Submissions

Login or Register to make a submission.

Submission Preparation Checklist

  • As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • Article Information Form: The online journal submission system contains an Article Information Form (AIF) that is devised to replace the cover letter, gather standardized information on each submission at one glance, and alert authors to the guidelines and standards of the journal (especially regarding empirical contributions). Its full and honest completion in the submission system is mandatory. To prepare yourself for the online completion, you can find an overview of AIF items here.
  • Mandatory Template Use: The official PS Paper Template should be used when submitting to Personality Science (download it here). After a conditional acceptance of the paper, authors receive three additional template forms: Contributorships; Statements (on funding, competing interests, other manuscript versions, ethics, acknowledgements, other notes); Supplements & Badges. These forms need to be filled out fully and correctly and uploaded together with everything else to the journal submission system. Only submissions using official PS templates will be processed.
  • zip-File after Conditional Acceptance: If your paper has been conditionally accepted, then please submit a zip-file containing the updated, final version of the manuscript; fully completed Contributorship, Statements, and Supplements & Badges template forms; all supplements files; and any high-resolution images (if figures are included in the paper). Notably, all of these files should be included in one zip-file that will be the basis for the final acceptance.
  • Original Article: The submission has not been previously published, nor is it currently submitted to another journal for consideration (or an explanation will be provided in “Comments for the Editor”). Prior to as well as after publication in Personality Science, authors may make their submissions available as preprints on personal or public websites. Note: Personality Science uses Similarity Check, a plagiarism screening service, to screen submitted content for originality.
  • Author Agreement: All authors have contributed substantially to the submitted manuscript; have read and approved of the version submitted; have agreed to the order of authorship and the type of contributorship; and will be informed by the submitting (and corresponding) author.
  • Authorship and Contributorship Information: The journal submission system only requires information on the submitting author, which is understood to be the corresponding author of the paper. All other authors do not need to be entered into the system. If the authors wish, they could identify themselves by inserting their names into the appropriate boxes within the official PS Paper Template (which is sent out for review). If a paper is conditionally accepted, then a mandatory Contributorship Template needs to be filled out where information on all authors is provided, including their respective contributorships (according to the CRediT System). Contributions that fall short of authorship are mentioned in the Acknowledgments section of the Statements Template (for criteria of authorship, see the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, Standard 8.12, Publication Credit, of the American Psychological Association). Responsibility for authorship decisions lies entirely with the authors.
  • Paper Category and Type: The category (Theory, Methodology, Empirical, Applied, Comment) and Type (None, State of the Art Review, Tutorial, Projects & Data, Cumulative Blitz Report, Insights and Ideas, Registered Report, Replication, Meta-analysis) of the paper are clearly indicated in the official PS Paper Template.
  • Counts: The paper follows the recommended word, reference, table, and figure counts (see Paper Formats), or a compelling justification for upward deviations is provided in the submission process.
  • Abstract, Keywords, Key Insights, Relevance, Plain Language: An abstract (max. 150 words) with up to 8 keywords, bulleted list of Key Insights (3-5 points, max. 10 words each), and a Relevance Statement (250 characters) are provided. If wished, a second abstract in another language (max. 150 words), also with up to 8 keywords, can be added in another language. Optionally, a plan-language statement (500-750 words), containing a non-technical and accessible summary of the work, can also be provided.
  • Journal Reporting Standards: The submission adheres to the appropriate journal reporting standards set for the by the APA (for summaries, see JARS guidelines).
  • Language: The paper is written in English (US or UK spelling). The writing is clear, organized, logical, and concise. Language, grammar, and style have been thoroughly checked.
  • Formatting and Publisher Guidelines: The manuscript text follows the latest edition(s) of the Publication Manual of the APA (currently 7th edition; see examples here). In addition, the text adheres to the formal requirements outlined in the PsychOpen GOLD Author Guidelines and the PsychOpen Style Guide .
  • Embedding of tables and figures: Tables (along with titles, description, footnotes) and figures (along with captions) should be embedded directly into the main body of the manuscript and not appended at the end. Before a paper has not been conditionally accepted, no separate high-resolution image files need to be uploaded; images as small, but readable figures in the manuscript suffice for the time being.
  • Manuscript File Format: The manuscript, inserted into the official PS Paper Template, must be submitted in MS Word format (preferably .docx).
  • Reviewer Suggestions: At least three reviewers without conflicts of interest, who can evaluate the submission, should be suggested in submission process.
  • Anonymous vs. Open Pre-Publication Peer-Review: The default reviewing mode of Personality Science is double-anonymous (i.e., authors and reviewers are anonymous to each other). However, both authors and reviewers have the option to identify themselves. Additionally, reviewers and authors may agree to make the pre-publication peer-reviews openly accessible. Please take the necessary steps to either keep your identities anonymous or to identify yourself.
  • Post-Publication Peer-Review: If the paper is published in Personality Science, there is a chance that it might garner post-publication peer-reviews. These will always be moderated.
  • Transparency, Openness, and Reproducibility: The paper complies with the Open Science guidelines of Personality Science (see Open Science), or a compelling justification for deviations is given both in the submitted paper and in the submission process. Specifically, the paper must contain statements concerning, and weblinks to, openly accessible information on pre-registrations (if applicable), sampling, procedures, materials, data, scripts, and statistics (see Author Guidelines → Guidelines for Openness and Transparency ). These statements appear in blue font color in the submitted manuscript.
  • Acknowledging and Citing Previous Work: Previous or concurrent publications of the author(s) based on the same or closely related research are properly acknowledged and cited. It is made clear in which way(s) the current paper represents a novel contribution to warrant consideration for publication in Personality Science.
  • Use of Copyrighted Materials: No copyrighted material is used unless that material has also been made available under a CC-BY license or appropriate authorization has been obtained.
  • Ethical Practice: In the case of empirical research: The study received appropriate ethical review and clearance, thus meeting all ethical standards for research.
  • Policy Compliance: Authors have read, understood, and accept Personality Science's policies set forth at Policies.
  • License: Articles (as well as additional files and supplements) in Personality Science are published per default under a CC BY 4.0 license. This means that authors retain the ownership of their work, but they grant Personality Science the right to publish the paper online and in an open-access fashion (free to read, free to download). The article can be reused by any party provided that its source (i.e., the publication in Personality Science with author names, dates, and DOI) is properly credited and cited.
  • Consent for Personal Data Storage: Authors of the submitted manuscript consent to the storage of their personal data transferred in conjunction with the submission and in accordance with the Journal's Privacy Policy.

Author Guidelines

Author Guidelines can be found here.
Guidelines for openness and transparency can be found here.
Information on different paper formats can be found here.

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish with Personality Science (PS) agree to the following terms:

Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Under the CC BY license, authors retain ownership of the copyright for their article, but authors grant others permission to use the content of publications in PS in whole or in part provided that the original work is properly cited. Users (redistributors) of PS are required to cite the original source, including the author's names, PS as the initial source of publication, year of publication, and DOI (if available).

Authors may publish the manuscript in whole or in part in any other journal or medium, but any such subsequent publication must include a notice that the manuscript or the specific part of it was initially published by PS.

Authors grant PS the right of first publication. Although authors remain the copyright owner, they grant the journal the irrevocable, non-exclusive rights to publish, reproduce, publicly distribute and display, and transmit their article or portions thereof in any manner.

All of the above not only pertains to the text of an article, but also its tables and figures as well as all of its associated supplements (e.g., data, code, materials, etc.).