About This Research: Author, Access, and How to Cite
You found this paper because something in the abstract caught you — perhaps the line about Pre-Kindergarten expulsion rates running three times higher than K-12, perhaps the four-gap analysis, perhaps the mention of a forthcoming framework called Steady Minds.
Now you need the practical information every reader of a scholarly preprint eventually needs: who wrote it, where it lives, how to cite it, and what you’re allowed to do with it. This page gathers all of that in one place.
The work in question is Behavioral Modification and Social-Emotional Learning Frameworks in Pre-Kindergarten Settings: A Scoping Review of the Literature, authored by Ranya Omran and published as a Version 1.0 preprint on Zenodo on June 3, 2026 [1].
It is open access, released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, and assigned a permanent Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for stable citation. Below is everything a researcher, journalist, practitioner, or administrator needs to engage with the work properly.
At a Glance: Publication Information
A quick reference for citation, attribution, and access [1]:
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Title | Behavioral Modification and Social-Emotional Learning Frameworks in Pre-Kindergarten Settings: A Scoping Review of the Literature |
| Author | Ranya Omran |
| ORCID | 0009-0007-6355-2207 |
| Publication Type | Preprint, Manuscript in Preparation |
| Version | 1.0 |
| Publication Date | June 3, 2026 |
| Publisher | Zenodo |
| DOI | 10.5281/zenodo.20532510 |
| License | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) |
| Language | English |
| Copyright | Ranya Omran, 2026 |
| Manuscript File | Ranya_Omran_ScopingReview_FINAL_v2.docx (≈34.8 kB) |
About the Author
Ranya Omran is an Educational Curriculum Developer at Rayan Academy in Coralville, Iowa, and a candidate in the Master of Science in Curriculum and Instruction program at Western Governors University [1]. Her ORCID identifier — 0009-0007-6355-2207 — provides a permanent, machine-readable link between her name and her published scholarship.
The review did not emerge from a purely academic exercise. As described in the author’s note, it grew out of several years of work at the intersection of early childhood curriculum design and behavioral support systems — work that, in the author’s own description, convinced her through direct professional experience that the field is missing something specific and important [1].
Why That Matters for Readers
For researchers, the author’s dual position as both practitioner and graduate-level researcher gives the manuscript a distinctive voice: classroom-anchored observation paired with PRISMA-ScR methodological rigor. For journalists and policy writers, it means the author can speak both to the published evidence base and to operational realities inside Pre-K classrooms.
The scoping review was conducted as part of an ongoing research program and in preparation for an action-research thesis examining the efficacy of the Steady Minds Curriculum — an original MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Supports) behavioral overlay for children aged 3 to 5 that the author is currently developing and piloting [1]. The review is therefore best understood as preparatory groundwork: a map of the existing literature that defines the structural space a new framework would need to fill.
For more on that proposed framework, see A26 — Introducing Steady Minds. For the review’s central finding — the four structural gaps that no existing framework yet combines — see A20 — The Four Missing Pieces.
Publication Status: What “Preprint” Means
This document is a preprint, Version 1.0, published on Zenodo on June 3, 2026 [1]. A preprint is a complete scholarly manuscript that the author has made publicly available before formal peer review at a journal. Preprints accelerate scholarly communication: they let the research community read, cite, evaluate, and build on findings without waiting through a traditional journal pipeline that can take many months.
The author explicitly labels the work as Manuscript in Preparation [1]. The methodological core — research questions, PRISMA-ScR protocol, database selection, search strings, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and the conceptual contribution of the four-gap analysis — is fully present and stable. What is pending is the quantitative output of the screening phase.
What’s Pending in Version 1.0
In keeping with transparent scholarly practice, the author flags specific elements as not yet finalized. According to the manuscript, the systematic database search across Google Scholar, ERIC, PsycINFO, and CINAHL is currently in progress, and final inclusion numbers, the PRISMA-ScR flow diagram (Figure 1), and the complete data extraction table will be added before journal submission [1].
Anyone citing precise study counts, per-category numbers, or flow-diagram values from this version should wait for the updated manuscript or rely only on the qualitative descriptions the preprint contains. For a fuller treatment of what the preprint can and cannot tell readers right now, see A27 — Limitations and Status.
Open Access and the CC BY 4.0 License
The manuscript is open access. Anyone with an internet connection can download the full text from Zenodo at no cost, without an institutional subscription or paywall barrier.
What CC BY 4.0 Permits
The work is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license [1]. CC BY 4.0 is one of the most permissive open licenses in scholarly publishing. Under its terms, anyone may:
- Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
- Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, including commercial use.
The single binding condition is attribution: users must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate whether changes were made. They may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses them or their particular use.
In plain terms, a graduate student may quote the review at length in a thesis; a teacher-trainer may build a slide deck around the four-gap framework; a policy think tank may reproduce passages in a public brief; a publisher may translate it — all without seeking additional permission, provided attribution is given.
How to Cite This Research
Below is the recommended citation in several common scholarly formats. All draw from the publication metadata in the Zenodo record [1].
APA (7th Edition)
Omran, R. (2026). Behavioral modification and social-emotional learning frameworks in Pre-Kindergarten settings: A scoping review of the literature [Preprint, Version 1.0]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20532510
In-Text Citation (APA)
(Omran, 2026)
MLA (9th Edition)
Omran, Ranya. Behavioral Modification and Social-Emotional Learning Frameworks in Pre-Kindergarten Settings: A Scoping Review of the Literature. Version 1.0, preprint, Zenodo, 3 June 2026, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20532510.
Chicago (Author-Date)
Omran, Ranya. 2026. “Behavioral Modification and Social-Emotional Learning Frameworks in Pre-Kindergarten Settings: A Scoping Review of the Literature.” Preprint, Version 1.0. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20532510.
Best Practice When Citing a Preprint
Scholarly convention recommends two things when citing a preprint. First, label it as such — the bracketed “[Preprint]” tag in the APA entry above does this. Second, record the specific version you consulted, since preprints can be updated; this is Version 1.0. If a later, peer-reviewed version becomes available, citing the most recent record is generally preferred.
DOI and Permanent Access
The work is assigned the Digital Object Identifier 10.5281/zenodo. 20532510, resolvable at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20532510 [1]. A DOI is a permanent, stable identifier that will continue to point to the manuscript regardless of changes to the underlying hosting URL. It is the most reliable way to cite, link to, or share the research over the long term.
Disclosures
In keeping with standard scholarly practice, the author provides full disclosures within the manuscript itself [1]:
- Conflicts of interest: None to declare.
- Funding: This research received no external funding.
These disclosures matter for readers evaluating the work’s independence. The review was conducted without commercial sponsorship and without ties to the publishers of any of the framework programs it discusses and critiques — including CASEL, Second Step, PATHS, Conscious Discipline, PBIS, MindUP, CalmSpace, Tools of the Mind, and the Kindness Curriculum.
Keywords and Subject Coverage
The Zenodo record assigns the following keywords to the work [1]:
Pre-Kindergarten · behavioral modification · social-emotional learning · MTSS · self-regulation · early childhood education · SEL framework · curriculum development · PBIS · executive function · preschool intervention · behavioral framework · early childhood curriculum · tiered intervention · Pre-K expulsion
Together, this 15-term keyword set positions the review within the active research and practitioner conversation around preschool SEL curriculum, tiered behavioral support, and the structural conditions that determine whether a framework can sustain itself in real classrooms — conditions the manuscript argues are currently underserved by existing programs.
Contact and Correspondence
The author’s correspondence address, as listed in the manuscript [1]:
Ranya Omran
Rayan Academy
Coralville, Iowa
Email: ra***@**********my.net
Media inquiries, research collaboration requests, and questions about the Steady Minds Curriculum should be directed there.
For Specific Audiences
For Researchers and Graduate Students
The review is methodologically explicit. It follows the PRISMA extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist [2], names its four databases (Google Scholar, ERIC, PsycINFO, CINAHL), publishes its full search-string table, and defines its inclusion and exclusion criteria [1].
The PRISMA-ScR supplementary checklist is referenced as accompanying the manuscript. Researchers should note that the search and screening phases are still in progress at the time of this preprint, and final quantitative results are pending [1]. For methodology details, see A9 — What Is a Scoping Review (PRISMA-ScR)? and A10 — Databases and Search Strategy.
For Media and Journalists
When attributing claims to this research, cite the review as Omran (2026) and link to the DOI rather than a hosting URL. Key findings to attribute carefully: the four-gap structural analysis, the six-category framework taxonomy, the measurement-accessibility critique, and the equity argument around substitute-teacher-ready design. Underlying statistics — such as the federal expulsion-rate figure or the racial-disparity data — should be cited to their sources (Gilliam, 2005; U.S. Department of Education, 2014) as the review itself does.
For Practitioners and Administrators
The full text is freely downloadable and license-permissive: a school district may circulate the manuscript among staff, build a professional development session around it, or reference it in a board memo without seeking permission, provided attribution is included. For role-specific entry points, classroom educators may begin with A19 — The Measurement Problem; administrators and policymakers may begin with A24 — When the Substitute Walks In.
A Final Note on the Forthcoming Framework
Throughout the review, the author references the Steady Minds Curriculum as an original MTSS overlay for ages 3 to 5 that is currently in development and being piloted [1]. It is important — both for citation accuracy and for the integrity of the public conversation — to be precise about what Steady Minds is and is not at this time. It is a forthcoming framework.
It has not yet been validated by published research, and the review itself does not claim otherwise. The review documents the gaps in the existing literature; the forthcoming action-research thesis is the work intended to test whether a framework built to fill those gaps can deliver on what it promises. Readers should treat the review and the project as related but distinct.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Can I cite a preprint in my academic work?
Yes. Preprints are widely accepted as citable scholarly outputs, particularly in education and the social sciences. Standard practice is to label the citation as a preprint and to record the version you consulted. The APA, MLA, and Chicago examples in the “How to Cite” section above follow this convention.
2. What exactly does the CC BY 4.0 license let me do?
CC BY 4.0 lets you share and adapt the material — including for commercial purposes — provided you give appropriate credit, link to the license, and indicate any changes you made. You do not need to contact the author for additional permission. The Zenodo record states this license explicitly [1].
3. Will the citation change when the manuscript is peer-reviewed and published in a journal?
Likely yes. When a peer-reviewed journal version becomes available, it will receive its own citation (journal name, volume, issue, page range, and a separate DOI). At that point, the most recent published version is typically the preferred citation, though many authors continue to acknowledge the preprint as the first openly available record of the work. Until then, Version 1.0 on Zenodo is the citable record.
Key Takeaways
- The work is Omran, R. (2026), Behavioral Modification and Social-Emotional Learning Frameworks in Pre-Kindergarten Settings: A Scoping Review of the Literature, a Version 1.0 preprint hosted on Zenodo with DOI 10.5281/zenodo. 20532510.
- It is released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), permitting reuse, adaptation, and redistribution — including commercially — with attribution.
- The author, Ranya Omran, is a curriculum developer at Rayan Academy and a Master of Science candidate at Western Governors University; ORCID 0009-0007-6355-2207.
- The author reports no conflicts of interest and no external funding.
- The manuscript is a preprint with screening still in progress; final inclusion counts, the PRISMA-ScR flow diagram, and per-category statistics will be added before journal submission. Cite qualitative findings, not unfinalized numbers.
- The Steady Minds Curriculum referenced in the manuscript is a forthcoming framework in development and pilot, not a validated program.
References
[1] Omran, R. (2026). Behavioral modification and social-emotional learning frameworks in Pre-Kindergarten settings: A scoping review of the literature [Preprint, Version 1.0]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20532510
[2] Tricco, A. C., Lillie, E., Zarin, W., O’Brien, K. K., Colquhoun, H., Levac, D., … Straus, S. E. (2018). PRISMA extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR): Checklist and explanation. Annals of Internal Medicine, 169(7), 467–473.
