APA goes OA
The American Psychological Association will begin publishing the fully open access journal Archives of Scientific Psychology in early 2013. In an editorial, “Archives of Scientific Psychology: A New Journal for a New Era,” editors Harris Cooper and Gary VandenBos describe how the new publication, “an open methodology, open data, open access journal,” will not only make the articles themselves, but also the data, freely available to the public, either through the APA or other approved repository.
In the editorial, the authors detail five aspects of the new journal that they feel make it unique, summarized here:
- All articles are free and open to the public
- Each article has a detailed description of methods used
- Authors make available all data that underlie the analyses
- Abstract and Method sections are presented in both plain English and in more technical language
- Peer review comments and responses are also published for each article
One of the biggest motivators behind the decision to launch Archives of Scientific Psychology was the desire to have more (and wider) impact. The editors write, “Clearly, research that is free and open to the public via the Internet has an increased probability of finding its way into discussions of policy and practice. This is a circumstance that should be taken advantage of.”