Articles Types
Social Psychological Bulletin accepts submissions in the following forms:
| Article type | Word count (excluding references) | Number of references | Number of figures | Number of tables |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Short research reports - main body of the article should report empirical results. To discuss more nuanced findings please make good use of the space reserved for supplementary materials | 3.500 | 30 | 2 | 2 |
| Research and review articles - empirical or theoretical papers | 8.000 | 50 | 3 | 4 |
| Target articles - if accepted will be accompanied by invited commentaries from specialists in the field | 8.000 | 50 | 3 | 3 |
| Commentaries - comments on a newly published article | 3.500 | 30 | 2 | 2 |
| Methodological articles - presentations of psychological methods and instruments | 8.000 | 50 | 3 | 3 |
| Registered Reports - research articles in which methods and proposed analyses are pre-registered and peer-reviewed prior to research being conducted. Once this study plan (protocol) is accepted and the study is completed the authors are invited to submit the article including results and discussion sections. This format is open to replications as well as original research. All Registered Reports must be submitted via the Peer Community in Registered Reports (PCI RR) track. Read more on Registered Reports and the PCI RR track. | 8.000 | 50 | 3 | 4 |
The final publication (after peer-review) must not exceed the word count given in the table above (excluding only references). The supplementary materials do not have a word count nor figure/table/reference limit.
If you have any questions regarding the format of your paper, please do not hesitate to contact us at spb@psychopen.eu.
Guidelines for Registered Reports
Peer Community in Registered Reports (PCI RR). Social Psychological Bulletin is pleased to be a member of the Peer Community in Registered Reports (PCI RR), which performs Stage 1 and Stage 2 review of Registered Reports (RR) preprints. As a “PCI RR-friendly” journal, SPB will automatically offer Stage 1 in-principle acceptance (IPA) to any quantitative Stage 1 RR within the journal’s disciplinary scope that receives IPA at PCI RR, and will accept without further peer review any Stage 2 RR that has been recommended by PCI RR, subject to the manuscript meeting applicable journal requirements which can be found here.
How to submit Registered Reports to SPB? Please note that there is no internal track for Registered Reports at SPB. Authors intending to publish their Registered Report in SPB must use the PCI RR track first and submit their manuscript to SPB only after a final positive Stage 2 recommendation from PCI RR. On submission to SPB, the manuscript will be checked by the editor to confirm that the submission is identical to the Stage 2 manuscript that is approved by PCI RR. Acceptance will be subject to the editor’s satisfaction that the manuscript is the same as the preprint approved by PCI RR.
Authors should submit their Stage 2 Registered Report using our usual submission system. The manuscript must include the URL to the reviews and recommendation at PCI RR. The submission must also be accompanied by a cover letter stating that the authors are submitting via the PCI RR track, including a URL to the recommended preprint, and confirming that the manuscript is identical to the recommended preprint.
SPB can publish no more than 90 pages of RR articles per year, which corresponds to ~4 completed Stage 2 RRs at the maximum word limit of 8,000. Once this quota is exceeded, authors must either delay publication until the quota resets or choose an alternative journal. Please check the current quota status following a positive Stage 2 recommendation by contacting the SPB editors (editors@spb.psychopen.eu). Additional details regarding PCI RR may be found here.