What We Publish

We publish work which hasn’t found a place in traditional academic publishing. This is work in practice, research in real life, or work which needs to be seen quickly for maximum impact.  

Our current focus is applied psychology, with the intention to expand into other scientific disciplines as the platform evolves...maybe even beyond (get in touch if you want to publish with us). 

Types of submissions considered are:  

• Original research (with significant and null findings) 

• Practitioner findings where theory is connected with practice or lived experience 

• Validation studies 

• Master’s Dissertations and PhD Thesis studies 

• Conceptual essays & critical narratives grounded in evidence 

What We Love

Tone & Style

We hope this can be a space where articles feel fresh and fun, and so we are especially appreciative when people use engaging language or a more conversational tone to support their messages getting across. Think clear, precise, and well-structured, curious rather than prescriptive. 

Content

We believe that methods and results can be clear without being limited. Feel free to use bullet points to convey your messages with as much transparency as possible. Where applicable, let us know if the data is available upon request for interested parties, or details like your ethical approval or if you have preregistered. 

Be open about the uncertainties, challenges, and limitations of your work. This is a natural and inevitable part of the research process and anything which can help others out is great to hear and discuss.  

We want these articles to be accessible to a non-academic audience to help them reach more people. We allow you to have some creative freedom over your titles (without being clickbaity or unsubstantiated). Explain why your work matters, how it can help others.  

What We (currently) Don’t Publish 

• Promotional content or disguised marketing 

• Unsubstantiated findings/conceptual oversimplifications 

• Thought leadership or summaries not heavily evidenced 

• Research which is not demonstrated as having been carried out ethically 

• Disrespectful, exclusionary, or dismissive language   

Review Process

Provided a fast response time, we aim to get all accepted submissions published within 4 weeks of submission.  

Your piece will be reviewed by an informed reader with a science-practitioner background. This is not a rigorous peer review, but a friendly sense check to make sure it meets the relevant criteria.  

Upon the review you may get some suggested changes to the tone and style, or requests for a little more detail or summarization where applicable.  

If your work does not currently fit the criteria for We Were Unpublished as it stands, we will provide some feedback.