Emotion requires that all authors adhere to the Jars guidelines, which facilitate full reporting of methodological and analytic methods. Following the Jars guidelines supports the goals of openness and transparency in psychological research, enables readers to better understand how the research was conducted, and facilitates future replication efforts. In addition, the Jars template offers guidance that helps authors clearly communicate key points throughout all sections of the manuscript. The Jars is an excellent resource for authors seeking to publish their work and for editors who want to provide detailed and helpful feedback to authors.
—Paula Pietromonaco, PhD, outgoing editor of Emotion
My experience with Jars has been very positive. I have shared it with all my associate editors (AEs), and we held a thorough discussion about how to best use Jars. I have already seen multiple cases where AEs directed authors to Jars in their decision letters. Thus, we have found it helpful in informing authors on better and more transparent reporting of methods, analyses, and results. In addition, I assigned Jars to all our incoming PhD students, in an introduction to research methods course I teach in my department. Thus, Jars has also been quite useful to me in teaching methodology to incoming PhD students.
—Gilad Chen, MBA, PhD, former editor of Journal of Applied Psychology
The APA’s new Journal Article Reporting Standards (Jars) do a lot to help psychological science communication. Many aspects of research methodology warrant a close look, and journal editors can promote better methods if we encourage authors to take responsibility to report their work in clear, understandable ways. There are very helpful, 2018 articles in the American Psychologist by Appelbaum et al. on Jars for quantitative methods and by Levitt et al. on Jars for qualitative methods. Authors will want to learn more about the standards described in these articles if they know that following the standards can help to facilitate the path to publication. Therefore, I discuss both of these articles in the editorial that appears on my journal’s home page, so the reporting standards can enhance the other tips that I try to provide.
—Nelson Cowan, PhD, former editor of Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
Jars resources
- History of APA’s journal article reporting standards
- APA Style JARS supplemental glossary
- Supplemental resource on the ethic of transparency in JARS
- Frequently asked questions
- JARS-Quant Decision Flowchart (PDF, 73KB)opens in new window
- JARS-Quant Participant Flowchart (PDF, 73KB)opens in new window
Jars articles
Questions / feedback
Email an APA Style Expertopens in new window if you have questions, feedback, or suggestions for modules to be included in future JARS updates.