How do psychology journals handle post-publication critique? A cross-sectional study of policy and practice

Post-publication critique, such as letters-to-the-editor, can contribute to the validity andtrustworthiness of scientific research. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of the policy andpractice of post-publication critique at: (a) randomly-selected (N = 100), and (b) prominent (N =100) psychology journals. In 2023, an explicit submission option for post-publication critiquewas available at 23% (95% CI [16% to 32%]) of randomly sampled psychology journals and38% of the most prominent psychology journals. Journals sometimes imposed limits on thelength and time allowed to submit critiques. We manually inspected two random samples ofempirical articles published in 2020 (N = 101 articles per sample), estimating the prevalence ofpost-publication critique to be 0% (95% CI [0% to 3.7%]) in psychology journals generally and1% (95% CI [0.2% to 5.4%]) in the most prominent psychology journals. The policy and practiceof post-publication critique is seriously neglected in psychology journals.