The Spanish Journal of Psychology is published with the aim of promoting the international dissemination of relevant empirical research and theoretical and methodological proposals in the various areas of specialization within psychology.
The journal is published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de la Psicología de Madrid.
SJP is supporting the global movement towards a more transparent and reproducible psychological science and now is launching a special section that will accept three new types of articles: replications, registered reports and result-masked articles (see our instructions for preparing and submitting your manuscript here). Additionally, with the finality of promoting critical debates among scholars, a new section on “Current Debate in Psychology” has been introduced.
In addition to the information on this page, please ensure that you download and follow the SJP Manuscript preparation guidelines (PDF)
TYPES OF ARTICLES
1. RESEARCH ARTICLES*:
These include articles that have typically been published in the journal as well as some new types; these articles will include (a) empirical studies (deductive or inductive, quantitative or qualitative), (b) theoretical articles, (c) applied methodological articles, that present more robust ways in which to study psychological phenomena (and ideally other topic areas). For empirical quantitative research (especially for psychometric studies), please carefully read our checklists.
2. REVIEW ARTICLES*
These include articles of a broader scope, and that also encourage more critical reflection on what is being researched. These articles will include (a) meta-analyses, (b) systematic or narrative reviews, (c) in-depth critiques and reflections that shed new light on psychological phenomena, and (d) debates and collaborations that exchange views on a particular topic. Additionally, within the review articles, we want to call your attention to our new “current debates in psychology” section. In this section, we seek to publish short reviews about the latest important advances in psychology or give the chance to critical views on current topic to be discussed. Articles for this section should be limited to 2500 words approximately and should be titled with a question. Within this section, you can either answer to an open topic (by offering an alternative or complementary view to generate a debate) or submit a new topic that you consider relevant. Each new topic will be open for a new reply, and for each reply, the original authors will have the possibility to answer.
3. REGISTERED REPORTS* AND REPLICATIONS* AT THE SPANISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY
SJP is supporting the global movement towards a more transparent and reproducible psychological since and now is launching a special section that will accept three new types of articles: replications, registered reports and result-masked articles.
3.1) Replications*
Despite being a pillar of scientific method, replications are very rare in published literature. Performing replications have a significant number of benefits for the advancement of psychological science: (a) allows to better estimate effects sizes; via replications we are now aware of the existence of decline effects; (b) identification of false positives published in literature; (c) determining boundary conditions of the effect, i.e. conditions assumed to be irrelevant in the first study. In psychology, this may be especially relevant in theoretical elaboration, as this changes the conditions that limit the observation of an effect may be due to language, cultural or other sociodemographic differences of study participants.
Thus, in this section, we will accept manuscripts performing fair direct replications that are high-quality, highly-powered with respect to the original study. Furthermore, the relevance of the original study and justification of the necessity of a replication will be considered in editorial decisions concerning acceptance and submission to peer-review. We strongly encourage replications of original research published in the Spanish Journal of Psychology.
Replications could be also submitted as registered reports (recommended), but we will consider replications whether they are registered or not.
Link to Specific guidelines for replications (PDF)
3.2) Registered Reports*
We will accept registered reports, an article type where the introduction and methods sections are submitted, and the editorial decision is made before the study is actually implemented. This type of article enhances editorial and peer-review assessment of the theoretical (e.g.: relevance of the research question) and methodological (e.g.: power analysis) quality of the study, avoiding the selection of “fancy” results that may produce the publication bias.
The submitted RR will undergo a peer-review process and potential revisions. Authors of accepted RR will collect data with guarantee their results will be published irrespective of the direction and size of the effect, given (a) they attach to the registered plans or give explicit reasons for deviations, that will be closely scrutinized by the action editor and reviewers; (b) provide a competent interpretation of results.
Link to Registered Reports. Guidelines for authors (PDF)
4. RESULTS-MASKED ARTICLES*:
These concern manuscripts whose data already have been gathered; in this case, authors submit a manuscript consisting of an introduction, literature review with hypotheses, and method, which is reviewed. The proposal can either be accepted or rejected since any flaws in the theory or method cannot be corrected given that the data have been already gathered. In rare instances, editors may request minor clarifications. As with registered reports, to the extent that the write up of results and conclusions are faithful to the accepted proposal, the manuscript submitted at stage 2 will usually be accepted regardless of the direction or size of the findings. In this type of submission, the authors should provide a cover letter should describing briefly a) the relevance of the study for the literature; b) the appropriateness of the research design and the sample (including sample power estimation); c) any other additional information (if considered relevant) on why authors require this modality.
* If publishing Gold Open Access, all or part of the publication costs for these article types may be covered by one of the agreements Cambridge University Press has made to support open access.