2025 APS Festival of Psychology Review Process
Peer Review of Submissions
The peer review process for a conference is a crucial mechanism designed to ensure the quality and relevance of presentations and papers that will be featured.
Initial Screening
The first step involves the submission of papers to the conference by authors. Upon receipt, the program taskforce screens these submissions to ensure they meet the conference's submission criteria. This initial check includes verifying adherence to the formatting guidelines, relevance to the conference themes, completeness of the submission (e.g., inclusion of all required sections), and so forth. Submissions that fail to meet these basic requirements are rejected outright, ensuring that only compliant papers proceed to the next stage.
Distribution to Reviewers Following the initial screening, the program taskforce then assigns these papers to a up to three reviewers, taking care to match submissions with reviewers who have expertise in the relevant subject area, wherever possible. Each paper is reviewed independently by the reviewers to ensure a comprehensive evaluation. The program taskforce coordinates this distribution process, ensuring a balanced review workload and avoiding conflicts of interest.
Review Process
Reviewers receive their assigned papers along with a set of criteria on which to base their evaluation, namely the paper's originality, methodological rigor, clarity of presentation, relevance to the festival’s themes, and the significance of the findings or arguments presented. Reviewers assess each paper based on these criteria and provide a numerical score and an overall recommendation: as definitely accept, accept if room in the program, or reject. They may also offer constructive feedback for the authors, highlighting strengths and areas for improvement.
Compilation of Reviews
Once all reviews are completed, the program taskforce will collect the assessments for each submission. This compilation includes numerical scores and any qualitative feedback provided by the reviewers. The taskforce then evaluates these reviews, paying close attention to the recommendations and comments to identify the submissions that are most worthy of inclusion in the festival program.
Selection Process
The program taskforce will assess the total volume of submissions relative to the available presentation slots at the conference. Starting with the highest-rated submissions, the taskforce selects papers for inclusion until all slots are filled. This selection process takes into account the overall quality of the submissions, as recommended by the reviewers, while also considering the need for a diverse and balanced program that covers the various themes and topics relevant to the festival.
Notification and Feedback
Finally, authors will be notified of the decisions.