This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution License (We would like to welcome you to this new journal: the Journal of Social and Political Psychology (JSPP)! JSPP publishes articles at the intersection of social and political psychology that substantially advance the understanding of social problems, their reduction, and the promotion of social justice. The journal also welcomes work that focuses on socio-political issues from related fields of psychology (such as peace psychology, community psychology, critical psychology, cultural psychology, etc.) and encourages submissions with interdisciplinary perspectives.
JSPP has been accepting submissions since November 2012 and we are happy to see the journal’s progress to date. But before we describe this in more detail, what is the need for this new journal? Let us introduce the main aims behind JSPP. The four most important ones relate to open access, cultural diversity, methodological pluralism, and social responsibility.
Open access — All published articles are freely accessible from anywhere in the world and – thanks to the PsychOpen publishing platform (which is operated by the Leibniz Institute for Psychology Information in Trier, Germany; see http://www.psychopen.eu/) – there are no author fees. By offering open access, JSPP facilitates an equal and more democratic exchange between scholars, independent of (expensive) institutional subscriptions that only few have privileged access to. Various problems with closed access (as in the traditional subscription-based publishing model) and benefits of open-access publishing (such as a greater likelihood of citation) have been discussed increasingly in recent years (e.g., Oppenheim, 2008; Parks, 2002; Willinsky, 2006; see also the clip by Shockey & Eisen, 2012).
Cultural diversity — Open access facilitates cultural diversity and equality (e.g., Evans & Reimer, 2009), but JSPP also emphasizes this goal directly. The journal aims to truly internationalize scholarly exchange beyond the so-called Western world. JSPP’s editorial board is highly international, with members residing in 37 different countries in six continents (Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Ghana, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Slovakia, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela). Moreover, the journal offers a “buddy system” and the possibility to include summaries in additional languages (see http://jspp.psychopen.eu/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0), and we aim to develop further ways of reducing the disadvantage for authors whose first language is not English (see Değirmencioğlu, 2011).
Methodological pluralism — JSPP’s approach is comprehensive and integrative in terms of different epistemological, methodological, and theoretical traditions that are equally welcome (and that are also reflected in the editorial board). The journal thereby seeks to overcome the divide between quantitative and qualitative work (e.g., Schreier & Fielding, 2001; Todd, Nerlich, McKeown, & Clarke, 2004), and to offer space for scholarship that challenges mainstream approaches (e.g., Fox, Prilleltensky, & Austin, 2009). Authors who would like to submit their work to JSPP will not be prevented from doing so just because of the specific methodology they have chosen; and empirical manuscripts are judged by the quality of the research and the appropriateness of the chosen method for the research question, without a bias against or even exclusion of certain methodologies.
Social responsibility — JSPP emphasizes the responsibility of scholars to contribute to advancing the understanding of social problems, their reduction, and the promotion of social justice (e.g., Martín-Baró, 1994; Pettigrew, 2011). We believe that scholars need to be mindful of the value implications of research (Prilleltensky, 1997). By publishing manuscripts that are reflective about their potential implications and give consideration to possible uses for social betterment, JSPP wants to provide creative impetuses for applications in education, policymaking, professional practice, and advocacy and social action. For this reason, authors also have the option of publishing additional long abstracts for a lay audience (see, again, http://jspp.psychopen.eu/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0).
We hope that with these aims, JSPP can provide a forum for innovation, questioning of assumptions, and controversy and debate. To achieve its aims, JSPP publishes several categories of articles: theoretical articles, review articles, original research reports, commentaries, replications and refinements, and action teaching reports (see http://jspp.psychopen.eu/about/editorialPolicies). Especially commentaries may help to achieve a high degree of interactivity among authors and readers. Finally, because JSPP is published online, it can provide the space that is needed for in-depth theoretical arguments and thorough documentation of methods and procedures (often limited in the increasingly shorter formats of print journals).
So what is JSPP’s progress to date? Since November 2012, we have had 61 individual submissions. Of these manuscripts, 14 were “desk-rejected”, 10 were rejected after review, 11 are under review, 22 are with the authors for revision and resubmission, and 3 (plus 1 book review) are published now. The submissions came from scholars residing in Australia, Canada, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, New Zealand, Panama, Russia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Most of the manuscripts that are still under consideration were based on quantitative methodologies, although we also received some qualitative, mixed-methods, and theoretical manuscripts. To assess these submissions, we received support from peer reviewers from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, South Africa, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States (a separate acknowledgement of reviewers will be published at the beginning of each year). Although these brief statistics look promising, in reflecting on the geographic distribution of authors and reviewers as well as the methodologies of the submissions so far, we realize that we still have a long way to go in achieving our goals of true internationalization, cultural diversity, and methodological pluralism.
In addition to the individual submissions, three special thematic sections are currently in the making: “Societal Change”, guest-edited by Colin Wayne Leach, Leda Blackwood, and Andrew Livingstone; “Decolonizing Psychological Science”, guest-edited by Glenn Adams, Tuğçe Kurtiș, Ludwin Molina, Ignacio Dobles Oropeza, and Luis Gómez Ordóñez; and “20 Years after Genocide: Psychology’s Engagement with Reconciliation and Reconstruction in Rwanda”, guest-edited by Craig McGarty. We look forward to these publications, to be expected later this year and early 2014. One more special thematic section will be advertised shortly, and new proposals can be submitted any time (for more information and guidelines for prospective guest editors, see http://jspp.psychopen.eu/pages/view/special_thematic_sections).
We hope the new journal will find your interest and support, and we look forward to many submissions from all around the world. Please do contact us if you have any suggestions for making this project as successful as it can be!
If you like to be notified about new publications once they are posted online, please register your interest at http://jspp.psychopen.eu/user/register.