Psychological Reports
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Psychological Reports (PR) is a bi-monthly peer-reviewed journal that publishes original and creative contributions to the field of general psychology. The journal carries experimental, theoretical, and speculative articles and comments in all areas of psychology. Preference is given to papers that are deemed to be of interest across specialties of psychology that are written in a way to be read by a wide range of people interested in the field of psychology.
| Cory Scherer | Penn State Schuylkill, USA |
| Michela Balsamo | G. d'Annunzio University, Italy |
| Paul T. Barrett | University of Auckland, New Zealand |
| Evan Bradley | Pennsylvania State University, USA |
| Farimah Dokoushkani | Research Group of Environment and Human Studies |
| John Edlund | Rochester Institute of Technology, USA |
| Nathan Greenauer | Pennsylvania State University, USA |
| Jeremy Heider | Southeast Missouri State University, USA |
| Melanie D. Hetzel-Riggin | Pennsylvania State University, The Behrend College, USA |
| Feng Kong | Shaanxi Normal University, China |
| Charlie Law | Florida Southern College, USA |
| Heng Li | Department of Psychology, Sichuan International Studies University |
| Meredith McGinley | University of Wisconsin, USA |
| Simone Migliore | IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, Italy |
| Amy Overman | Elon University, USA |
| Dr. Jiaxi Peng | Chengdu University |
| Raymond Russ | University of Maine, USA |
| Joseph Stephens | North Carolina A&T University, USA |
| Dr. Wei Xu | Beijing Normal University |
| Akiko Yamasaki | Kyoto University, Japan |
| Dr. Jianfeng Yang | JiangXi University of Finance and Economics, China |
| Melanie Fowler | Florida Southern College, USA |
| Richard Harnish | Penn State New Kensington, US |
| Shahid Khan | Central Queensland University, Brisbane Australia |
| Pablo U. Supervía | University of Zaragoza, Spain |
| Teoh K. Ban | SENTRAL College Penang, Malaysia |
| Elaine S. Barry | Pennsylvania State University, USA |
| Stuart Beattie | Bangor University, UK |
| Preston Bost | Wabash College, USA |
| Belinda Bury | Flinders University, Australia |
| Humberto Carvalho | University of Coimbra, Portugal |
| Antonello Chirumbolo | Sapienza University of Rome, Italy |
| Xiao Dong Yue | City University of Hong Kong, China |
| Benjamin Farmer | Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute, USA |
| Dr. Fozia Fatima | National University of Modern Languages, Pakistan |
| Miguel Fernandes | Instituto Politecnico da Guarda; Guarda, Portugal |
| Ronald Goldsmith | Florida State University, USA |
| William Grove | University of Minnesota, USA |
| Pauline Guerin | Pennsylvania State University, USA |
| Erica Harris | Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute, USA |
| Jessica Hartnett | Gannon University, USA |
| Veronica Hsu | Pennsylvania State University, USA |
| Kathryn Klement | Northern Illinois University, USA |
| Ellen Lee | Northern Illinois University, USA |
| Heng Li | College of International Studies, Southwest University; Chongqing, China |
| Douglas MacDonald | University of Detroit - Mercy, USA |
| Karin Machluf | Pennsylvania State University, USA |
| Randy McCarthy | Northern Illinois University, USA |
| Aliki Michou | Bilkent University, Turkey |
| Athanasios Mouratidis | National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece |
| Peter Mudrack | Kansas State University, USA |
| Helmut Niederhofer | Bayreuth Regional Hospital, Germany |
| Stephen Owen | Radford University, USA |
| Terry Pettijohn II | Coastal Carolina University, USA |
| Amber Reinhart | University of Missouri at St. Louis, USA |
| Manisha Sawhney | Manisha Sawhney University of Mary – Bismarck, ND USA |
| Douglas Sellers | Pennsylvania State University, USA |
| John J. Skowronski | Northern Illinois University, USA |
| Kamden Strunk | Oklahoma State University, USA |
| Martin Voracek | University of Vienna, Austria |
| Cynthia Whissell | Laurentian University, Canada |
| Yi-Feng Yang | Shu-Te University |
Psychological Reports is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.
Psychological Reports recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
Please read the guidelines below then visit the Psychological Reports submission site http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/prx to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned. Remember you can log in to the submission site at any time to check on the progress of your paper through the peer review process.
Sage Publishing disseminates high-quality research and engaged scholarship globally, and we are committed to diversity and inclusion in publishing. We encourage submissions from a diverse range of authors from across all countries and backgrounds.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Psychological Reports will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.
As part of the submission process, you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that Psychological Reports will consider submissions of papers that have been posted on preprint servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer-reviewed for possible publication in the Journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the Journal's author archiving policy. If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.
If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.
If you have any questions about publishing with Sage, please visit the Sage Journal Solutions Portal.
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
2.6 Research ethics and patient consent
3.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.7 English language editing services
5.1 Title, keywords and abstracts
5.2 Corresponding author contact details
5.4 Information required for completing your submission
6. On acceptance and publication
6.3 Access to your published article
7.1 Appealing the publication decision
1. What do we publish?
1.1 Aims and Scope
Before submitting your manuscript to Psychological Reports, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
1.2 Article types
Psychological Reports accepts experimental, theoretical, and speculative articles in the field of general psychology, as well as comments and special reviews.
1.3 Writing your paper
The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.
Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance your article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
For information and guidance on how to make your article more discoverable, visit our Gateway page on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
2. Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
Sage does not permit the use of author-suggested (recommended) reviewers at any stage of the submission process, be that through the web-based submission system or other communication. Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if:
• The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors
• The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper
• The author has recommended the reviewer
• The reviewer has provided a personal (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution).
The journal’s policy is to have manuscripts reviewed by two expert reviewers. Psychological Reports utilizes a double-anonymized peer review process in which the reviewer and authors’ names and information are withheld from the other. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, while maintaining rigor. Reviewers make comments to the author and recommendations to the Editor who then makes the final decision.
The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in Psychological Reports. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor/Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.
2.2 Authorship
All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
2.3 Acknowledgements
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.
Per ICMJE recommendations, it is best practice to obtain consent from non-author contributors who you are acknowledging in your paper.
2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:
- Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
- Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
- Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.
Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
2.3.2 Writing Assistance
Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.
2.4 Funding
Psychological Reports requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
It is the policy of Psychological Reports to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.
Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’.
For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations here.
2.6 Research ethics and patient consent
Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.
Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and all papers reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the methods section that the relevant ethics committee or institutional review board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the approval number.
For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.
Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be included in the manuscript text. A statement is required regarding whether written informed consent for patient information and images to be published was provided by the patient(s) or a legally authorized representative. Please do not submit the patient’s actual written informed consent with your article, as this in itself breaches the patient’s confidentiality. Psychological Reports requests that you confirm to us, in writing, that you have obtained written informed consent but the written consent itself should be held by the authors/investigators themselves, for example in a patient’s hospital record. The confirmatory letter may be uploaded with your submission as a separate file.
Please also refer to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants.
2.7 Research data
Psychological Reports is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.
As a condition of publication authors are required to:
- Share your research data in a relevant public data repository
- Include a data availability statement. This should:
- Indicate if data is available and shared
- In certain cases, indicate if research data is available but not shared, and why. If you cannot share your data and this is a requirement of publication, consult Psychological Reports editorial office.
- Indicate if there is an absence of data
- Cite data in your research
3. Publishing Policies
3.1 Publication ethics
Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.
3.1.1 Plagiarism
Psychological Reports and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
3.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
3.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement
Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit our Frequently Asked Questions on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
3.3 Open access and author archiving
Psychological Reports offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.
4.1 Formatting
Preferred formats for the text and tables of your manuscript are Word DOC, RTF, XLS. LaTeX files are also accepted. The text should be double-spaced throughout and with a minimum of 3cm for left and right hand margins and 5cm at head and foot. Text should be standard 10 or 12 point. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.
4.3 Identifiable information
Where a journal uses double-anonymized peer review, authors are required to submit:
- A version of the manuscript which has had any information that compromises the anonymity of the author(s) removed or anonymized. This version will be sent to the peer reviewers.
- A separate title page which includes any removed or anonymized material. This will not be sent to the peer reviewers.
See https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/Manuscript-preparation-for-double-anonymized-journal for detailed guidance on making an anonymous submission.
4.4 Supplementary material
This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images, etc) alongside the full-text of the article. These will be subjected to peer-review alongside the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files, which can be found within our Manuscript Submission Guidelines page.
4.5 Journal layout
Psychological Reports conforms to the Sage house style. View the Sage UK House Style guidelines.
4.6 Reference style
Psychological Reports adheres to the APA reference style. View the APA guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Harvard EndNote output file [OR] the Sage Vancouver EndNote output file.
4.7 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
5. Submitting your manuscript
Psychological Reports is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/prx to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for Psychological Reports in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
5.1 Title, keywords, and abstracts
Please supply a title, short title, an abstract and keywords to accompany your article. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article online through online search engines such as Google. Please refer to the information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords by visiting the Sage Journal Author Gateway for guidelines on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
5.2 Corresponding author details
Provide full contact details for the corresponding author including email, mailing address and telephone numbers. Academic affiliations are required for all co-authors. These details should be presented separately to the main text of the article to facilitate anonymous peer review.
5.3 ORCID
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
5.4 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
5.5 Permissions
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.
6. On acceptance and publication
6.1 Sage Production
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit or by email, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
6.2 Online First publication
Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.
6.3 Access to your published article
Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.
6.4 Promoting your article
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.
7. Further information
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Psychological Reports editorial office as follows:
Cory Scherer
crs15@psu.edu
7.1 Appealing the publication decision
Editors have very broad discretion in determining whether an article is an appropriate fit for their journal. Many manuscripts are declined with a very general statement of the rejection decision. These decisions are not eligible for formal appeal unless the author believes the decision to reject the manuscript was based on an error in the review of the article, in which case the author may appeal the decision by providing the Editor with a detailed written description of the error they believe occurred.
If an author believes the decision regarding their manuscript was affected by a publication ethics breach, the author may contact the publisher with a detailed written description of their concern, and information supporting the concern, at publication_ethics@sagepub.com