Submission Guide

On this page you can find all necessary information about the required files and formatting, links to file templates, a submission checklist, additional information about online submission and the link to the actual start of the submission process.

File Formats and Templates

All texts must be submitted in Microsoft Word format (doc / docx) (maximum file size: 5 MB). If you are using another program (OpenOffice, Apple Pages, etc.), please convert your text to the doc / docx format.

All contributions must meet the requirements of the "PsychOpen Author Guidelines" regarding formal elements such as citation style and format of statistical information (please refer to the PsychOpen Style Guide for detailed information). These are largely based on the "Publication Manual" (6th edition) of the American Psychological Association (APA Style). Since JSPP publishes non-commercially and does not charge any processing fees, we assume that the authors comply with these guidelines and we require careful proofreading of the manuscripts . Manuscripts that do not meet these requirements may be rejected by the editors. We provide template files for both submission formats, which make it much easier to comply with the formal style guidelines (see below).

Please also pay attention to the PsychOpen Guidelines on Publication Ethics.

Please use our online submission system for all file types (texts, images, etc.).

Anonymised Initial submission

For first submissions authors are requested to provide:

  1. Your manuscript in one of the following formats: doc/docx (recommended), rtf, pdf, odt. Maximum file size: 5MB. Usage of our JSPP First-Submission Template is recommended: Download JSPP First-Submission Template.
    Note: You may embed low-resolution (< 100 ppi), screen-optimized versions of your figures within the text at the appropriate positions, or the end of the manuscript. For accepted articles a separate, high-resolution (300 ppi) image file for each figure is required – see (B-3) below.
  2. Any further digital content of relevance for the review process but not embedded in your manuscript (like charts, images, appendices). Submit these additional items as supplementary files at step 4 of the online submission process. Maximum file size: 8MB each.

Please make sure that all personal information (including in the file properties) has been removed from the manuscript, and that the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been observed.

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

  1. The submission has not been previously published, nor has it been submitted (or will be submitted while under consideration at JSPP) to another journal for consideration. Prior to acceptance and publication in JSPP, authors may make their submissions available as preprints on personal or public websites (see Preprint Policy).
  2. Previous or concurrent publications of the author(s) based on the same or closely related research are properly acknowledged and cited. It is made clear in the manuscript in which way(s) it represents a novel contribution to warrant consideration for publication in JSPP. Note: Replications of previous work are explicitly welcomed if identified as such.
  3. All authors of the submitted manuscript are named in the submission/cover letter (and additionally will be named in Step 3 of the submission process). All authors of the submitted manuscript are aware of and approve its submission to JSPP. Contributions that fall short of authorship are mentioned in the Acknowledgments section of the submission/cover letter. (For criteria of authorship see the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, Standard 8.12, Publication Credit, of the American Psychological Association (APA). Responsibility for authorship decisions lies entirely with the authors.)
  4. All authors of the submitted manuscript consent to the storage of their personal data transferred in conjunction with the submission and in accordance with the Journal's Privacy Statement.
  5. No copyrighted material is used unless that material has also been made available under a CC-BY license.
  6. If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, authors have removed all personal information from the manuscript. The instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.
  7. The submission complies with the PsychOpen Author Guidelines (largely based on the American Psychological Association's formatting guidelines).