Guide for Authors

http://ees.elsevier.com/yjrpe

The Journal of Research in Personality (JRP) publishes both theoretical and empirical work in the traditional areas of personality (including both trait and dynamic process-oriented approaches) and in related areas central to the study of personality. These areas include, but are not limited to, genetic, physiological, motivational, cognitive, cross-cultural, developmental, and social processes relevant to understanding both normal and pathological aspects of personality. JRP publishes integrated series of studies addressing important theoretical or conceptual issues, as well as theoretical and methodological review articles that have the potential to advance the field. Finally, JRP solicits, in a brief report format, theoretically grounded, well-executed replication and null result studies. Such studies-though often difficult to publish-play a crucial role in building a cumulative knowledge base within any discipline and in fostering valid generalized casual inferences, especially through meta-analysis.
Alongside the traditional multistudy packages, JRP encourages single well-done studies that test a new idea, present a new twist on an old idea, or challenge existing ideas. Although such studies often raise more questions than they answer, these questions can play a crucial role in stimulating new lines of research. In addition to encouraging substantively and theoretically novel papers, JRP encourages submissions that use strong and innovative methodologies, such as longitudinal studies, diary studies, experiments, or quasi-experiments, as well as those that use non-self-report data (e.g., other reports, implicit methods, narratives). To broaden the base of published research, JRP further encourages studies that include non-college students as participants. Although cross-sectional, self-report studies conducted among college students can make important contributions to the literature, the field as a whole would nevertheless benefit from a broader empirical base. In short, JRP seeks to continue its tradition of publishing top tier, traditional personality research, while establishing a lively forum in which well-done studies of a slightly riskier nature will find a comfortable home.

Brief Reports. The Journal of Research in Personality accepts brief reports of empirical studies. This forum is intended primarily for publishing soundly designed studies of specialized interest or limited importance that cannot be accepted as regular articles, or replication or null result studies of previously published findings. An author who submits a Brief Report must agree not to submit a full report based on the same data to another journal.

Streamlined Review Policy

Peer review is widely accepted as an essential if not the essential component in the scientific publication process. Nevertheless, the peer review process can be costly for both authors and reviewers. For authors, obtaining written reviews from qualified reviewers accounts for much of the total lag in the review process (which, as we all know, can sometimes be excruciatingly long). For reviewers, preparing thoughtful and detailed reviews is enormously time-consuming and can eat into time for one's own research. To make matters worse, with the high rejection rates common among top journals, authors may have to go through multiple review processes before finding an appropriate home for their work. And as anyone who has ever gone down this road knows, resubmitting a paper to a new journal creates its own set of dilemmas. For example, to what extent should the paper be revised to address issues raised in a set of reviews with which one may not completely agree? On the other hand, failing to address issues raised in the initial set of reviews risks a negative outcome in the new review cycle, particularly when advice is sought from the same reviewer! Thus, the resubmission cycle appears to compound many of the problems associated with the peer review process.
To help address this issue, JRP has instituted on a trial basis a streamlined review process in which authors may submit a peer-reviewed article that was rejected by any journal published by either the Association for Psychological Science (APS - formerly American Psychological Society) or the American Psychological Association (APA), and request an editorial decision on the basis of the prior reviews. These journals often reject papers for reasons that have little to do with quality per se-for example, they include only a single study, use unconventional methods, or are on the periphery of traditional areas of inquiry. JRP seeks to publish innovative, high quality research and may not be limited by these same restrictions.

Instructions for requesting a streamlined review 1. Submit the manuscript along with a cover letter. In the cover letter, the author must request a streamlined review and indicate when and where the paper was previously submitted. In addition, the author should specifically describe the nature of any changes that were made to the manuscript in response to the prior set of reviews, just as he/she would normally do when submitting a revised manuscript. Although the author is not obligated to revise the manuscript in response to the prior set of reviews, it is the rare manuscript that would not benefit from at least some revision. Thus, in most cases, it would behoove the author to carefully consider the content of the reviews and to make those changes with which the author agrees prior to requesting streamlined review.

2. Include a copy of the editor's action letter along with copies of all of the written reviews from the prior submission. These materials must be submitted in their original form; any alteration of these materials will cause the manuscript to be returned without review.

Possible decisions

1. Authors will typically be informed within 2 weeks if the submitted materials are not viewed as adequate for the purposes of making an editorial decision. Under this circumstance, the paper will be sent out for review following the normal review process. (Note that neither the prior action letter nor the reviews would be sent out to the new reviewers in this case.)

2. If the materials are deemed adequate (which is the typical outcome), an editorial decision will be rendered within 45 days, or sooner when possible.

3. The range of decisions in either case is the same as manuscripts going through the normal review process--that is, Accept (with or without minor revisions), Revise and resubmit, or Reject.

Preparation of Manuscripts

Each manuscript should be double-spaced throughout one side of 8.5 x 11-inch or A4 white paper. Authors are requested to follow the instructions given in the most recent edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Pages should be numbered consecutively.

The Cover Page (separate) should contain the article title, authors' names and complete affiliations, footnotes to the title, and the address for manuscript correspondence (including e-mail address and telephone and fax numbers).

The Title Page (p. 1) should contain the article title and footnotes to the title.

The Abstract (p. 2) must be concise, preferably not exceeding 100-120 words. After the Abstract, please list up to 10 keywords that will be helpful for indexing and searching.

The Introduction should be as concise as possible, without subheadings.

Materials and methods should be sufficiently detailed to enable the experiments to be reproduced.

Results and Discussion may be combined and may be organized with subheadings.

Acknowledgments should be brief and should precede the References.

References in the text should be cited by author's surname and the year of publication, e.g., Long (1997); Bean and Fix (1992, p. 44) (for references to a specific page); Bean Bean et al. (1996). If more than one paper was published by the same author in a given year, the correct style is Smith (1985a) and Smith (1985b). References should be listed alphabetically typed double-spaced at the end of the article. All references cited in the text must be listed at the end of the paper. Journal titles should be written out in full according to the form followed in the most recent edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Personal communications should be cited as such in the text and should not be included in the reference list. Please note the following examples.

Berry, D.S., Willingham, J.K., and Thayer, C.A. (2000). Affect and personality as predictors of conflict and closeness in young adults' friendships. Journal of Research in Personality, 34, 84-107.

Block, J. (1971). Lives through time. Berkeley, CA: Bancroft.

Rogers, T.B. (1981). A model of the self as an aspect of the human information-processing system. In N. Cantor and J. F. Kihlstrom (Eds.), Personality, cognition, and social interaction (pp. 193-214). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Figures should be in a finished form suitable for publication. Number figures consecutively with Arabic numerals. Lettering on drawings should be generated by high-resolution computer graphics and must be large enough to withstand appropriate reduction for publication. Please visit our Web site at http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions for detailed instructions on preparing electronic artwork.

Tables should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals in order of appearance in the text. Type each table double-spaced on a separate page with a short descriptive title typed directly above and with essential footnotes below.

Special Instructions for Preparing Brief Reports. The Brief Report should give a clear, condensed summary of the procedure of the study and as full an account of the results as space permits. Brief Reports should be no longer than 3000 words, including abstract and contain no more than 2 pages of references, using 1-inch margins (top, bottom, and sides) and a standard 12-point font, such as Times New Roman. This limit does not include the cover page, title page, author note, tables, or figures; there may be no more than two tables and/or figures. Authors should clearly indicate the word count for the manuscript on the title page and note in the cover letter that they wish the manuscript to be considered for publication as a Brief Report.

Submission of Manuscripts

We strongly encourage authors to submit all manuscripts (including revisions) electronically via the Elsevier Editorial System (EES) website for the Journal of Research in Personality ( http://ees.elsevier.com/yjrpe). Submitting an electronic manuscript will expedite the review process and facilitate communication among authors, reviewers, and editors.
In order to use the EES, authors must register at the JRP website. Instructions for all procedures can be found by clicking on the Help link at the top of the website. Once registered, authors log in using their username and password, click on the "Submit New Manuscript" link (located on the Main Menu), and then follow the on-screen instructions to complete their submission. Authors should include their cover letter in the "Enter Comments" section.

If for any reason an electronic version of the manuscript is not available, please contact the Editorial Office for further instructions. These and all other inquiries may be sent to:

Ann Barajas
Journal Manager, Journal of Research in Personality
Elsevier
525 B Street, Suite 1900
San Diego, CA 92101-4495, USA
Office: +1 619 699-6312
Fax: +1 619 699-6211
E-mail: JRP@elsevier.com

Original papers only will be considered. Manuscripts are accepted for review with the understanding that the same work has not been and is not currently submitted elsewhere, and that it will not be submitted elsewhere prior to the journal making an editorial decision. Moreover, submission of the article for publication has been approved by all of the authors and by the institution where the work was carried out; further, that any person cited as a source of personal communications has approved such citation. Written authorization may be required at the Editor's discretion. Articles and any other material published in the Journal of Research in Personality represent the opinions of the author(s) and should not be construed to reflect the opinions of the Editor(s) and the Publisher.

Blind Review. Authors wishing a blind review of their manuscript should alert the editor at the time of submission in their cover letter, and "Blind Review" should be selected as the "Article Type." Authors wishing a blind review are asked to include a cover page, which shows the title of the manuscript, the authors' names, and institutional affiliations. The first page of the manuscript file should omit the authors' names and affiliations, but should include the title of the manuscript. Footnotes containing information pertaining to the authors' identity or affiliations should be included with the cover page to ensure this information is not seen by reviewers. Every effort should be made to see that the manuscript itself contains no clues to the authors' identity.

After Your Manuscript Has Been Accepted

Proofs

PDF proofs will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author. To avoid delay in publication, only necessary changes should be made, and corrections should be returned promptly. Authors will be charged for alterations that exceed 10% of the total cost of composition.

Free Color on the Web

If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable color figures, then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in color on the Web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version. For color reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see http://www.authors.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Please note: Because of technical complications that can arise in converting color figures to ''gray scale'' (for the printed version you should not opt for color in print), please submit in addition usable black-and-white prints corresponding to all the color illustrations.

Copyright and Permissions

If material from other copyrighted works is included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases: contact Elsevier Global Rights Department, P.O. Box 800, Oxford OX5 1DX, UK; phone: (+44) 1865 843830, fax: (+44) 1865 853333, e-mail: permissions@elsevier.com.

Preparation of Supplementary Material

Elsevier accepts supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound clips and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect: http://www.sciencedirect.com. In order to ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please ensure that data is provided in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should submit the material in electronic format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. For more detailed instructions please visit our artwork instruction pages at http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.

Reprints

Twenty-five (25) reprints will be provided free of charge. Additional reprints may be ordered.

Author Inquiries

For any further information please contact the Author Support Department at authorsupport@elsevier.com.