Dear collaborators and contributors to the Psychological Science Accelerator,

You are receiving an automated copy of this end-of-year update because you have either (1) directly contributed or made a payment to the Psychological Science Accelerator (PSA), or (2) signed up to attend the 2022 Big Team Science Conference, which was co-organized by the PSA.

As the year comes to a close, I would like to share some quick updates about what the PSA has accomplished, how we have used our funds, and future directions.

One of the biggest challenges the PSA faced in 2022 was deciding whether to (a) pursue fiscal sponsorship or (b) form a non-profit. Through this process, we learned a lot about the non-profit world—particularly as it relates to the challenges that globally distributed and relatively decentralized initiatives like the PSA face. We thus ultimately decided to enter into a fiscal sponsorship agreement with the Open Collective Foundation (link here).

Pursuing fiscal sponsorship through the Open Collective platform has proven to be a major source of growth for the PSA. It has given us the newfound ability to (a) accept contributions in a tax-exempt manner, (b) enter into contracts and accept grants, (c) hire staff, (d) distribute funds, (e) manage our finances in a completely transparent manner, (f) set up project-specific funding pages, and (g) seamlessly adjust administrative privileges as changes in leadership occur. Moving forward, we are also working towards formalizing our financial procedures in Funding and Finance bylaws. It has been a lot of work, but establishing this financial infrastructure is key to the success of the PSA.

2022 was a big year for the PSA. We published five research papers and one book chapter—including a global examination of cognitive interventions related to the COVID-19 pandemic and a commentary on big team science. We continued work on several ongoing research projects, including perhaps the largest-ever investigation of stereotype threat in Black American college students. We have also initiated a few new research projects, including one focused on creating a large multilingual database of semantic priming values. Last, along with the ManyBabies and ManyPrimates consortia, we co-hosted the first annual Big Team Science Conference, which had over 450 registrants and raised over $1,500 USD.

Funding-wise, PSA founder Chris Chartier received approximately $1 million USD from the John Templeton Foundation to launch 4 PSA studies related to their funding priorities. These funds are being managed by Ashland University, but will be used to hire 3 full-time staff and support the 4 PSA studies. The PSA also received the €200,000 Institutional Award for Promoting Quality in Research from the Einstein Foundation. Furthermore, we have received generous support from many donors and backers. In our 2022-2023 Capacity Report, we estimated that PSA administration alone requires 231-410 hours a month. At $20 USD per hour, this means that PSA administrators are completing between $55,440-$98,400 USD worth of labor–all on a mostly volunteer basis. Funding helps offset those costs, as well as cover expenses associated with (a) collecting data from underrepresented populations worldwide, (b) managing a listserv, (c) publication fees, and (d) conference promotion.

In early 2022, the PSA Board of Directors finalized a 3-year vision plan based on feedback from the PSA network. We expect to continue to follow this vision plan in 2023, with a specific focus on the following activities: (1) continuing our ongoing research projects, (2) expanding our project portfolio through a second call for studies related to John Templeton Foundation funding priorities, (3) re-designing our website, (4) developing a formal fundraising strategy, and (5) co-organizing the second annual Big Team Science Conference.

Much like our goal to improve psychology, the goal to improve science in general requires a big team effort. Thank you to everybody who has collaborated and/or supported the PSA over the past year for being part of the collective effort to improve the rigor of science.

Warm regards,

Nicholas Coles

Director | Psychological Science Accelerator