Automating Reporting

The methods of reporting on research have been honed over many, many years. Accordingly, the reporting forms and formats favored by researchers are well articulated and reinforced by reviewers as part of the peer review process. With a large body of published research in education to mine, it should be possible to develop specifications for automating the production of technical reports and journal-type articles. For example, most educational research takes the form of articles that have standard sections (e.g., background, methods, results, implications and conclusion) and each section typically contains standard information at a minimum. Generating technical reports and journal articles could be the first effort at automating reporting.

Beyond technical journal articles, educational researchers have been less successful in creating compelling reports on their work that can speak clearly to non-specialists such as policy makers and educational practitioners. An effort might be mounted to create some reporting formats that can reach a general audience. After generating one or more general research reporting templates, efforts should be made to automatically generate such non-technical reports.

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