Psychological Review, founded in 1894, is one of the most prominent journals in psychology today. Psychological Review focus on psychological theory and publishes papers that make important theoretical contributions to psychology. Associate Editor Prof. Susan Fiske helped us with more insight into the journal.
What makes you go “Wow!” or “Yuck!” when first read a submission? Clear statement of the argument in the title & abstract enable an immediate evaluation of an article’s contribution. It is amazing how often authors fail to be clear about their hypothesis and its significance.
What are the common mistakes people make when submitting/publishing? Failing to check whether the article is appropriate for that journal.
What are your best tips on how to successfully get published? Aha! Plus Evidence. Good ideas, backed up by good science.
How can a young researcher become a reviewer? When is the best time during one’s PhD to start doing so? Participating in a grad-led journal club, reading and critiquing published articles. Telling one’s advisor that one would like some reviewing experience. When asked, returning high quality, on time reviews.
What constitutes a good (i.e., well explained/written) review, from an editor’s standpoint? Or what makes one a good reviewer? Balanced, thoughtful, succinct.
How do you resolve conflicts when reviewers disagree? Reviewers often disagree because they are recruited for differing expertise. Editors must consider the inputs relative to the expertise and perspective of the reviewers.
What’s the best/worst way to react to a revise and resubmit, and worse, to a rejection? R&R needs to list, in a cover letter, each response to each suggestion, including to explain (rare) instances of decking to make certain changes.
Is there a paper you were sceptical about but turned out to be important one? Not that comes to mind.
As an editor, you get to read many papers and have an insight emerging trends, what are the emerging trends in research topics/methodologies? Interdisciplinary and global collaborations.
What are the biggest challenges for journals today? Maintaining humanity depute the volume.
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