What is Leapfrog?
Leapfrog is an initiative to promote theoretical integration and innovation in the study of topics of interest to the Social Change Lab - peace, democracy and the environment.
Given the traditional print journal and book formats are delayed in publishing, Leapfrog aims to publish multiple iterations of conversational dialogue for open access online, resulting in faster progress of theorising and the field. Building on PEPSS, Leapfrog aims to turn recorded PEPSS talks into scholarly publications, in a way that allows for fast interdisciplinary synthesis.
How do scholars collaborate in Leapfrog?
First, a small group discussion of 30 to 45 minutes is facilitated by a team of interdisciplinary scholars. The discussion follows the structure “Topic: What we know, what we don’t know, where next?”. An early-career researcher or a postdoctoral researcher will also join the discussion. This person receives various benefits including participating in a fun discussion, networking opportunities, a line on their cv from the panel event, authorship on the paper, and (where possible) a small honorarium.
The PEPSS discussion is recorded live and put online, both at the YouTube channel of the Social Change Lab, Psychology of Change.
The junior person, an early-career researcher or a postdoctoral researcher, looks at the transcript of the PEPPS session and turn it into a lightly referenced manuscript that summarises the themes of the talk. Our aim is that the manuscript is produced within two weeks. The authorship for the manuscript is the whole panel, with the junior person as the leading author.
The short manuscript (2000-4000 words) is circulated to the panel who add further references and clarifications in one to two weeks.
The manuscript will then be submitted to an open-access online journal as a commentary or theory piece. If the manuscript is rejected, it will be submitted elsewhere for open-access scholarly publication, or will become a blog post (e.g., with The Conversation), or at the Social Change Lab blog.
Target open access journals:
Journal of Social and Political Psychology
https://jspp.psychopen.eu/index.php/jspp/author-guidelines
Global Environmental Psychology (GEP)
https://gep.psychopen.eu/index.php/gep
The International Review of Social Psychology
https://www.rips-irsp.com/
Social Psychological Bulletin
https://spb.psychopen.eu/index.php/spb
