Policies

Open Science Standards

In addition to the General Published Standards, journal editors agree to the mission of PsychOpen GOLD to foster transparency and reproducibility of research by implementing principles and practices of Open Science. These are:

• Open Access and Open Licensing
  The journal agrees to the principle of open access. Journal content is accessible at no charge, without requiring registration or other access barriers to users. In addition, the journal does not charge author fees (Diamond Open Access). All articles published by PsychOpen GOLD are subject to a Creative Commons License (CC-BY). Thus, authors retain copyright for their work, but grant others permission to use it provided that the original work is properly cited.

• Open Science Policy
  The journal establishes and implements an open science policy (e.g., the TOP Guidelines), directing authors, reviewers, and editors in reasonable steps toward more transparency and openness in scientific communication.

• Open Data
  Empirical articles have a “data availability statement,” stating whether data are available (and, if so, where they are accessible) and if not, why. In general, publication of data is expected (see Open Science Infrastructure).

• Open Scripts, Materials, Measures, Methods, and Workflows
  Authors are requested and guided to share “Supporting Information” like scripts, materials, measures, methods, workflows, and other resources required to replicate their research (see Open Science Infrastructure).

• Article Formats Enhancing Openness in Research
  The journal supports article formats enhancing openness and transparency in research, replicability, and early publishing.

  • Submission formats accepted by the journal include Registered Reports (RR). This submission format requires that study protocols are reviewed before the study is actually performed and the data analyzed. To ensure protocol transparency, study protocols must be registered at a public pre-registration repository like PsychArchives upon acceptance. The journal may manage the special review process for RRs either internally (internal RR track) or by using an external service like the PCI-RR platform (external RR track).
  • The journal accepts the publication of carefully conducted replications as well as meta-analytical approaches to foster cumulative research and research syntheses.
  • Publication of preprints (i.e., non peer-reviewed draft versions) prior to submission to the journal is permitted and supported by the journal.

• Open Science Infrastructure
  To facilitate consistency in standards, the development and improvement of PsychOpen GOLD services, and monitoring of open science practices, the journal supports the use of products and services offered by ZPID as the preferred and recommended way to implement open science practices. “Supporting Information” published with an article (e.g., data, scripts, materials, measures, methods, workflows), study protocols for Registered Reports, etc. are usually deposited at PsychArchives. Persistent identifiers (usually DOIs) provided by PsychArchives are used within articles to refer to these resources.

  Last modified: May 30, 2023