Journal Of Economic Psychology

Getting Published In The Journal Of Economic Psychology

What The Journal Of Economic Psychology Actually Publishes

It sits somewhere between experimental economics and behavioral psychology. The editors want work that bridges both cleanly, not papers that use economics language as decoration on a psychology study, or vice versa. I learned this the hard way after my third submission got desk-rejected without review. The feedback was blunt: your methodology is sound, but you're not talking to both fields. You need to show economic reasoning OR behavioral mechanisms, not announce them. The journal covers topics like intertemporal choice, risk perception, social preferences, framing effects in financial decision-making, and the psychology behind market behavior. But the bar for integration is high. A paper that only cites psychology literature or only cites economics literature will struggle.

How The Submission Process Works

They use ScholarOne. You upload a blind manuscript, supplementary materials, and a cover letter. The cover letter matters more than most people think. It's your first handshake with the editors. I used to paste a one-paragraph summary and call it done. Then I started writing a half-page letter that explicitly mapped my contribution onto both the economics and psychology sides of their Aims & Scope. Review rates improved noticeably after that change, though that could be confirmation bias on my part. Timeline from submission to first decision runs roughly 10 to 14 weeks. Second rounds take 6 to 8. If you're waiting past 16 weeks with no update, a polite email to the editorial office is standard practice. I've sent two. Both got responses within 48 hours.

Structure That Actually Works For This Journal

Don't write a standard economics paper and hope the psychology angles land. Don't write a psychology paper and add one economics section to check a box. The winning structure I've seen repeatedly looks like this: Introduction frames a question that economics alone can't answer and psychology alone doesn't prioritize. Literature review splits into two threads that you then merge. Method section is transparent enough for both disciplines. Results present the statistical findings first, then interpret them through both lenses. Discussion stays grounded in empirical evidence rather than drifting into broad theoretical speculation.

A Specific Problem I Hit And How I Fixed It

During a revision cycle for a paper on loss aversion in retirement savings decisions, the reviewer asked for something I hadn't anticipated. They wanted structural equation modeling to separate the latent psychological construct from the observed economic behavior. I'd only run OLS regressions with interaction terms. My workaround was straightforward: I pulled in a graduate student who specialized in SEM, ran the models in Mplus, and rewrote the analysis section around those results. It added three weeks to the process but converted a potential rejection into a revise-and-resubmit. That experience taught me that this journal will ask for methodological rigor that exceeds what most psychology departments require and what most economics departments expect. You'll need someone on your team who speaks both languages fluently.

Common Pitfalls That Get Papers Rejected

Sample size is the first one. Studies with fewer than 100 participants in experimental work or under 500 in survey-based work rarely survive review unless the effect sizes are enormous. The editors expect adequate power calculations, and if yours aren't there, they'll ask for them or reject on that basis alone. Another pitfall is relying solely on self-report measures. The journal has grown increasingly skeptical of studies that measure behavioral outcomes through questionnaire responses without any objective behavioral data. A study about risk preferences that only asks people what they'd do rather than watching them actually choose has a significantly lower chance of acceptance.

What Makes A Paper Stand Out

Pre-registration is increasingly valued. I've noticed that papers with registered reports or at least pre-registered hypotheses on OSF tend to move through review faster, partly because reviewers can verify that the authors didn't engage in hypothesizing after results are known. This is a real concern in this field, and the editors take it seriously. Data availability statements are also expected. The journal requires that datasets and code be deposited in a recognized repository. Open Science Framework, Zenodo, or Harvard Dataverse all work. Failure to include this will delay review regardless of how strong the manuscript is.

Guidelines And Submission Details

You can find the full author guidelines at the Elsevier page for the Journal Of Economic Psychology. Manuscripts should follow APA 7th edition formatting. Word count for main text typically falls between 6,000 and 9,000 words including references. Tables and figures count separately and can push the total toward 12,000 words without raising flags. The journal is open access with an article processing charge that runs approximately $3,000 to $4,000 USD depending on your institutional agreements. Some universities have transforming agreements that cover this cost. Check with your library before you submit if funding is a concern.

The Honest Downsides

This journal has a competitive acceptance rate, roughly 15 to 20 percent based on recent annual reports. The review process is thorough but can feel inconsistent. Different reviewers apply different standards for what counts as sufficient integration of economics and psychology. One reviewer might call your theoretical framework insufficient while another calls it overblown. There's no fixed formula that guarantees acceptance, and no amount of polishing will compensate for weak methodology. If your work leans heavily toward pure economics with behavioral flavors, consider journal of behavioral decision making or judgment and decision making as alternatives. If it leans toward pure psychology with economic applications, organizational behavior and human decision processes might be a better fit. The Journal Of Economic Psychology occupies a narrow middle ground that doesn't suit every project.

Final Practical Notes

Read three recent issues before you write a single word of your manuscript. Not abstracts. Full papers. You'll pick up on the tone, the methodological expectations, and the kinds of contributions that actually make it through review. It takes about four hours and saves you months of revision cycles. I also recommend sending a brief inquiry email to the editorial office with your title and a 150-word abstract before you submit. They won't give you a definitive answer, but they'll tell you whether the topic falls within their current interests. This simple step has saved me from two unnecessary submissions and redirected one project toward a better-fitting journal entirely.