Prior to submission, please carefully read and follow the submission guidelines detailed below. Manuscripts that do not conform to the submission guidelines may be returned without review.
Submissions to Technology, Mind, and Behavior (TMB) will first be evaluated by the Editor. This evaluation includes use of a software system to screen submitted content for similarity with other published content. The system compares the initial version of each submitted manuscript against a database of 50+ million scholarly documents, as well as content appearing on the open web. This allows APA to check submissions for potential overlap with material previously published in scholarly journals (e.g., lifted or republished material). Additionally, the Editor will evaluate the appropriateness of the submitted manuscript for inclusion in TMB in terms of conceptual fit and scientific rigor according to these instructions.
To submit to the Editorial Office of Richard N. Landers, please submit manuscripts electronically through the Manuscript Submission Portal in Microsoft Word or Open Office format.
Please supply complete contact information, including email addresses, for use by the editorial office and later by the production office.
Most correspondence between the editorial office and authors is handled by email, so a valid email address is important to the timely flow of communication during the editorial process.
A checklist appears below. More information on each of these items appears elsewhere in the Submission Instructions. The Editor will apply this checklist during initial review:
1. Classification and Conceptual Decisions
Article Type is selected (Feature Article, Brief Report, Rapid Communication, Methodological Innovation, Registered Report, Special Issue).
Article Subtype is selected (see Types of Articles).
The list of open science badges sought is specified (Open Data, Open Data(PA), Open Materials, Preregistered, and/or Preregistered+).
Three to five potential reviewers with no conflicts of interest have been identified alongside their email addresses.
2. Cover Letter
If the Data and Materials Availability section states that no materials are available, details explaining why are provided.
The article type and subtype are stated, and a description of the fit of the manuscript with the selected subtype is provided.
If prior uses or conflicts of interest are reported in the Author Note, sufficient detail is provided for the Editor to determine their effects.
If the authors are seeking open science badges, eligibility for those badges is explained.
If the submission is intended to be part of a Special Issue, a description of the manuscript’s fit with the Special Issue call is provided.
3. Title Page
A separate title page file has been created containing all required elements, including the author note.
If a preprint has been posted, include a link to the preprint in the author note.
Prior uses of data or lack thereof is disclosed in the author note.
Sources of financial support or lack thereof is disclosed in the author note.
Conflicts of interest or lack thereof is disclosed in the author note.
Word counts of the abstract and manuscript (not including Title Page, Abstract, References, Tables or Figures) are indicated.
4. Article Content
Word count is within range required by Article Type, not including Title Page, Abstract, References, Tables or Figures
Required Structure is used (empirical, registered report, or non-empirical).
Abstract is included and is fewer than 250 words,
Abstract is accompanied by 3 to 5 keywords.
For empirical submissions:
o The manuscript contains or addresses all matters raised in the most relevant APA Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS).
o The Data and Materials Availability subsection immediately follows the start of the Method and contains all required information.
o A statement appears at the beginning of the Method regarding Institutional Review Board compliance. Approval or case numbers, if available, are preferred. The process used for informed consent must be indicated clearly.
o Relevant demographics are reported in the Participants subsection of the Method.
o For quantitative research, the Results section contains reporting of descriptive statistics, most commonly a table of means, standard deviations, and a correlation matrix of all study variables.
o The Discussion contains a justification of sample composition, such as demographics, and expected effects on and extent of generalizability.
Calls for Papers and Proposals
Technology, Mind, and Behavior welcomes manuscripts asking compelling research questions about technology and grounded in psychological approaches and methods.
In terms of psychology, manuscripts grounded in any “home” discipline of psychology are invited, including but not limited to biological, clinical, cognitive, developmental, health, human factors, industrial-organizational, personality, quantitative, and social. Submissions may also be grounded in interdisciplinary sister fields, such as cognitive science, communications, educational technology, and human-computer interaction. All successful submissions will build on a foundation of methodologically rigorous, empirical psychological science.
In terms of technology, authors are invited to submit a manuscript in any application area of societal importance, including but not limited to artificial intelligence (broadly defined), robotics and human augmentation, mobile devices, social media and online behavior, virtual and augmented reality, games and gamification, geographic information systems, autonomous vehicles, nanotechnology, and biomedical technologies.
For a list of the article types published in the journal at these intersections, please see Types of Articles. If you are unsure which Types is the best fit for your work, it is generally best to ask the Editor before submission
TMB also publishes special issues of thematically related papers. These special issues may be organized by the editorial board of TMB or proposed by prospective guest editors. Both the current call for proposals and any current calls for papers are available here.
Peer Review Policy
Submissions are first evaluated by the Editor. A submitted manuscript may be rejected without detailed comments after this initial review if the manuscript is considered inappropriate or of insufficient priority for publication in Technology, Mind, and Behavior.
After initial review by the Editor, the manuscript will be assigned to an action editor who selects and sends the manuscript to at least two reviewers for critical evaluation. TMB uses a masked peer review system for all submissions. Identities of the authors are not known to the assigned reviewers, and all reviewers remain unknown to the authors. Every manuscript is treated by the editors and reviewers as privileged information, and they are instructed to exclude themselves from review of any manuscript that might involve a conflict of interest of the appearance thereof.
Authors may suggest up to five researchers who are qualified to review their manuscript without bias or conflict of interest during the submission process. Comments from reviewers are examined by the action editor, who then corresponds with the author and makes the final decision on acceptance or rejection of the manuscript. In general, authors will be asked to revise their manuscripts no more than twice unless under exceptional circumstances.
Special Issues
Special issues are curated sets of thematically related manuscripts organized by emerging and leading scholars in a specific area of interest. Special issues may be organized by members of the editorial board or by external guest editors after review of a submitted special issue proposal. More details on special issue proposals can be found here.
For some special issues, authors may be invited to submit an abstract. In those cases, the abstract is reviewed by the special issue editor(s) and upon acceptance of the abstract, authors are asked to submit their manuscript. Acceptance of a special issue abstract does not guarantee acceptance of the manuscript. The manuscript is reviewed following the same processes as described under Peer Review Policy.
Types of Articles
Manuscripts will be submitted to Technology, Mind, and Behavior within one of the following categories. Please note that stated word limits exclude title page, abstract, references, tables, and figure captions:
Feature Articles (4,000-8,000 words): Feature Articles are original empirical (quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods) and theoretical submissions. The maximum word limit may be extended with permission in advance from the Editor. Research articles generally describe work completed within one of the following paradigms:
o Basic research: Basic research feature articles concern how humans understand and use technology, the impacts of technology on human experience and behavior, and related topics. Basic research articles in TMB usually develop new theory by extending prior theory. For example, a basic research study might propose and test a new way of conceptualizing about a problem by extending an existing theory.
o Use-inspired basic research: Use-inspired basic research feature articles concern the development, use, and impact of technologies developed to a specific purpose, such as to mitigate the effects of aging, improve educational outcomes, or help manage mental and physical health. In contrast to basic research studies, use-inspired basic research in TMB explores and tests a specific technology in solving a specific problem, providing guidance and recommendations for developers to solve the same or similar problems in the future.
o Systematic review or meta-analysis: Systematic reviews and meta-analyses, based upon established methodologies, concerning psychology and technology.
o Integrative or translational review: This is the only type of non-empirical feature article. Integrative reviews develop an argument for a new way of thinking about or addressing a broad, challenging problem by integrating past research across multiple disciplinary domains. For example, an analysis of ethical, legal, social, or policy questions concerning the opportunities and challenges arising at the frontier of humans and technology might be submitted as an integrative review. Similarly, translational reviews adapt findings, concepts, and frameworks from deep within a niche subfield into a more accessible format for the broad, interdisciplinary audience of TMB.
Brief Reports (3,000-5,000 words): Brief Reports are more specialized and shorter than Feature Articles:
o Conceptual replication: Conceptual empirical replications of basic and use-inspired basic research are generally submitted as brief reports. Direct replications, in which no features of the original research are changed, are discouraged. Pre-registration is strongly recommended for conceptual replications. If a conceptual replication is part of a broader collection of studies intended to replicate and extend prior work, it should generally be submitted as a Feature Article. Conceptual replications do not need to develop new theory.
o Position paper: Positions papers make a concise and well-reasoned argument for a specific point of view on a matter of importance to TMB readers. For example, positions papers might advance an argument to reconsider how a theory is commonly interpreted in existing literature or discourage use of a particular research design for a class of research questions. Arguments within a position paper must be relevant to a relatively broad audience of our readership. Arguments of primary relevance to a narrow set of research questions should generally be embedded in empirical manuscripts.
Rapid Communications (1,500-2,500 words): Rapid Communications are substantially shorter than other formats and contain time-sensitive research findings. Manuscripts submitted in this category are managed by an Associate Editor dedicated to this article type and entered into a separate rapid-review process that is intended to conclude within 30 days. The Rapid Communications review process generally requires less subjectivity on the part of reviewers.
o Applied validation research: Applied validation research manuscripts describe the empirical test of a psychologically-relevant technology. For example, a researcher might develop a mobile game for improving mental health or change other behaviors and present an experimental test of the game’s effectiveness. Applied validation research manuscripts contain only sufficient background (introduction) information so as to contextualize the problem being solved with the technology and the need for an empirical test. Preregistration is strongly recommended for this type of submission.
o Simple theory test: Simple theory tests are well-powered, straightforward tests of specific theoretical propositions. Simple theory tests must be of a design and methodology that unambiguously challenges or evaluates a theoretical claim in existing research. Preregistration is strongly recommended for this type of submission.
o Scale development: Scale development research follows current best practices in scale development by briefly presenting a settled theoretical foundation for the target construct and a series of rigorous empirical development and validation studies. Scales submitted in this category should be original creations of the authors with content relevant to the interdisciplinary audience of TMB.
o Time-sensitive results: Time-sensitive results manuscripts present a finding for which it is critical to share that result as a published paper as quickly as possible. Papers submitted within this subcategory should explain in their cover letter why their results are time-sensitive and the expected consequences of an otherwise typical TMB publication timeline (i.e., 3-6 months). A detailed preregistration is strongly recommended for this submission type.
Registered Reports (1,500-8,000 words at publication): Registered Reports are original empirical submissions of the Basic research, Use-inspired basic research, Conceptual replication, Applied validation research, or Simple theory test subtypes. However, they use an alternative submission strategy in which an introduction, proposed method, and proposed analysis are submitted for peer review before data collection begins. For more information on the unique process for Registered Reports, see the Registered Reports subsection.
Commentaries (1,500-2,500 words): Commentaries on articles recently published in TMB 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. Commentaries should be submitted no later than 3 months from the publication date of the original paper in TMB. Upon acceptance of a Commentary, the author(s) of the original paper would be invited to submit a Reply (1,500-2,500 words); if the authors' Reply is accepted, both the Commentary and Reply would be published together. The review process for both Commentaries and Replies is intended to conclude within 30 days. Commentaries should be titled as “Commentary on [insert author last name(s) of article being commented on]’s + [insert title of article being commented on].” Replies should be titled as “Reply to [insert last name(s) of commentary author(s)]’s + [insert title of commentary being replied to].”
Methodological Innovations (5,000-10,000 words): Introduction to or structured guidance on a technique for conducting social scientific research that either relies upon technology or helps better understand technology. Methodological innovations are expected to define and test new methodological approaches that can be meaningfully applied at the intersection of psychology and technology. Open sharing of materials, such as software, is expected.
Replication and Registered Reports
Registered reports are manuscripts submitted before the collection of empirical data. The eventual length of the final manuscript is intended to be aligned with the subtype chosen, but initial submissions should generally include sufficient detail, regardless of length, for reviewers to fully evaluate the proposed methods. For example:
1) A Basic research registered report, similar to a Feature Article, has a length target at publication of 4,000-8,000 words. The initially submitted registered report is typically 4,000-6,000 words. Some details from the Proposed Method and Proposed Analysis sections may be recommended to be moved to a supplement or open science repository, and the remainder of the space is expected to be filled with Results and Discussion after report approval and completion of the study.
2) A Simple theory test registered report, similar to Rapid Communication, has a length target at publication of 1,500-2,000 words. The initially submitted registered report is typically 2,000-4,000 words. Most details from the Proposed Method and Proposed Analysis sections will be recommended to be moved to a supplement or open science repository.
The process for submitting a registered report is as follows:
1) Optionally, the author contacts the Editor to discuss their intent to submit a registered report and their general plan. This gives an opportunity for brief feedback before developing a complete report. This step is not required.
2) The author submits a registered report to TMB, selecting the ‘Registered Report’ article type in the system.
3) The manuscript undergoes traditional peer review.
4) The action editor decides between a revision request, rejection, or proposal approval. Approval of a registered report means that TMB intends to publish the results of the study, once completed, if the study was executed faithfully as described in the registered report. It is not a guarantee of future acceptance.
5) Once the registered report is accepted, the authors preregister the final design and analytic approach on aspredicted.org or osf.io.
6) The authors collect data as proposed and then revise their registered report into a full manuscript. Limited deviations from the pre-registration are acceptable if documented clearly and well-justified.
7) The authors submit their Stage 2 manuscript as a revision of the initial submission.
8) The final peer review round is intended to evaluate the reasonableness of conclusions and if the study was executed as planned, regardless of whether results were as expected or as hypothesized.
9) Once accepted, the authors’ manuscript is granted a preregistration open science badge (and any others that are appropriate).
This approach has three major advantages:
1) Reviewers can offer suggestions on the registered report as to theoretical clarity or the rigor of planned data collection methods before data are collected. This increases alignment between reviewer expectations and researcher actions.
2) Due to cognitive biases, in a typical peer review process, reviewers are more likely to recommend acceptance of “significant” results and recommend rejection of “non-significant” results. But when reviewing registered reports, reviewers approve the reasoning and method ahead of seeing the results, giving protection to authors against this reviewer bias.
3) Because authors do not need to play the “how will reviewers interpret my results?” game when a registered report has already been accepted, most authors feel more comfortable presenting the full complexity of their results rather than trying to write a convincing “story.” This increases reader trust in the validity of the results.
Manuscript Structure and Format
Manuscripts describing empirical research should generally be structured according to APA 7 requirements. Thus, empirical manuscripts should generally contain the following sections or their equivalent for a specific method (e.g., meta-analyses and systematic reviews may be somewhat different):
1. Abstract
2. (an introduction section with no heading covering theory and related work that immediately follows the title)
3. Method
Data and Materials Availability
Design (if needed)
Participants
Measures (or Materials or both in sequence)
Procedure
4. Results
5. Discussion
6. References
7. Tables and Figures
Tables and figures may also be displayed shortly after their first reference within earlier sections instead of at the end of the manuscript, if preferred.
Registered reports should generally follow the following structure:
1. Abstract
2. (an introduction section with no heading covering theory and related work that immediately follows the title)
3. Proposed Method
Data and Materials Availability
Design (if needed)
Participants
Measures (or Materials or both in sequence)
Procedure
4. Proposed Analysis
Manuscripts that contain non-empirical work have no standard structure, but headings should be chosen to maximize clarity of argument.
Open Science and Transparency
To facilitate open science and broad accessibility of published work, almost all articles appearing in Technology, Mind, and Behavior are published under a CC-BY-NC-ND (Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivatives) license. This makes them available for free on the journal website and enables researchers and others to share them freely with others. To financially support this distribution model, TMB assesses an Article Processing Charge (APC) to authors after acceptance. APCs are most often paid by support from an author’s grants, special funds from one’s institution or department, contracts such as via the government, or one’s employer. If such support is unavailable to an author, they can apply for a waiver. Further details are available here. TMB is committed to making open access publication accessible to all.
Once a paper is published, all APA journals including TMB requires authors to share their data with qualified researchers for the purpose of verifying published findings through reanalysis using identical or alternate statistical methods.
To facilitate more transparent and open research practices beyond this, the policy of TMB is to publish papers where authors indicate whether the data, methods used in the analysis, and materials used to conduct the research will be made available to any researcher for purposes of reproducing the results or replicating the procedure.
The following disclosures are required of all empirical submissions.
Authors must include a data and materials availability statement in the first subsection end of the Mmethod section, titled “Data and Materials Availability,” indicating whether their data, analytic methods, and study materials are openly available to other researchers.
If an author states that materials are available, the author must specify where those materials will be available. A commonly used location for this purpose is osf.io, but any online repository generally expected to be permanent is acceptable. Authors who make their data available will be awarded an open science badge. See more about open science badges.
Authors who do not make data, methods, and materials publicly available should note their reasons in the cover letter and are expected to abide by APA's data preservation policies, specified under "Ethical Principles." If no materials will be openly available, state: “No data or other materials used in this study have been made available publicly; however, data are available upon direct request to the author(s).” If some of the data cannot be made available privately either, such as due to privacy or intellectual property agreements, disclose which data this applies to and why.
Authors must disclose any prior uses of data reported in the manuscript in the author note and in the cover letter, which should include a complete reference list of these articles as well as a description of the extent and nature of any overlap between the present submission and the previous work. If no research has made prior use of data, state: “The data described in this research are original and have not been used previously.”
Authors must disclose all sources of financial support for the conduct of the research (e.g., “This research was supported by NIDA grant X”). 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. If there was no financial support beyond your employer, state: “The research was not externally funded.”
Authors must disclose all conflicts -of -interest involving any real or potential 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. This also includes any appearance of a conflict of interest. If there were no conflicts of interest or appearance thereof, state: “None of the authors report any conflicts of interest.” If conflicts of interest are reported, provide a detailed explanation in the cover letter.
If the manuscript has been posted to a preprint archive, include a link to the preprint in the author note.
Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS)
Authors should review the APA Style Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS) for quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research. General adherence to JARS is expected for all empirical submissions.
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.
Among many other recommendations, the JARS guidelines:
Recommend the division of hypotheses, analyses, and conclusions into primary, secondary, and exploratory groupings to allow for a full understanding of quantitative analyses presented in a manuscript and to enhance reproducibility
Offer modules for authors reporting on N-of-1 designs, replications, clinical trials, longitudinal studies, and observational studies, as well as the analytic methods of structural equation modeling and Bayesian analysis
Include guidelines on reporting on registration (including making protocols public); participant characteristics, including demographic characteristics; inclusion and exclusion criteria; psychometric characteristics of outcome measures and other variables; and planned data diagnostics and analytic strategy
Open Science Badges
Articles are eligible for open science badges recognizing publicly available data, materials, and/or preregistration 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, 33KB) that must be submitted as supplemental material. If all criteria are met as confirmed by the editor, the form will then be published with the article as supplemental material.
Authors should also note their eligibility for the badge(s) in the cover letter.
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
Open Data: All data necessary to reproduce the reported results that are digitally shareable are made publicly available. Information necessary for replication (e.g., codebooks or metadata) must be included.
Open Data: Protected Access: A "PA" (Protected Access) notation may be added to open data badges if sensitive, personal data are available only from an approved third-party repository that manages access to data to qualified researchers through a documented process. To be eligible for an open data badge with such a notation, the repository must publicly describe the steps necessary to obtain the data and detailed data documentation (e.g. variable names and allowed values) must be made available publicly. The list of approved protected access repositories is continually updated.
Open Materials: All materials necessary to reproduce the reported results that are digitally shareable, along with descriptions of non-digital materials necessary for replication, are made publicly available.
Preregistered: At least one study's design has been preregistered with descriptions of (a) the research design and study materials, including the planned sample size; (b) the motivating research question or hypothesis; (c) the outcome variable(s); and (d) the predictor variables, including controls, covariates, and independent variables. Results must be fully disclosed. As long as they are distinguished from other results in the article, results from analyses that were not preregistered may be reported in the article.
Preregistered+Analysis Plan: At least one study's design has been preregistered along with an analysis plan for the research — and results are recorded according to that plan.
Note that it may not be possible to preregister a study or to share data and materials. Applying for open science badges is optional.
Double-space all copy. Other formatting instructions, as well as instructions on preparing tables, figures, references, metrics, and abstracts, appear in the Manual. Additional guidance on APA Style is available on the APA Style website.
Title Page
The title page should contain the complete title of the manuscript, names and affiliations of all authors, institution(s) at which the work was performed, and name, address, telephone and fax numbers of the author responsible for correspondence.
Please include the word count of the text and abstract.
Authors should also provide a short title of not more than 45 characters (including spaces).
Abstract and Keywords
All manuscripts must include an abstract containing a maximum of 250 words typed on a separate page. It is recommended to structure your abstract such that it briefly presents a summary of each of the major sections of the paper in the order they appear. For empirical work, abstracts should generally contain summaries of study aims or hypotheses; methods; results; and conclusions.
After the abstract, please supply between three and five keywords or brief phrases.
To maximize your article's discoverability, use some generic and some specific keywords; include some of these keywords in the title of the article and in the first two sentences of the abstract; avoid using a long article title.
Tables
Use 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.
Figures
Graphics 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.
LaTex Files
LaTex files (.tex) should be uploaded with all other files such as BibTeX Generated Bibliography File (.bbl) or Bibliography Document (.bib) together in a compressed ZIP file folder for the manuscript submission process.
In addition, a Portable Document Format (.pdf) of the manuscript file must be uploaded for the peer review process.
Videos
Please post your MOV or MP4 video files to YouTube, CodePen, SoundCloud, or Vimeo and make sure to include working links in the article.
Display Equations
We strongly encourage you 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:
Go to the Text section of the Insert tab and select Object
Select MathType or Equation Editor 3.0 in the drop-down menu
If you have an equation that has already been produced using Microsoft Word 2007 or 2010 and you have access to the full version of MathType 6.5 or later, you can convert this equation to MathType by clicking on MathType Insert Equation. Copy the equation from Microsoft Word and paste it into the MathType box. Verify that your equation is correct, click File, and then click Update. Your equation has now been inserted into your Word file as a MathType Equation.
Use Equation Editor 3.0 or MathType only for equations or for formulas that cannot be produced as Word text using the Times or Symbol font.
Computer Code
Because 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 your article in our production process. To that end, we request separate files for computer code.
If you would like to include code in the text of your published manuscript, please submit a separate file with your code exactly as you want it to appear, using Courier New font with a type size of 8 points. We will make an image 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.
Permissions
Authors 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 or video whose copyright status is unknown.
Academic Writing and English Language Editing Services
Authors 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.
Publication Policies
APA policy prohibits an author from submitting the same manuscript for concurrent consideration by two or more publications.
Articles are published under a CC-BY-NC-ND (Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivatives) license, allowing others to download and share them for noncommercial use as long as you are credited as the author. Ownership of copyright in the article remains with the author(s).
To protect the integrity of your work, this license does not allow for modifications to be shared; sharing only the article as published is permitted. If your article is not yet published, you may distribute the prepublication version on the internet or post it on a website but should label the paper with the date and with a statement that the paper has not (yet) been published and is not therefore the authoritative document of record. Example: "Draft version 2.2 2/2/2020. This paper has not been peer reviewed yet.”
Ethical Principles
It 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.
Conflicts of Interest
APA requires authors to reveal any possible conflict of interest in the conduct and reporting of research (e.g., financial interests in a test or procedure, funding by pharmaceutical companies for drug research).
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, including academic social networks like ResearchGate, etc.).
This information (2–4 sentences) must be provided as part of the Author Note.
Other Information
Visit the Journals Publishing Resource Center for more resources for writing, reviewing, and editing articles for publishing in APA journals.
