Social Psychological and Personality Science receives manuscript submissions online through Sage Track, powered by ScholarOne's Manuscript Central^TM. Authors should register for an account at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/spps, where they will create a login ID and password. Sage Track serves as the center for editorial staff to communicate with authors, editors, and reviewers electronically, and it functions as the platform for the review process.

Content

SPPS is a unique short reports journal in social and personality psychology. It aims to publish concise reports of empirical studies related to social and personality psychology (5000 words). SPPS strives to publish rigorous research that advances social psychological and personality science. Submissions may present new theory, data, methods, or any combination of these. In addition, SPPS will consider replication studies, regardless of whether or not they support the original finding, particularly (but not exclusively) of original studies published in SPPS. The journal strives for a fast review and publication process to allow research to quickly become part of the scientific conversation.

Review process

SPPS implements several measures to foster a fast review and publication process. Upon submission, the MS receives an initial evaluation. If this evaluation suggests that the submission has a realistic likelihood of being accepted for publication in the future, the MS passes to an Associate Editor, who invites external reviewers and provides a decision letter. Alternatively, the submission is rejected if the evaluation suggests that the presented research is unlikely to be accepted at the current stage.

If a submission is sent to external reviewers, SPPS encourages reviewers to focus on improving the research under review, rather than focusing on reasons for rejection. SPPS typically invites two external experts, but this is not a fixed number. Due to the journal's short report format, revisions will usually not ask for further data or empirical evidence. If reviewers or editors believe more data is necessary, a MS is usually rejected. However, if a submission has high potential but needs additional data or empirical evidence, editors will reject the submission but invite a re-submission.

Evaluation Criteria

SPPS strives to publish rigorous research. Rigor implies that empirical research should comply with the state of the art in psychological science, including:

• preregistrations, including sample size considerations and justifications,
• availability of data, analysis code, and research materials,
• use of valid measures, valid manipulations, and valid statistics,
• transparency (e.g., regarding any exclusions of data in particular and contradicting evidence in general).

There might be legal or ethical reasons why certain data or materials must remain non-public. There might also be reasons why research was not preregistered. If this is the case, the manuscript must explicitly state these reasons.

SPPS strives to publish research that advances social psychological and personality science. Advancing social psychological and personality science in SPPS implies empirical work that provides new knowledge. This point might be fulfilled by:

• Theoretical significance. Advancing science usually means advancing theory. SPPS aims for empirical research that provides new evidence, confirmatory or contradicting, for existing and new theories and hypotheses in social or personality psychology.
• Discoveries. Sometimes, empirical findings are not delineated a priori from theory. SPPS will consider such discoveries of new or unidentified phenomena if they are well-substantiated and shown to be independent of existing phenomena.
• Replications. Replications are a cornerstone of science. SPPS will consider replications, especially replications of work published in SPPS. SPPS strongly recommends using the registered replication report (RRR) format for replications (see below).

This short list does not aim to be definitive or conclusive, but it outlines the broad strokes of successful submissions to SPPS.

Registered Reports and Registered Replication Reports

SPPS also accepts Registered Reports and Registered Replication Reports submissions. The review process for a Registered Report (RR) occurs before data collection (i.e., Stage 1 review). The review process focuses on whether the planned study is well motivated and well designed. Reviewers will be asked to evaluate whether the study outcome will be theoretically and empirically meaningful regardless of the outcome. If successful, the submission will receive an “in principle acceptance” (IPA) and the authors are asked to conduct the study. If the study meets the prespecified conditions, the eventual article will be published regardless of the study outcome. The post-data manuscript (i.e., Stage 2) will be peer reviewed for clarity and for constructive comments, but acceptance will not depend on this peer review process be contingent on the outcome of the study or any additional tests.

Registered Replication Reports (RRRs) are a unique form of a Registered Report. The main difference is that RRRs aim to replicate a specific study or result. An RRR submission should justify why a specific study is selected for an RRR.

RRs and RRRs have currently no special status in the submission portal. The IPA is provided by the handling editor’s decision letter and a MS in-between Stage 1 and Stage 2 will have the status of a revision within the system. To submit a Registered Report or a Registered Replication Report, please specify the nature of the submission in the title (e.g., “Registered Report: …”) and the cover letter.

Participant samples

SPPS aims to increase the representation of research that includes non-WEIRD samples (i.e., western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic; Henrich et al., 2010). SPPS is in a unique position to pursue this goal, given its affiliation with and sponsorship from professional organizations in Asia and Australasia (AASP and SASP), Europe, and the US (ARP, EASP, SESP, and SPSP).

However, non-WEIRD samples do not imply cultural comparisons or necessitate comparisons with WEIRD samples. For example, research on intergroup conflict in Brazil does not need to specify a comparison with the United States unless the intent is an explicit cultural comparison. Such comparisons invite problems, as one might ask why the United States is the comparison standard instead of Greece, India, or Nigeria (or many other potential comparisons).

The sample should not be specified in the title unless it is a cultural comparison or the sample is a theoretically relevant variable or boundary condition. However, a precise sample description should appear in the methods section, and a brief characterization of the sample in the Abstract.

Submission Portal

The submission portal will ask authors to confirm the following:

• Confirm that the reported research complies with APA ethical standards in the treatment of participants, human or animal.
• Confirm that you have reported how the sample size was determined for each study and a discussion of statistical power.
• Confirm that you have reported all data exclusions (e.g., dropped outliers) and how decisions about data exclusions were made.
• Confirm that you have reported all measures or conditions for variables of interest to the research question(s), whether they were included in the analyses or not.
• Confirm that exact p-values and useful effect sizes accompany all key results.
• Confirm that you have uploaded all materials (e.g., manipulations, measures) either a) as a Supplementary File for online publication only, uploaded during the Sagetrack submission process, or b) to a public repository, with a link provided in your manuscript, or c) provided an explanation in the paper of the ethical or legal reason why this is not possible. Please note that uploaded materials may appear in their original language. However, an English version is appreciated if authors can convert non-English materials to English without hardship.
• Confirm that you have uploaded all data associated with your paper's claims either a) as a Supplementary File for online publication only, uploaded during the Sagetrack submission process, or b) to a public repository, with a link provided in your manuscript, or c) provided an explanation in the paper of the ethical or legal reason why this is not possible.
• Confirm that you have uploaded all analysis code either a) as a Supplementary File for online publication only, uploaded during the Sagetrack submission process, or b) to a public repository, with a link provided in your manuscript, or c) provided an explanation in the paper of the ethical or legal reason why this is not possible.
• Confirm that your manuscript contains a statement regarding preregistration, for instance, "This study's design and its analysis plan were not preregistered." or "The analysis plan for this study is available at [stable repository or DOI]. This study's design was not preregistered." Please note that the journal encourages all research to be pre-registered, exceptions may be made for discoveries or under special circumstances. These should be explained in the manuscript.
• Confirm that all online materials linked to in the article (e.g., to preregistrations, materials, data, supplemental files, etc.) has been anonymized. The links and files should not include information that reveals author identity.
• Confirm that original source data (e.g., questionnaires, recordings, raw files) will be kept in a manner accessible to the corresponding author for a minimum of five years post-publication.

Manuscript Preparation

In general, journal policy prohibits an author from submitting the same manuscript for consideration by another journal and does not allow publication of a manuscript that has been published in whole or in part by another journal.

Style

SPPS recommends the style of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition. However, SPPS accepts other styles as long as the style is scientific and consistent. The manuscript should include an abstract of no more than 150 words and a list of 4-5 keywords, along with the main body, footnotes, tables, and figures. Figures should be embedded in the manuscript upon submission, not appended at the end of the manuscript. Invited revisions and final versions of manuscripts must follow APA style.

Length

Submissions to SPPS may not exceed 5,000 words. The word count includes all text, including but not limited to the abstract, main body, notes, and acknowledgments, and excluding references, tables, table notes, figures, and figure captions. To calculate the word count for your submission, please use your word processor to find the total number of words for the entire submission, then subtract the number of words from your references section, tables, table notes, figures, and figure captions. When you determine your final word count, please include that information on the title page of your submission. Manuscripts are checked for word length and will be unsubmitted and returned to authors if they exceed the word limit.

Supplements

If your submission contains materials, tables, figures, data sets, analysis code, or other materials you would like to include as a supplementary file for online publication only, you may upload these as a separate file in the submission process and designate the file accordingly. Any file designated for online publication only will not need to be included in the word count.

Double-masked review

SPPS conducts a double-masked peer review process. Please prepare your manuscript for the double-masked process by submitting your title page and main document as two separate files. A short 1-3 sentence biography for each author should be included on the title page, along with author names, institution, and contact information (required), and other additional information. The main document file should be blinded and suitable for viewing by reviewers. For example, the manuscript should avoid information about the authors' institutions as a place of research, ethical approval, or source of participants, and avoid citing one's unpublished manuscripts, especially when first-person grammar is used.

Transparency and Openness

SPPS currently follows Level II of the Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) guidelines. Authors should thus include a subsection in the method section titled "Transparency and Openness." This subsection should detail the authors' efforts to comply with the TOP guidelines.

For example:

"We report how we determined our sample size, all data exclusions (if any), all manipulations, and all measures in the study, and we follow JARS (Kazak, 2018). All data, analysis code, and research materials are available at [stable link to repository]. Data were analyzed using R, version 4.0.0 (R Core Team, 2020) and the package ggplot, version 3.2.1 (Wickham, 2016). This study's design and its analysis were not preregistered."

The TOP Level II guidelines also require that all data sets, materials, and program code created by others must be appropriately cited in the text and listed in the reference section. Such materials should be recognized as original intellectual contributions and afforded recognition through citation. Where possible, references for data sets and program code should include a persistent identifier assigned by digital archives, such as a Digital Object Identifier (DOI).

Open Access

If you or your funder wish your article to be freely available online to nonsubscribers immediately upon publication (gold open access), you can opt for it to be included in Sage Choice, subject to payment of a publication fee. The manuscript submission and peer review procedures remain unchanged. Upon acceptance of your article, you will be asked to tell Sage if you are choosing Sage Choice. To check journal eligibility and the publication fee, please visit Sage Choice. For more information on Sage's open access options and compliance, including self-archiving deposits (green open access), visit Sage Publishing Policies on our Journal Author Gateway.

 Any inquiries regarding manuscript submission may be directed to the editorial office 
 at Vidushi.Sharma@sagepub.in.