Editorial Report and Acknowledgement of Reviewers, 2022

What Was New in 2022?

The Journal of Social and Political Psychology (JSPP) experienced several changes to the editorial team in 2022. Ana Figueiredo (Universidad de O’Higgins, Chile) and Idhamsyah Eka Putra (Persada Indonesia University), who both have served as associate editors of the journal for several years, joined Christopher Cohrs and Johanna Ray Vollhardt as main editors of the journal. This team of four now handles all initial submissions and decisions about desk rejections, journal policies etc. together. Several of our associate editors finished their terms or had to leave for other reasons, including to join other journals as editors. We are sad to lose Fouad Bou Zeineddine (University of Innsbruck, Austria), Zoe Leviston (Australian National University, Australia), Kesi Mahendran (Open University, UK), Silvia Mari (University of Milano-Bicocca), Marta Miklikowska (Umeå University, Sweden), Cliodhna O’Connor (University College Dublin, Ireland), Hema Selvanathan (University of Queensland, Australia), and Wendy Sims-Schouten (University College London, UK) as members of our team, and thank them for their service and contributions to the journal over the last (extra challenging) years! Our team currently includes 19 editors located in 14 different countries on six continents (see https://jspp.psychopen.eu/index.php/jspp/editors – note that this list does not yet reflect all departures as several editors are still finishing up remaining manuscripts).

Over the next months we will launch a call for new applications for the role as Associate Editor at JSPP; please contact us any time if you are interested in this role at editors@jspp.psychopen.eu. Our Editorial Board now includes 90 members from 40 countries. You can see the complete list of Editorial Board members here: https://jspp.psychopen.eu/index.php/jspp/ed-board.

Issue No 1 of 2022 includes 23 original research articles and our editorial report. Issue No 2 includes one theoretical article and 16 original research articles, as well as a special thematic section on Political Psychology of Southeast Asia (guest edited by Ali Mashuri, Idhamsyah Eka Putra, and Cristina Montiel) with five articles and an introduction by the guest editors. A breakdown of the country statistics for authors’ locations is provided in Table 1. As these numbers show, despite our mission and efforts to publish articles from authors across the globe, there is still significant overrepresentation of authors from English-speaking and European countries. Specifically, over one third of all first authors (36.96%) are from English-speaking countries (U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, and New Zealand); and 58.69% of the first authors are from European countries. Within Europe, representation is also skewed – the vast majority (81.48%) of first authors from Europe are from Western European countries, and only 14.81% of this group are from Southern European and a mere 3.7% from Eastern European countries. Thanks to the special thematic section this year, authors from (Southeast) Asian countries are represented with 10.87% of all first authors published in JSPP in 2022, but there is only one author from an African country (and no first authors), and authors from South American countries are not represented at all. Clearly, we still have a long way to go to fulfill our journal’s goals of representing a more global and inclusive version of social and political psychology. We strongly encourage authors from regions that are underrepresented in JSPP to submit their work to our journal, and we will continue to think of how we can improve on this crucial aspect!

Because of the page limits we have for the journal due to limited resources for this open access journal without author fees, there is a longer queue of accepted articles that have not yet been published in an issue. Our list of forthcoming articles and available author-accepted manuscripts, as well as instructions for authors on how to make their manuscripts that were accepted for publication in JSPP available early access, can be found here: https://jspp.psychopen.eu/index.php/jspp/aam. To address the problem of limited journal space, and further increase the congruence between our journal aims and mission on the one hand (including a better global representation of research) and the articles we end up publishing on the other, we also further refined our review criteria (that are used to determine desk rejections as well as serve as a guide for peer reviewers and handling editors) and started using these for all editorial decisions. The new review criteria, which authors should always consult prior to submission to ensure fit of their submissions and reduce the likelihood of desk rejections, can be found here: https://jspp.psychopen.eu/index.php/jspp/peer-review.

Finally, 2022 marks the year of 10 years of publishing the Journal of Social and Political Psychology! Our first issue appeared in September 2013. The full archive of all issues published over the past decade can be found here: https://jspp.psychopen.eu/index.php/jspp/issue/archive. We look forward to what the next decade brings for the journal, and how we can continue to shape it in line with our journal mission and aims!

Submission Numbers and Rejection Rate

In 2022, JSPP received 271 new submissions (compared to 290 in 2021, 235 in 2020, 186 in 2019, 148 in 2018, 101 in 2017, and 79 in 2016). 166 submissions (60.9%) were desk-rejected and an additional 59 (15.1%) were rejected after review. The average number of days to reject was 50. The average number of days to accept was 372.

Publications, Citations, and Download Statistics

To date, JSPP has published (not including our editorial reports) 357 peer-reviewed articles (46 of which were published in 2022). According to Google Scholar, these articles have been cited 8286 times (as of February 12, 2023) (see http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=knb2n1kAAAAJ).

The number of downloads of articles in JSPP has further increased, from 121,742 downloads in 2021 to 172,438 in 2022 (a 41.64% increase). The top ten most frequently downloaded articles (from the new website, as of February 20, 2023) are listed in Tables 2 and 3. Table 2 includes all articles that have been published so far in JSPP since its first issue. Table 3 shows only those articles published in 2022.

Acknowledgment of Reviewers

Finally, we are grateful for the reliable and helpful support that we have received from the following 183 colleagues, who provided peer reviews for JSPP in 2022: