In January 2024, the first Aletheia Society Unconference brought together special education scholars interested in building a more open, collaborative, and democratized research community. As part of the unconference, we convened as the Early Career group with the shared goal of increasing the involvement of and support for early-career, special education researchers in open science.

The group identified an exciting entry point for advancing this goal: developing and leading a special series of Research in Special Education: Open Science Practices and the Early Career Researcher: A Push to Advance Special Education Research.

The series brings together manuscripts written by and about early-career researchers, exploring open science practices, perspectives, challenges, and opportunities unique to this group. The featured contributions highlight both the potential of open science to strengthen research communities and the support needed to make these practices more accessible to scholars at all career stages.

Papers in the special series will be published on a rolling basis, as they are accepted and copyedited, allowing readers to engage with each contribution as it becomes available. Following the publication of all manuscripts, the Aletheia Society Early Career group will publish a Special Series Synopsis highlighting the contributions and key themes across the series.

We are excited to share the first papers in the series and look forward to highlighting additional contributions in the months ahead. We hope this collection will encourage conversation, collaboration, and continued investment in making open science more accessible and sustainable for early career researchers in special education and beyond.

Authors:

Lindsey G. Mirielli, Assistant Research Professor, Juniper Gardens Children’s Project, University of Kansas

Christine M. White, Postdoctoral Scholar in Research, Department of Special Education, Vanderbilt University 

Lindsey Kaler, Assistant Professor, Division of Special Education, School of Education, University at Albany

Non-empirical paper

Supporting Early-Career Researchers and Multilingual Assessment through Open Science in Special Education

• Reinaldo Cabrera Pérez
• MacKenzie T Johnson
• Kayla Ueshiro
• Christine Shea
• Eve Higby
• Philip Combiths

2026-09-01 Volume 3 • 2026

Also a part of:

Collection: Open Science Practices and the Early Career Researcher