The Official Blog of the Journal of European Psychology Students
Throughout this year, the JEPS Bulletin brought to you a number of research stories and experiences that hopefully served to deepen our knowledge of psychological research and scientific publishing. Allow me, then, to point out a handful of the favorite Bulletin posts of 2013. Although it’s a shame to miss out on any of our contributors’ exceptional work, please make sure you don’t overlook this baker’s dozen, which are ranked among the favorite posts of the year.
The Journal of European Psychology Students’ Bulletin blogs about academic writing, scientific publishing, and essential research skills in the field of psychology. The JEPS Bulletin aims to connect psychology students from all over Europe by providing a unique platform for learning and sharing of knowledge, and subsequently, serving as an indispensable companion for students in the process of conducting and reporting psychological research. The JEPS Bulletin is proud to have a great number of active Contributors who are psychology students throughout Europe. Currently, the JEPS Bulletin is recruiting new Contributors so in case you want to be part of the list on your left keep reading.
Have you ever wondered which scientific journal was the first of its kind? Or why there are scientific publications at all? In this post you will learn how far we have come since the first journals, what it means to communicate science today and what the future might hold for traditional journals and publishers.
Probably these issues crossed your mind, but you never found the time to dig deeper. I don’t blame you. It’s tough to be a young and upcoming researcher these days. Today’s advances in scientific literature are so fast-paced that it can be hard to keep up, let alone ask such remote questions.
At the same time I think you will agree that it may be useful (or, just plain interesting) to have a broader perspective on how scientific journals came to be and how this might help us understand today’s publishing landscape. This article will guide you through the different stages of science communication, going back to ancient civilizations, the invention of the printing press, all the way to a present where to “publish or perish” is the name of the game and restrictions in the access to science are an harsh reality. Continue reading
Today, much of the world of scientific writing and publishing revolves around making sure the standards of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (or more commonly known as “APA style”) are being met. Every undergraduate has gone through one or more courses about it, and every student pursuing a career in research sure as to know it from back to back. It can even be remarkably challenging to imagine the scientific enterprise without the existence of the Publication Manual.
APA style has come to refer to this well-developed system of writing conventions that includes guidelines on how to organize empirical reports, how to reference other published works, and how to solve a dozen other problems that arise in the preparation of a manuscript. But the reach of APA style doesn’t end in the settings in which manuscripts are prepared. Indeed, APA style has become common even in disciplines outside psychology, such as nursing, education and anthropology. Contemporary English textbooks present APA style as an established standard on a par with the revered “MLA style” (Achtert & Gibaldi, 1985).
But when something is so pervasive in a certain context we have to stop and ponder: what are the consequences of having such a fixed set of standards regulating most of scientific publishing in the social sciences?
