The majority of Nature Reviews Psychology articles are commissioned by the editors on the basis of trends we’re noticing in the published literature, conference presentations we’ve seen, and conversations with researchers about what they are excited about in their field.

However, if you would like to pitch an idea for a paper, we’d love to hear from you… via a proposal submitted through our online system. Please don’t email us about potential articles — we cannot provide feedback on ideas sent to us by email, and our response will be to ask you to submit through the system. Also note that we publish narrative reviews, not systematic reviews or meta-analyses (because they present new empirical analysis, systematic reviews and meta-analyses are considered original research).

Your proposal should present concise yet convincing arguments that make us excited about your idea and the potential paper (without overselling it). A good proposal explains why this topic, why now, why you and why us.

“A good proposal explains why this topic, why now, why you and why us”

Psychology is a huge field, so there are many interesting topics that we could cover. A topic might be a good candidate for a Nature Reviews Psychology article for many reasons. Perhaps emerging findings are opening up a new field. Alternatively, your Review might offer insight into or a new angle on an existing area, pushing the field forward. Or maybe the topic you want to write about brings together established areas of research in a new way. If there are other Reviews on a similar topic, you should explain how your idea is different.

We publish a limited number of Reviews and Perspectives, so it is important to tell us why your piece on the topic would be timely. Why would we want to publish an article on this topic now, and not two years ago or in two years’ time? If it is a new area of research, consider whether there are enough published papers to support a Review; if it is an established area, consider whether there is enough active research that the Review will be useful to the field. In your proposal, highlight recent papers, conference symposia, meetings or funding calls that demonstrate the timeliness of the topic.

We aim to present a diverse range of voices in the journal, but authors should always be experts on the topic they are writing about. We are not interested in how famous you and/or your coauthors are. Instead, explain how you are qualified to write on the topic, and the unique viewpoint you can bring to it. If you are a team of authors, tell us how your expertise and perspectives complement each other.

Finally, your proposal should explain why you want to write for Nature Reviews Psychology and not another journal. Think about the fit between the ideal audience for your paper and the audience of the journal. Remember that we aim to publish papers that are authoritative for experts in an area but of interest and accessible to non-experts across the psychology community.

In addition to providing the motivation for the topic, it is helpful to include a synopsis that lays out the basic structure of the proposed article, with major headings and subheadings and bullet lists outlining the key points that will be covered. Ideally the synopsis will also include a draft abstract and suggestions for potential display items (figures, tables, boxes). An outline gives us more information about the scope of the article and what it will discuss, and can ultimately save time — when we commission articles the first thing we ask for is a synopsis, so providing one with your proposal effectively allows us to skip a step!

Because we are very interventionist at Nature Reviews, our preference is for proposals that describe the article you want to write rather than a completed draft. It is often easier for us to provide feedback to help shape a piece into a good fit for the journal before a first draft has been written. However, if you already have a draft, please include it in an editable format (such as a Word document), so that if we decide to pursue the article we can provide feedback directly on the text.

We also consider proposals for Comment articles. Because Comments are short opinion pieces, we have a strong preference for seeing a full draft as part of the proposal. For this article type we need to assess not just the suitability of the general topic, but also your specific angle and point of view.

We publish only around 50 Reviews and Perspectives per year and so, in addition to assessing the interest and importance of each individual article, we must consider the balance of subject areas and topics from across the broad spectrum of psychological science. Thus, we must turn down some excellent proposals. However, we always appreciate the opportunity to consider your work.