Advancing research on comparative and international education in Asia: contribution of the Asia Pacific Education Review

This article explored the contribution of Asia Pacific Education Review (APER) to expanding the scope of research on comparative and international education in Asia. We developed a rubric based on extensive studies (Rust et al. in Comp Educ Rev, 43(1):86–109, 1999; Foster et al. in Int J Educ Dev 32:711–732, 2012) of research in the field to compare three highly ranked journals in the field of comparative and international education (Comparative Education, Comparative Education Review, and International Journal of Educational Development) with the fledgling APER on the content of the articles they published between 2006 and 2010. Results were also compared with sources included in the 2011, 2012, and 2013 bibliographies prepared for the Comparative Education Review. The study highlights publication patterns of these journals, focusing on methodology, education level, region, and topics. Findings suggest that these journals, while sharing some things in common, also show distinct patterns, suggesting questions about the extent to which distinctively Asian topics and approaches are fully represented.