Mind Pad Editorial Policy and Submissions

Editorial Policy

Mind Pad aims to publish material that is of interest to all who are practicing and studying psychology, but with a primary emphasis on articles that are of interest to students of psychology.  Mind Pad is published once a year, depending on the volume of submissions. Mind Pad is published electronically online, and made available on the CPA website.  A link to the newest issue is emailed to all Student Affiliates of CPA.

Content is encouraged that are unique, innovative, and may catalyze discussion and debate among members and affiliates of CPA, as well as within the psychological community.

Mind Pad is also committed to promoting open science practices. Details about the new Open Science Badge program are included below.

If you are interested in submitting an article, read the submission guidelines below. If you have a comment about an article or questions about the submission process, please contact the Editor-In-Chief, pastchair.cpastudentsection@gmail.com

Submissions

Mind Pad may publish a range of submissions, including:

  • Original research summaries (clinical or fundamental);
  • Review summaries;
  • Psychology career-related articles;
  • Commentaries on new trends in psychology or psychology research;
  • Commentaries on psychology in the media;
  • Reports on conferences or workshops attended.

At the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief, issues of Mind Pad may be themed.  Mind Pad accepts submissions in English or French.

Submission guidelines

  • All regular submissions must be between 800 and 2000 words. Exceptions must be approved by the Editor-in-Chief. Reponses and comments to articles published in previous issues may be shorter
  • Graphics and tables to accompany submissions will be considered on an individual basis.  Those wishing to submit graphics should include the graphics with the submission, with a note describing the graphics and how they support the submission.
  • Submissions may include references if necessary or required.  References are not included in the overall article submission length word count, but may be limited by the Editor-in-Chief.
  • Submissions must adhere to APA publishing guidelines.
  • Authors must be CPA members. Submissions by Student Affiliates will be given priority.
  • Articles submitted to Mind Pad cannot be previously published or accepted for publication in another peer-reviewed journal or book
  • Submissions should be submitted by completing the Submission Form available at this link.

Open Science Badges NEW badge

As of May 30th 2020, articles accepted to Mind Pad are eligible to earn badges that recognize open scientific practices: publicly available data, material, or preregistered research plans. Open science badges (Open Science Framework) are incentives to recognize efforts of authors to engage in open science practices, namely providing open access to data, materials and preregistration of methods. The badges also serve to notify readers when supplementary materials are available and enhance their trust of the article presented.

Badge Description and requirements
Open Data: All data necessary to reproduce the re-ported results that are digitally shareable are made publicly available in a permanent repository (e.g., OSF). Information necessary for replication (e.g., codebooks or metadata) must be included.
Open Materials: All materials necessary to reproduce the reported results that are digitally shareable, along with descriptions of nondigital materials necessary for replication, are made publicly available in a permanent repository (e.g., OSF).
Pre-registered: At least one study’s design has been preregistered with descriptions of (a) the research design and study materials, including the planned sample size; (b) the motivating research question or hypothesis; (c) the outcome variable(s); and (d) the predictor variables, including controls, covariates, and independent variables. Results must be fully disclosed. Results from analyses that were not preregistered may be reported in the article if labelled as exploratory analyses, as long as they are distinguished from other results in the article. The pre-registration should be made publicly available, time-stamped and document in a permanent repository (e.g., OSF).

To qualify for a badge, you must provide a URL, doi, or other permanent path for accessing the specified information in a public, open-access repository. Qualifying public, open-access repositories are committed to preserving data, materials, and/or pre-registered analysis plans and keeping them publicly accessible via the web in perpetuity. Examples include the Open Science Framework (OSF) and the various Dataverse networks. Hundreds of other qualifying data/materials repositories are listed at http://re3data.org/. Preregistration of an analysis plan must take place via a publicly accessible registry system (e.g., OSF, AsPredicted.org, ClinicalTrials.gov or other trial registries in the WHO Registry Network, institutional registration systems). Personal websites and most departmental websites do not qualify as repositories.

Authors who wish to publicly post third-party material in their data, materials, or preregistration plan must have the proper authority or permission agreement in order to do so.

To apply for one or more badges acknowledging open practices, please follow the instructions on the author submission form. There are circumstances in which it is not possible or advisable to share any or all data, materials, or a research plan publicly. For example, there are cases in which sharing participants’ data could violate confidentiality. If you would like your article to include an explanation of such circumstances and/or provide links to any data or materials you have made available—even if not under conditions eligible to earn a badge—you may write an alternative note that will be published in your article.

Note: Applying for OSF badges is voluntary and optional for Mind Pad authors. Editorial decision will not be affected by author decision to apply for OSF badges.

Submission process

  1. The Editor-in-Chief will notify the submitter that his or her submission has been received within two weeks of receiving a submission.
  2. The Editor-in-Chief will assign the submission to an Associate Editor, who is then responsible for sending the manuscript to minimum 2 Reviewers for peer review.
  3. Within one month of receiving the submission, an initial review is conducted.
  4. After this initial review period, the Associate Editor will notify the submitter of the status of his or her submission.  This may include acceptance, requests for editorial changes, rejection, etc.
  5. Unless the article is rejected, the submitter is invited to revise and resubmit within two weeks.
  6. The reviewers will review the second version of the article. A final decision will be communicated to the author by the Editor-in-Chief.
  7. Accepted articles can be listed on the author’s CV as in press until publication.

Please send all submissions using the submission form to the Editor-in-Chief (pastchair.cpastudentsection@gmail.com)