Submissions

Author Guidelines

Apuntes de Psicología publishes works developed in any field or subject of Psychology that have sufficient methodological rigour and make a relevant contribution to the progress of the discipline. The journal publishes empirical articles, as well as systematic reviews and meta-analyses of interest for the scientific development and/or professional practice of psychology.

Apuntes de Psicología does not charge authors for processing or publishing their work.

It is recommended to review the general characteristics of the journal at: https://www.apuntesdepsicologia.es/index.php/revista/about

Submission of papers

Manuscripts should be submitted through the journal's website: https://www.apuntesdepsicologia.es/index.php/revista (Submissions: https://www.apuntesdepsicologia.es/index.php/revista/about/submissions), for which authors must register beforehand. The editorial process will be monitored from the same platform.

Papers must be original. Articles that have been totally or partially published elsewhere will not be accepted, as well as articles that are in the process of publication or have been sent to other journals for review. It is assumed that those listed as authors agree to this, and that those listed as contact persons consent to it.

Manuscripts will be evaluated by the Editorial Board to assess their relevance and conformity with the journal's publication standards. Articles must adhere to the journal's editorial guidelines and editorial focus. Receipt of manuscripts will be confirmed immediately and, within 10 working days, the submitter will receive notification of the Editorial Board's decision on whether or not to begin the review process. 

If the review process is initiated, each manuscript will be sent to at least two independent reviewers who will assess its scientific quality and relevance. The journal follows a "double-blind" review policy, which means that both authors and reviewers are anonymous during the review process. To this end, manuscripts should not contain any information that could allow the identification of the authors. The Editorial Board is responsible for the final decision on whether or not to accept the paper for publication.

Authors may suggest at least two people they consider relevant as possible reviewers of the article, clearly indicating their institutional affiliation and e-mail address. These should be people who do not have a work or personal relationship with the authors. Authors may also indicate those persons who, for whatever reason, they do not wish to participate as reviewers of their work.

Original manuscripts will be sent preferably in Spanish for review; however, the journal will accept originals in English. The digital version allows articles to be published in both Spanish and English. The print edition of the journal publishes articles in Spanish only. Therefore, if the article is received in Spanish and passes peer review, authors will be given the possibility to translate it into English for the digital version. If a paper is originally received in English, the authors must undertake, if accepted, to translate it into Spanish for print publication. Any translations are the sole responsibility of the authors.

Only papers that have been approved by the corresponding ethics committee for work involving human or animal participants will be published. It is also necessary that the authors expressly indicate the contributions of each author and declare any possible conflicts of interest. Authors are also responsible for obtaining the necessary permissions to reproduce copyrighted material.

In the event that the work is accepted for publication, authors must sign an agreement assigning copyright to the journal, whereby the rights to print and/or reproduce in any form belong to Apuntes de Psicología. However, authors are authorised to use the published material at any time, without the need to request permission, as long as the publication in the journal is properly cited.

The ideas expressed in the papers are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not reflect the opinions or scientific policies of the journal.

Authors are responsible for providing interested readers with copies of raw data, procedure manuals, scores or any other relevant material.

Authors must comply with all the ethical principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and which form part of the Apuntes de Psicología Code of Ethics (see also below in these publication guidelines).

For any questions or clarifications, authors can contact the journal via e-mail at apuntesdepsicologia@cop.es.
 

Manuscript preparation

The maximum length of articles is 7000 words (including title, abstracts, keywords, in-text citations, figures and tables). The 7000 word limit does not include the list of bibliographical references.

Manuscripts should be submitted in Microsoft Word, preferably using Times New Roman 12-point font, in a single column, pages with 3 cm. margins and numbered, paragraphs with left alignment and 1.5 line spacing (except for tables and figures, which should be spaced 1).

When uploading the article to the journal's website, remember to include the name and surname(s) of each author as you wish them to be cited (full compound names or with initials, one surname, two surnames joined by a hyphen, etc.), bearing in mind the importance of this aspect for future citations of your article.

To guarantee anonymity, a separate document should be attached to the manuscript containing: a) The title of the article in Spanish and English and an abbreviated title in Spanish and English that can be used as a heading for each page. b) The name, surname and place of work of each author (institutional affiliation, locality and country), as well as their ORCID code if they have one and their e-mail address. c) A detailed specification of each author's contribution to the work submitted for publication. d) A declaration by the author of the submission that all authors have expressed their agreement with the text submitted and with the order in which their names appear. e) A declaration of conflicts of interest. f) Name, telephone number and postal address of the place of work where the corresponding author carries out their work. g) Where appropriate, acknowledgements to the persons and/or institutions involved. h) Sources of funding that contributed to the study presented, clearly indicating the funding body or institution and, in brackets, the grant code. If the work did not receive any funding, please write before the reference section: "This work did not receive specific funding from public sector agencies, commercial or non-governmental bodies".

Similarly, to ensure anonymity, the manuscript document should not contain any reference to the authors.

The first page of the manuscript should contain only the title of the article in English and Spanish, the abbreviated title and the total word count. Authors' names should not appear on this page. The APA 7th edition guidelines for capitalization in titles (title case) must be followed. This means that all nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns and any other words of four or more letters must begin with a capital letter.

The second page of the manuscript should include the abstract and summary (in English and Spanish) along with 3-5 keywords in each language. Abstracts and summaries should be 150-200 words and structured to include Introduction, Method, Results and Discussion. When choosing keywords, avoid generic or empty terms (pronouns, adverbs, etc.), as well as redundant words such as analysis, description, research, etc. Use nouns preferably. Keywords will be used to index the article.

On the third page, the article should begin with the Introduction to the article. The introduction should clearly present the problem statement, synthesise the available knowledge about the variables studied, and describe the research objectives.

After the introduction, the "Method" section should contain the following sub-sections: "Participants", "Instruments", "Procedure" and "Data analysis" (if any), following this order. The Participants sub-section should fully describe the sample used, whether incidental or random, the inclusion and exclusion criteria, and whether consent was obtained. The Data Analysis sub-section should detail the methods used to analyse the data, as well as, where appropriate, statistical criteria for evaluating model fit and effect size.

In the "Results" section, follow APA 7th edition guidelines on the writing and presentation of mathematical and statistical results. Tables and figures should systematise quantitative results effectively. Redundancy between text and tables or figures should be avoided.

After the Results, include a "Discussion" section and, optionally, a "Conclusions" section. The Discussion should include study limitations and future directions. In the Discussion or Conclusions, the implications of key findings for professional practice should be discussed.

Apuntes de Psicología does not accept footnotes or appendices. Include this information in the body of the article and provide a web link for additional information.

Articles must follow the APA 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), with the single exception that, in accordance with the gender equity policy of Apuntes de Psicología (see "About the Journal" section), the full first name of each author must be included in the reference list, as exemplified below.

Some of these guidelines are summarised below:

In-text citations should include the surname of the first author and the year of publication (in parentheses, separated by a comma). If the author's name is part of the narrative, the year should appear in parenthesis immediately after it. In cases of three or more authors, only the surname of the first author followed by "et al." and the year should be indicated; in cases of potential ambiguity, additional authors should be added until the work is correctly identified. The fully bibliographic reference at the end of the manuscript must list all authors who contributed to the article (up to a maximum of 20 authors). When citing several authors in parentheses, they should be listed in alphabetical order. To cite more than one paper by the same author(s) from the same year, add as many letters a, b, c, as necessary, repeating the year (e.g., 2021a, 2021b, 2021c).

The list of complete bibliographical references at the end of the article should be alphabetized and formatted according to the following rules:
a) Books: author (surname, comma, full first name); if there are multiple authors, separate them with a semicolon; before the final author use comma and "&"; year (in brackets) followed by a period. Full title in italics followed by a period. Publisher. For example:

Lezak, Muriel D.; Howieson, Diane B.; Bigler, Erin D., & Trahel, Daniel. (2012). Neuropsychological assessment (5^th Ed.). Oxford University Press.

b) Multi-authored book chapters, conference abstracts and similar: author(s) as above; year (in brackets); title of the cited work, followed by "In", the director(s), editor(s) or coordinator(s) and in brackets Ed./Eds.; title of the book in italics and in brackets the pages of the cited chapter; publisher. For example:

Dill, Bonnie T., & Zambrana, Ruth E. (2009). Critical thinking about inequality: An emerging lens. In Bonnie Dill y Ruth E. Zambrana (Eds.), Emerging intersections: Race, class, and gender in theory, policy, and practice (pp. 1-21). Rutgers University Press. https:// doi.org/10.36019/9780813546513-003

c) Journal articles: author(s) as above; year (in brackets); title of the article; full name of the journal in italics, volume number in italics, issue number in brackets with no space between it and the volume; number of the first and last page of the article. The DOI must be included as a URL. For example:

Mellado-Pastor, Sandra; Del-Río-Sánchez, Carmen, & Pastor-Morales, Joaquín (2023). La influencia de la evitación experiencial y la fusión cognitiva en personas con diagnóstico de trastorno de pánico y agorafobia y TOC. Apuntes de Psicología, 41(2), 69-75. https://doi.org/10.55414/ap.v41i2.1548

For works without a DOI, it is not necessary to write "retrieved from"; indicate the URL directly. For example:

Walker, Andrew (2019). Germany avoids recession but growth remains weak. BBC News (November 14). https://www.bbc.com/news/business-50419127

Pay particular attention to APA 7th edition guidelines when citing conference presentations, doctoral theses and software, as well as the use of acronyms in the text and in the reference list.

When using a translated version, cite the original publication (book, chapter or article) and, in square brackets, the translated version in Spanish.

For further information and other examples, see the 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual, or go to the following link: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples.

Figures and tables must also comply with APA 7th ed. guidelines, be properly numbered, cited, and included in editable format within the text where they are to appear. Tables and figures should be 8 or 17 cm wide, with clear, legible text and symbols in Times New Roman size 10.

Figures must be included in an editable format, consistent with the rest of the article. If this is not possible, they should be inserted as images with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. 

Whenever they are essential for a better understanding of the content (especially in sections related to instruments or procedures), high-quality photographs with good resolution (recommended 600 dpi or higher) and contrast may also be included.

Authors are encouraged (although it is not mandatory) to consult the following guidelines when preparing their manuscripts:
            Case analysis - CARE.

            Diagnostic accuracy - STARD.

            Observational studies - STORBE, MQCOM (Chacón et al., 2019) or GREOM (Portell et al., 2015).

            Studies with randomised control group - CONSORT.

            Systematic reviews and meta-analyses - PRISMA (Page et al., 2020).

            Test adaptation - Guide of the International Test Commission.

            Test development - Ten steps for test development (Muñiz & Fonseca, 2019).

Supplementary Files 

If authors wish to make any supplementary files available to readers (supplementary data, images, videos, etc.), it is recommended to include a link to a permanent, open-access repository where they can be consulted. For other options, authors should consult directly with the journal editor (apuntesdepsicologia@cop.es).

Editorial Process and Article Publication

Apuntes de Psicología is an open-access journal. All papers are freely available to anyone who wishes to read and/or download them. Authors or their funders are not required to pay any publication fee.

Conditions for saving pre-prints: The pre-publication of an article (already accepted and before submission for publication) can be shared at any time and place. Sharing a pre-published article on, for example, a pre-print server, will not be considered as pre-publication. Therefore, prior to the final publication of the paper, authors are encouraged to store and share their pre-print version of the article on their personal or institutional website, social networks, servers, citation managers, etc. Once the final version is published, if the pre-print version is still available in a repository, the following clarification should be added: "This is the electronic version of a paper published in Apuntes de Psicología (year). The definitive version is available on the journal's official website", showing the detailed reference and including its DOI.

Authors are encouraged to share the post-print version (properly cited) or the final version of their paper on their social networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.), university servers and/or public servers (Mendeley, Cosis, etc.), scientific social networks (ResearchGate, Academia.edu, Kudos, etc.), personal and institutional websites, blogs, Google Scholar, ORCID, Publons, ScopusID, etc.

Once a manuscript has been accepted for publication in Apuntes de Psicología, the contact person will receive an email with the preliminary PDF and a report of any errors that need to be corrected. These should be reviewed in detail to ensure that they match the original accepted article, and returned with corrections within 48 hours.

Corrections must be made on the PDF itself, using the "add comment/note" tool. No other form of correction (e.g. Word document, email, etc.) will be accepted.

Since the draft versions are created from the manuscripts already uploaded electronically and accepted, substantial changes or modifications will not be accepted from this point onwards, only changes relating to typos, corrections of citations/references and inclusion of the comments made by the Editorial Board.

The journal reserves the right to modify the titles and abstracts of the papers to ensure a better fit, impact and dissemination of the same.

Apuntes de Psicología provides a DOI, an international code that allows reliable and consistent access to the work at all times.

Once the issue of Apuntes de Psicología containing the article is published, the corresponding author will receive a PDF copy of the article.

Once the article is published, Apuntes de Psicología authorises its authors to deposit any version of their work in any repository (institutional or otherwise) of their choice without embargo period.

Ethical standards

The editorial team of Apuntes de Psicología, together with the scientific community, is committed to ensuring compliance with ethical and quality standards in the articles it publishes. The journal has as a reference the "Code of Conduct and Good Practice" defined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) for scientific journals, the Code of Conduct of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Code of Ethics of Psychology of the General Council of Psychology of Spain. All of this is included in the principles of the journal's Code of Ethics that authors must comply with in order to publish in Apuntes de Psicología (XXXX).

Language. Please ensure the use of appropriate and high-quality Spanish/English. Apuntes de Psicología accepts both British and American English, but not a mixture of the two. It is the responsibility of authors to have both the abstracts and any English version of the articles checked by a qualified translator.

Use of inclusive language. Apuntes de Psicología is firmly committed to equality and respect for all, recognising and valuing diversity. For this reason, authors must ensure they use language that is non-exclusive and free from prejudice and stereotypes related to race, functional diversity, gender, sexual orientation, beliefs, ideology, or socioeconomic status. Authors must use inclusive language while respecting proper grammar, economy of language, and precision at all times, taking space limitations into account.

Use of non-sexist language. Apuntes de Psicología is committed to gender equality and gender-inclusive language. This implies using language “without discriminating against a particular sex, social gender, or gender identity, and without perpetuating gender stereotypes” (United Nations objective). Authors must use the terms “gender” and “sex” correctly and ensure that language is always oriented toward equality. Apuntes de Psicología supports inclusive linguistic formulas, which can be used as long as they do not alter the meaning of the expression and respect all individuals.

Responsible authorship. All authors signing the paper must have made significant contributions in relation to any of the following: (1) creation and design of the study; sample collection; data analysis and interpretation; (2) development of the article or critical/intellectual review of the content; and (3) approval of the final submitted version. The list of authors and their order of appearance should be carefully reviewed before initial submission. Any future addition, removal, or rearrangement must be done prior to final acceptance, with the approval of the Editorial Board of Apuntes de Psicología and the consent of all authors.

Scientific data. The journal recommends sharing scientific data (observations or experiments validating findings) through an appropriate repository, providing a link to the published article. When any sharing option is chosen, remember to include the corresponding references both in the article and the reference list. To facilitate research replication and data use, authors are encouraged to indicate code, software type, models, algorithms, protocols, methods, and any other project-related information.

San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). Apuntes de Psicología, committed to open science, supports and follows this initiative to remove restrictions on the number of references that can be included in an article, not counting them in the total word count.

Privacy statement. Names and email addresses provided to Apuntes de Psicología will only be used for the purposes stated in this document. They will not be passed on to third parties or used for commercial purposes.

Guidelines for the publication of dossiers and monographic issues

A monographic issue of the journal must contain at least 8 to 12 original articles within the specific psychological theme in which it is articulated. The publication of a dossier will involve the availability of at least 3 to 5 articles focused on a particular theme. The dossiers will be included within the contents of an ordinary issue of the journal.

Whenever the contents of the area of research or psychological intervention to which the monograph or dossier is devoted allow it, the inclusion of empirical work, whether basic or applied, will be encouraged. In general, half of the articles in any monograph or dossier must be empirical works. Specifically, at least 5 of the articles in any monographic issue must be of this nature and at least 2 articles in the case of a dossier.

Excluded from the above are monographs and dossiers that, due to their content, are not suitable for this. This would include works focused on historical analyses or on the work of a prominent figure in psychology.

Each monograph or dossier must have a coordinator, and this function may be carried out by more than one person. The coordination may be carried out either at the request of the journal's Editorial Board (management team) or on the initiative of any member of the Advisory Board of Apuntes de Psicología.

Those who, on their own initiative, propose the coordination of a monograph or a dossier must send an e-mail to the editor and the director of the journal with a proposal indicating: a) general theme of the monograph or dossier and its potential interest; b) possible authors of each of the articles proposed; c) suitability of authors to be included in the monograph; d) approximate titles of the different works with a brief description of the content in each case; and e) estimated timeframe for the articles to be completed by the authors.

The purpose of the previous section is that whoever proposes to the Editorial Committee the possible publication of a monographic issue or a dossier should inform it of the basic characteristics of the proposal, so that the Editorial Board has the opportunity to make suggestions and - if appropriate - approve the publication of the monographic issue or dossier.

Once the publication of a monograph or dossier has been commissioned or approved, the coordinator must contact the journal's editor to set the entire editorial process in motion: receipt of articles; assignment of reviewers to each article; acceptance, rejection or proposals for improvement and communication to authors; and final acceptance.

Even in the case of articles commissioned to specific individuals due to their suitability with respect to the subject matter to be addressed, it is essential to carry out an anonymous peer review beyond the editorial review carried out by the coordinator of the monograph or dossier. Likewise, the editor may make observations on the formal aspects of any article during the review process.

In order to guarantee the monitoring and transparency of the review process, all interactions between the different agents involved (coordination, authorship, review, editing) must be carried out through the journal's web portal, a portal in which all those involved must be registered. Therefore, direct communication between the agents involved throughout this process via personal e-mail addresses is neither accepted nor considered valid.

Parallel to the evaluation process of the articles and their definitive acceptance, whoever coordinates the monograph or dossier must prepare, for its publication, an articulated presentation of its contents that highlights the importance and timeliness of the subject matter addressed, as well as the justification for the inclusion and order of presentation of the different works that make up the monograph or dossier.