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Plagiarism is the act of presenting the words, ideas, or images of another as your own; it denies authors or creators of content the credit they are due. Whether deliberate or unintentional, plagiarism violates ethical standards in scholarship (see APA Ethics Code Standard 8.11, Plagiarism). Writers who plagiarize disrespect the efforts of original authors by failing to acknowledge their contributions, stifle further research by preventing readers from tracing ideas back to their original sources, and unfairly disregard those who exerted the effort to complete their own work.
To avoid plagiarism, provide appropriate credit to your sources by adding author–date in-text citations for direct quotations and ideas (e.g., credit the originators of theories). If you model a study after one conducted by someone else, give credit to the author of the original study. If you wish to reprint or adapt tables, figures, and images or to reprint long quotations or commercially copyrighted test items, you must provide more comprehensive credit in the form of a copyright attribution and may need permission from the copyright holder to use the materials. Even images from the internet that are free or licensed in the Creative Commons need a copyright attribution if you are reproducing them in your paper. For more information about copyright and permissions, see Sections 12.14–12.18 of the Publication Manual (7th ed.).
Although many cases of plagiarism are straightforward (e.g., passages of text copied from another source without attribution), other cases are more challenging to evaluate. Usually, using incorrect citations (e.g., misspelling an author’s name, forgetting or mistyping an element in a reference list entry, or citing a source in the text that does not have a corresponding reference list entry) is not considered plagiarism if the error is minor and attributable to an editorial oversight rather than an intentional attempt to steal someone’s ideas. However, such errors may still result in deductions on an academic assignment or a request for revision of a manuscript submitted for publication. Publishers and educators may use plagiarism-checking software (e.g., iThenticate, Turnitin) to identify cases in which entire papers have been copied, passages of specified lengths match, or a few words have been changed but content is largely the same (the latter is known as patchwriting).
Self-plagiarism is the presentation of your own previously published work as original; like plagiarism, self-plagiarism is unethical. Self-plagiarism deceives readers by making it appear that more information is available on a topic than really exists. It gives the impression that findings are more replicable than is the case or that particular conclusions are more strongly supported than is warranted by the evidence. It may lead to copyright violations if you publish the same work with multiple publishers (sometimes called duplicate publication).
Some institutions may consider it self-plagiarism if a student submits a paper written for one class to complete an assignment for another class without permission from the current instructor. Using the same paper in multiple classes may violate the academic integrity policy, honor code, or ethics code of the university. However, incorporating previous classwork into one’s thesis or dissertation and building on one’s own existing writing may be permissible; students who wish to do this should discuss their ideas with their instructor or advisor and follow their university’s honor code, ethics code, or academic policies when reusing their previous work. In specific circumstances, authors may wish to duplicate their previously used words without quotation marks or citation (e.g., in describing the details of an instrument or an analytic approach), feeling that extensive self-referencing is undesirable or awkward and that rewording may lead to inaccuracies. When the duplicated material is limited in scope, this approach is permissible. General guidelines for using an acceptable amount of duplicated material are in the Publication Manual in Sections 1.16 and 8.3.
An exception to the prohibition against self-plagiarism is publishing a work of limited circulation in a venue of wider circulation. For example, authors may publish their doctoral dissertation or master’s thesis in whole or in part in one or more journal articles. In such cases, authors would not cite their dissertation or thesis in the article text but rather acknowledge in the author note that the work was based on their dissertation or thesis. Similarly, an article based on research the authors described in an abstract published in a conference program or proceeding does not usually constitute duplicate publication. The author should acknowledge previous presentation of the research in the article’s author note. Seek clarification from your journal editor or course instructor if you are concerned about duplicate publication or self-plagiarism.
Prior to submission, please carefully read and follow the submission guidelines detailed below. We realize that there are numerous guidelines, however, please note that manuscripts that do not conform to these submission guidelines upon receipt will be returned without review. Submission procedures Please submit manuscripts electronically via the American Psychologist® Manuscript Submission Portal. Manuscripts should use the Microsoft Word (.docx) or LaTex (.tex) word processing program submitted as a zip file with an accompanying Portable Document Format (.pdf) of the manuscript file. Prepare manuscripts according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association using the 7th edition. Manuscripts may be copyedited for bias-free language (see Chapter 5 of the Publication Manual). APA Style and Grammar Guidelines for the 7th edition are available. Submit Manuscript Keep a copy of the manuscript to guard against loss. Do not submit manuscripts via mail, fax, or email. Because institutional spam filters may occasionally capture files from the APA and Editorial Manager, please take the following steps to facilitate communication with our editorial office:
General correspondence may be directed to the editorial office. Be aware that American Psychologist uses a software system to screen submitted content for similarity with other published content. Submission cover letterThe cover letter should:
Reviewer recommendationsOn the submission portal you will be asked to provide contact information for three scholars who are qualified to serve as unbiased reviewers for your paper. These individuals:
Synchronous Review, Duplicate, and Piecemeal PublicationSynchronous Review, Duplicate, and Piecemeal Publication APA policy prohibits an author from submitting the same manuscript for concurrent consideration by two or more publications (see Section 1.20, Conflict of Interest, Publication Manual, 7th Edition) APA policy prohibits publication of any manuscript that has already been published in whole or substantial part elsewhere. Authors have an obligation to consult journal editors if there is any question concerning prior publication of part or all of their submitted manuscripts. In light of changing patterns of scientific knowledge dissemination, APA requires authors to provide information on prior dissemination of the data and narrative interpretations of the data/research appearing in the manuscript (e.g., if some or all were presented at a conference or meeting, posted on a listserv, shared on a website or through social media, including academic social networks like ResearchGate, etc.). This information (2–4 sentences) must be provided as part of the Author Note. Authors who have posted their manuscripts to preprint archives, such as PsyArXiv, prior to submission should include a link to the preprint in the Author Note. When a manuscript contains data that are part of a larger study, the cover letter should describe the larger study and provide references for other study papers. Authors must be prepared to provide copies of related manuscripts when requested as part of the editorial review process. Authors should clarify the relationship between their paper and others from the same study, including detailed specification of the overlap in participants, measures, and analysis. The value-added scientific contribution of their study must be clearly stated in the cover letter. When a manuscript contains data that are part of a larger study, authors should describe the larger study and provide references for other study papers. Authors must be prepared to provide copies of related manuscripts when requested as part of the editorial review process. Authors should clarify the relationship between their paper, including detailed specification of the overlap in participants, measures, and analysis, and others from the study. The value-added scientific contribution of their study must be clearly stated in the cover letter. All research involving human participants must describe oversight of the research process by the relevant Institutional Review Boards and should describe consent and assent procedures briefly in the Method section. All statistical tests should include effect size whenever possible. First-person language ("I", "we") should be avoided. Terminology should be sensitive to the individual who has a disease or disability. The journal endorses the concept of "people first, not their disability." Terminology should reflect the "person with a disability" (e.g., children with diabetes, persons with HIV infection, families of people with cancer) rather than the condition as an adjective (e.g., diabetic children, HIV patients, cancer families). Nonsexist language should be used. It is important to highlight the significance and novel contribution of the work. Manuscript submission typesAP considers submissions of the following types, described below:
Original scholarshipAP considers manuscripts on all aspects of psychology, including manuscripts on national and international policy issues. Topics should be current, timely, and of interest to the broad APA membership. Manuscripts should be written in a style that is accessible and of interest to all psychologists, regardless of area of specialization. Empirical studiesAP publishes high-impact empirical studies with broad relevance for the field of psychology. Successful papers should contain original results of rigorous empirical research studies with implications for psychological theory and/or practice. Examples include results of large multi-site intervention trials, data-driven reports that advance the theory or practice of psychology, and meta-analyses on topics of broad relevance to the field. Replications: To promote replication of empirical research, AP will consider manuscripts reporting on replications of empirical studies previously published in AP , subject to standard peer review. The title of such submissions should indicate that the study is a replication. Accepted manuscripts will appear online only and will be listed in the print and digital table of contents with e-pagination. Historical scholarshipAP publishes high-quality historical scholarship on topics of broad interest to psychologists. Successful historical papers should make an original argument, engage appropriate historical methods, and elaborate the implications of the historical analysis for the understanding of the topic, event, figure, or development under discussion. View additional guidelines . Topics in focusAmerican Psychologist occasionally receives manuscripts on topics that can be viewed by psychologists from multiple perspectives. These topics can lead to varying interpretations regarding the evidence and its implications for psychological theory, practice, and training. Manuscripts covering topics of this nature are evaluated using the same criteria as regular submissions. In the spirit of transparency and the collegial exchange of ideas, comments, and reactions to topics in focus articles and a response from the article’s auth’ors will be published along with the article. Articles appearing as topics in focus will be chosen at the discretion of the editors, as will the invited commenters. This does not preclude continued discussion of topics in focus articles in the comments section of the journal. CommentsComments on articles recently published in American Psychologist will be considered and are subject to peer review. Comments should provide new and important information on the same topic as the original paper. The goal of the comment should be clearly stated in the first paragraph. Comments may present data or other evidence in support of their intended point(s). A comment should be submitted no later than 3 months from the online posting date of the article to which it responds. If submitted later, authors must present a strong rationale for considering a comment beyond the standard time frame. Comments on APA board, committee, and task force reports also will be considered for publication regardless of whether the report or a summary has been published in American Psychologist. These must be submitted within three months of the website update on which the report first appeared and provide new and important information related to the topic of the report. American Psychologist will also consider comments meeting the above criteria on more general issues related to the operation of APA’s publishing practices (e.g., journal article reporting standards, APA Style). These need not be related to particular published articles and should not be related to the disposition of particular manuscripts. Comments must be limited to 1,000 words (about five double-spaced text pages). Up to 10 references should be provided and are not included in the word count. Comments should include an abstract and keywords. The title of the comment should consist of a brief content-related title followed by a subtitle that identifies the target article, as in "Brief title: Comment on author (20xx)." Comments should follow APA style. Authors of comments must disclose in their cover letter any real or perceived conflicts of interest with any of the authors of the original paper. Comments are customarily handled by the action editor for the original manuscript. Comment submissions that meet journal standards for further consideration will be peer-reviewed. Authors may be asked to revise the comment. If a comment is deemed acceptable for publication, authors of the original submission are typically given the opportunity to reply to the comment. Comments are published in the earliest possible issue of the journal. Reports of APA boards, committees, and task forcesMany of the association reports traditionally published in AP have relocated to the APA website. Task force and committee reports may be considered for publication but should be adapted to follow AP manuscript guidelines and, like other manuscript submissions, are subject to external peer review. Practice guidelines that have been adopted as APA policy by the Council of Representatives will be automatically published in AP. In memoriamManuscript submissions for the "In Memoriam" section are by invitation only. Candidates for obituaries are selected by the associate editor for history of psychology and obituaries with the input of the AP Obituary Advisory Committee. Members are encouraged to contact the Obituaries section editor with recommendations, noting that a recommendation is not a guarantee that an obituary will be commissioned. Recommendations should include the year of death and a short statement outlining the decedent’s contributions to the field. Proposals for special sections or special issuesFeature sections devoted to a particular topic are one means of fulfilling the journal’s mission. A special ’section of the journal may contain three or four papers on a single theme, and a special issue may contain somewhat more papers, depending on the content area. Proposals for special sections or special issues should describe their scope, provide a rationale (including why such a section or issue is timely and what contribution it would make to the literature), and list and describe the proposed papers, with potential authors for each. Potential authors should not be recruited until a proposal is accepted. Proposals for special sections or issues should be submitted to the AP editor prior to developing the manuscripts and use the form found at: Those proposals of interest will proceed through a multiple-step review process. Proposals are first reviewed by the editor-in-chief. Proposals may be circulated to two or three individuals for review. Among the factors used in considering a proposal are:
If a proposal is approved, an AP associate editor will be assigned to be a participating editor of the package. The proposal author will be responsible for recruiting authors, with possible suggestions from the AP editors. Editorial decisions about each manuscript in a special package are made separately. Author contribution statements using CRediTThe APA Publication Manual (7th ed.), which stipulates that "authorship encompasses…not only persons who do the writing but also those who have made substantial scientific contributions to a study." In the spirit of transparency and openness, American Psychologist has adopted the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) to describe each author's individual contributions to the work. CRediT offers authors the opportunity to share an accurate and detailed description of their diverse contributions to a manuscript. Submitting authors will be asked to identify the contributions of all authors at initial submission according to the CRediT taxonomy. If the manuscript is accepted for publication, the CRediT designations will be published as an author contributions statement in the author note of the final article. All authors should have reviewed and agreed to their individual contribution(s) before submission. CRediT includes 14 contributor roles, as described below:
Authors can claim credit for more than one contributor role, and the same role can be attributed to more than one author. Not all roles will be applicable to any particular scholarly work. Manuscript preparationManuscripts should be prepared according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association using the 7th edition. Manuscripts must not exceed 35 double-spaced pages in length, including the title page, abstract, references, tables, and figures. Requests may be made for a small and specific number of additional pages when a strong rationale is presented (e.g., multiple studies, particularly complex new methodology). Requests must be made to the editor prior to submission. All regular submissions must include an abstract containing no more than 250 words typed on a separate page. After the abstract, the submitting author should supply (a) up to five keywords or brief phrases and (b) a public significance statement (for Guidelines, see section on public significance statements below). Authors are expected to avoid bias in their writing (see Chapter 5 of the 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual). Manuscripts may be copyedited for bias-free language. Journal Article Reporting StandardsAuthors should review the APA Style Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS) for quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. Updated in 2018, the standards offer ways to improve transparency in reporting to ensure that readers have the information necessary to evaluate the quality of the research and to facilitate collaboration and replication. The new JARS:
JARS-Qual offers guidance to researchers using qualitative methods such as narrative data, grounded theory, phenomenological, critical, discursive, performative, ethnographic, consensual qualitative, case study, psychobiography, and thematic analysis approaches. The guidelines focus on transparency in methods reporting, recommending descriptions of how the researcher’s own perspective affected the study, as well as the contexts in which the research and analysis took place. Human and non-human participantsAll research involving human and non-human participants must describe oversight of the research process by the relevant Institutional Review Boards. For human participants, the consent and assent procedures should be described briefly in the method section. Bias-free languageAuthors should also use language that is free of bias, or the implied or irrelevant evaluation of the individual, groups, or groups the authors are writing about. A discussion of the use of descriptors involving age, disability, gender participation in research, race and ethnic identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and intersectionality can be found in Chapter 5 of the Publication Manual. First-person language ("I", "we") should be avoided. Participant description and informed consentThe abstract and method section of each empirical report must contain a detailed description of the study participants, including (but not limited to) the following:
The method section also must include a statement describing how informed consent was obtained from the participants (or their parents/guardians) and indicate that the study was conducted in compliance with an appropriate Internal Review Board. Effect sizesAll statistical tests should include effect size whenever possible. Constraints on generalityIn a subsection of the discussion titled "Constraints on generality," authors should include a detailed discussion of the limits on generality (see Simons, Shoda, & Lindsay, 2017). In this section, authors should detail grounds for concluding why the results are may or may not be specific to the characteristics of the participants. They should address limits on generality not only for participants but for materials, procedures, and context. Authors should also specify which methods they think could be varied without affecting the result and which should remain constant. Public significance statementsTo promote the accessibility of article content to broad and diverse audiences, authors should provide two to three brief sentences regarding the relevance or public health significance of the manuscript. The statement should be written in language that is easily understood by the public. Please read the Guidance for Translational Abstracts and Public Significance Statements in preparing this statement. The public significance statement should be included within the manuscript on the abstract/keywords page. Prior to acceptance and publication, public significance statements will be reviewed for accuracy and adherence to these standards. ReferencesList references in alphabetical order. Each listed reference should be cited in text, and each text citation should be listed in the references section. Examples of basic reference formats: Journal articleMcCauley, S. M., & Christiansen, M. H. (2019). Language learning as language use: A cross-linguistic model of child language development. Psychological Review, 126(1), 1–51. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000126 Authored bookBrown, L. S. (2018). Feminist therapy (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000092-000 Chapter in an edited bookBalsam, K. F., Martell, C. R., Jones. K. P., & Safren, S. A. (2019). Affirmative cognitive behavior therapy with sexual and gender minority people. In G. Y. Iwamasa & P. A. Hays (Eds.), Culturally responsive cognitive behavior therapy: Practice and supervision (2nd ed., pp. 287–314). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000119-012 TablesUse Word’s Insert Table function when you create tables. Using spaces or tabs in your table will create problems when the table is typeset and may result in errors. Each table should be presented on a separate page following the Reference list. FiguresGraphics files are welcome if supplied as TIFF or EPS files. Multipanel figures (i.e., figures with parts labeled a, b, c, d, etc.) should be assembled into one file. The minimum line weight for line art is 0.5 point for optimal printing. When possible, place symbol legends below the figure instead of to the side. For more information about acceptable resolutions, fonts, sizing, and other figure issues, please see the general guidelines. APA offers authors the option to publish their figures online in color without the costs associated with print publication of color figures. The same caption will appear in both the online (color) and print (black and white) versions. To ensure that the figure can be understood in both formats, authors should add alternative wording (e.g., "the red (dark gray) bars represent") as needed. For authors who prefer their figures to be published in color both in print and online, original color figures can be printed in color at the editor’s and publisher’s discretion provided the author agrees to pay:
Display equationsAuthors are strongly encouraged to use MathType (third-party software) or Equation Editor 3.0 (built into pre-2007 versions of Word) to construct your equations, rather than the equation support that is built into Word 2007 and Word 2010. Equations composed with the built-in Word 2007/Word 2010 equation support are converted to low-resolution graphics when they enter the production process and must be rekeyed by the typesetter, which may introduce errors. To construct your equations with MathType or Equation Editor 3.0:
Computer codeBecause altering computer code in any way (e.g., indents, line spacing, line breaks, page breaks) during the typesetting process could alter its meaning, we treat computer code differently from the rest of the article in the production process. Supply separate files for computer code. In online supplemental materialRunnable source code should be included as supplemental material to the article. For more information, visit supplementing your article with online material. In the text of the articleIf authors would like to include code in the text of the published article, submit a separate file with your code exactly as it should appear, using Courier New font with a type size of 8 points. An image will be made of each segment of code in your article that exceeds 40 characters in length. (Shorter snippets of code that appear in text will be typeset in Courier New and run in with the rest of the text.) If an appendix contains a mix of code and explanatory text, please submit a file that contains the entire appendix, with the code keyed in 8-point Courier New. Academic writing and English language editing servicesAuthors who feel that their manuscript may benefit from additional academic writing or language editing support prior to submission are encouraged to seek out such services at their host institutions, engage with colleagues and subject matter experts, and/or consider several vendors that offer discounts to APA authors. Please note that APA does not endorse or take responsibility for the service providers listed. It is strictly a referral service. Use of such service is not mandatory for publication in an APA journal. Use of one or more of these services does not guarantee selection for peer review, manuscript acceptance, or preference for publication in any APA journal. Supplemental materialsAPA can place supplemental materials online, available via the published article in the APA PsycArticles® database. Please see supplementing your article with online material for more details. PermissionsAuthors of accepted papers must obtain and provide to the editor on final acceptance all necessary permissions to reproduce in print and electronic form any copyrighted work, including test materials (or portions thereof), photographs, and other graphic images (including those used as stimuli in experiments). On advice of counsel, APA may decline to publish any image whose copyright status is unknown.
Review policyThe AP review process is handled by the editor-in-chief (EIC) and associate editors. All papers are read initially by the EIC or an action editor and a determination is made regarding whether to initiate peer review for the paper. Considerations include the fit of the manuscript with the AP Editorial Coverage Statement including sufficient breadth and potential significance and impact, adherence to the instructions to authors, and the written quality of the paper. Papers that are sent for peer review are read by members of the editorial board and ad hoc reviewers selected by the action editor for the paper. Masked reviewAs a matter of policy, the identities of authors and reviewers are kept anonymous. Manuscripts that are peer-reviewed are circulated without their title pages to keep the identity of the authors unknown to reviewers. Each copy of a manuscript should include a separate title page with authors’ names and affiliations, and these should not appear anywhere else on the manuscript. Footnotes that identify the authors should be typed on a separate page. Authors are to make every effort to see that the manuscript itself contains no clues to their identities, including grant numbers, names of institutions providing IRB approval, self-citations, and links to online repositories for data, materials, code, or preregistrations (e.g., Create a View-only Link for a Project). Openness and transparencyAuthors should state all sources of financial support for the conduct of the research (e.g., “This research was supported by Award XX from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Institute of Child Health and Human Development”) in the Author Note. If the funding source was involved in any other aspects of the research (e.g., study design, analysis, interpretation, writing), then clearly state the role. If the funding source had no other involvement other than financial support, then simply state that the funding source had no other role other than financial support. Authors should also provide a conflict of interest statement in the Author Note disclosing any real or potentially perceived conflict(s) of interest, including financial, personal, or other relationships with other organizations or companies that may inappropriately impact or influence the research and interpretation of the findings. If there are no conflicts of interest, this should be clearly stated. The American Psychological Association endorses the Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines developed by the Center for Open Science. These guidelines cover eight aspects of research planning and reporting that can be followed at three levels of compliance:
Empirical research, including meta-analyses, submitted to American Psychologist must meet the “disclosure” level for all eight aspects of research planning and reporting. Authors are encouraged or may be requested to include a subsection in their methods description titled “Transparency and Openness.” This subsection should detail the efforts the authors have made to comply with the TOP guidelines. The following table presents the eight aspects of research planning and reporting, the TOP level required by American Psychologist, and a brief description of the journal’s policy.
Open science badgesArticles are eligible for open science badges recognizing publicly available data, materials, and/or preregistered plans and analyses. These badges are awarded on a self-disclosure basis. At submission, authors must confirm that criteria have been fulfilled in a signed badge disclosure form (PDF, 42KB) that must be submitted as supplemental material. If the editorial team confirms that all criteria have been met, the form will then be published with the article as supplemental material. For all badges, items must be made available on an open-access repository with a persistent identifier in a format that is time-stamped, immutable, and permanent. For the preregistered badge, this is an institutional registration system. Data and materials must be made available under an open license allowing others to copy, share, and use the data, with attribution and copyright as applicable. Available badges are:
Note that it may not be possible to preregister a study or to share data and materials. Applying for open science badges is optional. Other open science policies and open accessFor additional information regarding these and other APA policies and support for open science practices, potential authors should visit Open Science Badges. APA journals also have an array of options for authors who want their articles to be available to readers free of charge. These options can be found by visiting open access for APA journals authors. Ethical PrinciplesIt is a violation of APA Ethical Principles to publish "as original data, data that have been previously published" (Standard 8.13). In addition, APA Ethical Principles specify that "after research results are published, psychologists do not withhold the data on which their conclusions are based from other competent professionals who seek to verify the substantive claims through reanalysis and who intend to use such data only for that purpose, provided that the confidentiality of the participants can be protected and unless legal rights concerning proprietary data preclude their release" (Standard 8.14). APA expects authors to adhere to these standards. Specifically, APA expects authors to have their data available throughout the editorial review process and for at least 5 years after the date of publication. Authors are required to state in writing that they have complied with APA ethical standards in the treatment of their sample, human or animal, or to describe the details of treatment. The APA Ethics Office provides the full Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct electronically on its website in HTML, PDF, and Word format. You may also request a copy by emailing or calling the APA Ethics Office (202-336-5930). You may also read "Ethical Principles," December 1992, American Psychologist, Vol. 47, pp. 1597–1611, amended in 2010 (AP, Vol. 65, p. 493) and 2016 (AP, Vol. 71, p. 900). Submission of artistic imagesAP considers art images for the cover in all media including but not limited to paint, photography, sculpture, mosaic, collage, fabric. Images must be original. SubmissionArtists should submit three to six images electronically for consideration to the managing editor. The artist’s name, phone number, email address, and website should be provided, if available. If any of the works are held by museums, galleries, or private individuals other than the artist, indicate that information as well. Provide the title of the artwork for each piece of artwork submitted. If images are owned by galleries or private individuals, the person submitting must obtain and provide permission from the copyright holder before submission. The AP art review process is handled initially by the art coeditors. Final selection is made by the AP editor-in-chief. Among factors used in considering artwork are appropriateness of the content and title; bright color; crisp image; visually engaging; and availability of the artist for an interview as the basis for the "On the Cover" essay. Editorial decisions also take into account the diversity of artists, images, and media. AP seeks to present a wide variety of art and artists to stimulate the eye and mind. Change of subscription mailing addressTo change the mailing address at which you receive the American Psychologist and other mail from APA, please send information to the subscriptions department or to American Psychological Association Subscriptions 750 First Street, NE Washington, DC 20002-4242 Page 2
Prior to submission, please carefully read and follow the submission guidelines detailed below. We realize that there are numerous guidelines, however, please note that manuscripts that do not conform to these submission guidelines upon receipt will be returned without review. Submission procedures Please submit manuscripts electronically via the American Psychologist® Manuscript Submission Portal. Manuscripts should use the Microsoft Word (.docx) or LaTex (.tex) word processing program submitted as a zip file with an accompanying Portable Document Format (.pdf) of the manuscript file. Prepare manuscripts according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association using the 7th edition. Manuscripts may be copyedited for bias-free language (see Chapter 5 of the Publication Manual). APA Style and Grammar Guidelines for the 7th edition are available. Submit Manuscript Keep a copy of the manuscript to guard against loss. Do not submit manuscripts via mail, fax, or email. Because institutional spam filters may occasionally capture files from the APA and Editorial Manager, please take the following steps to facilitate communication with our editorial office:
General correspondence may be directed to the editorial office. Be aware that American Psychologist uses a software system to screen submitted content for similarity with other published content. Submission cover letterThe cover letter should:
Reviewer recommendationsOn the submission portal you will be asked to provide contact information for three scholars who are qualified to serve as unbiased reviewers for your paper. These individuals:
Synchronous Review, Duplicate, and Piecemeal PublicationSynchronous Review, Duplicate, and Piecemeal Publication APA policy prohibits an author from submitting the same manuscript for concurrent consideration by two or more publications (see Section 1.20, Conflict of Interest, Publication Manual, 7th Edition) APA policy prohibits publication of any manuscript that has already been published in whole or substantial part elsewhere. Authors have an obligation to consult journal editors if there is any question concerning prior publication of part or all of their submitted manuscripts. In light of changing patterns of scientific knowledge dissemination, APA requires authors to provide information on prior dissemination of the data and narrative interpretations of the data/research appearing in the manuscript (e.g., if some or all were presented at a conference or meeting, posted on a listserv, shared on a website or through social media, including academic social networks like ResearchGate, etc.). This information (2–4 sentences) must be provided as part of the Author Note. Authors who have posted their manuscripts to preprint archives, such as PsyArXiv, prior to submission should include a link to the preprint in the Author Note. When a manuscript contains data that are part of a larger study, the cover letter should describe the larger study and provide references for other study papers. Authors must be prepared to provide copies of related manuscripts when requested as part of the editorial review process. Authors should clarify the relationship between their paper and others from the same study, including detailed specification of the overlap in participants, measures, and analysis. The value-added scientific contribution of their study must be clearly stated in the cover letter. When a manuscript contains data that are part of a larger study, authors should describe the larger study and provide references for other study papers. Authors must be prepared to provide copies of related manuscripts when requested as part of the editorial review process. Authors should clarify the relationship between their paper, including detailed specification of the overlap in participants, measures, and analysis, and others from the study. The value-added scientific contribution of their study must be clearly stated in the cover letter. All research involving human participants must describe oversight of the research process by the relevant Institutional Review Boards and should describe consent and assent procedures briefly in the Method section. All statistical tests should include effect size whenever possible. First-person language ("I", "we") should be avoided. Terminology should be sensitive to the individual who has a disease or disability. The journal endorses the concept of "people first, not their disability." Terminology should reflect the "person with a disability" (e.g., children with diabetes, persons with HIV infection, families of people with cancer) rather than the condition as an adjective (e.g., diabetic children, HIV patients, cancer families). Nonsexist language should be used. It is important to highlight the significance and novel contribution of the work. Manuscript submission typesAP considers submissions of the following types, described below:
Original scholarshipAP considers manuscripts on all aspects of psychology, including manuscripts on national and international policy issues. Topics should be current, timely, and of interest to the broad APA membership. Manuscripts should be written in a style that is accessible and of interest to all psychologists, regardless of area of specialization. Empirical studiesAP publishes high-impact empirical studies with broad relevance for the field of psychology. Successful papers should contain original results of rigorous empirical research studies with implications for psychological theory and/or practice. Examples include results of large multi-site intervention trials, data-driven reports that advance the theory or practice of psychology, and meta-analyses on topics of broad relevance to the field. Replications: To promote replication of empirical research, AP will consider manuscripts reporting on replications of empirical studies previously published in AP , subject to standard peer review. The title of such submissions should indicate that the study is a replication. Accepted manuscripts will appear online only and will be listed in the print and digital table of contents with e-pagination. Historical scholarshipAP publishes high-quality historical scholarship on topics of broad interest to psychologists. Successful historical papers should make an original argument, engage appropriate historical methods, and elaborate the implications of the historical analysis for the understanding of the topic, event, figure, or development under discussion. View additional guidelines . Topics in focusAmerican Psychologist occasionally receives manuscripts on topics that can be viewed by psychologists from multiple perspectives. These topics can lead to varying interpretations regarding the evidence and its implications for psychological theory, practice, and training. Manuscripts covering topics of this nature are evaluated using the same criteria as regular submissions. In the spirit of transparency and the collegial exchange of ideas, comments, and reactions to topics in focus articles and a response from the article’s auth’ors will be published along with the article. Articles appearing as topics in focus will be chosen at the discretion of the editors, as will the invited commenters. This does not preclude continued discussion of topics in focus articles in the comments section of the journal. CommentsComments on articles recently published in American Psychologist will be considered and are subject to peer review. Comments should provide new and important information on the same topic as the original paper. The goal of the comment should be clearly stated in the first paragraph. Comments may present data or other evidence in support of their intended point(s). A comment should be submitted no later than 3 months from the online posting date of the article to which it responds. If submitted later, authors must present a strong rationale for considering a comment beyond the standard time frame. Comments on APA board, committee, and task force reports also will be considered for publication regardless of whether the report or a summary has been published in American Psychologist. These must be submitted within three months of the website update on which the report first appeared and provide new and important information related to the topic of the report. American Psychologist will also consider comments meeting the above criteria on more general issues related to the operation of APA’s publishing practices (e.g., journal article reporting standards, APA Style). These need not be related to particular published articles and should not be related to the disposition of particular manuscripts. Comments must be limited to 1,000 words (about five double-spaced text pages). Up to 10 references should be provided and are not included in the word count. Comments should include an abstract and keywords. The title of the comment should consist of a brief content-related title followed by a subtitle that identifies the target article, as in "Brief title: Comment on author (20xx)." Comments should follow APA style. Authors of comments must disclose in their cover letter any real or perceived conflicts of interest with any of the authors of the original paper. Comments are customarily handled by the action editor for the original manuscript. Comment submissions that meet journal standards for further consideration will be peer-reviewed. Authors may be asked to revise the comment. If a comment is deemed acceptable for publication, authors of the original submission are typically given the opportunity to reply to the comment. Comments are published in the earliest possible issue of the journal. Reports of APA boards, committees, and task forcesMany of the association reports traditionally published in AP have relocated to the APA website. Task force and committee reports may be considered for publication but should be adapted to follow AP manuscript guidelines and, like other manuscript submissions, are subject to external peer review. Practice guidelines that have been adopted as APA policy by the Council of Representatives will be automatically published in AP. In memoriamManuscript submissions for the "In Memoriam" section are by invitation only. Candidates for obituaries are selected by the associate editor for history of psychology and obituaries with the input of the AP Obituary Advisory Committee. Members are encouraged to contact the Obituaries section editor with recommendations, noting that a recommendation is not a guarantee that an obituary will be commissioned. Recommendations should include the year of death and a short statement outlining the decedent’s contributions to the field. Proposals for special sections or special issuesFeature sections devoted to a particular topic are one means of fulfilling the journal’s mission. A special ’section of the journal may contain three or four papers on a single theme, and a special issue may contain somewhat more papers, depending on the content area. Proposals for special sections or special issues should describe their scope, provide a rationale (including why such a section or issue is timely and what contribution it would make to the literature), and list and describe the proposed papers, with potential authors for each. Potential authors should not be recruited until a proposal is accepted. Proposals for special sections or issues should be submitted to the AP editor prior to developing the manuscripts and use the form found at: Those proposals of interest will proceed through a multiple-step review process. Proposals are first reviewed by the editor-in-chief. Proposals may be circulated to two or three individuals for review. Among the factors used in considering a proposal are:
If a proposal is approved, an AP associate editor will be assigned to be a participating editor of the package. The proposal author will be responsible for recruiting authors, with possible suggestions from the AP editors. Editorial decisions about each manuscript in a special package are made separately. Author contribution statements using CRediTThe APA Publication Manual (7th ed.), which stipulates that "authorship encompasses…not only persons who do the writing but also those who have made substantial scientific contributions to a study." In the spirit of transparency and openness, American Psychologist has adopted the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) to describe each author's individual contributions to the work. CRediT offers authors the opportunity to share an accurate and detailed description of their diverse contributions to a manuscript. Submitting authors will be asked to identify the contributions of all authors at initial submission according to the CRediT taxonomy. If the manuscript is accepted for publication, the CRediT designations will be published as an author contributions statement in the author note of the final article. All authors should have reviewed and agreed to their individual contribution(s) before submission. CRediT includes 14 contributor roles, as described below:
Authors can claim credit for more than one contributor role, and the same role can be attributed to more than one author. Not all roles will be applicable to any particular scholarly work. Manuscript preparationManuscripts should be prepared according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association using the 7th edition. Manuscripts must not exceed 35 double-spaced pages in length, including the title page, abstract, references, tables, and figures. Requests may be made for a small and specific number of additional pages when a strong rationale is presented (e.g., multiple studies, particularly complex new methodology). Requests must be made to the editor prior to submission. All regular submissions must include an abstract containing no more than 250 words typed on a separate page. After the abstract, the submitting author should supply (a) up to five keywords or brief phrases and (b) a public significance statement (for Guidelines, see section on public significance statements below). Authors are expected to avoid bias in their writing (see Chapter 5 of the 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual). Manuscripts may be copyedited for bias-free language. Journal Article Reporting StandardsAuthors should review the APA Style Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS) for quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. Updated in 2018, the standards offer ways to improve transparency in reporting to ensure that readers have the information necessary to evaluate the quality of the research and to facilitate collaboration and replication. The new JARS:
JARS-Qual offers guidance to researchers using qualitative methods such as narrative data, grounded theory, phenomenological, critical, discursive, performative, ethnographic, consensual qualitative, case study, psychobiography, and thematic analysis approaches. The guidelines focus on transparency in methods reporting, recommending descriptions of how the researcher’s own perspective affected the study, as well as the contexts in which the research and analysis took place. Human and non-human participantsAll research involving human and non-human participants must describe oversight of the research process by the relevant Institutional Review Boards. For human participants, the consent and assent procedures should be described briefly in the method section. Bias-free languageAuthors should also use language that is free of bias, or the implied or irrelevant evaluation of the individual, groups, or groups the authors are writing about. A discussion of the use of descriptors involving age, disability, gender participation in research, race and ethnic identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and intersectionality can be found in Chapter 5 of the Publication Manual. First-person language ("I", "we") should be avoided. Participant description and informed consentThe abstract and method section of each empirical report must contain a detailed description of the study participants, including (but not limited to) the following:
The method section also must include a statement describing how informed consent was obtained from the participants (or their parents/guardians) and indicate that the study was conducted in compliance with an appropriate Internal Review Board. Effect sizesAll statistical tests should include effect size whenever possible. Constraints on generalityIn a subsection of the discussion titled "Constraints on generality," authors should include a detailed discussion of the limits on generality (see Simons, Shoda, & Lindsay, 2017). In this section, authors should detail grounds for concluding why the results are may or may not be specific to the characteristics of the participants. They should address limits on generality not only for participants but for materials, procedures, and context. Authors should also specify which methods they think could be varied without affecting the result and which should remain constant. Public significance statementsTo promote the accessibility of article content to broad and diverse audiences, authors should provide two to three brief sentences regarding the relevance or public health significance of the manuscript. The statement should be written in language that is easily understood by the public. Please read the Guidance for Translational Abstracts and Public Significance Statements in preparing this statement. The public significance statement should be included within the manuscript on the abstract/keywords page. Prior to acceptance and publication, public significance statements will be reviewed for accuracy and adherence to these standards. ReferencesList references in alphabetical order. Each listed reference should be cited in text, and each text citation should be listed in the references section. Examples of basic reference formats: Journal articleMcCauley, S. M., & Christiansen, M. H. (2019). Language learning as language use: A cross-linguistic model of child language development. Psychological Review, 126(1), 1–51. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000126 Authored bookBrown, L. S. (2018). Feminist therapy (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000092-000 Chapter in an edited bookBalsam, K. F., Martell, C. R., Jones. K. P., & Safren, S. A. (2019). Affirmative cognitive behavior therapy with sexual and gender minority people. In G. Y. Iwamasa & P. A. Hays (Eds.), Culturally responsive cognitive behavior therapy: Practice and supervision (2nd ed., pp. 287–314). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000119-012 TablesUse Word’s Insert Table function when you create tables. Using spaces or tabs in your table will create problems when the table is typeset and may result in errors. Each table should be presented on a separate page following the Reference list. FiguresGraphics files are welcome if supplied as TIFF or EPS files. Multipanel figures (i.e., figures with parts labeled a, b, c, d, etc.) should be assembled into one file. The minimum line weight for line art is 0.5 point for optimal printing. When possible, place symbol legends below the figure instead of to the side. For more information about acceptable resolutions, fonts, sizing, and other figure issues, please see the general guidelines. APA offers authors the option to publish their figures online in color without the costs associated with print publication of color figures. The same caption will appear in both the online (color) and print (black and white) versions. To ensure that the figure can be understood in both formats, authors should add alternative wording (e.g., "the red (dark gray) bars represent") as needed. For authors who prefer their figures to be published in color both in print and online, original color figures can be printed in color at the editor’s and publisher’s discretion provided the author agrees to pay:
Display equationsAuthors are strongly encouraged to use MathType (third-party software) or Equation Editor 3.0 (built into pre-2007 versions of Word) to construct your equations, rather than the equation support that is built into Word 2007 and Word 2010. Equations composed with the built-in Word 2007/Word 2010 equation support are converted to low-resolution graphics when they enter the production process and must be rekeyed by the typesetter, which may introduce errors. To construct your equations with MathType or Equation Editor 3.0:
Computer codeBecause altering computer code in any way (e.g., indents, line spacing, line breaks, page breaks) during the typesetting process could alter its meaning, we treat computer code differently from the rest of the article in the production process. Supply separate files for computer code. In online supplemental materialRunnable source code should be included as supplemental material to the article. For more information, visit supplementing your article with online material. In the text of the articleIf authors would like to include code in the text of the published article, submit a separate file with your code exactly as it should appear, using Courier New font with a type size of 8 points. An image will be made of each segment of code in your article that exceeds 40 characters in length. (Shorter snippets of code that appear in text will be typeset in Courier New and run in with the rest of the text.) If an appendix contains a mix of code and explanatory text, please submit a file that contains the entire appendix, with the code keyed in 8-point Courier New. Academic writing and English language editing servicesAuthors who feel that their manuscript may benefit from additional academic writing or language editing support prior to submission are encouraged to seek out such services at their host institutions, engage with colleagues and subject matter experts, and/or consider several vendors that offer discounts to APA authors. Please note that APA does not endorse or take responsibility for the service providers listed. It is strictly a referral service. Use of such service is not mandatory for publication in an APA journal. Use of one or more of these services does not guarantee selection for peer review, manuscript acceptance, or preference for publication in any APA journal. Supplemental materialsAPA can place supplemental materials online, available via the published article in the APA PsycArticles® database. Please see supplementing your article with online material for more details. PermissionsAuthors of accepted papers must obtain and provide to the editor on final acceptance all necessary permissions to reproduce in print and electronic form any copyrighted work, including test materials (or portions thereof), photographs, and other graphic images (including those used as stimuli in experiments). On advice of counsel, APA may decline to publish any image whose copyright status is unknown.
Review policyThe AP review process is handled by the editor-in-chief (EIC) and associate editors. All papers are read initially by the EIC or an action editor and a determination is made regarding whether to initiate peer review for the paper. Considerations include the fit of the manuscript with the AP Editorial Coverage Statement including sufficient breadth and potential significance and impact, adherence to the instructions to authors, and the written quality of the paper. Papers that are sent for peer review are read by members of the editorial board and ad hoc reviewers selected by the action editor for the paper. Masked reviewAs a matter of policy, the identities of authors and reviewers are kept anonymous. Manuscripts that are peer-reviewed are circulated without their title pages to keep the identity of the authors unknown to reviewers. Each copy of a manuscript should include a separate title page with authors’ names and affiliations, and these should not appear anywhere else on the manuscript. Footnotes that identify the authors should be typed on a separate page. Authors are to make every effort to see that the manuscript itself contains no clues to their identities, including grant numbers, names of institutions providing IRB approval, self-citations, and links to online repositories for data, materials, code, or preregistrations (e.g., Create a View-only Link for a Project). Openness and transparencyAuthors should state all sources of financial support for the conduct of the research (e.g., “This research was supported by Award XX from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Institute of Child Health and Human Development”) in the Author Note. If the funding source was involved in any other aspects of the research (e.g., study design, analysis, interpretation, writing), then clearly state the role. If the funding source had no other involvement other than financial support, then simply state that the funding source had no other role other than financial support. Authors should also provide a conflict of interest statement in the Author Note disclosing any real or potentially perceived conflict(s) of interest, including financial, personal, or other relationships with other organizations or companies that may inappropriately impact or influence the research and interpretation of the findings. If there are no conflicts of interest, this should be clearly stated. The American Psychological Association endorses the Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines developed by the Center for Open Science. These guidelines cover eight aspects of research planning and reporting that can be followed at three levels of compliance:
Empirical research, including meta-analyses, submitted to American Psychologist must meet the “disclosure” level for all eight aspects of research planning and reporting. Authors are encouraged or may be requested to include a subsection in their methods description titled “Transparency and Openness.” This subsection should detail the efforts the authors have made to comply with the TOP guidelines. The following table presents the eight aspects of research planning and reporting, the TOP level required by American Psychologist, and a brief description of the journal’s policy.
Open science badgesArticles are eligible for open science badges recognizing publicly available data, materials, and/or preregistered plans and analyses. These badges are awarded on a self-disclosure basis. At submission, authors must confirm that criteria have been fulfilled in a signed badge disclosure form (PDF, 42KB) that must be submitted as supplemental material. If the editorial team confirms that all criteria have been met, the form will then be published with the article as supplemental material. For all badges, items must be made available on an open-access repository with a persistent identifier in a format that is time-stamped, immutable, and permanent. For the preregistered badge, this is an institutional registration system. Data and materials must be made available under an open license allowing others to copy, share, and use the data, with attribution and copyright as applicable. Available badges are:
Note that it may not be possible to preregister a study or to share data and materials. Applying for open science badges is optional. Other open science policies and open accessFor additional information regarding these and other APA policies and support for open science practices, potential authors should visit Open Science Badges. APA journals also have an array of options for authors who want their articles to be available to readers free of charge. These options can be found by visiting open access for APA journals authors. Ethical PrinciplesIt is a violation of APA Ethical Principles to publish "as original data, data that have been previously published" (Standard 8.13). In addition, APA Ethical Principles specify that "after research results are published, psychologists do not withhold the data on which their conclusions are based from other competent professionals who seek to verify the substantive claims through reanalysis and who intend to use such data only for that purpose, provided that the confidentiality of the participants can be protected and unless legal rights concerning proprietary data preclude their release" (Standard 8.14). APA expects authors to adhere to these standards. Specifically, APA expects authors to have their data available throughout the editorial review process and for at least 5 years after the date of publication. Authors are required to state in writing that they have complied with APA ethical standards in the treatment of their sample, human or animal, or to describe the details of treatment. The APA Ethics Office provides the full Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct electronically on its website in HTML, PDF, and Word format. You may also request a copy by emailing or calling the APA Ethics Office (202-336-5930). You may also read "Ethical Principles," December 1992, American Psychologist, Vol. 47, pp. 1597–1611, amended in 2010 (AP, Vol. 65, p. 493) and 2016 (AP, Vol. 71, p. 900). Submission of artistic imagesAP considers art images for the cover in all media including but not limited to paint, photography, sculpture, mosaic, collage, fabric. Images must be original. SubmissionArtists should submit three to six images electronically for consideration to the managing editor. The artist’s name, phone number, email address, and website should be provided, if available. If any of the works are held by museums, galleries, or private individuals other than the artist, indicate that information as well. Provide the title of the artwork for each piece of artwork submitted. If images are owned by galleries or private individuals, the person submitting must obtain and provide permission from the copyright holder before submission. The AP art review process is handled initially by the art coeditors. Final selection is made by the AP editor-in-chief. Among factors used in considering artwork are appropriateness of the content and title; bright color; crisp image; visually engaging; and availability of the artist for an interview as the basis for the "On the Cover" essay. Editorial decisions also take into account the diversity of artists, images, and media. AP seeks to present a wide variety of art and artists to stimulate the eye and mind. Change of subscription mailing addressTo change the mailing address at which you receive the American Psychologist and other mail from APA, please send information to the subscriptions department or to American Psychological Association Subscriptions 750 First Street, NE Washington, DC 20002-4242 Page 3
Prior to submission, please carefully read and follow the submission guidelines detailed below. We realize that there are numerous guidelines, however, please note that manuscripts that do not conform to these submission guidelines upon receipt will be returned without review. Submission procedures Please submit manuscripts electronically via the American Psychologist® Manuscript Submission Portal. Manuscripts should use the Microsoft Word (.docx) or LaTex (.tex) word processing program submitted as a zip file with an accompanying Portable Document Format (.pdf) of the manuscript file. Prepare manuscripts according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association using the 7th edition. Manuscripts may be copyedited for bias-free language (see Chapter 5 of the Publication Manual). APA Style and Grammar Guidelines for the 7th edition are available. Submit Manuscript Keep a copy of the manuscript to guard against loss. Do not submit manuscripts via mail, fax, or email. Because institutional spam filters may occasionally capture files from the APA and Editorial Manager, please take the following steps to facilitate communication with our editorial office:
General correspondence may be directed to the editorial office. Be aware that American Psychologist uses a software system to screen submitted content for similarity with other published content. Submission cover letterThe cover letter should:
Reviewer recommendationsOn the submission portal you will be asked to provide contact information for three scholars who are qualified to serve as unbiased reviewers for your paper. These individuals:
Synchronous Review, Duplicate, and Piecemeal PublicationSynchronous Review, Duplicate, and Piecemeal Publication APA policy prohibits an author from submitting the same manuscript for concurrent consideration by two or more publications (see Section 1.20, Conflict of Interest, Publication Manual, 7th Edition) APA policy prohibits publication of any manuscript that has already been published in whole or substantial part elsewhere. Authors have an obligation to consult journal editors if there is any question concerning prior publication of part or all of their submitted manuscripts. In light of changing patterns of scientific knowledge dissemination, APA requires authors to provide information on prior dissemination of the data and narrative interpretations of the data/research appearing in the manuscript (e.g., if some or all were presented at a conference or meeting, posted on a listserv, shared on a website or through social media, including academic social networks like ResearchGate, etc.). This information (2–4 sentences) must be provided as part of the Author Note. Authors who have posted their manuscripts to preprint archives, such as PsyArXiv, prior to submission should include a link to the preprint in the Author Note. When a manuscript contains data that are part of a larger study, the cover letter should describe the larger study and provide references for other study papers. Authors must be prepared to provide copies of related manuscripts when requested as part of the editorial review process. Authors should clarify the relationship between their paper and others from the same study, including detailed specification of the overlap in participants, measures, and analysis. The value-added scientific contribution of their study must be clearly stated in the cover letter. When a manuscript contains data that are part of a larger study, authors should describe the larger study and provide references for other study papers. Authors must be prepared to provide copies of related manuscripts when requested as part of the editorial review process. Authors should clarify the relationship between their paper, including detailed specification of the overlap in participants, measures, and analysis, and others from the study. The value-added scientific contribution of their study must be clearly stated in the cover letter. All research involving human participants must describe oversight of the research process by the relevant Institutional Review Boards and should describe consent and assent procedures briefly in the Method section. All statistical tests should include effect size whenever possible. First-person language ("I", "we") should be avoided. Terminology should be sensitive to the individual who has a disease or disability. The journal endorses the concept of "people first, not their disability." Terminology should reflect the "person with a disability" (e.g., children with diabetes, persons with HIV infection, families of people with cancer) rather than the condition as an adjective (e.g., diabetic children, HIV patients, cancer families). Nonsexist language should be used. It is important to highlight the significance and novel contribution of the work. Manuscript submission typesAP considers submissions of the following types, described below:
Original scholarshipAP considers manuscripts on all aspects of psychology, including manuscripts on national and international policy issues. Topics should be current, timely, and of interest to the broad APA membership. Manuscripts should be written in a style that is accessible and of interest to all psychologists, regardless of area of specialization. Empirical studiesAP publishes high-impact empirical studies with broad relevance for the field of psychology. Successful papers should contain original results of rigorous empirical research studies with implications for psychological theory and/or practice. Examples include results of large multi-site intervention trials, data-driven reports that advance the theory or practice of psychology, and meta-analyses on topics of broad relevance to the field. Replications: To promote replication of empirical research, AP will consider manuscripts reporting on replications of empirical studies previously published in AP , subject to standard peer review. The title of such submissions should indicate that the study is a replication. Accepted manuscripts will appear online only and will be listed in the print and digital table of contents with e-pagination. Historical scholarshipAP publishes high-quality historical scholarship on topics of broad interest to psychologists. Successful historical papers should make an original argument, engage appropriate historical methods, and elaborate the implications of the historical analysis for the understanding of the topic, event, figure, or development under discussion. View additional guidelines . Topics in focusAmerican Psychologist occasionally receives manuscripts on topics that can be viewed by psychologists from multiple perspectives. These topics can lead to varying interpretations regarding the evidence and its implications for psychological theory, practice, and training. Manuscripts covering topics of this nature are evaluated using the same criteria as regular submissions. In the spirit of transparency and the collegial exchange of ideas, comments, and reactions to topics in focus articles and a response from the article’s auth’ors will be published along with the article. Articles appearing as topics in focus will be chosen at the discretion of the editors, as will the invited commenters. This does not preclude continued discussion of topics in focus articles in the comments section of the journal. CommentsComments on articles recently published in American Psychologist will be considered and are subject to peer review. Comments should provide new and important information on the same topic as the original paper. The goal of the comment should be clearly stated in the first paragraph. Comments may present data or other evidence in support of their intended point(s). A comment should be submitted no later than 3 months from the online posting date of the article to which it responds. If submitted later, authors must present a strong rationale for considering a comment beyond the standard time frame. Comments on APA board, committee, and task force reports also will be considered for publication regardless of whether the report or a summary has been published in American Psychologist. These must be submitted within three months of the website update on which the report first appeared and provide new and important information related to the topic of the report. American Psychologist will also consider comments meeting the above criteria on more general issues related to the operation of APA’s publishing practices (e.g., journal article reporting standards, APA Style). These need not be related to particular published articles and should not be related to the disposition of particular manuscripts. Comments must be limited to 1,000 words (about five double-spaced text pages). Up to 10 references should be provided and are not included in the word count. Comments should include an abstract and keywords. The title of the comment should consist of a brief content-related title followed by a subtitle that identifies the target article, as in "Brief title: Comment on author (20xx)." Comments should follow APA style. Authors of comments must disclose in their cover letter any real or perceived conflicts of interest with any of the authors of the original paper. Comments are customarily handled by the action editor for the original manuscript. Comment submissions that meet journal standards for further consideration will be peer-reviewed. Authors may be asked to revise the comment. If a comment is deemed acceptable for publication, authors of the original submission are typically given the opportunity to reply to the comment. Comments are published in the earliest possible issue of the journal. Reports of APA boards, committees, and task forcesMany of the association reports traditionally published in AP have relocated to the APA website. Task force and committee reports may be considered for publication but should be adapted to follow AP manuscript guidelines and, like other manuscript submissions, are subject to external peer review. Practice guidelines that have been adopted as APA policy by the Council of Representatives will be automatically published in AP. In memoriamManuscript submissions for the "In Memoriam" section are by invitation only. Candidates for obituaries are selected by the associate editor for history of psychology and obituaries with the input of the AP Obituary Advisory Committee. Members are encouraged to contact the Obituaries section editor with recommendations, noting that a recommendation is not a guarantee that an obituary will be commissioned. Recommendations should include the year of death and a short statement outlining the decedent’s contributions to the field. Proposals for special sections or special issuesFeature sections devoted to a particular topic are one means of fulfilling the journal’s mission. A special ’section of the journal may contain three or four papers on a single theme, and a special issue may contain somewhat more papers, depending on the content area. Proposals for special sections or special issues should describe their scope, provide a rationale (including why such a section or issue is timely and what contribution it would make to the literature), and list and describe the proposed papers, with potential authors for each. Potential authors should not be recruited until a proposal is accepted. Proposals for special sections or issues should be submitted to the AP editor prior to developing the manuscripts and use the form found at: Those proposals of interest will proceed through a multiple-step review process. Proposals are first reviewed by the editor-in-chief. Proposals may be circulated to two or three individuals for review. Among the factors used in considering a proposal are:
If a proposal is approved, an AP associate editor will be assigned to be a participating editor of the package. The proposal author will be responsible for recruiting authors, with possible suggestions from the AP editors. Editorial decisions about each manuscript in a special package are made separately. Author contribution statements using CRediTThe APA Publication Manual (7th ed.), which stipulates that "authorship encompasses…not only persons who do the writing but also those who have made substantial scientific contributions to a study." In the spirit of transparency and openness, American Psychologist has adopted the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) to describe each author's individual contributions to the work. CRediT offers authors the opportunity to share an accurate and detailed description of their diverse contributions to a manuscript. Submitting authors will be asked to identify the contributions of all authors at initial submission according to the CRediT taxonomy. If the manuscript is accepted for publication, the CRediT designations will be published as an author contributions statement in the author note of the final article. All authors should have reviewed and agreed to their individual contribution(s) before submission. CRediT includes 14 contributor roles, as described below:
Authors can claim credit for more than one contributor role, and the same role can be attributed to more than one author. Not all roles will be applicable to any particular scholarly work. Manuscript preparationManuscripts should be prepared according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association using the 7th edition. Manuscripts must not exceed 35 double-spaced pages in length, including the title page, abstract, references, tables, and figures. Requests may be made for a small and specific number of additional pages when a strong rationale is presented (e.g., multiple studies, particularly complex new methodology). Requests must be made to the editor prior to submission. All regular submissions must include an abstract containing no more than 250 words typed on a separate page. After the abstract, the submitting author should supply (a) up to five keywords or brief phrases and (b) a public significance statement (for Guidelines, see section on public significance statements below). Authors are expected to avoid bias in their writing (see Chapter 5 of the 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual). Manuscripts may be copyedited for bias-free language. Journal Article Reporting StandardsAuthors should review the APA Style Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS) for quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. Updated in 2018, the standards offer ways to improve transparency in reporting to ensure that readers have the information necessary to evaluate the quality of the research and to facilitate collaboration and replication. The new JARS:
JARS-Qual offers guidance to researchers using qualitative methods such as narrative data, grounded theory, phenomenological, critical, discursive, performative, ethnographic, consensual qualitative, case study, psychobiography, and thematic analysis approaches. The guidelines focus on transparency in methods reporting, recommending descriptions of how the researcher’s own perspective affected the study, as well as the contexts in which the research and analysis took place. Human and non-human participantsAll research involving human and non-human participants must describe oversight of the research process by the relevant Institutional Review Boards. For human participants, the consent and assent procedures should be described briefly in the method section. Bias-free languageAuthors should also use language that is free of bias, or the implied or irrelevant evaluation of the individual, groups, or groups the authors are writing about. A discussion of the use of descriptors involving age, disability, gender participation in research, race and ethnic identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and intersectionality can be found in Chapter 5 of the Publication Manual. First-person language ("I", "we") should be avoided. Participant description and informed consentThe abstract and method section of each empirical report must contain a detailed description of the study participants, including (but not limited to) the following:
The method section also must include a statement describing how informed consent was obtained from the participants (or their parents/guardians) and indicate that the study was conducted in compliance with an appropriate Internal Review Board. Effect sizesAll statistical tests should include effect size whenever possible. Constraints on generalityIn a subsection of the discussion titled "Constraints on generality," authors should include a detailed discussion of the limits on generality (see Simons, Shoda, & Lindsay, 2017). In this section, authors should detail grounds for concluding why the results are may or may not be specific to the characteristics of the participants. They should address limits on generality not only for participants but for materials, procedures, and context. Authors should also specify which methods they think could be varied without affecting the result and which should remain constant. Public significance statementsTo promote the accessibility of article content to broad and diverse audiences, authors should provide two to three brief sentences regarding the relevance or public health significance of the manuscript. The statement should be written in language that is easily understood by the public. Please read the Guidance for Translational Abstracts and Public Significance Statements in preparing this statement. The public significance statement should be included within the manuscript on the abstract/keywords page. Prior to acceptance and publication, public significance statements will be reviewed for accuracy and adherence to these standards. ReferencesList references in alphabetical order. Each listed reference should be cited in text, and each text citation should be listed in the references section. Examples of basic reference formats: Journal articleMcCauley, S. M., & Christiansen, M. H. (2019). Language learning as language use: A cross-linguistic model of child language development. Psychological Review, 126(1), 1–51. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000126 Authored bookBrown, L. S. (2018). Feminist therapy (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000092-000 Chapter in an edited bookBalsam, K. F., Martell, C. R., Jones. K. P., & Safren, S. A. (2019). Affirmative cognitive behavior therapy with sexual and gender minority people. In G. Y. Iwamasa & P. A. Hays (Eds.), Culturally responsive cognitive behavior therapy: Practice and supervision (2nd ed., pp. 287–314). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000119-012 TablesUse Word’s Insert Table function when you create tables. Using spaces or tabs in your table will create problems when the table is typeset and may result in errors. Each table should be presented on a separate page following the Reference list. FiguresGraphics files are welcome if supplied as TIFF or EPS files. Multipanel figures (i.e., figures with parts labeled a, b, c, d, etc.) should be assembled into one file. The minimum line weight for line art is 0.5 point for optimal printing. When possible, place symbol legends below the figure instead of to the side. For more information about acceptable resolutions, fonts, sizing, and other figure issues, please see the general guidelines. APA offers authors the option to publish their figures online in color without the costs associated with print publication of color figures. The same caption will appear in both the online (color) and print (black and white) versions. To ensure that the figure can be understood in both formats, authors should add alternative wording (e.g., "the red (dark gray) bars represent") as needed. For authors who prefer their figures to be published in color both in print and online, original color figures can be printed in color at the editor’s and publisher’s discretion provided the author agrees to pay:
Display equationsAuthors are strongly encouraged to use MathType (third-party software) or Equation Editor 3.0 (built into pre-2007 versions of Word) to construct your equations, rather than the equation support that is built into Word 2007 and Word 2010. Equations composed with the built-in Word 2007/Word 2010 equation support are converted to low-resolution graphics when they enter the production process and must be rekeyed by the typesetter, which may introduce errors. To construct your equations with MathType or Equation Editor 3.0:
Computer codeBecause altering computer code in any way (e.g., indents, line spacing, line breaks, page breaks) during the typesetting process could alter its meaning, we treat computer code differently from the rest of the article in the production process. Supply separate files for computer code. In online supplemental materialRunnable source code should be included as supplemental material to the article. For more information, visit supplementing your article with online material. In the text of the articleIf authors would like to include code in the text of the published article, submit a separate file with your code exactly as it should appear, using Courier New font with a type size of 8 points. An image will be made of each segment of code in your article that exceeds 40 characters in length. (Shorter snippets of code that appear in text will be typeset in Courier New and run in with the rest of the text.) If an appendix contains a mix of code and explanatory text, please submit a file that contains the entire appendix, with the code keyed in 8-point Courier New. Academic writing and English language editing servicesAuthors who feel that their manuscript may benefit from additional academic writing or language editing support prior to submission are encouraged to seek out such services at their host institutions, engage with colleagues and subject matter experts, and/or consider several vendors that offer discounts to APA authors. Please note that APA does not endorse or take responsibility for the service providers listed. It is strictly a referral service. Use of such service is not mandatory for publication in an APA journal. Use of one or more of these services does not guarantee selection for peer review, manuscript acceptance, or preference for publication in any APA journal. Supplemental materialsAPA can place supplemental materials online, available via the published article in the APA PsycArticles® database. Please see supplementing your article with online material for more details. PermissionsAuthors of accepted papers must obtain and provide to the editor on final acceptance all necessary permissions to reproduce in print and electronic form any copyrighted work, including test materials (or portions thereof), photographs, and other graphic images (including those used as stimuli in experiments). On advice of counsel, APA may decline to publish any image whose copyright status is unknown.
Review policyThe AP review process is handled by the editor-in-chief (EIC) and associate editors. All papers are read initially by the EIC or an action editor and a determination is made regarding whether to initiate peer review for the paper. Considerations include the fit of the manuscript with the AP Editorial Coverage Statement including sufficient breadth and potential significance and impact, adherence to the instructions to authors, and the written quality of the paper. Papers that are sent for peer review are read by members of the editorial board and ad hoc reviewers selected by the action editor for the paper. Masked reviewAs a matter of policy, the identities of authors and reviewers are kept anonymous. Manuscripts that are peer-reviewed are circulated without their title pages to keep the identity of the authors unknown to reviewers. Each copy of a manuscript should include a separate title page with authors’ names and affiliations, and these should not appear anywhere else on the manuscript. Footnotes that identify the authors should be typed on a separate page. Authors are to make every effort to see that the manuscript itself contains no clues to their identities, including grant numbers, names of institutions providing IRB approval, self-citations, and links to online repositories for data, materials, code, or preregistrations (e.g., Create a View-only Link for a Project). Openness and transparencyAuthors should state all sources of financial support for the conduct of the research (e.g., “This research was supported by Award XX from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Institute of Child Health and Human Development”) in the Author Note. If the funding source was involved in any other aspects of the research (e.g., study design, analysis, interpretation, writing), then clearly state the role. If the funding source had no other involvement other than financial support, then simply state that the funding source had no other role other than financial support. Authors should also provide a conflict of interest statement in the Author Note disclosing any real or potentially perceived conflict(s) of interest, including financial, personal, or other relationships with other organizations or companies that may inappropriately impact or influence the research and interpretation of the findings. If there are no conflicts of interest, this should be clearly stated. The American Psychological Association endorses the Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines developed by the Center for Open Science. These guidelines cover eight aspects of research planning and reporting that can be followed at three levels of compliance:
Empirical research, including meta-analyses, submitted to American Psychologist must meet the “disclosure” level for all eight aspects of research planning and reporting. Authors are encouraged or may be requested to include a subsection in their methods description titled “Transparency and Openness.” This subsection should detail the efforts the authors have made to comply with the TOP guidelines. The following table presents the eight aspects of research planning and reporting, the TOP level required by American Psychologist, and a brief description of the journal’s policy.
Open science badgesArticles are eligible for open science badges recognizing publicly available data, materials, and/or preregistered plans and analyses. These badges are awarded on a self-disclosure basis. At submission, authors must confirm that criteria have been fulfilled in a signed badge disclosure form (PDF, 42KB) that must be submitted as supplemental material. If the editorial team confirms that all criteria have been met, the form will then be published with the article as supplemental material. For all badges, items must be made available on an open-access repository with a persistent identifier in a format that is time-stamped, immutable, and permanent. For the preregistered badge, this is an institutional registration system. Data and materials must be made available under an open license allowing others to copy, share, and use the data, with attribution and copyright as applicable. Available badges are:
Note that it may not be possible to preregister a study or to share data and materials. Applying for open science badges is optional. Other open science policies and open accessFor additional information regarding these and other APA policies and support for open science practices, potential authors should visit Open Science Badges. APA journals also have an array of options for authors who want their articles to be available to readers free of charge. These options can be found by visiting open access for APA journals authors. Ethical PrinciplesIt is a violation of APA Ethical Principles to publish "as original data, data that have been previously published" (Standard 8.13). In addition, APA Ethical Principles specify that "after research results are published, psychologists do not withhold the data on which their conclusions are based from other competent professionals who seek to verify the substantive claims through reanalysis and who intend to use such data only for that purpose, provided that the confidentiality of the participants can be protected and unless legal rights concerning proprietary data preclude their release" (Standard 8.14). APA expects authors to adhere to these standards. Specifically, APA expects authors to have their data available throughout the editorial review process and for at least 5 years after the date of publication. Authors are required to state in writing that they have complied with APA ethical standards in the treatment of their sample, human or animal, or to describe the details of treatment. The APA Ethics Office provides the full Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct electronically on its website in HTML, PDF, and Word format. You may also request a copy by emailing or calling the APA Ethics Office (202-336-5930). You may also read "Ethical Principles," December 1992, American Psychologist, Vol. 47, pp. 1597–1611, amended in 2010 (AP, Vol. 65, p. 493) and 2016 (AP, Vol. 71, p. 900). Submission of artistic imagesAP considers art images for the cover in all media including but not limited to paint, photography, sculpture, mosaic, collage, fabric. Images must be original. SubmissionArtists should submit three to six images electronically for consideration to the managing editor. The artist’s name, phone number, email address, and website should be provided, if available. If any of the works are held by museums, galleries, or private individuals other than the artist, indicate that information as well. Provide the title of the artwork for each piece of artwork submitted. If images are owned by galleries or private individuals, the person submitting must obtain and provide permission from the copyright holder before submission. The AP art review process is handled initially by the art coeditors. Final selection is made by the AP editor-in-chief. Among factors used in considering artwork are appropriateness of the content and title; bright color; crisp image; visually engaging; and availability of the artist for an interview as the basis for the "On the Cover" essay. Editorial decisions also take into account the diversity of artists, images, and media. AP seeks to present a wide variety of art and artists to stimulate the eye and mind. Change of subscription mailing addressTo change the mailing address at which you receive the American Psychologist and other mail from APA, please send information to the subscriptions department or to American Psychological Association Subscriptions 750 First Street, NE Washington, DC 20002-4242 |
Which of the American Psychological Association score ethical values is correctly matched with its definition?
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