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422 PART V: Analyzing and Reporting ResearchINTRODUCTIONScientific research is a public activity. A clever hypothesis, an elegant researchdesign, meticulous data collection procedures, reliable results, and an insightfultheoretical interpretation of the findings are not useful to the scientific communityunless they are made public. As one writer suggests most emphatically,“Until its results have gone through the painful process of publication, preferablyin a refereed journal of high standards, scientific research is just play.Publication is an indispensable part of science” (Bartholomew, 1982, p. 233).Bartholomew expresses a preference for a “refereed” journal because refereedjournals involve the process of peer review. Submitted manuscripts are reviewedby other researchers (“peers”) who are experts in the specific field of researchaddressed in the paper under review. These peer reviewers decide whether theresearch is methodologically sound and whether it makes a substantive contributionto the discipline of psychology. These reviews are then submitted toa senior researcher who serves as editor of the journal. It is the editor’s job todecide which papers warrant publication. Peer review is the primary method ofquality control for published psychological research.There are dozens of psychology journals in which researchers can publishtheir findings. Psychological Science, Memory & Cognition, Child Development,Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Science in the PublicInterest, and Journal of Clinical and Consulting Psychology are but a few. Aswe mentioned, editors of these journals make the final decisions about whichmanuscripts will be published. Their decisions are based on (a) the quality ofthe research and (b) the effectiveness of its presentation in the written manuscript,as assessed by the editor and the peer reviewers. Thus, both content andstyle are important. Editors seek the best research, clearly described, and set rigorousstandards for acceptance. Typically, only about one of every three manuscriptssubmitted to the more than two dozen APA journals is accepted for publication (e.g.,American Psychological Association, 2006).In addition to judging a manuscript on its style and content, a journal editorfirst will decide if what was submitted is appropriate for this journal. Experimentalmemory studies with animal subjects typically do not get published in ajournal emphasizing research on child development. Many sources are availablefor publication besides those sponsored by APA and APS. However, to beginto get a feel for what is out there, you may want to review descriptions ofjournals published by these major organizations: www.apa.org/pubs/journals/and www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/.Editorial review and the publication process can take a long time. Up to ayear (and sometimes longer) may elapse between when a paper is submittedand when it finally appears in the journal. The review of the manuscript can takeseveral months before a decision whether to accept the paper is made. Severalmonths are also required for the publication process between the time the paper isaccepted and when it is actually published in the journal. To provide a more timelymeans of reporting research findings, professional societies such as the AmericanPsychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, the PsychonomicSociety, the Society for Research in Child Development, and regional