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Greetings From the New Editor
for the Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research
by Randolph A. Smith, PhD,
Editor
Categories: Promotion of Research
My Interests in Research
Let me provide a little background on myself and
my relevant experience. As an undergraduate and
graduate student, I was both encouraged to and
supported in conducting research studies, so I
have long known the value of students engaging
in research. I received my BS from the University
of Houston (TX) and my PhD in experimental
psychology from Texas Tech University in 1978.
I spent 26 years of my teaching career at a small
private liberal arts college (Ouachita Baptist
University in Arkadelphia, AR) where I taught
Statistics, Experimental Psychology, and Research
Methods for every psychology major in the program.
Because of my belief in the importance of research
experience for undergraduate students, I required all
students in the Experimental and Research Methods
courses to develop an original research proposal
and to carry out that proposed project. It was a lot of
work, to be sure, but I firmly believe that all students
benefi ted from this approach—even (perhaps
especially) those who did not go to graduate school.
I also helped found the Arkansas Symposium for
Psychology Students—a meeting for students to give
presentations of their research projects—over 25
years ago. As I experienced as a student, I have spent
much of my career supporting and encouraging
undergraduate research.
My Experience as an Editor
In the 1980s, I learned about the journal Teaching
of Psychology (ToP) and met its editor, Dr. Charles
L. Brewer. Because of my interest in teaching and
Charles’ kind off er, I began to review manuscripts
for ToP. Apparently I did a good job of reviewing
because Charles sent me more manuscripts to
review! Later, he asked me to become a consulting
editor for the journal. Aft er many years of reviewing
and serving as a consulting editor, I was chosen to
serve as editor aft er Charles fi nished his two terms.
I spent 12 years as the Editor of ToP (1997–2008), so
I have a good deal of experience that I bring to the
editorship of the Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate
Research.
My Philosophy
I believe that the most important thing I bring to
editing the Psi Chi Journal is a firm conviction that
reviewing and editing should serve both educational
and supportive functions. Almost any faculty
member can relate a horror story about having sent
a manuscript out for review and receiving harsh,
punitive feedback about the paper. It almost seems
as though some reviewers and editors see their
function as gatekeeping—they seem to want to keep
authors from publishing rather than helping authors
to publish. Rest assured that this philosophy is not
in place at the Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate
Research! I want submitting and getting feedback
from the Psi Chi Journal to be a pleasant experience,
even if we reject a manuscript. If you receive a
rejection letter, it and the accompanying reviews
will clearly provide reasons for the rejection. Ideally,
the letter and reviews will also give suggestions for
revising the manuscript so that it might fare better
in another round of reviews. Realize, of course, that
sometimes a manuscript might not be strong enough
that a simple revision will suffi ce—sometimes
reviewers will suggest that additional research with
improvements would be necessary for a manuscript
to be publishable. We want students to be able to
publish in the Journal, and we want them to publish
the best possible manuscript that they can produce—
that is why we spend the time that we do with each
manuscript.
My Review Process
In addition to being educational and supportive
in the review process, I also hope to be timely in
responding to authors’ submissions. When I receive
a manuscript submitted by a Psi Chi member (see
www.psichi.org/pubs/journal/submissions.aspx for
submission guidelines and the submission link), I
send it to three reviewers who have expertise and
interest in the topic area. I ask them to return a
review of the manuscript within a month (reviewers
are faculty members who have busy lives, of course!).
Sometimes I will have to remind a reviewer, so it
may be more than a month before I have all three
reviews. When I have all three reviews, I can turn
my attention to the manuscript, assuming there are
no older ones already waiting for me. So, all things
considered, I endeavor to get a response back to
an author within two months (three months at the
outside). With the backlog that I inherited,
I have been a little slower than my targeted goal.
My Direction for the Journal
I took over the reins of editing the Journal in September from Dr. Martha Zlokovich, who
is the Executive Director of Psi Chi. Martha had stepped into the breach on a temporary
basis and did yeoman’s work in helping the Journal to recover from an emergency
situation. Together, we have worked to reduce the backlog of manuscripts that had built
up over a period of time. We apologize to any students or faculty who were aff ected by
the situation that led to a backlog and extended periods of time waiting on manuscript
reviews. Further, we will do our utmost to make sure that this situation is not repeated.
I have long admired and respected the Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Psychology and
the people who founded and edited it. Now I have my chance to follow in their footsteps.
As the Journal enters its 15th year of publication, I hope that I can count on you—
members and faculty sponsors of Psi Chi—to help me as we strive to return the Journal to
its leadership position in helping educate undergraduate psychology students.