Jpsp Literature Positioning

---
name: jpsp-literature-positioning
description: Use when positioning a Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (JPSP) manuscript against the literatures its section's readers expect, building the long-format introduction and literature review that precede the multi-study package. Sharpens the gap and contribution; it does not write the literature review for you.
---

# Literature Positioning (jpsp-literature-positioning)

In JPSP the **introduction and literature review are long and load-bearing** — they justify the whole
multi-study package and set up the theory. Reviewers in your section judge whether you have engaged
the right literatures and located a real, non-trivial gap. This skill positions the paper; the
argument itself lives in `jpsp-theory-and-hypotheses`.

## When to trigger

- Drafting or restructuring the introduction / literature review
- A reviewer said the contribution is "incremental" or "misses key work"
- Reconciling competing findings the paper claims to resolve

## What the long-format introduction must do

1. **Engage the section's core literatures.** ASC readers expect the attitudes/social-cognition
   canon; IRGP readers expect the relationships/groups literatures; PPID readers expect the
   personality/individual-differences traditions. Cite the work the editor will expect to see.
2. **Locate a specific gap or tension.** Not "X is understudied" but a precise puzzle: conflicting
   predictions, an unexplained boundary condition, a missing mechanism, an untested construct.
3. **Frame the contribution as theoretical.** State early what the paper adds to *theory*, then let
   the studies serve that claim.
4. **Acknowledge points of connection and disconnection** to related theories — JPSP reviewers
   reward honest mapping of where your account agrees with and departs from existing accounts.
5. **Set up the multi-study logic.** Foreshadow why it takes *several* studies (e.g., establish the
   effect, then mechanism, then boundary conditions, then generalization).

## Positioning checklist

- [ ] Section's key literatures cited; no obvious canonical omission
- [ ] Gap is specific and consequential, not a generic "more research needed"
- [ ] Contribution framed as a theoretical advance, stated up front
- [ ] Competing/alternative accounts named and contrasted
- [ ] Introduction foreshadows the study set without over-promising
- [ ] Self-citations neutralized for **masked review** (see `jpsp-submission`)

## Anti-patterns

- A literature review that summarizes everything but argues nothing
- Citing only your own subfield niche and missing the section's main debates
- Burying the contribution until the General Discussion
- A long introduction that the studies never actually deliver on
- Ignoring work that predicts the opposite of your claim

## Output format

```
【Section literatures engaged】list the 3–5 the editor will expect
【Gap / tension】one precise sentence
【Theoretical contribution】one sentence, stated up front
【Competing accounts】named + how the paper adjudicates
【Study-set foreshadow】why N studies are needed
【Next】jpsp-theory-and-hypotheses
```

## Supplementary resources

- [`../../resources/external_tools.md`](../../resources/external_tools.md) — reference managers + APA 7th formatting
- [`../../resources/official-source-map.md`](../../resources/official-source-map.md) — section remits and house format