The Monographs are widely distributed, with a current circulation of approximately 5500 individual SRCD members and 4000 institutional subscriptions. The series enjoys a proud tradition of respect in the field, a respect gained largely by readers' realization that everything we publish has been submitted to a rigorous review process. An overview of this process is sketched in this section.
The editor reads the submission to assess whether it meets the goals spelled out under Editorial Policy. If it does not (a judgment the editor checks in uncertain instances by requesting an ‘advisory reading’ from an expert Consulting Editor), the submission is returned to the author without further review along with an explanatory letter. In the majority of cases, this first reading serves to indicate what expertise is required to evaluate the report and leads to constructing a pool of potential external reviewers for the submission. Any names that the author may have suggested in the cover letter are always given attentive consideration. The main criteria used in deciding whom to approach with a review request are the individual's recognized expertise in the given area of research, and his or her established disposition to view a review assignment as a serious commitment to balance critical acumen with an equally keen eye for any and all strengths that may lie within the report. Referees (typically two or three) are then sought from among this pool through phone or email contact in which the editor describes the nature of the submission, discusses the basic evaluation criteria, and negotiates a due date for the critique.
After the submission is sent to reviewers, the author is notified if some major unexpected delay arises. The modal waiting period has been around 2 1/2 months (range of 8 to 17 weeks); although this may seem long, it may be easier to accept if you consider the large chunk of time a referee must somehow find among all other commitments in order to read a major work, think it through, and prepare an intelligent as well as helpful critique of the contribution. Being well aware of the very hard work that inevitably goes into preparing and/or revising a monograph-length report, both the Consulting Editors and Editor stand ready to engage in any clarifying discussions that the author may find profitable. Accepted monographs traditionally include a "Commentary" in the publication. The commentary is designed to enhance the work's impact (and often provided by one of the referees).
Neither membership in the Society nor affiliation with the academic discipline of psychology are relevant in considering a Monographs submission. To be considered, submissions should meet the editorial goals of Monographs and should be no briefer than a minimum of 80 pages (including references and tables). There is an upper limit of 175-200 pages. In exceptional circumstances this upper limit may be modified. Because a Monograph is inevitably lengthy and usually substantively complex, it is particularly important that the text be well organized and written in clear, precise, and literate English. Note, however, that authors from non-English speaking countries should not be put off by this stricture. In accordance with the general aims of SRCD, this series is actively interested in promoting international exchange of developmental research.
In writing, authors must keep the "general" reader in mind: our goal is to justify every reader's expectations that irrespective of the specific research questions, the introductory and concluding discussion will relate the work to issues which concern all developmentalists. Jargon should always be avoided; terms that prevail in some sub field but are not common in others should be briefly clarified when they are first introduced.
Monographs are integrative. As a consequence it is critical that introductory material include a thorough citation of the historical relevant literature, and that the work be embedded in a clear historical context. It is also important that the concluding discussion explore alternative explanatory contexts.
Monographs generally follow the style and format requirements specified by the APA; these are spelled out in detail in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th edition, 2001). It is essential that authors study the Manual carefully before typing the final draft; an unprofessionally prepared manuscript is much more burdensome to evaluate, and the time and effort spent by everyone in remedying format and/or stylistic problems can easily become excessive. The following few notes are by no means exhaustive of all the guidelines to which authors must attend; they are intended merely to indicate the range of specifics that need to be considered.
Whenever possible authors should include a valid e-mail address for correspondence along with a traditional mail address.
Use regular letter-size paper (8 1/2 x 11 inches); do not use legal-size sheets. Heavy white bond is preferred, erasable bond is not acceptable. After a manuscript has been accepted for publication and has been put into final form, the author(s) must submit a computer disk with a file that is an exact copy of the final hard copy that will be transmitted to the Press.
Four (4) copies of the manuscript are required. The manuscript should be prepared using one of the traditional fonts (e.g., Ariel, times new roman) in size 12 and printed with a letter-quality printer.
Margins on all four sides of the text should extend a minimum of 1 inch. If using a word processor, do not justify lines (leave the right margin uneven). Do not divide words at the end of a line.
EVERYTHING MUST BE DOUBLE SPACED. This includes information on the title page; headings, notes and entries in tables; figure legends; references; acknowledgments; footnotes; quotes from other articles or books (quotes under about 100 words are run into the text with quotation marks; if longer, they are indented).
(Note: the required sequence differs in various respects
from guidelines given in the Manual for Journal articles)
Pagination. Pagination starts with the first page of the Abstract (page 1); do NOT number the anteceding pages devoted to Title and Table of Contents. All following sheets -- except the figures -- should then be numbered consecutively. Position the page number in the top right-hand corner and the running head in the top left hand corner.
Manuscript sections. Following the sequence given below, start each section on a new page with the section title centered at the top of the page.
Title page: Title, author's name and affiliation, and running head. Authors are encouraged to adopt short and easily comprehensible titles because this helps the marketing department to promote sales of the issue through bookstores (if a longer title is deemed unavoidable, what appears on the cover might be extended via subtitle on the inner title page of the issue).
Table of Contents: List of Chapter titles (whenever appropriate, these should be informatively descriptive; e.g., "The relations between..." rather than "Experiment 1").
Abstract: Not to exceed 300 words. Because it makes final preparation of the ms for typesetting easier, please start this section halfway down the page rather than at the top.
Text chapters: Center monograph title above Chapter I; begin each following Chapter on a new page. Each chapter begins with the word "Chapter__"
Appendix(ces): (if any)
References
Acknowledgements: Include address for correspondence.
Contributors: Brief biographical statement(s) giving the author(s) affiliation and major research interests; examples of the format can be found at the end of Commentaries. It is also appropriate on this page to describe the individual contributions of individual authors if the authors believe that such a distribution of credit is necessary.
Footnotes: These should be numbered sequentially throughout the manuscript (i.e., do not start over with each new chapter); all footnotes should be in a separate section following the references, with each identified by its number.
Tables : Unless the monograph is a multi-authored collection of separate chapters, number tables consecutively; no matter how small, only one table is included on a page. Show approximate location of each table in the text.
Figure Captions: Figure legends listed consecutively, each identified by number.
Figures: Clear white glossy print for the first copy, photocopies for the others; good laser-generated artwork is also acceptable. On the back of each figure note lightly in pencil the Figure number and monograph running head.
ADDITIONALLY, include a separate listing of all headings as they appear in the manuscript; this may require a number of pages, but it is very useful in orienting referees' reading, and needed in copy editing of manuscripts that come to be accepted for publication.
The corresponding author for any manuscript must, in the submission letter, warrant: (a) That all coauthors are in agreement with the content of the manuscript. The corresponding author also is responsible for informing all coauthors, in a timely manner, of manuscript submission, editorial decisions, reviews received, and any revisions recommended. (b) That the data of the manuscript are not currently under publication review by any other journal or publisher, and that they have not been published in any other form. (c) That the study has been conducted according to the ethical guidelines of the Society for Research in Child Development.
Authors are encouraged to suggest names, addresses, and e-mail addresses of potential reviewers. Names suggested should be competent in the topic area covered by the manuscript, and should have no conflict of interests in relation to the manuscript or the authors.
References: be sure to double check the match between your in-text citations and the reference list; also, do check the Manual for proper listing of the different types of citations (books, oral presentations, dissertations, poster presentations, etc.) as well as of the sequence in which references are to be listed. Authors' initials should be spaced ("M. C. Smith"), not closed up ("M.C. Smith"). If you cite a chapter from Damon’s Handbook of Child Psychology (1998), the correct form is as in the following example:
Overton, W. F. (1998a,). Developmental psychology: Philosophy, concepts, and methodology. In R. M. Lerner (Ed.), Theoretical models of human development. Volume 1: Handbook of child psychology, (5th ed., pp. 107-188). Editor-in-Chief: William Damon. New York: Wiley.
Headings: follow the conventions given in the Manual to indicate the level of the heading. Only 4 levels of headings are allowed in the Monographs.
Tables: well-designed and properly formatted tables are crucially important to transmit information effectively. Do make sure that your tables conform to the prescribed style, including titles, headings, and footnotes (see the Manual for details). Space entries generously so that rows and columns are clear; do not use vertical or horizontal lines (though you may lightly pencil in some lines to increase clarity; consider the possibility of typing large tables on outsize sheets and then reducing the page to conventional dimensions).
Figures: expensive to reproduce, these should be used sparingly and thoughtfully. Figures must be preceeded by a Figure Caption Page. Each Figure should contain the number of the figure in light pencil on the back of the figure.
Format odds-and-ends: (a) Identify each page of the manuscript (except the figures) by typing as a header the running head at the upper left hand corner of the page and the page number in the upper right hand corner. (b) Be sure to include a translation of grade levels into ages in the abstract and methods sections. (c) Most statistical symbols must be underlined so that they will be set in italics; consult the Manual. (d) In the text, italics may be used rather than underline, consult Manual. (e) In general, numbers under 10 should be written out and those 10 and above should be given in numerals; however, units of measurement are always given in numerals (e.g., age, grade, time, distance). Hyphenate years and months of ages (e.g., 4-year-olds; 3-month-olds), but not grades (i.e., "third graders").
Stylistic odds-and-ends:
(a) Causal language is confusing and often wrong, avoid it. Causality operates in the domain of theory, not in the arena of data relations. Even in the domain of theory it is usually more appropriate to use a variant of the phrase "is explained by" rather than "is caused by." Most research, including experimental research, does not provide the evidence necessary for phrases like "the risk factor caused the behavior" or even "the several risk factors influenced the behavior". Avoid terms like 'cause,' 'influence,' 'affect,' and substitute some variant of the phrase "is related to." Examples: "each risk factor is thought to be related to dependency" is better than "each risk factor is thought to cause dependency"; "the relation of hyperactivity to aggression" is better than "the effect of hyperactivity on aggression"; "the relation of television viewing to intelligence" is better than "the influence of television viewing on intelligence"; "extensive television viewing is related to a reduction in the likelhood of ..." is better than "extensive television viewing reduced the likehood."
(b) Avoid combining inanimate nouns with action verbs (such as "the research shows", "the hypotheses state", "the study examined"). (c) Restrict the term "relationship" to interpersonal phenomena; all other associations (logical, mathematical, etc.) should be termed "relation". (d) Restrict "while" and "since" to refer to temporal relations; in all other instances, use "although", "whereas", "because", or whatever other term is appropriate.
Finally: if there are any questions you may wish to discuss further, please feel free to contact either the Editorial Office or the Editor directly.
Willis
F. Overton, Editor
Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development
Temple University – Psychology
1701 North 13th St., Rm 567
Philadelphia, PA 19122-6085
E-mail: overton@astro.temple.edu
Editorial
Office:
Margaret Berry, Editorial Assistant
Tele: (215) 204-7360
E-mail: monosrcd@blue.temple.edu