Technology-Mediated Interactions and Their Impact on the Human Mind and Behavior in a Time of Social Distancing

Timeline

• Deadline for Submission of Pre-Registered Studies: September 30, 2020

• Submission of Full Papers: Given the substantial variation in methodological approaches (e.g., some studies may include data collection at a single time-point, others may include longitudinal designs), full manuscripts will be accepted until June 1, 2021. Note: Studies with a compelling rationale for a later submission deadline will also be considered after consultation with and approval by the editors.

• Publication of the Issue: As Technology, Mind, and Behavior is an online-only journal, final manuscripts that are accepted will be published immediately in a rolling fashion

Editorial Team

• Editor-In-Chief: Danielle McNamara                                       

• Associate Editor and Primary Overseeing Editor for Special Issue: C. Shawn Green

• Special Issue Editors: Nicholas Bowman, Isabela Granic, and Tobias Greitemeyer

Overview

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in massive disruptions to normal life, including the widespread implementation of social distancing measures and associated dramatic reduction of in-person interactions. Given this, technology is suddenly playing an outsized role in the day-to-day lives of individuals across the globe. This is true in virtually every facet of life - from education, to business, to health-care, to socialization, and beyond. Not surprisingly, there is significant scientific interest in a wide variety of related topics, including the effects of the shifts to technology-mediated interactions, the best practices for such shifts, and the long-term impact these shifts will have into the future.

The core goal of the special issue is to promote best scientific practices by sponsoring this special issue of pre-registered work focused on the topics above, thereby ensuring that scientifically valid work is disseminated, regardless of whether hypotheses are supported or not. Consistent with the broad scope of Technology, Mind, and Behavior, work on any form of technology-mediated interactions that are utilized in the service of social distancing and its impact on any area of human behavior would be considered appropriate for the issue.      

Types of Submissions

Technology, Mind, and Behavior is currently accepting two types of submissions: (1) registered reports and (2) work-in-progress studies.

1. Registered reports (see https://cos.io/rr/ for additional information about registered reports): Authors will submit a proposal to address a key scientific question related to the topic overview. Such proposals should include: (i) a *brief* introduction that situates the question in the relevant scientific literature and elaborates the theoretical background; (ii) the core hypotheses to-be-tested; (iii) a detailed methodological plan including those related to participant sampling if applicable (with Ns ideally being justified by a power analysis, with a plan for exclusions, etc.); and (iv) a detailed analysis plan, with a particular focus on how the analysis will speak to the hypotheses discussed in part ii (i.e., the patterns of results that would be interpreted as supporting or failing to support the hypotheses). The full proposal should be no more than 2000 words.

   The proposal will be rapidly reviewed by members of an Ad-Hoc editorial board who will provide comments on the expected theoretical and empirical contribution (see below) and the soundness of the methodological and analytic plans. The goal is to have these comments returned within 2 weeks of submission. Based upon the reviewer comments, the proposal will then either be accepted in principle (which may include the provision that some or all suggestions by reviewers be implemented) or rejected by the editorial team.

   If the proposal is accepted, before commencing the study, authors will be asked to register their study on the Open Science Framework (OSF) website at the dedicated space created for this special issue: https://osf.io/wvcn5/.  (for a broad introduction to preregistration see https://how-to-open.science/plan/preregistration/why or http://psych-transparency-guide.uni-koeln.de/preregistration.html). In accordance with pre-registration practices, data should not be collected until the study is accepted in principle. After completion of the study, a full manuscript should be submitted that presents and discusses the work. This work will be published regardless of outcome. However, note that the full manuscript will undergo peer review to ensure that it meets the journal standards (e.g., with respect to the discussion of the results). As part of this final manuscript, statistical analyses that go beyond those that were pre-registered are allowable (i.e., follow-up or post-hoc analyses that were suggested by the outcomes that were observed), but these should be clearly labeled as such in the manuscript. Upon final acceptance of the manuscript, data and analysis files should be posted to the Open Science Framework website. Note that if following acceptance of the pre-registered proposal, a change in protocol is deemed necessary, this should be discussed with the relevant editor to determine if the proposed deviations require a new round of review.

2. Works in progress: For researchers who have already begun data collection on a topic that would fit the theme of the special issue, a similar proposal to that described above can be submitted. For projects in which the full set of methods/analyses were pre-registered prior to data collection, the paper will be considered analogous to those in the category above (and submitting author will be asked to provide these pre-registration materials). For projects in which the full set of methods/analyses were not pre-registered, the initial data that had been collected can potentially be included in the final manuscript as pilot data or Study 1 data (and labeled as such), but researchers would need to submit a follow-up proposal, framed as a replication and extension of in-progress work.

Critically, as is always true in scientific work that seeks to examine rapidly changing human-technology interactions, the questions and methods should be designed in such a way that they speak to persistent issues related to the human mind and behavior in the given fields of study, rather than only to specific details of the current world. Although the research will be conducted in the current world, where the COVID pandemic is obviously a dominant feature, authors should make a compelling case that the proposed work shines a broader spotlight on social distancing and interaction-at-a-distance, building upon previous theory and empirical results and having the potential to be built upon further in future work (e.g., in a post-pandemic world). As such, work that has a solitary focus on, for instance, a particular type of software (that may or may not exist in the future) or that is relevant solely to the current COVID pandemic, will not be considered.

Finally, we note that in order to facilitate rapid reviews for all, which is all the more important given the likely timing constraints of much of the proposed work, we will likely ask that individuals who have submitted proposals to themselves be willing to serve as reviewers on at least one other proposal.

Instructions for Authors

Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue can do so via the journal’s website (instructions can be found here: https://tmb.pubpub.org/submit). In your letter to the editor, please make sure to indicate that your submission is for the special issue on “Technology-Mediated Interactions and Their Impact on Human Behavior in a Time of Social Distancing” to ensure that it is appropriately categorized by the editor.    

Note that if authors are unclear as to whether their proposal would fit within the scope of the special issue, they are encouraged to email C. Shawn Green at: cshawn.green@wisc.edu. Please use “TMB Special Issue Query” as the Subject Line in the email.

Open Access

Technology, Mind, and Behavior is a Gold Open Access journal whereby articles are made open immediately upon publication, promoting broad access to the content. Publication costs are offset by article processing charges (APCs). An article’s corresponding author is responsible for arranging such payment upon acceptance of a manuscript for publication. APCs are most often paid via support from an author’s grants, special funds including from one’s institution or department, contracts such as via the government, or one’s employer when where the work was done as part of official governmental or corporate duties.

For all articles submitted in 2020 that are ultimately accepted for publication, APA is sponsoring each published article by paying $400 of the $1,200 APC. The author is then responsible for $800. If you are a resident in any European Union country, you will be expected to add Value-Added Tax (VAT) at the rate applicable in the respective country.

In cases where an author’s research was not supported by the means outlined above, the author may apply for an APC waiver. Considerations for granting a discounted APC or full waiver will be whether an author is from a country classified by the World Bank as low or lower middle income, or evidence that an author has exhausted the typical funding sources outlined in the previous paragraph. Waivers and discounts will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Authors wishing to apply for a waiver should complete the form available here and wait up to two weeks for administrative handling. Corresponding authors should apply for the waiver upon submitting the manuscript through the peer review system. Applications are handled separately from the manuscript; the editorial team will not be made aware of any waiver requests or granted waivers.