An important part of European research projects is often the making of a research review - to recognise the state of the art of research in the field studied as well as to achieve a more developed framework for comparisons between different contexts. In education such research reviews are of vital concern, given the fact that education policies and traditions differ in Europe as well as research traditions. Given this heterogeneity it is important that differences as well as similarities in the fields of study over national or regional contexts are represented and discussed in research reviews. Thus, that European education researchers actually are dealing with variations in the field of study, being it classroom interaction, education policies, education inclusion/ exclusion or so forth. And that we as researchers actually put forwards and discuss variations in research traditions as well. This is not only an issue of symmetries in research cooperation and in the making of research progress. It is also an issue of using the resources that can be used to improve research quality. However, based on experiences from European research cooperation I will argue that there are problems to achieve such symmetries in research reviews. Thus, certain contexts are given a privileged position in terms research as well as in the defining the field of study. I will also discuss ways to improve the quality of research reviews in European research cooperation.