Journal Guidelines

The Quantitative Methods for Psychology (TQMP) is an electronic scientific research journal. All articles are peer-reviewed. The Journal favors clarity of exposition and didactic qualities over exhaustiveness and mathematical exposition. It was formally known as Tutorials in Quantitative Methods for Psychology

TQMP publishes different types of articles: Replication studies, Outstanding dataset, Regular articles, Review articles, Tutorials and Companion articles. Except for the first two types, all articles bear on quantitative methods.

Companion articles.

The Quantitative Methods for Psychology journal begins the publication of companion articles. The companion article is a complement to a published or accepted paper, in which a detailed, step-by-step, tutorial on how to perform an analysis reported in the main paper.

Companion papers are evaluated by whether the steps are described with enough details so that the analysis can be reproduced. In particular, scripts or code should be provided for a specific language; if a parameter search is performed, starting values and optimization algorithm should be given unambiguously. Instead of a Method section, there is a Step-by-step procedure; in the Discussion section, the interpretation should additionnally highlight the link between the reported result and the analysis that produdced it.

Companion papers are described in Cousineau (2016) The Companion paper as a complement to regular papers, The Quantitative Methods for Psychology, 12(3), 152-154. An example of companion article is Röhner, J. & Ewers, T. (2016) How to Analyze (Faked) IAT Data by Applying Diffusion Model Analyses with the Fast-dm Software: A Companion to Röhner & Ewers (2016), The Quantitative Methods for Psychology, vol 12(3), page 155.

Replication studies.

The Quantitative Methods for Psychology journal publishes replication studies. The replication of a target experiment must be direct (as truthful as possible to the target experiment), performed by independent researchers not involved in the target experiment and have at least the same statistical power.

The manuscript will be evaluated on these criteria only, not on the result(s) of the replication. A typical manuscript is very short, as the theoretical context just put the target experiment in context, the methodology only highlight the modifications or methodological aspects that needed clarifications, the results list the findings, mostly in terms of effect sizes (raw and standardized), and the discussion judges how well the original findings replicated. No extra narrative is needed.

Replication study articles are described in Cousineau (2014) Restoring confidence in psychological science findings: A call for direct replication studies, The Quantitative Methods for Psychology, 10(2), 77-79. An example of replication study is Rowe, Lagacé & Guérard (2015) A Replication of "Motor and Visual Codes Interact to Facilitate Visuospatial Memory Performance (2007; Experiment 1)", The Quantitative Methods for Psychology, vol 11(1), page r001.

Outstanding dataset.

The Outstanding dataset class of article is a new sort of article meant to promote modeling of existing datasets. Instead of collecting a new data set every time a new model is conceived, a data repository can be consulted. The Outsanding dataset are articles meant to advertise a dataset and provide a repository on the journal's web site.

Outstanding datasets must present briefly the paradigm from which the data are obtained. The data must be of quality (large n, small error, good controls, etc.). Ideally, but not necessarily, a first tentative model must be described to provide a baseline for further modeling effort.

Outstanding dataset articles are described in Cousineau, D., & Helie, S. (2014) Outstanding Data sets: A new category of articles that promotes modelling published in the Quantitative Methods for Psychology, The Quantitative Methods for Psychology, 10(1), 1-4.

Regular articles.

Regular articles are intended for researchers in all areas of experimental psychology. They should present methods that are useful for the implementation of experimental paradigms, the description and analysis of data, or the development of quantitative models.

While authors must provide some theoretical support for the method that they wish to present, the emphasis of articles should be on application. Thus, articles should thoroughly describe a quantitative method and give a clear illustration of its use. Accordingly, authors are strongly encouraged to provide a data set and other materials (e.g. listing, programs, and software syntax) that are related to the applied example of the featured method. This approach affords readers the opportunity to get concrete practice using the method and facilitates learning. Finally, as is the case for Figures and Tables, any data set or materials that are provided must be explicitly described and referenced in the article.

For accessibility reasons, the method presented should be implemented using non-property software (e.g. GNU, Octave, R, and OpenOffice), known statistical packages (e.g. SPSS and SAS, and R) or high-level programming environment package (e.g. Matlab and Mathematica). We do not encourage manuscripts presenting methods implemented using low-level programming languages (such as Fortran or C) unless the authors specifically explain why low-level programming is necessary.

An example of a regular article is Giguère, G. (2006). Collecting and analyzing data in multidimensional scaling experiments: a guide for psychologists using SPSS. Tutorials in Quantitative Methods for Psychology, 2(1), 26-37.

Review articles.

Review articles are intended for researchers in all areas of experimental psychology. TQMP accepts two types of review articles.

The first type of review article should present an overview of a family of methods, techniques, or models (e.g. sampling models). The review can follow a taxonomic or historical organization. The second type of review article should selectively describe possible analyses that can be performed on a set of often encountered data (e.g. response time distributions).

Both kinds of review articles should compare and contrast the strength and weaknesses of the methods, techniques, or models being investigated. Unlike regular articles and tutorials, review articles are not required to include an applied example of a specific method. If an applied example is included, however, authors must comply with the applicable requirements described in the regular article section.

An example of a review article is Hélie, S. (2006). An introduction to model selection: Tools and algorithms. Tutorials in Quantitative Methods for Psychology, 2(1), 1-10.

Special series.

Special Series are intended for researchers in all areas of experimental psychology. Special series, directed by Appointed Editors, provides a series of articles around a specific theme, with --as always-- a strong focus on hands-on, applied, mode of presentation.

The first Special Series is called Python for Research in Psychology<\em> and is under the direction of the Appointed Editors Kinsey Church, Matthew Ross, Thaddé Rolon-Merette and Damien Rolon-Merette. Its opening issue is available on the journal's web site.

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