Call for Papers: Special Collection: Humans and Generative AI

Submit Abstracts/Manuscripts here

Deadlines:

Registered reports:

• Initial submission of pre-registered studies:

  • Preregistered study submissions may be submitted beginning October 1, 2023 until December 31, 2023.

  • Decisions will be provided to authors 4-6 weeks following submission.

• Please submit using the Special Collection article type, “Humans and Generative AI”

• Final submission of completed project: Given the considerable variability in possible research designs, authors of registered reports should provide a clear expected timeline in their initial submission. The feasibility of this timeline will be evaluated by the reviewers and action editor who will then give an explicit deadline for final submission if the pre-registered study is approved.

Single/multi-study reports (i.e., completed studies) and theoretical, conceptual, or integrative reviews:

• Initial submission of abstract (evaluated for fit): November 1, 2023

  • Please submit abstracts using the “Special Issue Abstract” article type

• Target for initial decision on abstract: December 2023

• Final submission of completed manuscript: March 31, 2024 (negotiable based on the nature of the project)

Publication of the Collection: As Technology, Mind, and Behavior is an online-only journal, final manuscripts that are accepted for publication will be published immediately (i.e., rather than waiting for all manuscripts accepted to be finalized). 

Editors and Editorial Board:

Editors

• Dr. Jaime Banks – School of Information Studies, Syracuse University

• Dr. Nicole Krämer – Trustworthy Data Science and Security Research Center at Universität Duisburg-Essen

• Dr. Rhonda McEwen – Department of Computer Science and the Institute for Communication, Culture, Information and Technology at University of Toronto

Editorial Board

• Dr. Jenny L. Davis – Departments of Sociology, Vanderbilt University & The Australian National University

• Dr. Claes de Vreese – University Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Society, University of Amsterdam

• Dr. Andrea L. Guzman – Department of Communication, Northern Illinois University

• Dr. Tero Karppi – Faculty of Information & the Institute for Communication, Culture, Information and Technology at University of Toronto

• Dr. Nils Köbis – Center for Humans and Machines, Max Planck Institute for Human Development

• Dr. Sunny Xun Liu – Social Media Lab, Stanford University

• Dr. Sarah Rajtmajer – College of information Sciences and Technology, Penn State

• Dr. Mindy Schoss – Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida

• Dr. Jennifer Stromer-Galley – School of Information Studies, Syracuse University

• Dr. Sonja Utz – Everyday Media Lab & Institut für Wissensmedien, Tübingen Universitätsstadt

• Dr. Magdalena Wischnewski – Trustworthy Data Science and Security Research Center at Universität Duisburg-Essen

Overview

Media depictions of artificial intelligence often present such technologies as highly agentic, highly social, and highly adaptive to their environments, and those depictions stir human hopes and fears and raise myriad ethical questions. Although early versions of generative AI have existed since at least 1960s chatbots, those media depictions were largely mere imaginings, until the more recent mainstreaming of embodied and non-embodied generative AI (GenAI). GenAI is a class of artificial intelligence that identifies patterns in existing data to create new content. In this special collection, we are particularly interested in how these processes unfold in ways that simulate high sociality, creativity, and (quasi-)independent action. Sophisticated chatbots (e.g., ChatGPT and other large-language models) generate natural language conveying both believable hallmarks of sociality and problematic ‘hallucinations’ as they create unreal accounts of the world. AI companions (e.g., Replika and Paradot) co-create relationships that have meaningful effects on users. Text-to-image and -video AI (e.g., Midjourney, Stable Diffusion) construct ad-hoc visuals that both empower creativity in non-artist users that exists in tension with artists on whose work the technology is trained. Video and speech generators (e.g., Synthesia, DeepBrain) produce believable video footage. Outside of mainstream use, GenAI has a wide range of applications across such domains as entertainment and creative production, government intelligence, military operations, architecture, pharmaceuticals development, political forecasting, and more.

Although GenAI technologies are experiencing a surge in performance and popularity, there is limited systematic attention to the psychological antecedents, processes, and effects of human engagement with these technologies. A host of questions are ripe for address: What role does embodiment play in perception of GenAI (e.g., embedding in robotic bodies compared to presented on screen)? How do humans behave when interacting with GenAI? How do these behaviors and understandings vary across diverse humans and contexts? Does embedding of GenAI in more traditional forms of media influence the gratifications from their use? (How) do people see mind and moral judgment in GenAI behaviors? How does the mainstreaming of GenAI influence processes for interpreting authenticity and trustworthiness of information? What cognitive heuristics are operating as people interact with GenAI, and what is the nature of relationships that can form with them? To what degree can GenAI influence human opinion making and attitude formation? How does GenAI serve as a tool for engaging desired psychological states and avoiding undesired ones? (How) is GenAI interpreted as an actor in human, machine, or hybrid groups? What are the psychological mechanisms underlying human fear of or affection for GenAI?

This special collection calls for submissions that attend to these and other related gaps through theory-grounded empirical investigations, including systematic reviews and single- or multi-study investigations. Consistent with the broad scope of Technology, Mind, and Behavior, work exploring any aspect of GenAI and its relationship with human psychological and/or behavioral processes would be appropriate for this special collection. Importantly, with this emphasis on human mind and behavior, submissions that are primarily technical in nature (e.g., engineering and computer science work) will not be considered. If you are uncertain whether your manuscript topic is a good fit for the special collection, you can make an initial inquiry to Jaime Banks ([email protected]).

Types of Submissions

TMB is committed to Open Science principles and practices. Pre-registered submissions are encouraged and preferred, but not required.

Multi-study reports: Multi-study reports involve quantitative and qualitative research with two or more studies using different samples. Multi-study papers are more integrative in nature and provide a strong theoretical and empirical contribution to the literature. Manuscripts are limited to 10,000 words of text, including abstract, though shorter manuscripts are strongly encouraged. The word limit does not include reference pages, tables, and figures. Manuscripts longer than 10,000 words need to be approved by the editor prior to submission and must make a truly outstanding contribution.

Single-study reports: Single study reports of quantitative and qualitative research are between 4,000 and 6,000 words of text (including abstract). The word limit does not include reference pages, tables, and figures. Theoretical, conceptual, and integrative review manuscripts also must adhere to this word limit.

Brief reports: Brief reports are between 2,000 and 4,000 words of text (including abstract). The word limit does not include reference pages, tables, and figures. Submissions involving pilot data findings, replication of published study findings, psychometric investigations of culture-specific measures, or substantial cultural adaptation of existing measures are most suitable for brief reports. Mere translation and validation of existing psychological measures that are not culture-specific are not appropriate for the journal.

Replication reports: In addition to full-length research papers reporting novel findings, the journal publishes registered reports, negative findings, replications, commentaries and reviews. Preregistration of replication studies is strongly recommended, but not required. Major criteria for publication of replication papers include: (a) theoretical significance of the finding being replicated, (b) statistical power of the study that is carried out, (c) the number and power of previous replications of the same finding. Other factors that would weigh in favor of a replication submission include pre-registration of hypotheses, design, and analysis and submissions by researchers other than the authors of the original findings. Please note in the Manuscript Submission Portal that the submission is a replication article. Papers that make a substantial novel conceptual contribution and also incorporate replications of previous findings continue to be welcome as regular submissions.

Registered reports: Technology, Mind, and Behavior will also consider registered reports. Authors should contact the editor with a proposal before submitting a registered report. The proposed research will be reviewed for significance and methodological approach and, if approved, should then be carried out in accordance with the proposed plan. To the extent that the study is judged to have been competently performed, the paper will be accepted (pending any necessary revisions) regardless of the outcome of the study.

Instructions for Authors

Authors interested in submitting a paper for this collection can do so via the journal’s website (instructions can be found here: https://tmb.apaopen.org/submit). In your letter to the editor, please make sure to indicate that your submission is for the special collection on “Humans and Generative AI” to ensure that it is appropriately categorized by the editor.    

Note that if authors are unclear whether their proposal would fit within the scope of the special collection, they are encouraged to email Jaime Banks ([email protected]).

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 all individuals who have submitted proposals themselves also serve as reviewers on at least one other proposal.

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). The current APC for TMB is $1,200 USD. 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 the work was done as part of official governmental or corporate duties. 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.

Articles are published under a CC-BY-NC-ND (Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivatives) license, allowing others to download and share them for noncommercial use as long as you are credited as the author.

To protect the integrity of your work, this license does not allow for modifications to be shared; sharing only the article as published is permitted.

APA Open Waiver Policy for Technology, Mind, and Behavior

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 on the TMB website 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. For questions regarding waivers, please contact Cheryl Johnson at [email protected].

For other submission information please see the general instructions for manuscripts at: https://tmb.apaopen.org/submit