ABSTRACT This meta‐study evaluates trends and patterns in author and article characteristics found in the New Directions for Evaluation from first publication in 2010 to 2024. Research articles were coded and analyzed by both author (e.g., sex, affiliation) and article (e.g., domain, sample size, sampling procedures, design type, statistical analyses) characteristics. Findings suggested significant shifts in authorship (e.g., majority female authors, more international lead authors, 3.09 authors per article) and content type (e.g., more international development and higher education articles and fewer education articles). Only about 10% of NDE articles were classified as research. Nearly all participant, research design, and analysis characteristics were stable over time, with the exception of a substantial increase in the use of consensual qualitative research (CQR) approaches in NDE qualitative and mixed method research studies. The use of effect size, sample reliability (or dependability), and validity (or generalizability) estimates should be addressed in future NDE research articles.
Zhao et al. (Thu,) studied this question.