Publication Trends in JPSP: A Three-Decade Review

Abstract

To examine recent changes in research and publication practices, the authors systematically compared articles published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology during 1 968, 1978, and 1988. Analyses revealed that over time published articles became longer; presented more procedural information and tables, cited more prior literature, and reported research based on more studies, more subjects per study, and more complex statistical methods. These results provide evidence of growing complexity both in the kinds of theoretical questions that social personality researchers ask and in the methodologies and statistics they use to answer them. Several other factors that may influence this trend are also considered. Implications of these trends are described for the way substantive knowledge is accumulated and for the way social-personality psychologists regard their work

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