American Psychologist

The American Psychologist is the official journal of the American Psychological Association. As such, the journal contains archival documents and articles covering current issues in psychology, the science and practice of psychology, and psychology's contribution to public policy. Archival and Association documents include, but are not limited to, the annual report of the Association, Council minutes, the Presidential Address, editorials, other reports of the Association, ethics information, surveys of the membership, employment data, obituaries, calendars of events, announcements, and selected award addresses. Articles published cover all aspects of psychology. Submissions should be current, timely, and of interest to the broad AP A membership; they should be written in a style that is accessible to and of interest to all psychologists, regardless of area of specialization. American Psychologist contributions often address national and international policy issues as well as topics relevant to Association policy and activities. The first step in the AP editorial review process is performed by the AP editor/APA CEO. Approximately 70% of author-submitted manuscripts are returned without review within 30 days for a host of reasons: Empirical manuscripts are more appropriate for one of the APA primary journals; the topic of the manuscript or style of the writing is too narrow for the broad AP readership; the same topic was recently covered in the journal; inappropriate content or style; or other, more typical reasons such as the paper does not offer a major contribution to the field or is simply not written well enough. As the official journal of the APA, AP does not publish papers advocating policies contrary to officially adopted APA policy, although debates of the evidence supporting such policies may appear from time to time. Comments on the policies of the Association and articles published in the American Psychologist are also considered for the AP Comment section.