Some JOE Style Points: Confusing Article & Research

Some JOE Style Points: Article vs. Research

As I've explained before, I am starting to build a JOE style guide in "bits and pieces." The bit I'm tackling this month is the confusion between an article about research and the research, itself.

Many articles submitted to JOE refer to "this research." But the articles are not research; they are reports or descriptions of research and research findings. The research was performed before the articles about it were written. We're talking two different things.

On first reference, I generally change "this research" to "the research reported here" and, later in the articles, change "this" to "the." However, there are other ways to maintain the important distinction between the research you have done and your article describing it.

By the way, articles aren't studies, either. They're about studies.

This JOE style point will also be posted on the Help for JOE Authors page.

December JOE

The first two Feature articles in this issue, "The Craft of Cross-Cultural Engagement" and "Is 10% Good Enough? Cooperative Extension Work in Indian Country," deal in quite different ways with the same topic: extending Extension across cultures. The second article, especially, reverberates with a Tools of the Trade article in the October issue, "More Tips: What If a Cooperative Extension Professional Must Work with Native American Institutional Review Boards?" I call your attention to both articles and suggest you revisit the third article, too.

There are also a number of fine articles on 4-H, on evaluation, on volunteers, and on water quality. How we can use technology to better serve and understand our audiences comes in for its share of attention, too. A lot of good articles on a lot of important and interesting topics. What can I say? It's a good issue.

Best wishes for the holiday season.

Laura Hoelscher, Editor

joe-ed@joe.org