Author Guidelines

Peer Review Process

All contributions will be initially assessed by the editors for suitability for the journal. Papers deemed suitable will typically be reviewed by two or more independent reviewers, however the minimum is one independent reviewer. The journal conducts a double blind review process. Thus, anonymization of manuscripts is needed.

Submission Components

First-time submissions include:

1. A cover letter (mandatory; not for review)
2. A title page with identifying information (mandatory; not for review) [TEMPLATE]
3. A Data Transparency Table (if applicable; not for review) [TEMPLATE]
4. The anonymized article text, including figures and tables (mandatory; for review) [TEMPLATE]
5. Supplementary material (if any; for review)

If a manuscript is accepted for publication you are requested to provide:

1. The final article text, deanonymized and including all revisions. Required file format is MS Word (.docx).
2. Each figure as a separate, high-resolution (300 ppi), print-ready image file. File formats: PNG, SVG, EPS, TIFF, editable charts from MS Excel or MS Word.

Article texts must conform to the 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual. The most basic formatting requirements, including some publisher specific rules, are detailed in the general  PsychOpen GOLD Style Guide. Adherence to this style guide is required of all journals published at the PsychOpen GOLD platform, i.e., publication of accepted articles is conditional on compliance with this style guide.

Cover Letter

• Motivation: The cover letter may clarify the motivation for submission to this journal beyond those aspects covered in the abstract or in the main text of the manuscript. Present highlights of the submitted contribution (what we already know on this subject, and more importantly what this paper adds).
• Word Count: Word count of manuscript .
• Preregistration: Please indicate any studies or study parts for which protocols and/or analyses were pre-registered. Add URL(s) or DOI(s) of the preregistered study protocol(s). Please note that preregistration requires a public file archive  that garantees the preservation of a time-stamped, immutable version of your study plan (embargos may be applied). Just uploading a study protocol to an OSF Project (for example) will not be considered as preregistration.
• Open Science Badges: Please indicate in the cover letter if you anticipate your work to be eligible for an Open Science badge.
• Replication Study: Please indicate if any studies or study parts replicate prior studies.
• Other Information: As necessary, authors may wish to include information about author contributions, ethics, related versions of the paper (e.g., if the paper is based on a thesis), etc.

Title Page

Authors should submit the title page with identifying information separately from the main manuscript. The identifying title page should include:

1. Title: Complete title of the manuscript.
2. Running Head: Short title (one line), no more than 50 characters including spaces.
3. Author Names, Affiliations: Name, affiliation (format: institution, city, country) for each author. Include only one affiliation per author (the affiliation, where the author worked or studied when the work was conducted). Mark the corresponding author with an asterisk (*).
4. ORCID: ORCID identifier (format: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-2345-6789) for all authors (if available).
5. Corresponding Author: Corresponding author's contact address (email and post).
6. Reviewer Suggestion: Provide a minimum of two (preferably three) reviewer names (with contact information) whom you consider suitable and indicate why.
7. Declaration Section:
   
   • Acknowledgements: Any non-financial support (such as specialist statistical or writing assistance) from other persons or organizations should be disclosed.
   • Competing Interests: Financial and personal relationships of any author with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence the work should be declared. Membership in one of the journal boards (e.g., Associate Editor) must also be indicated here.
   • Funding/Financial Disclosure: All sources of funding should be declared.
   • Ethical Practice: Please include a statement about the ethics of the research conducted and ethical approval from an institutional ethics or review board whenever appropriate (e.g., human participants involved, parental consent for research with children, etc.). If not applicable (e.g., simulation studies), please state: ‘No ethical issues and/or ethics approvals need to be disclosed’ - or explain why your study is considered exempt from specific requirements.
   • Author Contributions: The authors should list the individual contributions based on the CRedit framework.
   • Data Availability Statement: The authors should indicate if and where (add URL/DOI) their data and analytical script are available.
   • Preregistration: Add URL(s) or DOI(s) of the preregistered study protocol(s) (if any).

Article Text (Anonymized)

• The article text should be double spaced and include page numbers. Tables and figures should generally be located near their first reference in the text. Accepted papers must conform to the current version of the APA Publication Manual prior to copyediting and production. The most basic requirements are described in detail in the general PsychOpen GOLD Style Guide.
• All elements of the article text (see below) should be submitted as a single file. Accepted papers must be provided in MS Word (docx) format.
• Article texts should include all of the following:
  1. Abstract and Keywords
     • Abstracts are limited to 250 words. They should briefly summarize the motivating questions for the research, methods, results, and conclusions.
     • Keywords: 5 – 7 keywords or brief phrases separated by commas.
  2. Contribution for People
     • Authors must include a separate paragraph titled "Contribution for People" that should be between 150 and 250 words in length and immediately follow the abstract. The translational writing style is essential to ensure that readers outside academia can readily comprehend the paper's contribution.
  3. Titles
     • Complete title of the manuscript.
     • Running head: short title (one line), no more than 50 characters including spaces.
  4. Main Article
     • Articles should not exceed 6,500 words at the time of submission, including references, appendices, tables, and figures, with a maximum of six figures. The final version after review must not exceed 7,000 words. (Exceptions will only be granted in case of extraordinary manuscripts, e. g. featuring multiple studies. Please state in the cover letter why your article requires a higher word count.)
     • Embed screen-optimized, low-resolution versions of your figures into the main body of your article. (Note: For accepted articles all figures have to be supplied as separate, high-resolution, print-ready files.)
     • Tables are inserted in-text in their normal position and not at the end of the document (unless they are considered as appendices).
  5. References
     • APA style (7th Edition). Particular care should be taken to ensure that references are accurate and complete. Authors bear responsibility for the accuracy of all references and quotations.
     • References should be listed in alphabetical order. Each listed reference should be cited in text, and each text citation should be listed in the References.
     • Basic formats are as follows:
       • Johnson-Laird, P. N., Girotto, V., & Legrenzi, P. (2004). Reasoning from inconsistency to consistency. Psychological Review, 111(3), 640–661. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.111.3.640
       • Thagard, P. (2000). Coherence in thought and action. MIT Press.
       • Kenny, D. A., & Zautra, A. (2001). Trait-state models for longitudinal data. In L. M. Collins & A. G. Sayer (Eds.), New methods for the analysis of change (pp. 243-263). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/10409-008
  6. Appendices (if any)
     • Appendix A, Appendix B, etc.

Supplementary Material (Anonymized)

Supplementary materials are not included in the word count. In general, supplementary materials contains additional items that are not essential for inclusion in the full text but would nevertheless benefit the reader (e.g., raw data sets). Please consult the journal's Transparency Guidelines to to check which materials must always be made available.

Supplementary materials will be published at the PsychArchives repository. PsychArchives is a disciplinary repository for psychology, provided by Leibniz Institute for Psychology (ZPID). All supplementary materials will be published under an apropriate open license, meaning that authors grant others permission to use the supplementary materials in whole or in part provided that the original work is properly cited. (Please check that no copyrighted material is included unless that material has also been made available under a open license too.)

Supplementary materials will be published as received from the author(s) without any copyediting. They will not be checked for typographical errors or functionality. The responsibility for the content and functionality remains entirely with the author(s).