APAGS' Translational Issues in Psychological Science?

[futureapppsy2]

Hi all,

Any thoughts on APAGS' new journal, Translational Issues in Psychological Science? It's a grad student journal on both the editorial and author levels, and each issue is a special issue (i.e., on a specific topic). My initial read is that if your work can get in a non-grad student mid-tier or better journal, that may look better, but I'm not sure if the "APA journal prestige boost" applies to this journal as well.

Thanks!

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[Ollie123]

Seems more beneficial for folks on the editorial board to get experience running the show than for anyone submitting papers. Even assuming it does get a prestige boost from being an APA journal, I doubt that comes anywhere near to making up for the prestige hit that accompanies "student journal." At least the journal name doesn't make it clear its a student journal...I'm actually a little sad to see they went that route since I think this would have the potential to be an extremely interesting and very high impact journal otherwise. With the "student journal" tag though, I think its going to have a tough time attracting work that would otherwise be publishable in mainstream outlets.

 

[futureapppsy2]

I took a closer look at their journal info page (http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/tps/writing-guidelines.aspx), and it appears to be entirely a review journal:

Each issue of TPS concentrates on a single important, timely, and/or potentially controversial theme in translational science that is of broad interest to scientists, practitioners, and the general public.

Each journal issue is composed 10–12 brief but critical review articles across multiple psychology subfields (e.g., cognitive, developmental, clinical sciences), so as to achieve interdisciplinary perspectives on the topic of interest.

Each article covers a body of basic scientific research or highlights an important piece of research on the topic and concludes with a section that describes how the application of the research findings can be used to advance health, well-being, or performance in individuals, organizations, or the general public.

It seems really limited/self-selecting when you consider: 1) the requirement of at least one trainee author (including post-docs), 2) the limitation of submissions to review articles only, and 3) the fact that each issue is topic-specific. Huh.

Also interesting is that their page limit seems surprisingly short considering that the journal only publishes review articles--18-22 pages, inclusive of references. I hope that limit doesn't include tables, which can be really long in review articles, in my experience.

 

[Ollie123]

Had overlooked that. So its basically the rejection pile of http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1468-2850/homepage/ProductInformation.html - an outlet for folks who can't get their work published there, with maybe some policy/education stuff thrown in. Seems a good way to get SOMETHING out of it if a random class paper happens to align with the topic of the quarter. Otherwise, I think its a missed opportunity by APA to create a journal that puts psychology at the forefront of translational science and draws a more interdisciplinary readership. It will instead be the home of thesis introductions from failed experiments published separately so students can artificially boost their publication record.

Once again, APA seems several steps behind APS (http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/journals/clinical) - though admittedly that journal is exclusively focused on the clinical realm when I'd prefer a broader take.

 

[futureapppsy2]

I agree, Ollie. Honestly, I'm not sure what APA was trying to do here--create a grad student journal? Create a review journal? Create a translational research journal? It seems like they're trying to do too many things with one journal, and I'm not sure how well that I'll work. There are some really good, well-read review journals (Trauma, Violence, and Abuse is another one I like), but I'm not sure how this one really works or will work long term.

Actually, I'm not quite sure what the purpose of grad student journals is for authors. I was a non-ad hoc reviewer for one early in grad school, and I thought it provided quite solid training on how to review thoroughly but constructively, so it was a good, use experience from that angle. However, from an author angle, they don't seem to offer much to authors. They usually aren't indexed well (though TIPS is in PSYCINFO) and don't seem to be looked on "real publications" by faculty. Otoh, maybe the experience of authoring, submitting, and getting reviews back is good for grad students who haven't gotten that exposure pre-grad school and want to learn the process in a lower pressure, possibly more constructive environment.