Submission standards
Submissions are evaluated on the basis of the test review criteria set by the European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations (EFPA) and adopted by the British Psychological Society (BPS).
Whether your submission is accepted for publication partly depends on the extent to which the measure, manual, and evidence described in the manual satisfy the EFPA criteria. As a minimum, ‘sufficient’ evidence and data are needed for a measure to be readily applicable. In other words, the manual should contain the information that the experienced and informed administrator or psychologist would need in order to use and trust the measure. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:
The manual needs to demonstrate clear evidence of the psychometric properties of the measure, demonstrating the extent and strength of the underpinning research. Where an integral part of psychometric evidence (such as test-retest reliability) has not been examined, this must be justified. For example, use of a measure for development purposes, involving feedback that could influence retest results, is not a valid reason for omitting test–retest data during its construction; a separate data collection not including feedback on first administration would instead be needed.
Norms appropriate for the intended purposes of the measure should be provided and ready for use in order to enable norm-referenced assessment. Hogrefe may choose to update or collect additional data for the purpose of re-norming, expanding norms, or adding evidence identified as important only at a later stage.
User manuals should describe the measure as objectively as possible. They are not the place to ‘market’ the measure or convince the publisher or user that the measure is worth publishing or purchasing. Any claims made in the manual about the measure should be directly supported by empirical evidence and/or other good arguments. The value and psychometric integrity will be self-evident if the standard sections are completed comprehensively, so as to provide a thorough theoretical background and ties to the relevant substantive psychometric literature, as well as comprehensive evidence for the measure’s psychometric properties. Product manuals need to be fully supported by references to empirical data and examples from case studies.
Measures already subjected to peer review (e.g. used for research published in standard journal articles) but not previously published will generally have the best chance of publication or distribution through Hogrefe.
Electronic versions of our measures are administered online via the Hogrefe Testsystem, currently in its fifth version (HTS 5). Hogrefe developers require all the information necessary to implement a measure from first principles. Where such details are not supplied by the author(s), the publisher undertakes to consult the author(s) in good faith, but will have complete discretion to decide any details that are required to implement the measure in keeping with the provided material. Please consult our HTS implementation checklist while preparing your submission.
