There is increasing interest in seeking to increase the practical impact of our research. To that end, we would like to encourage our colleagues to submit manuscripts to the Behavioral Science Policy Journal (https://behavioralpolicy.org/journal/ ). The journal features short accessible articles intended to translate our research to inform policy makers (governmental and private).
Manuscripts receive a peer review for the quality of the research and a policy-expert review to insure the policy proposals are new and potentially useful. Manuscripts can be submitted in a number of different policy categories, and each article must clearly demonstrate the empirical basis for the article as well as explain specific implications for policy and practice. There are five different types of articles:
· Proposals (≤ 2,500 words) are empirically grounded policy proposals with supporting evidence including concise reports of relevant studies. This category is most appropriate for describing new policy implications of previously published work or a novel policy recommendation that is supported by previously published studies.
· Reports (≤ 3000 words) provide a summary of output and actionable prescriptions that emerge from a workshop, working group, or standing organization. Reports may consist of summaries of a much larger published report that also includes some novel material such as meta-analysis, actionable implications, process lessons, reference to related work by others, or new results not presented in the initial report. These Reports are not merely summaries of a published report, but must provide substantive policy recommendations.
· Findings (≤ 4,000 words) report the results of new studies, or substantially new analysis of previously reported data sets (including formal meta-analysis), and the policy implications of these research findings. This category is most appropriate for presenting new evidence that supports a particular policy recommendation. The additional length of this format is designed to accommodate a summary of methods, results, and analysis of studies (though some finer details may be relegated to supplementary online materials).
· Reviews (≤ 5,000 words) survey and synthesize the key findings and policy implications of research in a specific disciplinary area as applied to a specific policy topic. This could take the form of describing a general-purpose behavioral tool for policy makers or a set of behaviorally grounded insights for addressing a particular policy challenge.
· Other Published Materials. BSP will sometimes solicit or accept Essays (≤ 5,000 words) that present a unique perspective on behavioral policy; Letters (≤ 500 words) that provide a forum for responses from readers and contributors, including policy makers and public figures; and Invitations (≤ 1,000 words with links to online Supplemental Material), which are requests from policy makers for contributions from the behavioral science community on a particular policy issue. For example, if a particular agency is facing a specific challenge and seeks input from the behavioral science community, we would welcome posting of such solicitations.
If you have research-based policy ideas, please consider submitting them to Behavioral Science Policy Journal. For more information, please contact either one of us or see the journal web page https://behavioralpolicy.org/journal/.
Jone L. Pearce Carrie Leana
University of California, Irvine University of Pittsburgh
jlpearce@uci.edu leana@katz.pitt.edu
Co-Disciplinary Editors, Organizational Sciences
Thanks for considering the post.