COVID-19 has an impact around the world. This has also impacted research activities - as evidenced by the many (pre-print) articles and Call for Papers around this topic. However, this is not your everyday run of the mill Call for Papers. There are three important elements regarding this call for Health Psychology Bulletin (HPB):
- This call focuses on studies about determinants of behaviours related to prevention of COVID-19 (e.g., physical distancing, handwashing, wearing face masks). Results of such studies are needed urgently to inform government regulations and interventions around the world. Therefore, we aim for a quick review and to get articles published as soon as possible (we will not first compile a special issue, but release them immediately on an article-by-article basis).
- We are also open to studies that have been conducted before the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) was detected. For example, ‘older’ determinant studies on preventive behaviours, such as handwashing and wearing face masks, that might have been rejected before, but suddenly increase in relevance again.
- In line with the spirit of Health Psychology Bulletin, we aim to publish all studies, so we explicitly invite submissions of null findings, replications (regardless of the outcome), and reports of failed manipulations. Reviewers and editors are instructed to not reject papers because of methodological errors or insufficient power. Instead, at HPB the reviewing procedure is a collaborative effort where authors and reviewers work together to make sure the paper is a transparent documentation of the conducted research. The focus is on learning what can be learned, making sure we, as a field, don’t repeat the same mistakes, and enabling accurate meta-analysis of the total sum of our findings (see the inaugural editorial at https://www.healthpsychologybulletin.com/articles/10.5334/hpb.2/). This learning is even more relevant with a new virus that comes with many new unknowns - also with regard to understanding and changing preventive behaviours.
So, please take a moment, and submit your paper on determinants of behaviours related to prevention of COVID-19 to HPB! To start submission: https://www.healthpsychologybulletin.com/submit/start/
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact one of the Editors-in-Chief (see https://healthpsychologybulletin.com/about/editorialteam for the editorial team).
We look forward to your submission!
On behalf of the editorial board,
The HPB Editors-In-Chief,
Diana Tăut, Gjalt-Jorn Peters & Rik Crutzen
