The Intellectual Foundations of Education: Core Journals and Their Impacts on Scholarship and Practice

Academic journals are the primary mode of communication among researchers, and they play a central role in the creation, diffusion, and use of knowledge. This article updates previous attempts to identify a core set of journals that most education scholars would acknowledge as consequential sources. On the basis of nominations from a panel of experts, 11 primary journals were identified; 3 of these-American Educational Research Journal, Educational Researcher, and Review of Educational Research-were nominated by at least one third of the respondents. The impact of these journals is assessed using a number of alternative metrics. In addition, differences in impact on policy and practice versus scholarship are considered.