Abstract
New Publisher: PLAT with SAGE now
2014 ended with a surprise for those involved with PLAT. Our former publisher, Symposium Journals, informed us that, from the first issue in 2015 on, PLAT will be sailing under the flag of SAGE. While many things will continue as has been established over the last years, this transition also bears a lot of potential to influence the development in positive ways. The most important change pertains to the visibility and availability of PLAT. From 2016 on, PLAT will be included in a journal package that SAGE distributes which will make PLAT available at about 2000 institutions world-wide. This is an important step forward, not only in terms of greater perception of what we publish, but also for attracting authors to submit their work to PLAT. A second potential to be realized is to professionalize all processes at PLAT. We will switch to an electronic manuscript handling system which automatizes and standardizes many aspects. Still, our journal manager, Eva Seifried, will be the human fix point that overlooks everything and is happy to answer any questions. Moreover, we have defined quality guidelines for the review process. We strictly adhere to a double-blind reviewing process, which is not new, but is now explained on our new website (http://plat.sagepub.com). Editorial decisions are typically reached within 90 days after submission. If a manuscript does not meet the scope of PLAT, authors will be informed within 10 days and these manuscripts will not be held up in lengthy review processes. Our editors take effort to give precise feedback that helps authors to make the best of their work. Finally, because PLAT is an online journal, we do not have to wait until the next issue is printed to publish new articles. From this issue on, manuscripts will be available on our website as soon as a positive decision is reached and the copy-editing is finalized. Taken together, these changes will give PLAT a strong quality push.
I want to thank Roger King-Osborn, head of Symposium Journals, for the time we worked together. It was a pleasure working with you. You supported PLAT long before I came on board. You made it easy for me to fit into my role as editor and you made the transition to SAGE very smooth. Thank you so much for everything and all the best for you!
Finally, I want to thank SAGE for the warm welcome they gave to PLAT. We feel that we are in very good hands and we are looking forward to realizing the full potential of PLAT together.
The Current Issue
The current issue includes three research articles, two reports, and eleven book reviews. Moreover, you will find the abstracts of the current issues of Teaching of Psychology as well as Psychology Teaching Review.
In the first research article, Ohst, Glogger, Nückles, and Renkl address the problem of pre-service teachers’ inaccurate and fragmentary prior knowledge. This study reveals that providing a categorical framework prior to learning can help to heighten pre-service teachers’ interest in the learning material and make learning more efficient. Gurung investigated students’ use of textbook technology supplements such as Learnsmart, PsychPortal, and Aplia. Based on the finding that the use of these tools was positively related to exam performance, suggestions for the use of such systems are presented. Bartels examined the coverage of theoretical and methodological problems with the Stanford prison experiment (SPE) in a sample of introductory psychology textbooks. This study shows that textbooks rarely cited any critical articles and neglect the problems of the SPE. A review of the post-SPE criticisms and suggestions for addressing this study in introductory textbooks are included.
Tatlow-Golden reports on a teaching format aimed at improving students’ research methods. As a result of embedding a student-conducted research activity into an undergraduate course, students more fully understood what it takes to do good research and wrote richer assignments than standard first-year, mid-term essays. Hund and Bueno make a case for out-of-class teaching and research experiences during undergraduate years. One important finding was that students tied their out-of-class experiences back to their theoretical knowledge and noted gains in understanding content, research methods, and other principles.
I do not mention all the authors of book reviews here. However, I would like to mention that we are proud to see that there are people all over the world who review books for PLAT. Recently, we have been sending books to Australia, China, Israel, Italy, South Africa, and the USA. This not only shows that psychology is taught and learned world-wide, but it also shows that there is a shared knowledge basis that we are all referring to. A psychology class in China might use the same textbook as one in Israel. The knowledge that psychological scientists generate is universally valid. It is an important indicator of the degree of advancement of a discipline that what is considered to be good science is not a matter of local preferences. Psychology has left this developmental stage long behind.
I hope you enjoy reading these works and I invite you to contribute to one of the upcoming PLAT issues!
Birgit Spinath
Editor, Psychology Learning & Teaching February 2015