Journal Guide

The Journal of Applied Psychology® emphasizes the publication of original investigations that contribute new knowledge and understanding to fields of applied psychology (other than clinical and applied experimental or human factors, which are more appropriate for other American Psychological Association journals). The journal primarily considers empirical and theoretical investigations that enhance understanding of cognitive, motivational, affective, and behavioral psychological phenomena. Those psychological phenomena can be at one or multiple levels—individuals, groups, organizations, or cultures; in work settings such as business, education, training, health, service, government, or military institutions; and in the public or private sector, for-profit or nonprofit. The journal publishes several types of articles: Theoretically driven and rigorously conducted empirical investigations that extend conceptual understanding (original investigations or meta-analyses); Theory development that synthesizes literature and creates new theory of psychological phenomena that will stimulate novel research (not extended literature reviews that do not advance theory); Descriptive research on applied psychological phenomena lacking basic knowledge in the literature that will provide a foundation for building new knowledge and theory (such studies should be directed at providing novel data on important and unknown phenomena, e.g., time frames for team development or socialization; dynamics of affect, performance, or other behaviors; discovery and documentation of new, important, and meaningful phenomena); and Rigorously conducted qualitative research on phenomena that are difficult to capture with quantitative methods.