INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

Submission procedures
Manuscripts for publications should be submitted online, or contact our desk service if you experience any challenges during the submission process (support@gaerspy.com).
The authors are required to "Register" and "Login" to the submission link. Once you have registered, click HERE to log into the submission form for publications. The corresponding author and the co-author (s) will view his/her (their) manuscript details in the submission system if she/she (they) has registered and logged in using the email address provided during manuscript submission. As part of the submission process, author (s) must check off his/her (their) submission’s compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to author (s) who does not adhere to the following guidelines.
• The submission has not been previously published, nor it is before another journal for consideration or an explanation has been provided in comments to the Editor.
• The submission file is in OpenOffice and Microsoft Word document file format.
• Where available, DOIs or URLs for the references have been provided.
• The text is single-spaced, uses an 8-point font, employs italics rather than underlining (except with URL addresses), and all illustrations, Figures, and Tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points rather than at the end.
• Submissions must include a separate cover letter explaining the significance of their work and how it fits within the scope of our journal.

Cover letter
All manuscript submissions should include a cover letter in a separate document that should contain the following:
• Names: First name and surname, Affiliations of all authors: Department, university, province/city/state, country.
• Informed consent: confirming that written consent was obtained from all participants before submission of the article.
• Ethics statement: If the submitted article currently involves research with human or animal subjects or involves pathology reports, etc., then the article’s authors must provide relevant materials for an appropriate ethics statement for all types of academic research.
• Trial registration: The name of trial registry, trial registration number, ect.
• Summarising the main findings: The author (s) must provide at least 3-5 lines highlighting the summary of the main findings and essential conclusions. These highlights should be presented in short bullet points, and the novelty and significance of the research should be briefly described. 

Submission procedures 

Manuscripts for publications should be submitted Online.

Types of articles
The IJSPSY accepts many academic articles, including but not limited to research articles, review articles, editorials, and short communication.
Research articles are original research articles that report on the results of a study or experiment. They typically include an introduction, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion section. They may count at least 6000, and the abstract may be up to 280 words.

Review articles provide an overview and critically evaluate existing research in a specific field of psychology. They may include a summary of the current state of the field, key findings, and potential future directions. They may count at least 3000, and their abstract can be up to 280 words.

Editorials are opinion pieces written by editorial board members or invited experts. They may provide commentary on recent research, discuss emerging trends in the field, or highlight issues of interest to the journal’s readership. They may count no more than 1000 words.

Short communication: These are brief reports that present original research findings, typically in a condensed format. They may include a concise introduction, methods, results, and conclusion section. They may count no more than 2000 words.

MAIN MANUSCRIPT
The following sections are not fixed and can be adjusted and modified depending on different types of articles.

Article title
The title should be concise and reflect the key points of the content while capturing the reader’s attention. It should be accurate, precise, and attractive, allowing readers to understand the main content and significance of the article quickly. The title should not exceed 15 words.

Author information
All manuscripts should provide the name, surname, and affiliation of each author (Department, University, Country), and the corresponding author (s) should be identified.

Abstract
The abstract should briefly summarise the paper’s main objectives if they are not specified in the title. It constitutes the method and methodology. They are described in case of novelty or if they are of the article under consideration interest. The results involve some new long-term results and data, important discoveries, and conclusions refuting the conventional theories are preferable, and, in author’s opinion, the data is of practical value. The conclusions may include recommendations, assessments, suggestions, and assumptions described in the article. The abstract should be a separate readable document that will give the reader a comprehensive understanding of the article. The abstract should also be limited to 280 words or less.

Keywords
The manuscript should include 3-7 keywords after the abstract, separated by semicolons, avoiding words already used in the article title.

Section headings
Headings at different levels should be capitalised in bold and use other formats to ensure clear distinctions between headings and subheadings at different levels.

Introduction or Background to the study
The introduction highlights the significance of the research conducted, which should include the research background, research problem, research focus, and the purpose of the study. It should outline the issues studied in the article and substantiate their relevance to readers. Author (s) should be concise and avoid using tables and figures in this section. The introduction must relate to the recognised problems or issues, eventually leading to the research questions. Its structure part may vary. It discusses the results and conclusions of previously published studies to help explain why the current study is of scientific interest.

Literature review/Conceptual or Theoretical framework
In the literature review, the author should develop comprehensive academic writing that demonstrates knowledge and understanding of the academic literature on a specific topic placed in context. The literature review should establish the most relevant investigations of the object of study. In the theoretical framework, the author (s) is not limited to focusing on specific variables and defining the viewpoint they will analyse and interpret and link their relevancies to the studies. Theoretical analysis should not be limited by references to author (s) who studied the raised issue. It should contain a summary of received data with the allocation of directions, trends, and approaches to the problem. It is characterised by presenting a careful bibliographic review of at least 15 references. The description of empirical results should contain specific data confirming the results' statistical accuracy. They can be presented as tables, graphs, and diagrams with further interpretation. Most sources should reflect the current state of scientific research (up to seven years). The theoretical framework should establish the theories on which the study is based. 

Objective of the study
The study’s objective should describe what the research entails to achieve and explain why you are pursuing it. It summarises the research approach and purpose and helps focus the paper. The objective should appear in your research article’s introduction at the end of your problem statement.

Methods
In this section, author (s) should provide comprehensive information on the articles’ materials, study design, experimental procedures, and data analysis methods. These details allow readers to replicate the study in the future. Author (s) should ensure that references to other research or experiments provide adequate context. In qualitative research, this part can be different. It includes the research approach and design, participants, instruments, procedures, and data analysis. The author (s) should convince readers that this manuscript presents a solid and sound analysis.

Results
A presentation of the findings of the study may include tables, graphs, and other visual aids. It depends on the author (s), the results and discussion may be combined and discussed simultaneously with previous literature at length into a single section.

Discussion
The experiments’ results can be discussed in detail. Author (s) should discuss the direct and indirect implications of their findings, the research objectives and literature review results, and the implications for future research. The author (s) should provide the interpretation of the obtained results and compare them with the results of previous studies. The author (s) should highlight the limitations. The author (s) may add conclusions if the discussion section is short and simple. In the discussion, the author (s) should interpret the obtained results and compare them with the results of previous studies. The author (s) should compare the study results with similar results in other articles. The author (s) should provide the differences or similarities and agree with some of the facts and disagree with others. The author (s) should summarise and evaluate all results. The author (s) should identify the scientific concept from which to explain the results and evaluate the credibility of the results. The author (s) should define the place of the results received during the research in the structure of knowledge known to humankind.

Conclusion
The conclusion offers closure for the article. An effective conclusion needs to summarise the article's main findings and implications for further research. It is optional to note that the author (s) may highlight their contributions and identify specific contributions of each author (s) in the current submission, from the design and concept generation at the beginning of the study to the final publication.

Conflicts of interest
Author (s) is obligated to disclose any potentially relevant conflicts of interest.
Demonstrate relevant scholarly and financial conflicts of interest to the journal, including (but not limited to):
• Financial relationship conflict of interest: The need to articulate the extent of involvement of relevant potential financial organisations, advisory relationships, investors, etc., in the scholarly research,
• Funding source conflict of interest: The need to clarify the role and benefits received by the sponsor or financial supporter in the scholarship;
• Personal, political, or collaborative relationship conflicts of interest: The need to clarify the potential conflicts of interest that may arise from these types of relationships.
If the author (s) has nothing to declare, it is encouraged to add “There is no conflict of interest” to this section.
For more detailed information, see the IJSPSY Conflicts of interest.

Data availability statement
The author (s) should provide information about the data availability and materials used in the study. It should include details about how and where to access the data, including any restrictions on access or use. The statement should be clear and concise and provide sufficient information for others to access and use the data. If the data is not publicly available, author (s) should explain why and describe any conditions or limitations on access.

Funding
The author (s) should provide information on any sources of financial support for the research, including external and internal funding sources. Author (s) should provide the full name of the funding agency, the grant number, and the name (s) of the author (s) who received the funding. Author (s) should state this clearly in the funding section if the research received no funding support.

Acknowledgement
The author (s) can express gratitude to individuals, organisations, or institutions that have supported their work or provided helpful feedback. This section can also be used to acknowledge technical or administrative support and funding sources that were not directly involved in the research.

References
The references should be written in English, conform to international academic norms, and be included at the end of the main manuscript. The sources should be cited in the text and reference section according to APA 6th Edition.

The examples of references for different types of publications are as follows:

Journal
Nonsa, M. S., Moziki, S., & Panama, K. (2023). Impact of COVID-19 on Learners’ Academic Performance: A Phenomenological Approach. International Journal of Studies in Psychology, 3(1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.30738/ijspsy.v3i1.5521.

Book
Olushula, K. M. (1988). Group counselling. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing

Book chapter with a single author
Easton, B. (2008). Does poverty affect health? In K. Dew & A. Matheson (Eds.), Understanding health inequalities in Aotearoa New Zealand (pp. 97-106). Dunedin, New Zealand: Otago University Press.

One author, multiple works published in the same year
Rush, E., McLennan, S., Obolonkin, V., Cooper, R., & Hamlin, M. (2015a). Beyond the randomised controlled trial and BMI--evaluation of effectiveness of through-school nutrition and physical activity programmes. Public Health Nutrition, 18(9), 1578–1581. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980014003322
Rush, E. C., Obolonkin, V., Battin, M., Wouldes, T., & Rowan, J. (2015b). Body composition in offspring of New Zealand women: Ethnic and gender differences at age 1–3 years in 2005–2009. Annals Of Human Biology, 42(5), 492-497.

Two authors (a journal article with a DOI number)
Li, S., & Seale, C. (2007). Learning to do qualitative data analysis: An observational study of doctoral work. Qualitative Health Research, 17(10), 1442-1452. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732307306924.

Three authors (a journal article with a DOI number)
Barnard, R., de Luca, R., & Li, J. (2015). First-year undergraduate students’ perceptions of lecturer and peer feedback: A New Zealand action research project. Studies In Higher Education, 40(5), 933–944. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2014.881343.
Use “&” before the final author.

Four to seven authors (a journal article with a DOI number)
Szcz Ę Sna, A., Nowak, A., Grabiec, P., Paszkuta, M., Tajstra, M., & Wojciechowska, M. (2017). Survey of wearable multi-modal vital parameters measurement systems. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, 526. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47154-9_37.
List all authors in the reference entry.

More than seven authors
Kasabov, N., Scott, N. M., Tu, E., Marks, S., Sengupta, N., Capecci, E., . . . Yang, J. (2016). Evolving spatio-temporal data machines based on the NeuCube neuromorphic framework: Design methodology and selected applications. Neural Networks, 78, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neunet.2015.09.011.

Dissertation/Thesis
Jones, D. L. (2001). The role of physical activity on the need for revision total knee arthroplasty in individuals with knee osteoarthritis (Bachelor/Masters/Doctoral. Ph.D. dissertation/thesis), Bloemfontein: University of the Free State.

More information APA 6th Edition

Accepted file formats
Author (s) must use the Microsoft Word Template in the preparation of their manuscripts. It is essential to use this template file for copy-editing matters. If you experience a challenge, please feel free to contact the Editorial Office: Editor-ijspsy@gaerpsy.com. When the manuscript is accepted, authors should follow the journal guidelines. All graphics (Schemes, Figures, Diagrams, Tables, etc.) should be included in the main text after the paragraph of its specific citation.

Formatting requirements
After accepting manuscripts for publication, the IJSPSY has specific formatting requirements.
• All manuscripts must contain the required sections such as Title, Authors and Affiliation, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Literature review/Theoretical framework, Objective of the study, Methods (Research approach, and design, Participants, Instruments, Research setting, Dada analyisis and Ethical considerations), Results, Discussions, and Conclusions, Funding Information (Optional), Acknowledgements (optional), Conflict of Interest, and other Ethics Statements, References, and Figures and Tables with Captions (Optional).
• The references may follow the APA style 6th Edition, providing consistent formatting.

Tables and Figures 
Tables and Figures should be numbered in order of appearance, have their positions clearly marked. For example, Table 1, Table 2, Table 3, Figure 1, and Figure 2.
Tables
Tables should be self-descriptive and easily understandable. The information in Tables should present new information and not merely a repetition of the text. Tables should include clear and concise captions placed above the table. They should be provided as editable raw data and not as images. Author (s) should ensure that Tables fit on a single page. If too large, data should be split across multiple datasets or it should be placed at the end of the article.
Figures
Figures are visual representations of information, such as photos, maps, charts, drawings, or graphs. Figures should be presented in a file format such as jpeg, tiff, png, and bmp. Figure sizes can be adjusted during the production stage to fit inside the journal’s columns.