Ever since I was given the opportunity to observe and then participate in the peer-review process in graduate school I have been interested in shaping the way journals operate.
On January 1, 2022 I became Editor in Chief of Personality and Social Psychology Review. PSPR has a unique place in the ecosystem of personality and social psychology journals, publishing visionary theoretical work that helps shape the field’s agenda, and enjoying the field’s top impact factor rating across 65 journals in personality and social psychology for the past 15 years. To say I am humbled by this invitation is to vastly understate things. PSPR has experienced a meteoric rise since it was launched a quarter century ago. My hope it to build upon its strong foundation while galvanizing the journal (and hopefully the field) in a somewhat new direction. I’d love for you to read my incoming Editorial here. This work would not be possible without the stellar team of Associate Editors I get to partner with. You can learn more about them here. I hope you will submit your work to the journal!
In out first two years at the helm of PSPR we have implemented a number of major initiatives aimed at shifting the publishing ecosystem towards enhanced diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. First, we have reshaped our Editorial Board to serve as a pathway for future editorial leaders. Demographically, the Editorial Board is composed of: 36% people who work at an institution outside North America, Western Europe, or Australia/New Zealand, including every continent (except Antarctica) and also people who work outside of academia in both the non-profit and corporate sectors, 48% woman-identified (plus 3% transgender/non-binary), 65% people who identify as something other than white/Caucasian (recognizing those labels don’t always translate globally), 27% people who identify as something other than straight/heterosexual, 6% people who identify as having a disability, and 100% people doing amazing research. We also established an Emerging Editor Board, composed of advanced graduate students and postdocs who receive developmental feedback on each review they submit. PSPR is also proud to host an Editorial Fellowship, aimed at create a supportive pathway to editorial leadership for psychologists from communities that have been historically excluded from these roles. We targeted the Global South and Indigenous scholars in the call for applications and our inaugural Fellow, Stephen Baffour Adjei from Ghana, began in January 2023. We intend to use this Fellowship to not only open up publication pathways for scholars who have been systematically excluded, but also to work on reshaping the systems and structures that have led to their exclusion. Finally, we are also conducting an archival demographic audit of the editorial teams and authorship of PSPR since it was founded, in the hopes of providing a baseline from which to compare our efforts at change. The team at PSPR is always up to something, so please reach out with questions! We very much hope to spread our insights and strategies to other journals!
Before PSPR, I had the incredible honor to serve as an Associate Editor at the Journal of Personality for eight years, where my perspective on scientific publishing matured and coalesced. I have also guest edited Special Issues of Journal of Personality and Qualitative Psychology. And, I serve on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Research in Personality, and European Journal of Personality. In addition, serving as an Associate Editor at Collabra: Psychology and on the inaugural Editorial Board of Personality Science has given me an opportunity to try a very different editorial approach.