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Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy
By Kevin Lanning (ASAP.editor@gmail.com)
ASAP Editor



Changes are afoot at Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy (ASAP). 

First, ASAP has recently instituted an online submission/review portal.  This should facilitate the submission, processing, and review of manuscripts, help ensure that the responsibility of reviewing is more equitably distributed among board members, and, most importantly, lead to a faster turnaround of papers.  You may submit manuscripts at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/asap, or, if you prefer, http://tinyurl.com/asapsubmit.

Second, ASAP is, on a trial basis, allowing streamlined review of certain manuscripts.  That is, papers that have been previously rejected by other selective journals can, at the discretion of the author or authors, have the prior reviews considered together with the manuscript.  The policy is derived from that at the Journal of Research in Personality; I anticipate that it should lead to less duplication of effort among reviewers and, like the online submission portal, a quicker turnaround for our submissions.

Third, ASAP is expanding its use of peer-reviewed, continuing commentary.  At the discretion of authors, articles that pass the peer-review process will, upon initial publication, be flagged under the heading ‘continuing commentary invited.’ Subsequently, peer-reviewed comments and rebuttals will be presented together with the original paper in an online virtual issue as well as in the annual print edition of ASAP.   The decision to invite feedback lies with the author, and is made at the time of the initial submission.  To the extent that articles with commentary are more frequently cited, this will lead to a greater scholarly impact for ASAP in the years ahead. 

Each of these changes is described in a recent editorial which appears online in the 2010 volume of the Journal (http://tinyurl.com/ASAP2010).  Since that editorial was written, ASAP has added a graduate student member to our editorial board.  Dawn Howerton joins us from the University of Tennessee, where she is a third-year doctoral student working with Cheryl Travis and Michael Olson. Dawn’s research interests focus on issues of gender equality, stereotyping and prejudice, health care disparities, and social justice. This is already her second editorial position within SPSSI; she is on her way to achieving her goal “to become an active and well-rounded member of our scientific community, to fight for social justice, and … to provide a voice for those who often go unheard.” I look forward to her prosocial, capable, and energetic contributions in the months ahead.

Finally, remember that ASAP includes book reviews as well as relevant research in social psychology and related fields of inquiry.  With summer just around the corner, if you are looking for a good book to read, consider checking out ASAP’s book reviews.  Better yet, sign up to be a reviewer. If you would like to be included in our database of willing reviewers, please send your name, affiliation and specialty areas to the Book Review Editor, Wendy R. Williams at williamw@marshall.edu. Similarly, if you have a book you would like to nominate for review or you are interested in reviewing a book that you already own or have recently read, please also send your book nomination or book review proposal to the Book Review Editor.

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