Journal Of Research In Music Education Research Articles

Sources Cited in the Journal of Research in Music Education: 1953 to 2015

The Journal of Research in Music Education ( JRME) is the longest running serial dedicated to music education research, and its articles are widely considered exemplars in the field worldwide. This is a bibliometric study of the sources cited in articles published in the JRME from its inception in 1953 to 2015. We extracted 31,679 references from 1,341 the JRME articles; rank-ordered those frequently cited journals, articles, and authors; investigated the interdisciplinarity of cited journals; observed the age density of cited sources; and studied the proportional distribution of reference types. Results were then compared across 10-year spans, except for the first, which was 12 years, and discussed in light of known parameters for research in other fields. These analyses have revealed several interesting trends reflecting the evolution and maturation of the journal and music education research.

Mainstreaming in American Music Education Journals (1960–1989)

The purpose of this study was to explore the reaction of the music education community to Section 504 and PL 94-142 regarding mainstreaming practices. A content analysis was conducted for the articles published between January 1, 1960, and December 31, 1989, in the Music Educators Journal (MEJ), Journal of Research in Music Education (JRME), and the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education (Bulletin). Research questions regarding the number of articles published, the ratio of research to pedagogical articles, disabilities addressed within the articles, and the affiliations and geographic locations of the article authors guided the analysis. Pedagogical articles were separated from research articles for analysis purposes. Based on the results of the analyses, the reaction to the legislation was one of enthusiasm for some while others had little or no reaction. Over a three-decade period (1960–1989), only forty-nine articles were published in the selected journals regarding mainstreaming in the music classroom. The articles were primarily pedagogical, with more than half of the articles published including information regarding various disabilities or Intellectual Disabilities specifically. A majority of the authors were affiliated with higher education institutions, with authors from Kansas producing the most articles by state. Implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.

Analysis of Publication Decisions forJournal of Research in Music EducationManuscripts (2009–2014)

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate characteristics of manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Research in Music Education ( JRME) representing various research methodologies. A database was compiled comprising all manuscripts that received a publication decision from February 2009 through March 2014 ( N = 506). Only submissions that went through the complete review process ( n = 423) were analyzed and included quantitative, qualitative, historical, and mixed methods research. The proportions of the 125 articles accepted for publication during this timeframe by research methodology category included 29.39% of the quantitative submissions and 27.41% of the qualitative submissions. Quantitative research represented 65.95% of submissions and 66.40% of acceptances, and qualitative represented 29.39% of submissions and 27.20% of acceptances. Historical studies and mixed methods studies each accounted for very small proportions of submissions and acceptances. Comparisons of the summative judgments that reviewers provided for the quantitative and qualitative articles when recommending against acceptance also were examined and found to be comparable. Data indicate that publications decisions were not systematically related to research methodology.

Stratification of Time to First Citation for Articles Published in the Journal of Research in Music Education

The author examined the speed of research dissemination by determining the time elapsed from publication to first citation for 617 articles in the Journal of Research in Music Education ( JRME). Google Scholar was used to create a unique data set of 6,930 references originating from journals in the arts, education, music, and other fields. An original computer script linked the journal citations to individual articles and calculated the elapsed time from publication to first citation in journals dedicated to music and other disciplines. Kaplan-Meier estimators determined the cumulative failure function and probability of a first citation by year. Failure plots revealed citations to the articles originated more quickly from journals in music than from other fields, highlighting the importance of the JRME to music scholars and gradual influence on other fields. Cumulative first-citation proportions from music journals reached 50% in 4 years and 75% in 8 years. Cox proportional-hazards regression revealed multiauthored studies were cited more quickly after publication than single-author studies, and citation speed changed under different editorships. This study reinforces the importance of JRME to the dissemination of research results throughout the music profession and highlights a need to connect music research with other disciplines.

A History and Analysis of the Choral Journal Editorial Board (1959–2009)

Introduction Professional journals have become a vital part of the academic and artistic fabric of music education in the United States. Though historians have reported that such publications often began as a means to extend the influence of their respective parent organizations, at present, most journals claim scholarly research to be at the core of their mission. (1) Scholarly journals typically retain an editorial board, which directly influences their content, primarily through the process of peer review. While the structure and editorial protocol of such boards likely has a significant impact on the journals' respective readers and contributors, little scholarship has investigated the people who serve on them or the policies that govern them. This study examines the editorial board of Choral Journal (CJ), the official publication of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), during its first fifty years in print (1959-2009). It explores how the board and its policies developed and changed over time. It also analyzes selected characteristics of board members, such as gender, term length, the number of CJ articles published, and the geographic distribution of professional affiliations and degree-granting institutions. These factors are discussed within the context of their relationship to ACDA Division populations, which changed over time in their percentage of the national population as a whole. Current Scholarship Some music research journals, the Journal of Research in Music Education (JRME) primary among them, have provided foci for previous investigations. For example, scholars have examined citation patterns to identify the most productive institutions and to quantify author eminence, as determined by the most-cited authors in a research domain over a specified period of time. (2) Others have studied the history, editorial policies, research topics, and research methodology of selected journals. (3) This line of research, however, dealt only tangentially with editorial boards. A noteworthy body of scholarship has explored the genesis and expansion of CJ within the larger historical context of its organizational affiliate, ACDA. (4) Several other investigations have examined the history and content of CJ specifically. (5) Of particular interest to the present study, Scott W. Dorsey documented various contributions and innovations of the first ten CJ editors. (6) Except for occasional references to the number of board members, however, his scholarship did not examine in detail any specific information about CJ editorial board personnel. To date, the only research to focus on a music journal editorial board analyzed editorial personnel during the first forty years (1953-92) of the Journal of Research in Music Education. (7) That research served as a model for the present investigation. Findings suggested that the appointment of women to the editorial board increased by decade, board members' rate of JRME publication before appointment increased over time, board members with earned doctorates received their degrees from a relatively large number of colleges and universities, and board members' doctoral degree-granting institutions and professional affiliations generally were distributed in proportion to JRME regional populations. The researchers applauded the progress that JRME had made in both gender equity and the broad geographic distribution of its editorial board members. Part I: History of the Choral Journal Editorial Board (1959-2009) Choral Journal was first circulated in May of 1959. The primary purpose of the eight-page pamphlet was to publicize the constitution, bylaws, charter members, and elected officials of the newly formed American Choral Directors Association. The newsletter format continued in the second issue, which functioned both to recruit members and to publicize ACDA's first national conference, held March 16-17, 1960. …

Joseph A. Labuta and His Life in Music Education: An Oral History

Oral history is a relatively new technique in historical research. Some of the first efforts in oral history (of former slaves and poor rural white populations in the southeastern United States) were sponsored by the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s. (1) Allen Nevins started the oral history program at Columbia University in 1948, (2) and in 1966, the Oral History Association was formed. (3) A primary purpose of oral history has been to document memories and reflections of past events as seen through the eyes of a particular person. Oral history differs from a traditional autobiography in that the interaction between the interviewer and the interviewee serves to draw out memories and clarify issues provided by the interviewee. (4) The result of this process is the creation of a primary source document that can be used by other historical researchers. Several oral history projects have been conducted in music and in music education. Musical figures such as Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, and Charles Leonhard have been studied using these techniques. (5) One of Charles Leonhard's former students was Joseph Anthony Labuta, who followed his mentor's example and also became a leader in the music education profession. He is the focus of this oral history project. The purpose of this study was to create a preliminary biography on Dr. Joseph A. Labuta, one of the major figures in American music education during the second half of the twentieth century. Labuta's recalled memories were used to explore selected aspects of music education history during that period. Labuta, professor emeritus of music education at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, has written four well-known music education textbooks that are still currently in use, as well as influential articles and monographs. (6) He has been a leader in the field of music education in the United States, holding a number of offices at the state and national levels of MENC: The National Association for Music Education.(7) Over the course of his career, Labuta has left a legacy of more than 900 music education and conducting students who have benefited through his teaching. (8) Method Labuta was contacted by the study author and agreed to participate in the project. Dates for the face-to-face interviews were set, and Labuta provided the researcher with preliminary written material to assist in the preparation of the interviews. Oral history life techniques were used to create the materials for this project. (9) A series of autobiographical interviews were conducted with Labuta, focusing on a variety of topics related to his career. Bennett's 1992 oral history project on Charles Leonhard served as a model for the selection of interview topics. (10) The list of topics below was agreed upon by the researcher and Labuta. 1. General Life Overview 2. Public School Teaching 3. University of Illinois 4. Central Methodist College/Shepherd College 5. Leonhard and University of Illinois 6. Early Articles 7. Wayne State University, 1967-1977 8. Wayne State, 1977-1987 9. Wayne State, 1987-present (retirement) 10. Courses 11. Books: Teaching Musicianship in the High School Band 12. Books: Basic Conducting Techniques 13. Books: A Guide to Accountability in Music Instruction 14. Books: Music Education: Historical Contexts and Perspectives 15. Articles 16. Journal of Research in Music Education (JRME) Editorial Committee 17. Professional Activities (officer, clinician, conductor) 18. Student Accomplishments An open-ended format was used, based on the outline prepared for each interview session. (11) Neutral, open-ended questions were used to elicit responses from Labuta and were organized either by chronology or by general topic area. …

Historical Research on Music Education and Music Therapy: Doctoral Dissertations of the Twentieth Century

Research articles in scholarly journals, papers presented at symposia and conventions, master's theses and doctoral dissertations, and books form the body of research in music education and music therapy. Scholars have examined this body of literature to identify traits and trends in research. In two studies, Cornelia Yarbrough identified frequency, topic area, and research methodology employed by authors of articles published in the Journal of Research in Music Education (JRME ) during its first thirty years (1953-1983) and first fifty years (1953-2002). For the thirty-year period, she categorized 17 percent of the articles as historical, and she deemed that 79.5 percent of those articles pertain to the history of music education. She categorized 21 percent of the articles on the history of music education as biographical studies. Yarbrough reported that historical methodology was used in 14 percent of articles published in the journal's first fifty years. She also reported that 42 percent and 37 percent of JRME articles published during the journal's first thirty and first fifty years, respectively, were based on the authors' doctoral dissertations or master's theses. (1) William R. Hall analyzed article content from Contributions to Music Education, which is published by the Ohio Music Educators Association. Eight of the 150 articles he examined were deemed to be historical, representing 5 percent of the total. Dennis Graham Stabler analyzed article content from the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education during that journal's first twenty-two years (1963-1985). He categorized 7 percent of the articles as related to the history of music education, with biography constituting only 2.1 percent of articles in the journal. Marie F. McCarthy categorized articles in the twenty volumes of the Bulletin of Historical Research in Music Education (BHRME ) (1980-1999), but she used a different categorization scheme than those used by previous researchers. She reported that biography was the largest single category of articles (28 percent). (2) Jere T. Humphreys and Sandra L. Stauffer reported significant increases (p The percentage of women authors also increased over the BHRME's four five-year periods, from 0 to 28 percent, 56 percent, and 36 percent, respectively, with 36 percent overall. John Grashel reported that women contributed 30 percent of articles published in the JRME from 1953 to 1994, although the percentage varied widely from year to year. Steven K. Hedden found that the percentage of JRME articles authored by women increased from 33 percent in 1970 to more than 55 percent in 1990. In a different study, Hedden found that women wrote 52 percent of research papers presented at the 1980 biennial convention of MENC: The National Association for Music Education (MENC), a figure that dropped for the next biennial convention and then hovered around 40% for over a decade after that. (4) The founders of the JRME sought geographical representation on the editorial committee. (5) Although there were fluctuations in the percentage of editorial committee members relative to regional population percentages over the journal's first four decades, remarkable representation was achieved, both in the geographical region from which the members received their doctoral degrees and the institutions with which they were affiliated during their terms on the committee. …

Allen P. Britton: The Father of Us All

Music education today owes a debt to Allen Britton for the professional research structures he helped put in place nearly fifty years ago. The Special Research Interest Groups (SRIGs, as they are known) of the Music Educators National Conference (MENC) are an outgrowth of the founding of the Journal of Research in Music Education (JRME), Allen Britton's ground-breaking forum for the dissemination of research on music teaching and learning. Other research periodicals such as the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, Southeastern Journal of Research in Music Education, Journal of Music Teacher Education, Update, and a host of state and regional journals have come into being over the last fifty years in support of or in reaction to the success of the Journal of Research in Music Education. Allen Britton's JRME succeeded in becoming the central publishing arm of the music education research community because he set into motion a chain of events that gave identity and self-definition to the members of that community. To understand that chain of events, one must go back to the 1940s, before the JRME was established. In his 1948 dissertation on the history of the MENC, John Molnar notes that, in the early days of MENC, the mission of the organization's National Research Council of Music Education (NRC) was to gather data for MENC officials who then used the information to develop policy. According to Molnar, in 1937 the research council, which had been renamed the Music Education Research Council (MERC), petitioned the MENC to have this function altered to reflect a growing interest in research not centered on the needs of the organization.1 Such an action, i.e., that an agency might redefine itself in light of emerging

An Analysis of the Editorial Committee of the Journal of Research in Music Education, 1953-1992

The purpose of this study was to examine selected characteristics of the editorial committee of the Journal of Research in Music Education (JRME) during the publication's first 40 years (1953-1992). Findings include: (1) the appointment of women to the committee increased significantly by decade but lagged behind female researcher productivity in music education; (2) committee members received their doctorates from and were affiliated with a relatively large number of colleges and universities; (3) generally, geographical distribution of the doctoral-degree-granting and affiliated institutions was proportionate to regional populations; (4) committee members' rate of publication in the JRME before appointment increased significantly by decade; and (5) female members published significantly more JRME articles than did male members during one decade, but there was no significant publication difference between male and female members for the four decades combined. The authors noted a possible trend toward dominance among doctoral-degree-granting institutions, but applauded the demographic representativeness of the committee over the four decades and continuing improvements toward the same.

Researchers in Music Education/Therapy: Analysis of Publications, Citations, and Retrievability of Work

This study offers a look at accepted standards for evaluation of eminence and productivity in the scientific community and updates the database established by Standley (1984) from the contents of the three premier journals in the field of music education/therapy research: the Journal of Research in Music Education (JRME), the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education (CRME), and the Journal of Music Therapy (JMT). Data from the last 10 years were combined with those in the prior study (inception of the journals through 1982) to identify music researchers with the most publications in the three journals evaluated, to identify the most productive universities in contributing to the research literature, and to identify the most-cited scholars in the field for a period representing a span of more than 40 years. Due to the advent and reliance upon computerized literature searches, the classification of productive authors' research by specialists outside the field was also analyzed to ascertain retrievability. Generally, these results showed that, on average, only 50% of selected authors' works were retrievable via combined searches of ERIC and PsycLit and that most authors' studies were labeled with great diversity. Implications for standards of evaluating eminence, for the ongoing compilation of eminence/productivity data, and for use of computerized databases to locate research are discussed.

Frequently Cited Studies as Indicators of Music Education Research Interests, 1963-1989

The purpose of this study was to examine the reference pages of three research journals, the Journal of Research in Music Education (JRME), the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education (BCRME), and Contributions to Music Education (CME), from their inceptions through 1989 to determine which research studies were cited most frequently and could be recognized as important and influential I used a reverse chronological approach to reveal 27 articles with 10 or more citations. Most of the articles were published in the 1970s, and there was a correlation of .29 between number of citations and years in print. A majority of these studies are experimental, and more than a third of them deal with tempo and intonation. This perspective on the research base in music education, as reflected in selected journals, can assist researchers in determining those research areas that have received considerable attention and in identifying topics that have had less intensive investigation.

Productivity and Eminence in Music Research

This study examined the three primary journals for research in music education and therapy: The Journal of Research in Music Education (JRME), the Council for Research in Music Education Bulletin (CRME), and the Journal of Music Therapy (JMT). The purpose of the investigation was to identify the most prolific scholars in music research as determined by number of articles published; to identify the most productive institutions of this type of music research as determined by author affiliations; and to identify music scholars of research eminence as determined by citation rates in these three journals. All data were quantified twice by two independent researchers for purposes of reliability. Tabulations resulted in rank ordering of individuals and author affiliations as in categories above.