The Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) was standardized in Jordan in 1972 on a sample of 960 children aged 8 to 14 years. The sample obtained a British IQ of 75.65.

I have two problems with this paper:

1. Since Ali Safadi's MA thesis is not easily available, the author should provide more information about the methodology and the population under study, particularly the socio-economic background of the participants. Were the children native Jordanian or Palestinian? Were they of rural or urban background? Also, was the test presented in Classical Arabic or in Jordanian Arabic? The Wikipedia entry for "Jordanian Arabic" has this to say about language use: "As with all other Arab countries, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan lives in a state of diglossia, where Modern Standard Arabic is the official language used in most written documents and the media, while daily conversation is held in different varieties of Jordanian Arabic." If these tests were performed in a classroom, there should also be some information on the absentee rate (i.e., truancy), since truant children tend to have lower IQs for a number of reasons.

2. "The British SPM IQ increased by approximately 2 IQ points a decade during the 1970s, so to adjust for increase 1.4 IQ points need to be added to the Jordan IQ raising it to 75.65."

One cannot assume that IQ scores have increased at the same rate in both countries. The cause of the Flynn Effect is still debated, but it seems to have something to do with familiarity with test taking. One cannot assume that this kind of familiarity has been increasing constantly everywhere at the same rate.

I have two problems with this paper:

1. Since Ali Safadi's MA thesis is not easily available, the author should provide more information about the methodology and the population under study... If these tests were performed in a classroom, there should also be some information on the absentee rate (i.e., truancy), since truant children tend to have lower IQs for a number of reasons.

2. "The British SPM IQ increased by approximately 2 IQ points a decade during the 1970s, so to adjust for increase 1.4 IQ points need to be added to the Jordan IQ raising it to 75.65."

One cannot assume that IQ scores have increased at the same rate in both countries. The cause of the Flynn Effect is still debated, but it seems to have something to do with familiarity with test taking. One cannot assume that this kind of familiarity has been increasing constantly everywhere at the same rate.

We have provided more information on these points.

1.No information is given for truancy rates in the thesis but we do not think these could have any significant effect on the results

2.There is no assumption about the rate of IQ increase in Jordan. The adjustment is made from the rate of increase in the British standardisations.

To clarify this point we have added the following “Thus, the comparison is between the Jordan IQ in 1972 and the British IQ in the same year”.
Please check out the revised paper.

I have two problems with this paper:

1. Since Ali Safadi's MA thesis is not easily available, the author should provide more information about the methodology and the population under study... If these tests were performed in a classroom, there should also be some information on the absentee rate (i.e., truancy), since truant children tend to have lower IQs for a number of reasons.

2. "The British SPM IQ increased by approximately 2 IQ points a decade during the 1970s, so to adjust for increase 1.4 IQ points need to be added to the Jordan IQ raising it to 75.65."

One cannot assume that IQ scores have increased at the same rate in both countries. The cause of the Flynn Effect is still debated, but it seems to have something to do with familiarity with test taking. One cannot assume that this kind of familiarity has been increasing constantly everywhere at the same rate.

We have provided more information on these points.

1.No information is given for truancy rates in the thesis but we do not think these could have any significant effect on the results

2.There is no assumption about the rate of IQ increase in Jordan. The adjustment is made from the rate of increase in the British standardisations.

To clarify this point we have added the following “Thus, the comparison is between the Jordan IQ in 1972 and the British IQ in the same year”.
Please check out the revised paper.

I agree with the logic of point two made by the author. The authors are comparing British IQ in 1972 with Jordan IQ in the same year so there is no assumption regarding FE in Jordan.
It's also plausible that truancy rates do not have any significant effects on the results.
I correlated year the test was administered with IQ score, and the correlation resulted very high (r around 0.9). This suggests that the pace of FE in Jordan has been higher than in the UK, that is the FE has produced more dramatic gains in Jordan. N is very low (4) so this correlation is not very meaningful but it suggests that the lower IQ found in earlier studies is due to a lag in FE among less developed countries. This paper should be published.

This paper consists of nothing more than a summary of another paper. I would consider approving its publication if it were a thorough review of the IQ of Jordan, including detailed commentary on several studies. However, as is, the paper is far below the standards of this journal and should be rejected.

This paper consists of nothing more than a summary of another paper. I would consider approving its publication if it were a thorough review of the IQ of Jordan, including detailed commentary on several studies. However, as is, the paper is far below the standards of this journal and should be rejected.

These kind of papers have been published before (not in ODP, but other journals). The reason to publish them is that the original works are not accessible (not available on the Internet or in a language unreadable for most people: Jordanian Arabic). When a paper like this is published, it makes the results available for further analysis for other researchers, especially for meta-analyses or larger datasets.

However, I think the publication type should be "Brief Communication".

Yes, it should be a "Brief communication"

This paper consists of nothing more than a summary of another paper. I would consider approving its publication if it were a thorough review of the IQ of Jordan, including detailed commentary on several studies. However, as is, the paper is far below the standards of this journal and should be rejected.

These kind of papers have been published before (not in ODP, but other journals). The reason to publish them is that the original works are not accessible (not available on the Internet or in a language unreadable for most people: Jordanian Arabic). When a paper like this is published, it makes the results available for further analysis for other researchers, especially for meta-analyses or larger datasets.

Why publish this separately? It should be published as part of a separate analysis.

The article was brief. But considering Duxide comment on which I agree, I see no reason for not publishing it. It's OK, you have my vote.

P.S.: Philbrick Bastinado, although brief it was, that data can supplement that of L&V2012, which gave 86.7 which was at that time 3 points higher than the new number given in the present article.

If so, the article should contain a full translation of relevant parts of the text (as far as is permitted by the university and by the original author).

I give my OK to this paper for publication. However, I think the authors should include a brief note in the discussion, that the results indicate greater FE gains in Jordan compared to UK, as suggested by the tendency for more recent IQ scores to be higher than older ones. The IQ in 1972 is 74.25 and the IQ in 2009 is 86-88.6. I suggest that the author highlights this in the discussion, which would provide guidance for future studies testing this hypothesis, that IQ gains were bigger in Middle Eastern countries compared to UK in the 1970-2009 period.
Now we've got 2 OKs (mine and Meng Hu's), so if Emil confirms his OK to publication, this paper can be published.

I've added a note about the Flynn Effect. Here is the updated version: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10iTe91YYjbBw_s6vZO-gmNoCvlCX-7tzjIf5dk2lIMI/edit?usp=sharing

Thanks Emil. The edit is fine. You can publish.