Journal of Open Inquiry in the Behavioral Sciences

Submissions

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Author Guidelines

Overview

JOIBS is the journal of the Society for Open Inquiry in the Behavioral Sciences. Its mission is to be a forum for open, free, public, and transparent communication of empirical behavioral science. It is an open access journal, including open public peer review, and open author responses to open peer review. It allows post-publication peer commentary. Unsolicited manuscripts may be submitted at any time. JOIBS only considers uninvited empirical papers (and does not consider uninvited reviews, theory papers, or perspectives articles).

JOIBS is not a Traditional Academic Journal

We have minimal gatekeeping. This means that if your paper gets sent out for review and reports empirical work in the behavioral sciences, it likely will be published regardless of editor and reviewer evaluations. The reviews, however positive or negative, will be published alongside your work. The purpose of this format is to encourage open and thoughtful evaluation of works of empirical behavioral science during and beyond the initial review process.

Because JOIBS has peer review with minimal gatekeeping, your institution and promotion committees may or may not consider a publication at JOIBS to be a “peer reviewed journal.” Your paper will be peer reviewed, but that may not be what most people mean by the term. Many may think of “peer review” as “heavily curated so only the best, highest quality research gets published.” At JOIBS, we view our role as advancing communication and discourse among both scholars and the public; therefore, we do little gatekeeping or curation.

Formatting your Paper for Submission

Please download the template at this link. Fill in all the information highlighted on the first page. Format your paper according to the template. References should be in APA 7th edition.

Submission Preparation Checklist

All submissions must meet the following requirements:

  • Your paper is empirical -- not a review, theory paper, or perspectives article.
  • You are aware that peer reviews will be published alongside your paper, if it is accepted.
  • Your paper is formatted according to our template provided here.
  • You have included a cover letter with contact information for all authors, including institutional affiliation, email address, and mailing address.
  • All references have been checked for accuracy and completeness.
  • All tables and figures have been numbered and labeled.

Submission to JOIBS constitutes agreement to abide by these ethical standards for the conduct of research:

  • All research involving human participants must identify the Institutional Review Board that has approved the conduct of the research.
  • Authors must state that the data are accurate representations of participant responses and have not been manipulated by the researchers, except where clearly and transparently noted (such as when authors use any of a variety of well-established practices for imputing data). This can be done in a cover letter, the manuscript itself, or publicly available supplemental materials, but it must be stated explicitly somewhere.
  • All data and materials should be made publicly available whenever possible. If the data cannot be publicly posted, an explanation justifying why it is not possible to do so must appear in the submitted manuscript.
  • Nothing in the written report has been plagiarized from work by people who are not authors on the submitted paper. Extensive quoting or paraphrasing from the submitting authors’ own work is acceptable if it is duly noted in the manuscript.

Articles

There is a one-time fee of $75 for submission to the journal that goes to processing costs and maintenance of the website. Therefore, it is non-refundable, even if your paper is desk-rejected or rejected because its content does not fit the requirements described here.

We are reimagining the traditional peer review process to foster greater transparency, collaboration, and academic dialogue. Here's how it works:

  1. Publication of Reviews:
    Every article submitted to JOIBS will be reviewed by two experts as part of the initial review process. Upon publication, the reviews will be published alongside the article, offering readers a deeper understanding of the feedback and scholarly dialogue that shaped the final manuscript.

  2. Reader Questions and Author Responses:
    Readers are invited to engage directly with authors by submitting questions or comments about published articles. These questions, along with the authors' responses, will also be published alongside the article to enrich the academic conversation.

  3. Ongoing Post-Publication Reviews:
    To encourage continuous engagement and critique, JOIBS welcomes reviews and comments on any article, regardless of its publication date. This means that anyone interested in reviewing a past or present article can submit their review or questions for consideration. Authors will have the opportunity to respond, fostering an ongoing dialogue that keeps the research dynamic and relevant.

Through this innovative approach, JOIBS aims to break down traditional barriers in academic publishing, promote accountability, and create a vibrant space for scholarly exchange.

Copyright Notice

Copyright

If your paper is accepted, it will be copyrighted under a CC BY-NC - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License. In short, authors retain copyright but grant anyone the right to use the material if they attribute it to the authors and do not use it for commercial purposes. Go here for more details, including all the legal aspects of this type of license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

Privacy Statement

We value your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal information. This Privacy Statement outlines how we collect, use, and protect your data when you use our journal website.

1. Information We Collect

We may collect the following types of information when you visit our website:

  • Personal Information: Names and email addresses provided by you for purposes such as creating an account, subscribing to the journal, or submitting articles.
  • Non-Personal Information: Automatically collected information through cookies, including IP addresses, browser types, pages visited, and time spent on the site.

2. Use of Personal Information

The personal information you provide will be used exclusively for:

  • Facilitating the editorial and publishing processes of the journal.
  • Communicating with you about journal updates, submissions, and account information.
  • Responding to your inquiries or support requests.

We do not sell, share, or distribute your personal information to third parties unless required by law or with your explicit consent.

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6. Changes to This Privacy Statement

We reserve the right to update or modify this Privacy Statement at any time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated effective date.

7. Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Statement or the use of your data, please contact us at: danit@soibs.com