Psychology, Public Policy, and Law: Reflecting on the Past, Charting the Future
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2025
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American Psychological Association
Abstract
Psychology, Public Policy, and Law (PPPL) advances knowledge at the intersection of psychology, law, and public policy. The journal is unique within the American Psychological Association (APA)’s portfolio, and it is unique more broadly in the fields of psychology, social science, behavioral science, law, and policy. It is a key forum for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners to engage in the generation, application, and debate of psychological science for legal and policy issues. Its scope is broad, involving the publishing of empirical, theoretical, and review works at the journal’s unique intersection, welcoming submissions from scholars around the world. It was established in 1995, with Bruce Sales serving as the first editor (until 2000), followed by Jane Goodman-Delahunty (2001–2006), Steven Penrod (2007), and Ronald Roesch (2008–2012) before Michael Lamb took the helm for two consecutive terms (2013–2024). This editorial marks a time of transition between editors, from Michael Lamb to Tess Neal (2025–present). The cover of the journal is changing colors from blue to gold, the change representing the transition of editorial teams.
A heartfelt thank you to outgoing editor Michael Lamb and his outgoing editorial team for careful stewardship and thoughtful leadership of the journal. They impressively grew the size and impact of the journal during his tenure, and did so during a tumultuous credibility revolution in psychology (and science more broadly). His editorial goals were to retain the journal’s recognition as the Association’s flagship journal for psychologists working at the interface with law; publish the best scholarly research at the intersection of these fields; broaden the authorship base by appealing to empirical legal scholars addressing complex issues of human behavior, policy analysts and makers striving for evidence-based policies and practices, and scholars across the globe; diversify content, explicitly calling for a much wider range of issues than had typically appeared in the pages of the journal; and to embrace robust and reliable scientific practices (Lamb, 2013; Lamb & Steblay, 2019; Lamb et al., 2021). Their success is evident in the steady growth in the number of submissions to the journal and number of papers published overall in each issue; the substantially improved diversity of content published; the quadrupling of authors from outside the United States publishing in the journal; a more diversified editorial board with respect to geography, gender, professional age, and areas of expertise; and the implementation of the Journal Article Reporting Standards, as well as the Transparency and Openness Promotion Guidelines (Lamb & Steblay, 2019; Lamb et al., 2021).
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Inaugural Editorial
Comments
This article is published as Neal, T. M. S. (2025). Psychology, Public Policy, and Law: Reflecting on the past, charting the future [Editorial]. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 31(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1037/law0000457