In addition to the information on this page, please ensure that you download and follow the SJP Manuscript preparation guidelines (PDF)

TYPES OF ARTICLES

1. RESEARCH ARTICLES*:

These include articles that have typically been published in the journal as well as some new types; these articles will include (a) empirical studies (deductive or inductive, quantitative or qualitative), (b) theoretical articles, (c) applied methodological articles, that present more robust ways in which to study psychological phenomena (and ideally other topic areas). For empirical quantitative research (especially for psychometric studies), please carefully read our checklists.

Link To SJP Checklists (PDF)

2. REVIEW ARTICLES*

These include articles of a broader scope, and that also encourage more critical reflection on what is being researched. These articles will include (a) meta-analyses, (b) systematic or narrative reviews, (c) in-depth critiques and reflections that shed new light on psychological phenomena, and (d) debates and collaborations that exchange views on a particular topic. Additionally, within the review articles, we want to call your attention to our new “current debates in psychology” section. In this section, we seek to publish short reviews about the latest important advances in psychology or give the chance to critical views on current topic to be discussed. Articles for this section should be limited to 2500 words approximately and should be titled with a question. Within this section, you can either answer to an open topic (by offering an alternative or complementary view to generate a debate) or submit a new topic that you consider relevant. Each new topic will be open for a new reply, and for each reply, the original authors will have the possibility to answer.

3. REGISTERED REPORTS* AND REPLICATIONS* AT THE SPANISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY

SJP is supporting the global movement towards a more transparent and reproducible psychological since and now is launching a special section that will accept three new types of articles: replications, registered reports and result-masked articles.

3.1) Replications*

Despite being a pillar of scientific method, replications are very rare in published literature. Performing replications have a significant number of benefits for the advancement of psychological science: (a) allows to better estimate effects sizes; via replications we are now aware of the existence of decline effects; (b) identification of false positives published in literature; (c) determining boundary conditions of the effect, i.e. conditions assumed to be irrelevant in the first study. In psychology, this may be especially relevant in theoretical elaboration, as this changes the conditions that limit the observation of an effect may be due to language, cultural or other sociodemographic differences of study participants.

Thus, in this section, we will accept manuscripts performing fair direct replications that are high-quality, highly-powered with respect to the original study. Furthermore, the relevance of the original study and justification of the necessity of a replication will be considered in editorial decisions concerning acceptance and submission to peer-review. We strongly encourage replications of original research published in the Spanish Journal of Psychology.

Replications could be also submitted as registered reports (recommended), but we will consider replications whether they are registered or not.

Link to Specific guidelines for replications (PDF)

3.2) Registered Reports*

We will accept registered reports, an article type where the introduction and methods sections are submitted, and the editorial decision is made before the study is actually implemented. This type of article enhances editorial and peer-review assessment of the theoretical (e.g.: relevance of the research question) and methodological (e.g.: power analysis) quality of the study, avoiding the selection of “fancy” results that may produce the publication bias.

The submitted RR will undergo a peer-review process and potential revisions. Authors of accepted RR will collect data with guarantee their results will be published irrespective of the direction and size of the effect, given (a) they attach to the registered plans or give explicit reasons for deviations, that will be closely scrutinized by the action editor and reviewers; (b) provide a competent interpretation of results.

Link to Registered Reports. Guidelines for authors (PDF)

4. RESULTS-MASKED ARTICLES*:

These concern manuscripts whose data already have been gathered; in this case, authors submit a manuscript consisting of an introduction, literature review with hypotheses, and method, which is reviewed. The proposal can either be accepted or rejected since any flaws in the theory or method cannot be corrected given that the data have been already gathered. In rare instances, editors may request minor clarifications. As with registered reports, to the extent that the write up of results and conclusions are faithful to the accepted proposal, the manuscript submitted at stage 2 will usually be accepted regardless of the direction or size of the findings. In this type of submission, the authors should provide a cover letter should describing briefly a) the relevance of the study for the literature; b) the appropriateness of the research design and the sample (including sample power estimation); c) any other additional information (if considered relevant) on why authors require this modality.

* These article types may be eligible for APC waivers or discounts under one of the agreements Cambridge University Press has made to support open access.

Abstracts

Manuscripts articles must be accompanied by a 150-250 word abstract in English. The abstract should be a summary of the whole manuscript, not only of its conclusions. A list of 4-5 keywords should be provided directly below the abstract. Keywords should express the precise content of the manuscript.

References

References in SJP should follow the guidelines of the American Psychological Association (APA). Comprehensive information on the APA reference style can be found online on the APA Style website.

Citations in the text

Author's names and year of publication should be provided in the text, e.g. "Falsely balanced news coverage can distort the public’s perception of expert consensus on an issue (Koehler, 2016)" or "Koehler (2016) noted the dangers of falsely balanced news coverage."

If there are three or more authors, only include the first author’s last name followed by “et al.” in the text.

Reference List

The References section should be in alphabetical order. Detailed guidance for referencing different kinds of source can be found on the APA Style website, which authors are strongly encouraged to check if in any doubt. The following examples are also offered for general guidance:

Journal article:
Fernández, A., Baeza, C., Pavez, P., & Aldunate, N. (2021). Chilean Version of the Empathy Quotient (EQ) Scale: Adaptation and Psychometric Properties. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 24, E24. https://doi.org/10.1017/SJP.2021.26

Paolo Senese, V., De Nicola, A., Passaro, A., & Ruggiero, G. (2018). The factorial structure of a 15-item version of the Italian Empathy Quotient Scale. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 34(5), 344–351. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000348

Journal article with more than 20 authors: (provide the first 19 names, then '…', and the final name):
Levis, B., Benedetti, A., Ioannidis, J. P. A., Sun, Y., Negeri, Z., He, C., Wu, Y., Krishnan, A., Bhandari, P. M., Neupane, D., Imran, M., Rice, D. B., Riehm, K. E., Saadat, N., Azar, M., Boruff, J., Cuijpers, P., Gilbody, S., Kloda, L. A., … Thombs, B. D. (2020). Patient Health Questionnaire–9 scores do not accurately estimate depression prevalence: Individual participant data meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 122, 115–128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2020.02.002

Whole book:
Jackson, L. M. (2019). The psychology of prejudice: From attitudes to social action (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000168-000

Torino, G. C., Rivera, D. P., Capodilupo, C. M., Nadal, K. L., & Sue, D. W. (Eds.). (2019). Microaggression theory: Influence and implications. John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119466642

Chapter in an edited book:
Aron, L., Botella, M., & Lubart, T. (2019). Culinary arts: Talent and their development. In R. F. Subotnik, P. Olszewski-Kubilius, & F. C. Worrell (Eds.), The psychology of high performance: Developing human potential into domain-specific talent (pp. 345–359). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000120-016

Report by a government agency:
National Cancer Institute. (2019). Taking time: Support for people with cancer (NIH Publication No. 18-2059). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. https://www.cancer.gov/publications/patient-education/takingtime.pdf

Please visit the APA Style website for further examples and guidance for correctly formatting citations and references.

Data Transparency and Openness
As strongly recommended by the American Psychological Association, and in line with the requirements in the field, SJP requires that all data in their published articles be an original use. Along with determining the appropriateness of any submission, the editorial team (editor and reviewers) also have a role in determining what constitutes "original use". Key to this determination is the extent to which reported data and results serve to promote cumulative knowledge and insight to the literature.

Any previous, concurrent, or near future use of data (and/or sample) reported in a submitted manuscript must be brought to the editorial team's attention (i.e., any paper(s) previously published, in press, or currently under review at any journals, as well as any paper(s) that foreseeably will be under review before an editorial decision is made on the current submitted manuscript). This includes variables that overlap as well as those that may not overlap with those in the submitted article. In order to preserve masked review, authors should include a data transparency appendix in the manuscript which details how and where the data collected was (or potentially will soon be) used. Authors may also put in any other clarifying information they wish, as long as it can be done anonymously. Any identifying information, such as authors' names or titles of journal articles that the authors wish to share can be included in the cover letter where only the editorial staff will see it. When providing information in the paper itself and/or in the appendix, authors should ensure there is enough detail for reviewers to assess whether data presented constitute original use and unique knowledge and insights. For more information on APA's data policies, please see "Duplicate and Piecemeal Publication of Data," APA Publications Manual (Section 1.09, 6th Edition, p. 13–15 or Section 1.16, 7th Edition, p. 17–20).

Authors are encouraged to make their data, materials, and/or preregistration plans and analyses publicly available, if possible, by providing a link to a third-party repository, in the author note and including the data citation in your reference list. Making your data and materials publicly available can increase the impact of your research, enabling future researchers to incorporate your work in model testing, replication projects, and meta-analyses, in addition to increasing the transparency of your research. APA's data sharing policy does not require public posting, so it is at your discretion to decide what is best for your project in terms of public data, materials, and conditions on their use. Please note that APA policy does require authors to make their data available to other researchers upon request, per the APA Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct.

Final Methods Review Option for Conditional Acceptance Decisions of Manuscripts that Use Quantitative Methods
For manuscripts that include quantitative analyses, please note that The Spanish Journal of Psychology has implemented an optional "methods review" step as part of the review process. That is, when such manuscripts reach the stage where the Action Editor is contemplating a "Conditional Acceptance" decision, he or she may request SJP’s Methods Associate Editors to provide a final methods review. Specifically, a review of the methods and statistical analyses reported will be requested to ascertain if there is a need for additional information or clarification and/or any errors that require correction. The findings of this methods review will be taken into account by the Action Editor when issuing the subsequent editorial decision.

Seeking permission to use copyrighted material

If your article contains any material in which you do not own copyright, including figures, charts, tables, photographs or excerpts of text, you must obtain permission from the copyright holder to reuse that material. As the author it is your responsibility to obtain this permission and pay any related fees, and you will need to send us a copy of each permission statement at acceptance. Please find more information here.