Content types

The following article types can be submitted to Communications Psychology:
Article
Registered Report
Resource
Comment
Review
Perspective
Primer
Matters Arising

Other types of content:
Editorials
Research Highlights
Q&A

 

Article

Communications Psychology publishes original research in one format, Articles, which may range in length from short communications through to more in-depth studies. As a guide, we recommend that Articles be limited to ~5,000 words. Regardless of the length, an Article is an important research study of high quality which provides an advance of interest to that specific research community.

Manuscripts submitted to Communications Psychology do not need to adhere to our formatting requirements at the point of initial submission; formatting requirements only apply at the time of acceptance.

Articles are peer-reviewed and include received/accepted dates. Authors must provide a competing interests and author contributions statement before publication.
 

Registered Report

A Registered Report is a form of an empirical article in which the methods and proposed analyses are pre-registered and reviewed prior to data collection. The format is offered for hypothesis-driven quantitative research with primary research data. We also welcome submissions proposing secondary analyses of existing data sets, provided that the authors have had no prior access to the data in question. Note that we do not consider systematic reviews and meta-analyses for the Registered Report format. High-quality protocols are provisionally accepted for publication before data collection (or data analysis, for submissions involving secondary analyses of existing datasets) commences. Detailed guidelines for authors and reviewers can be found here. Please use this template to prepare your Stage 1 submission.
 

Resource

A Resource presents a large data set or novel code library of broad utility, interest and significance to the community. The main text (excluding the abstract, references and figure legends) is 6,000—7,000 words. The abstract is no more than 150 words and is unreferenced. An introduction is followed by Methods and Data (mandatory), Validation (optional, at editor's discretion) and Discussion (mandatory).

The  Methods and Data should be divided by topical subheadings; the Discussion does not contain subheadings. Resources have no more than 8 display items (figures and/or tables). 

Resources include received/accepted dates and may be accompanied by supplementary information. Resources are peer reviewed, and authors must provide a competing interests statement at the time of submission.
 

Comment

Comment is a very flexible format. Comments may be on policy, science and society or purely scientific issues. The main criteria are that they should be of immediate interest to the readership of the journal and should be written in an accessible, non-technical style. Their length is typically 1-4 pages, up to 1,500 words, although some may be longer. Comments do not normally contain primary research data, although they may present 'sociological' data (funding trends, demographics, bibliographic data, etc). For a detailed breakdown of our formatting requirements for Comment articles, please see our style and formatting checklist.

Comment authors must provide a competing interests statement before publication. Comments may be peer reviewed at the editors' discretion.
 

Review

A Review article summarizes recent advances within a given discipline. Although Reviews should be recognized as scholarly by specialists in the field, they should be written with a view to informing non-specialist readers. Thus, Reviews should be presented using simple prose, avoiding excessive jargon and technical detail.

Review is a flexible article format, but typically occupies no more than 10 pages. A review should begin with a title of up to 15 words and a preface of less than 100 words written for a general audience. As a guide, we recommend that the main text be limited to ~6,000 words. Reviews can include up to 8 display items (figures, tables and/or boxes). Footnotes are not used. Review articles should typically have no more than three authors. For a detailed breakdown of our formatting requirements for Review articles, please see our style and formatting checklist.

The scope of a Review should be broad enough that it is not dominated by the work of a single laboratory, and particularly not by the authors' own work. Unpublished primary research data are not permitted in Reviews.

Authors must provide a competing interests statement before publication. Reviews include received/accepted dates. Reviews are always peer reviewed to ensure factual accuracy, appropriate citations and scholarly balance, and they are edited in consultation with the editorial team.
 

Perspective

A Perspective is intended to provide a forum for authors to discuss models and ideas from a personal viewpoint. They are more forward looking and/or speculative than Review articles and may take a narrower field of view. They may be opinionated but should remain balanced and are intended to stimulate discussion and new experimental approaches.

Perspectives follow the same formatting guidelines and policies as Reviews. For a detailed breakdown of our formatting requirements for Perspective articles, please see our style and formatting checklist. Perspectives are peer-reviewed and include received/accepted dates. Authors must provide a competing interests and author contributions statement before publication.
 

Primer

A Primer is an introductory review article describing the current best practices and standards for applying a method. Primers are aimed at a broad interdisciplinary audience of researchers at all career stages, and should provide sufficient information for them to evaluate and apply methods in their area of research. 

Primers are divided into sections, are approximately 8,500 words long and typically include 7–9 display items (figure, tables and boxes). As a guideline, Primers can contain up to 200 references. Footnotes are not used.

 

Matters Arising

Important scientific comments and clarifications on peer-reviewed articles published in Communications Psychology may be submitted as Matters Arising. The guidelines for Matters Arising are outlined here.
 

Editorials

Editorials are written by internal editors, editorial board members or guest editors.  They focus on topics that the editorial team feel are of particular current interest to their readership.
 

Research Highlights

Research Highlights are short articles, usually written by internal editors or editorial board members, to showcase one or more exciting research articles and to place the findings in the context of current literature.   Research Highlights are usually checked for technical accuracy by the authors of the highlighted article.  We do not publish unsolicited Research Highlights.
 

Q&A

Q&As are interviews with one or more individuals on topics that will be of interest to the wider readership of the journal.  The vast majority of Q&A articles are commissioned, but proposals can be made to the editorial team.