Perspectives on Psychological Science

A Journal of the Association for Psychological Science (previously the American Psychological Society)

Edited by:
Ed Diener Managing Editor: Torrance Gloss

Print ISSN: 1745-6916
Online ISSN: 1745-6924
Frequency: Bi-monthly
Current Volume: 4 / 2009

TopAuthor Guidelines

Please Read Carefully Before Submitting Any Manuscript

Perspectives on Psychological Science encourages submission of manuscripts from all areas of psychology, as well as from related behavioral and social sciences and neuroscience. Preference is given to articles that are of general interest across psychology and that are written in an engaging and lively style that is intelligible to all psychologists.

Types of Articles Published
The journal publishes several types of articles:

• Standard and meta-analytic reviews of the literature
• Sets of interrelated articles that focus on a common topic from different viewpoints or subdisciplines
• Target articles accompanied by commentaries or articles with complementary findings
• Biographies and autobiographies
• Thought and opinion pieces, especially by leaders in the field
• Proposals of important new ideas
• Theoretical statements with supportive evidence
• Broad overviews of distinguished research programs, offering important conclusions and including findings from other laboratories as needed
• Reports of programmatic series of studies, focusing primarily on the conceptual findings and advances
• Commissioned articles on specific topics
• Timely and brief book reviews
• Humorous pieces, if of very high quality

The journal publishes an eclectic mix that is enjoyable to read and thought-provoking, and at the same time presents the latest important advances in psychology. Articles that currently do not meet the format of existing journals are often published as chapters in scattered books, and one function of Perspectives is to make the most important of these articles more readily available to a broad audience. Although lengthy articles will sometimes be published, authors are reminded that tightly written, lean articles are often most frequently read.

Perspectives on Psychological Science does not compete with other journals of the Association for Psychological Science, and therefore will not publish reports of single studies (these should be submitted to Psychological Science) or short overviews of a research area (these are appropriate for Current Directions in Psychological Science).

Review and Selection of Manuscripts
Articles will be invited by the Editor. However, unsolicited manuscripts will also be encouraged. Before submitting a manuscript, the author should send a description of it to the Editor (ediener@cyrus.psych.uiuc.edu) for feedback. This process will allow the author to obtain an initial idea of the suitability of the article for Perspectives. When a manuscript is submitted, it will be appraised by the Editor for suitability for the journal and for whether it surpasses the extremely high threshold for publication. In many cases, an article will be judged to be unsuitable, and the author will be notified quickly. If an article is judged to be appropriate and of very high quality, it will be sent to outside reviewers, including members of the editorial board and scholars suggested by the author.

Among the criteria used to judge suitability for publication are (a) importance, (b) originality, (c) readability, and (d) rigor in the execution of the methods. Reviewers are instructed to weigh heavily the degree to which an article advances science in important directions, rather than to focus primarily on small shortcomings of the article. Reviews most often will be short and not analyze the article in detail, focusing instead on the large issues. Reviewers inform the Editor of the strengths and weaknesses of a submission, as well as of their view of the overall contribution of the article. It is the Editor's responsibility to make 'accept' and 'reject' decisions. Such decisions are not based on a vote by reviewers, and at times the judgment of the Editor will diverge from the evaluations of a majority of reviewers. Authors are encouraged to consult the Editorial in the first issue of the journal (Winter 2006) and the journal's Web site: http://www.psych.uiuc.edu/research/Perspectives/.

Every author is encouraged to submit a list of potential reviewers, along with their e-mail and postal addresses, as well as a description of their relationship to the author and to the material presented in the manuscript. All reviews are anonymous. Rejected manuscripts cannot be reconsidered unless resubmission following a revision has been discussed with the Editor. It is anticipated that media releases will be written for some articles published in Perspectives. Such releases generally benefit the field of psychology, and the author as well. However, some authors might not want a press release about their article, and they should notify the Editor of this when their manuscript is accepted.

Preparation and Submission of Manuscripts
Manuscripts under review at another journal cannot be simultaneously submitted to Perspectives. Manuscripts should be submitted in the most recent format of the American Psychological Association publication manual. All manuscripts must include an abstract containing a maximum of 200 words. With a submission, the author must include the publications, by other authors, that are most similar to the submitted manuscript, so that the Editor can judge the originality of the submission. An author can choose to use masked review, and should notify the Editor of this desire in the submission letter and format the manuscript accordingly. When original data are included in the submission, the author should include in the transmittal letter a statement that the data were collected in accordance with ethical guidelines for psychologists and laws and institutional guidelines pertaining to the use of animal or human subjects. Permission from the copyright owner should be included for use of any material previously published elsewhere.

Manuscripts can be submitted to the Editor by e-mail or post. If a manuscript is submitted by regular postal mail, a compact disk with the electronic file should be included so that the manuscript can be distributed to reviewers via e-mail. Manuscripts can be sent to:

Ed Diener
Editor, Perspectives on Psychological Science
Department of Psychology
University of Illinois
603 E. Daniel Street
Champaign, IL 61820
USA
ediener@uiuc.edu

If a manuscript is submitted by regular mail, two copies are needed. Whether submitted by mail or electronically, the manuscript should be in a Word or PDF file (if the manuscript is accepted for publication, a Word file will be required). The article cannot have been published elsewhere, and authors are obligated to inform the Editor of similar articles they have published. If a submission has a history at another journal, the author should submit the reviews and editorial letter when submitting the manuscript, as this information has the potential to accelerate the decision process.

All authors listed on a manuscript must have agreed to be authors and approve the submitted manuscript. Scholars who submit manuscripts to the journal are expected to be willing to occasionally review for the journal, because the scientific enterprise requires reviews from the best scientists in the field. Accepted manuscripts are edited to improve readability and effectiveness of communication, as well as to conform to American Psychological Association style guidelines for references, spelling, tables and figures, and abbreviations and symbols.

Preparation of Graphics
Authors should remember that if a manuscript is accepted for publication, electronic files are needed for both the text (in Word) and the graphics. The preferred format for electronic graphics files is EPS, although TIFF is an acceptable alternative. Figures need to be saved at a resolution of at least 300 dpi. Figures should not be created using presentation software (e.g., PowerPoint) or other software that does not allow files to be saved in EPS or TIFF format at a high resolution. Figures may be modified to conform to journal style. Authors who wish to publish figures in color must pay these costs because printing color figures is very expensive.

NEW: Online production tracking is now available for your article through Blackwell's Author Services.
Author Services enables authors to track their article - once it has been accepted - through the production process to publication online and in print. Authors can check the status of their articles online and choose to receive automated e-mails at key stages of production. The author will receive an e-mail with a unique link that enables them to register and have their article automatically added to the system. Please ensure that a complete e-mail address is provided when submitting the manuscript. Visit www.blackwellpublishing.com/bauthor for more details on online production tracking and for a wealth of resources including FAQs and tips on article preparation, submission and more.