educational Psychology Bimonthly Educational Review Quarterly Educational and Psychological Measurement Bimonthly European Journal of Social Psychology Bimonthly Race, Ethnicity and Education Quarterly Review of Educational Research Quarterly Action in Teacher Education Quarterly Contemporary Educational Psychology Quarterly Educational Studies Quarterly Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology Bimonthly Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk Quarterly Journal of Educational Research Bimonthly Journal of Experiential Education times/year Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education Quarterly Education and Treatment of Children Quarterly Journal of Curriculum and Supervision Quarterly Journal of Research in Childhood Education Quarterly Learning and Individual Differences Quarterly Learning and Instruction Bimonthly Middle School Journal times/year Psychological Review Quarterly Remedial and Special Education Bimonthly (continued) 128

11 Table 1 (continued) Type of Journal and Name of Journal Percent of Publications Number of Articles Frequency of Journal Publication Rural Educator times/year Urban Review Quarterly Health Education and Medical Journals Journal of School Health times/year Preventive Medicine Monthly Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine Monthly American Journal of Public Health Monthly Canadian Journal of Public Health Bimonthly Health Education Quarterly/Health Education & Behavior Quarterly Health Psychology Bimonthly American Journal of Health Education Bimonthly Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (formerly Mental Retardation) Bimonthly Psychology and Health Bimonthly American Journal of Health Education Bimonthly Health Educator times/year 129

12 Table 2 Publications by Type of Journal and Focus Journal Type Curriculum Focus Teacher Education Focus Teaching Focus Totals by Type of Journal Education 32 (1.76) 21 (1.15) 117 (6.43) 170 (9.36) Health 18 (0.99) 0 (0) 59 (3.24) 77 (4.23) Kinesiology 82 (4.51) 41 (2.25) 423 (23.25) 546 (30.02) Physical Education 218 (11.98) 219 (12.04) 589 (32.38) 1026 (56.40) Total 350 (19.24) 281 (15.45) 1188 (65.31) 1819 (100) Note. Values are frequency and percentages of total articles. 130

13 Literature in PE 131 Figure 2 Physical education pedagogy publications by year and focus. life. While the research base has grown and flourished, it is important that sustained research continue and be published in appropriate, quality outlets. The majority of papers are published in physical education and kinesiology journals. Although there is not a direct correspondence between the measures in the current study and Silverman & Skonie s (1997) paper, the earlier study coded articles published in generic education journals at 10.6%, and the current study coded articles in any education or social science journal at 9.11%; thus, there has been relative consistency in publications in education journals. Although the current study s classification system of health education and medical journals was not included in the previous studies, it is encouraging to note that publications in the health area are now large enough to warrant coding and that the conversation has begun between faculty in the physical education pedagogy and the health/ medical fields. A number of collaborative studies conducted in physical education and health/medical fields are discussed in Story s (1999) review of 11 schoolbased intervention studies targeting the prevention and treatment of childhood obesity. Of the 11 intervention projects reviewed, 10 had a physical education component. It is important to continue this conversation with personnel in health and medical fields, wherein the focus of research can develop comprehensive programming leading to students whose lives exemplify the concept of physical activity for life. In addition, if good research is to be focused on physical education, it will require pedagogy scholars the experts on school physical education to be a part of these multidisciplinary teams.

14 Table 3 Impact Factor Ratings Listed by Frequency of Publications in Physical Education Pedagogy Journal Impact Factor Journal of Teaching in Physical Education Physical Educator Not on ISI British Journal of Teaching Physical Education (formerly British Journal of Physical Education) Not on ISI Quest European Physical Education Review Not on ISI International Journal of Physical Education Not on ISI Journal of International Council for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, Sport and Dance Not on ISI Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy (formerly European Not on ISI Journal of Physical Education) Sport, Education and Society Not on ISI Measurement in Physical Education and Exercise Science Not on ISI Australian Council for Health, Physical Education & Recreation Healthy Lifestyles Journal Not on ISI Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise Avante Not on ISI Pediatric Exercise Science Perceptual and Motor Skills Physical and Health Education Journal Not on ISI Journal of School Health (continued) 132

15 Table 3 (continued) Journal Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (research publications only) Impact Factor Not on ISI Journal of Human Movement Studies Not on ISI Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports Preventive Medicine Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis Journal of Applied Social Psychology Journal of Sport Pedagogy Not on ISI Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine Teaching and Teacher Education College Student Journal Not on ISI International Journal of Sports Medicine Journal of Curriculum Studies Education Not on ISI Gender and Education Psychological Reports American Journal of Public Health British Journal of Educational Psychology Canadian Journal of Public Health Clinical Kinesiology Not on ISI Exercise and Sport Science Reviews Journal of Classroom Interaction Not on ISI (continued) 133

16 Table 3 (continued) Impact Factor Journal Journal of Psychology Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology Women s Studies International Forum Elementary School Journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise Not on ISI Studies in Philosophy and Education Not on ISI Educational Leadership Health Education Quarterly/Health Education & Behavior Health Psychology International Sports Journal Not on ISI Journal of Educational Psychology American Journal of Health Education Not on ISI Journal of Research and Development in Education Not on ISI Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport Journal of Sport Sciences Not on ISI Social Behavior and Personality Behavior Modification British Journal of Sports Medicine Educational Psychology Not on ISI Educational Review Educational and Psychological Measurement European Journal of Social Psychology (continued) 134

17 Table 3 (continued) Impact Factor Journal Journal of Comparative Sport and Physical Education Not on ISI Intellectual and Development Disabilities (formerly Mental Not on ISI Retardation) Psychology and Health Race, Ethnicity and Education Not on ISI Review of Educational Research Action in Teacher Education Not on ISI American Journal of Health Education Not on ISI Contemporary Educational Psychology Educational Studies International Journal of the History of Sport Not on ISI Journal of Applied Sport Psychology Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk Not on ISI Journal of Educational Research Journal of Experiential Education Not on ISI Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education Not on ISI Journal of Sport and Social Issues Not on ISI Sociology of Sport Journal Education and Treatment of Children Not on ISI Health Educator Not on ISI Journal of Curriculum and Supervision Not on ISI (continued) 135

18 Table 3 (continued) Impact Factor Journal Journal of Research in Childhood Education Not on ISI Journal of Sport Behavior Not on ISI Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness Learning and Individual Differences Learning and Instruction Middle School Journal Not on ISI Psychological Review Remedial and Special Education Rural Educator Not on ISI The Sport Journal Not on ISI Urban Review Not on ISI 136

19 Literature in PE 137 Coding the articles as using qualitative or quantitative methodologies was not performed in this study. Chen and Zhu (2001) provided these data in their study of the assumptions for inferential statistics in R-PEP. They reported methodological data for two top-tier R-PEP journals, that is, the Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport (RQES) and the Journal of Teaching in Physical Education (JTPE) from 1990 to Of the 295 research reports published during this time period in these two journals, 122, or 41%, used qualitative methodologies. Similarly, Ward and Ko (2006) also investigated articles published in JTPE by methodology from 1981 to 2005 and reported for the 68% of the articles that were research studies that they used quantitative (40%), qualitative (18%), mixed methods (6%), and single-subject designs (4.5%). It is interesting to note that Silverman and Skonie s (1997) previous study on RT-PE only reported 8.9% of the studies as using qualitative methodologies. There still is an emphasis on RT-PE in the field of physical education pedagogy, with the majority of studies (>65%) continuing to address teaching issues. There has been an upward trend in the number of publications and, perhaps, in the number of studies focusing on teacher education and curriculum (although these data have not previously been tracked). There certainly are different publication outlets available for various research agendas, and these data suggest that tailoring specific papers to specific types of journals will likely result in greater publishing success and visibility. For example, as can be seen in Table 2, teacher education papers are not published in health or medical journals because the focus of these journals is not appropriate for teacher education research. Selecting journals in which to publish based on a unitary criterion, such as impact factor, may not result in success and the data presented here provide a comprehensive analysis of the R-PEP literature upon which to base decisions. Different faculty teams (and authors) also are needed for different types of projects, and this influences the number of authors on a paper. An in-depth analysis of a physical education teacher s content development studied over a semester may require one or two team members to be immersed in the setting, whereas a large, funded, multiyear intervention project may involve 20 or more team members. A higher number of authors typically are present in published research in medical fields. For example, the mean number of authors across five medical journals in 2005 was 5.73, and this was an increase of approximately 1 author from 1995 (Levsky, Rosin, Coon, Enslow, & Miller, 2007). Compare that with an educational management study that reported 48.7% of articles authored by one person and 83.5% authored by one or two persons (Oplatka, 2007). The data from this study reflect similar trends based on the type of journal in which articles were published and serve as comparison data for those departments that assess the number of authors as a part of the faculty evaluation process. In reviewing the quality of journals published in physical education pedagogy, placing weight on impact factors could be very problematic. Journals with small target audiences and a limited range, such as JTPE, face a distinct disadvantage leading to lower impact factor ratings (McBride, 2006). There also are a number of newer journals in the field that have not yet been added to the ISI. To provide perspective, the median impact factor of the 100 education journals listed in the ISI Web of Knowledge is.49, and for the 73 sport science journals listed it is 1.02, whereas the impact factor rating for the journal Science is (ISI Web of Knowledge, 2007).

20 138 Hodges Kulinna et al. A number of alternatives to the traditional approach to citation analysis are emerging, such as Google Scholar and the h-index (Cronin & Meho, 2006; Kirk, 2007). These approaches, however, also face limitations inherent in citation analyses (i.e., including citations that are negative about the work and the exclusion of total citations for scholars). It is important to acknowledge that the impact factor rating is merely a single piece of information among many others that must be evaluated together to form a true picture of a journal s value (Leff, 2005, p. 30). Therefore, we suggest that administrators and researchers consider the following measures when evaluating journal quality: (a) peer assessment of journal quality; (b) common publication outlets for the type of journal (see Table 1); (c) journal acceptance rates; (d) the composition of the journal s editorial board; and (e) impact factors (see Table 3), which should be used only in comparison with other journals in the same field. There often are consequences for the publication venues that academics choose. For some, this may be the difference of receiving merit pay, awards, or even tenure and promotion at their institutions. In fact, the idea for this study began while one of the authors was going through the tenure and promotion process at a Carnegie Research Extensive institution and was defending top-tier journals in the field of physical education pedagogy. This author was denied top merit pay as a result of low impact factors of the five journals in which she published that year (namely, two in education and three in physical education pedagogy). The data reported here provide a perspective of a decade of publishing trends, and, if the impact factor is used, it should be considered in light of where and in what quantity R-PEP is published. These data add to the body of literature in R-PEP and provide objective data for colleagues and university personnel to use in determining appropriate and common places for researchers in physical education pedagogy to publish. For example, pedagogy scholars can now make a stronger case for publishing their work in journals frequently published in by their peers (e.g., JTPE) and substantiate the role that journal plays in the R-PEP literature. Researchers also can use journal type (i.e., physical education, kinesiology, health education/medical, education/social science) to inform others of the common publication outlets for work in physical education pedagogy. It would be unreasonable, for example, to expect certain types of papers to be published in health-related journals. Similarly, it would not be reasonable for most pedagogy scholars to publish a large number of papers in health journals, given the overall number of papers published in the decade examined in this study. Future work needs to address physical education pedagogy faculty members specific perceptions of the publication outlets identified in the current study to have further data on published research in the field (e.g., quantitative and/or qualitative analysis of faculty perceptions of journals). As scholars, by understanding the R-PEP publishing trends we have a stronger basis upon which to make decisions about outlets for our own work. This understanding can further influence personnel evaluative procedures and the success of physical education pedagogy faculty members.

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