Psychological Methods^®

Psychological Methods ^® is devoted to the development and dissemination of methods for collecting, analyzing, understanding, and interpreting psychological data. Its purpose is the dissemination of innovations in research design, measurement, methodology, and quantitative and qualitative analysis to the psychological community; its further purpose is to promote effective communication about related substantive and methodological issues.

The audience is expected to be diverse and to include those who develop new procedures, those who are responsible for undergraduate and graduate training in design, measurement, and statistics, as well as those who employ those procedures in research.

The journal solicits original theoretical, quantitative, empirical, and methodological articles; reviews of important methodological issues; tutorials; articles illustrating innovative applications of new procedures to psychological problems; articles on the teaching of quantitative methods; and reviews of statistical software.

Submissions will be judged on their relevance to understanding psychological data, methodological correctness, and accessibility to a wide audience. Where appropriate, submissions should illustrate through concrete example how the procedures described or developed can enhance the quality of psychological research.

The journal welcomes submissions that show the relevance to psychology of procedures developed in other fields. Empirical and theoretical articles on specific tests or test construction should have a broad thrust; otherwise, they may be more appropriate for Psychological Assessment. Similarly, articles of interest to only a single subdiscipline of psychology may typically be more appropriate for a journal devoted to that specialty unless they make an exceptional contribution to the literature.

Editor

Lisa L. Harlow
University of Rhode Island

Associate Editors

Sy-Miin Chow
The Pennsylvania State University

Herbert Hoijtink
Utrecht University

Ken Kelley
University of Notre Dame

Frederick L. Oswald
Rice University

Ke-Hai Yuan
University of Notre Dame

Consulting Editors

Leona S. Aiken
Arizona State University

James Algina
University of Florida

Deborah L. Bandalos
James Madison University

Daniel J. Bauer
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

A. Nayena Blankson
Spelman College

Shelley A. Blozis
University of California, Davis

Gwyneth M. Boodoo
GMB Enterprises

David V. Budescu
Fordham University

Mike W.-L. Cheung
National University of Singapore

Donna L. Coffman
The Pennsylvania State University

Patrick J. Curran
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Pascal R. Deboeck
University of Kansas

Jamie DeCoster
University of Virginia

Sarah Depaoli
University of California, Merced

Conor Dolan
University of Amsterdam

Michael C. Edwards
The Ohio State University

Craig K. Enders
Arizona State University

Tamika D. Gilreath
University of Southern California

Richard Gonzalez
University of Michigan

Kevin J. Grimm
Arizona State University

Gregory R. Hancock
University of Maryland

Lesa Hoffman
University of Kansas

Booil Jo
Stanford School of Medicine

Jee-Seon Kim
University of Wisconsin, Madison

Irene Klugkist
Utrecht University

Helena Chmura Kraemer
Stanford University

Siwei Liu
University of California, Davis

Gitta Lubke
University of Notre Dame

David P. MacKinnon
Arizona State University

Keith A. Markus
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York

Scott E. Maxwell
University of Notre Dame

Jorge L. Mendoza
University of Oklahoma

Elizabeth Page-Gould
University of Toronto

Kristopher J. Preacher
Vanderbilt University

Tenko Raykov
Michigan State University

Charles S. Reichardt
University of Denver

Hannah R. Rothstein
Baruch College, The City University of New York

Karin Schermelleh-Engel
Goethe University

Patrick E. Shrout
New York University

Douglas Steinley
University of Missouri, Columbia

Sonya K. Sterba
Vanderbilt University

Davood Tofighi
Georgia Institute of Technology

Melanie M. Wall
Columbia University

Lijuan (Peggy) Wang
University of Notre Dame

Stephen G. West
Arizona State University

Jelte M. Wicherts
Tilburg University

Carol M. Woods
University of Kansas

Hao Wu
Boston College

Guangjian Zhang
University of Notre Dame

Zhiyong (Johnny) Zhang
University of Notre Dame

Editorial Assistant

Meleah L. Ladd
Psychological Methods Editorial Office

Abstracting and indexing services providing coverage of Psychological Methods^®

• Academic OneFile
• Current Abstracts
• Current Contents
• Current Index to Statistics
• E R I C (Education Resource Information Center)
• Education Research Complete
• Education Research Index
• Educators Reference Complete
• Ergonomics Abstracts Online
• F R A N C I S
• Family Index
• Journals@Ovid
• MEDLINE
• PsycINFO
• PubMed
• Reactions Weekly
• SCOPUS
• Social Sciences Citation Index
• Social Work Abstracts
• SwetsWise All Titles
• TOC Premier

Prior to submission, please carefully read and follow the submission guidelines detailed below. Manuscripts that do not conform to the submission guidelines may be returned without review.

Submission

Authors must submit manuscripts electronically through the Manuscript Submission Portal.

Lisa L. Harlow, PhD
Department of Psychology
University of Rhode Island
10 Chafee Rd, Suite 8
Kingston, RI 02881-0808

General correspondence may be directed to the Editor's Office.

In the cover letter, include assurance that the manuscript is not under review elsewhere, that any primary data have not been published previously or accepted for publication, and that the appropriate ethical guidelines were followed in the conduct of the research.

Each manuscript must include on separate pages

• author footnotes, which include acknowledgments of support and the name and address of the author to whom correspondence should be sent
• a title page with the author's name and affiliation when the research was done

The journal solicits

• original theoretical, quantitative, empirical, and methodological articles
• reviews of important methodological issues
• tutorials
• articles illustrating innovative applications of new procedures to psychological problems
• articles on the teaching of quantitative methods
• reviews of statistical software

Submissions are judged on their relevance to understanding psychological data, methodological correctness, and accessibility to a wide audience. Where appropriate, submissions should illustrate through concrete example how the procedures described or developed can enhance the quality of psychological research.

The journal welcomes submissions that show the relevance to psychology of procedures developed in other fields. Empirical and theoretical articles on specific tests or test construction should have a broad thrust; otherwise, they may be more appropriate for Psychological Assessment. Similarly, articles of interest to only a single subdiscipline of psychology may typically be more appropriate for a journal devoted to that specialty unless they make an exceptional contribution to the literature.

Masked Review Policy

Masked reviews are optional, and authors who wish masked reviews must specifically request them when submitting their manuscripts. Authors may suggest individuals qualified to do reviewing.

For masked reviews, authors should send two PDF files. One file should be a complete copy of the manuscript for the editorial office. The second should delete the title page and all other identifying information.

Make every effort to ensure that the manuscript itself contains no clues as to author identity.

If your manuscript was mask reviewed, please ensure that the final version for production includes a byline and full author note for typesetting.

Length

Manuscripts should generally not exceed 12,000 words (approximately 40 double-spaced pages in 12-point Times New Roman font), not including references, tables, figures, and appendixes. Manuscripts longer than 12,000 words will be considered for publication only if they are judged to have the potential to make an exceptional contribution to the literature.

Manuscript Preparation

Prepare manuscripts according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6^th edition). Manuscripts may be copyedited for bias-free language (see Chapter 3 of the Publication Manual).

Review APA's Checklist for Manuscript Submission before submitting your article.

Double-space all copy. Other formatting instructions, as well as instructions on preparing tables, figures, references, metrics, and abstracts, appear in the Manual.

Below are additional instructions regarding the preparation of display equations, computer code, and tables.

Display Equations

We strongly encourage you to use MathType (third-party software) or Equation Editor 3.0 (built into pre-2007 versions of Word) to construct your equations, rather than the equation support that is built into Word 2007 and Word 2010. Equations composed with the built-in Word 2007/Word 2010 equation support are converted to low-resolution graphics when they enter the production process and must be rekeyed by the typesetter, which may introduce errors.

To construct your equations with MathType or Equation Editor 3.0:

• Go to the Text section of the Insert tab and select Object.
• Select MathType or Equation Editor 3.0 in the drop-down menu.

If you have an equation that has already been produced using Microsoft Word 2007 or 2010 and you have access to the full version of MathType 6.5 or later, you can convert this equation to MathType by clicking on MathType Insert Equation. Copy the equation from Microsoft Word and paste it into the MathType box. Verify that your equation is correct, click File, and then click Update. Your equation has now been inserted into your Word file as a MathType Equation.

Use Equation Editor 3.0 or MathType only for equations or for formulas that cannot be produced as Word text using the Times or Symbol font.

Computer Code

Because altering computer code in any way (e.g., indents, line spacing, line breaks, page breaks) during the typesetting process could alter its meaning, we treat computer code differently from the rest of your article in our production process. To that end, we request separate files for computer code.

In Online Supplemental Material
We request that runnable source code be included as supplemental material to the article. For more information, visit Supplementing Your Article With Online Material.

In the Text of the Article
If you would like to include code in the text of your published manuscript, please submit a separate file with your code exactly as you want it to appear, using Courier New font with a type size of 8 points. We will make an image of each segment of code in your article that exceeds 40 characters in length. (Shorter snippets of code that appear in text will be typeset in Courier New and run in with the rest of the text.) If an appendix contains a mix of code and explanatory text, please submit a file that contains the entire appendix, with the code keyed in 8-point Courier New.

Tables

Use Word's Insert Table function when you create tables. Using spaces or tabs in your table will create problems when the table is typeset and may result in errors.

Submitting Supplemental Materials

APA can place supplemental materials online, available via the published article in the PsycARTICLES^® database. Please see Supplementing Your Article With Online Material for more details.

Abstract and Keywords

All manuscripts must include an abstract containing a maximum of 250 words typed on a separate page. After the abstract, please supply up to five keywords or brief phrases.

References

List references in alphabetical order. Each listed reference should be cited in text, and each text citation should be listed in the References section.

Examples of basic reference formats:

• Journal Article:
  Hughes, G., Desantis, A., & Waszak, F. (2013). Mechanisms of intentional binding and sensory attenuation: The role of temporal prediction, temporal control, identity prediction, and motor prediction. Psychological Bulletin, 139, 133–151. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0028566
• Authored Book:
  Rogers, T. T., & McClelland, J. L. (2004). Semantic cognition: A parallel distributed processing approach. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Chapter in an Edited Book:
  Gill, M. J., & Sypher, B. D. (2009). Workplace incivility and organizational trust. In P. Lutgen-Sandvik & B. D. Sypher (Eds.), Destructive organizational communication: Processes, consequences, and constructive ways of organizing (pp. 53–73). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.

Figures

Graphics files are welcome if supplied as Tiff or EPS files. Multipanel figures (i.e., figures with parts labeled a, b, c, d, etc.) should be assembled into one file.

The minimum line weight for line art is 0.5 point for optimal printing.

For more information about acceptable resolutions, fonts, sizing, and other figure issues, please see the general guidelines.

When possible, please place symbol legends below the figure instead of to the side.

APA offers authors the option to publish their figures online in color without the costs associated with print publication of color figures.

The same caption will appear on both the online (color) and print (black and white) versions. To ensure that the figure can be understood in both formats, authors should add alternative wording (e.g., "the red (dark gray) bars represent") as needed.

For authors who prefer their figures to be published in color both in print and online, original color figures can be printed in color at the editor's and publisher's discretion provided the author agrees to pay:

• $900 for one figure
• An additional $600 for the second figure
• An additional $450 for each subsequent figure

Permissions

Authors of accepted papers must obtain and provide to the editor on final acceptance all necessary permissions to reproduce in print and electronic form any copyrighted work, including test materials (or portions thereof), photographs, and other graphic images (including those used as stimuli in experiments).

On advice of counsel, APA may decline to publish any image whose copyright status is unknown.

• Download Permissions Alert Form (PDF, 13KB)

Publication Policies

APA policy prohibits an author from submitting the same manuscript for concurrent consideration by two or more publications.

See also APA Journals^® Internet Posting Guidelines.

APA requires authors to reveal any possible conflict of interest in the conduct and reporting of research (e.g., financial interests in a test or procedure, funding by pharmaceutical companies for drug research).

• Download Disclosure of Interests Form (PDF, 38KB)

Authors of accepted manuscripts are required to transfer the copyright to APA.

• For manuscripts not funded by the Wellcome Trust or the Research Councils UK
  Publication Rights (Copyright Transfer) Form (PDF, 83KB)
• For manuscripts funded by the Wellcome Trust or the Research Councils UK
  Wellcome Trust or Research Councils UK Publication Rights Form (PDF, 34KB)

Ethical Principles

It is a violation of APA Ethical Principles to publish "as original data, data that have been previously published" (Standard 8.13).

In addition, APA Ethical Principles specify that "after research results are published, psychologists do not withhold the data on which their conclusions are based from other competent professionals who seek to verify the substantive claims through reanalysis and who intend to use such data only for that purpose, provided that the confidentiality of the participants can be protected and unless legal rights concerning proprietary data preclude their release" (Standard 8.14).

APA expects authors to adhere to these standards. Specifically, APA expects authors to have their data available throughout the editorial review process and for at least 5 years after the date of publication.

Authors are required to state in writing that they have complied with APA ethical standards in the treatment of their sample, human or animal, or to describe the details of treatment.

• Download Certification of Compliance With APA Ethical Principles Form (PDF, 26KB)

The APA Ethics Office provides the full Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct electronically on its website in HTML, PDF, and Word format. You may also request a copy by emailing or calling the APA Ethics Office (202-336-5930). You may also read "Ethical Principles," December 1992, American Psychologist, Vol. 47, pp. 1597–1611.

Other Information

• Appeals Process for Manuscript Submissions
• Preparing Auxiliary Files for Production
• Document Deposit Procedures for APA Journals