Editorial: a quarterly review of psychological science research
Klaus D. Kubinger · Psychology science · 2008
General scope of Psychology Science Quarterly is wide; it publishes important research results on topics of every discipline of psychology. It is primarily a journal of empirical contributions, though it also publishes theoretical papers if they serve for the basics of psychological research questions. As the title indicates, particular weight is given to high-level scientific research. For this reason, high standards in the application of empirical - including elaborated methodological approaches - are desired. Either theory-based experimental designs or the use of excellent methods, procedures, and algorithms are welcome. Though some misuse of statistics may be common, this and other improper approaches should be avoided. Above all, fundamental research - particularly research that has practical relevance for a psychologist's occupation - is of great interest for this journal. Of course, papers with well-planned studies and experiments that do not deliver significant results, that is to say do not confirm the assumed hypothesis, are in no way excluded; their contribution to scientific knowledge may be just as important as that of papers with positive results. Previous issues Authors may recognize the broad field of disciplines covered by Psychology Science Quarterly by looking at the board members' specializations. However, in the past several issues, the journal has focused on the subjects of psychology-specific statistical and problems, general psychometrics, and psychological assessment. This might be due to the fact that there are currently few pertinent journals dealing with these topics at authors' disposal. Hence, we will take this new tradition of the journal into account. As initially planned for the new start of this journal in 2003 (the traditional German predecessor journal Psychologische Beitrage was first published in 1959), we established a special section for statistical artifacts, in order to contribute to the improvement of the methodological standards within psychological research. It seems necessary to mention at least two of the papers published in this section: The robustness of parametric statistical methods (Rasch & Guiard, 2004) reviews 25 years of research proving the substantial robustness of the t-test as concerns the violation of normally distributed variables; Testing a correlation coefficient's significance: Using H^sub 0^: 0 special issues published in the meantime have proved very popular. Again, two of them shall be specifically mentioned: Brain and (Nuerk, Willmes & Fias, 2005) investigates the process of psycho-neurological functioning in the representation of numbers, in particular as concerns the paper Gender differences in brain activation patterns during mental rotation and number related cognitive tasks (Kucian, Loenneker, Dietrich, Martin & von Aster, 2005); Considering response distortion in personality measurement for industrial, work and organizational psychology research and practice (Ones, Viswesvaran, Dilchert & Deller, 2006) contains an in-depth investigation of the usefulness of personality questionnaires within personnel selection, for instance as concerns the paper Social desirability: the role of over-claiming, self-esteem, and emotional intelligence (MesmerMagnus, Viswesvaran, Deshpande & Joseph, 2006). Both these special issues are frequently referred to in other international journals. As concerns the new tradition of focusing on psychology-specific statistical and problems, general psychometrics, and psychological assessment, there are also some contributions which might initiate or facilitate future research within psychology. …