FYI.
Social Cognition. Call for Papers: Special Collection
Indomitable Science: Social Cognition Scholarship amid Disruption
Deadline for Letters of Intent: October 15, 2025
Guest Editors:
Galen Bodenhausen, PhD (galen@northwestern.edu)
Jacqueline Chen, PhD (jacqueline.chen@psych.utah.edu)
Franki Kung, PhD (fkung@purdue.edu)
Social cognition examines the mental processes involved in perceiving, interpreting, and responding to the social world. Social cognition approaches have been applied to many issues of societal importance, such as stereotyping and prejudice, misinformation, sexuality, inequality, environmental conservation, broadening participation and fostering belonging in schools and organizations, and promoting minority and global health and well-being, among others. Despite recent political interference and de-prioritization of these topics by some funding agencies and national governments, advancing scientific understanding of the mental processes underlying these issues–and their potential solutions–remains an indispensable and impactful scientific pursuit for the betterment of society.
To support the ongoing scientific efforts, we invite submissions on research areas recently de-prioritized and/or de-funded that address or discuss how social cognition approaches can aid in the understanding of these critical societal issues. We recognize that recent changes in funding priorities have caused substantial disruption to many research programs. In response, we welcome a broad range of contributions, such as:
- Theoretical or conceptual papers that generate social cognitive predictions, frameworks, and models;
- Opinion or perspective pieces that critically examine the implications of funding changes and/or propose new directions, practices, and recommendations for the fields;
- Empirical studies with preliminary data, especially where data collection has been interrupted or continued data collection is currently infeasible due to resource, technical, or timing constraints;
- Standard multi-study manuscripts with empirically derived conclusions.
We invite submissions from all over the world from individuals and teams who have been impacted directly or indirectly by these disruptions.
Considering the aim of this collection, submissions are asked to address the following within the body of their manuscript: (1) the societal importance of the research topic, (2) the documented or theorized role of social cognitive processes in the phenomena of focus, (3) any disruptions to the research program due to external factors (e.g., funding cuts or policy shifts), and (4) priorities for future research in light of these challenges. The intended audience is researchers of all career stages who study these topics who can learn from these ideas, results, and conclusions despite the recent disruptions. In keeping with the journal’s focus on broadening inclusion and participation in social cognition research, submissions should also consider efforts to address these challenges through composition of the authorship team, consideration of the audience, topics for application, and/or accessibility of resources (see editorial here).
To align editorial and author visions, we will employ a two-tier review process. Namely, we first invite Letters of Intent (maximum 500 words) summarizing the planned contribution and how it will address the criteria described above. We welcome authors to contact us (see email above) regarding the potential suitability of a manuscript before submitting a Letter of Intent. The guest editors of the collection will then invite full submissions based on their review of the Letters of Intent. Authors invited to submit will also be asked to serve as peer reviewers alongside those selected through traditional methods.
The expected timeline of the collection is as follows:
October 15, 2025 – Letters of Intent due; submit via https://bit.ly/4mlowtf.
November 15, 2025 – Authors contacted for invited full submissions
May 1, 2026 – Full submissions due (can be submitted earlier)
June 15, 2026 – Reviews due
July 15, 2026 – Review decisions sent to authors
September 15, 2026 – Revised manuscripts due
October 15, 2026 – Final manuscripts due to journal
Calendar Year 2027 – Collection published