Author Guidelines
ARTICLE TYPES AND LENGTH
- Research Article: full report of original empirical or theoretical work (6,000–9,000 words, excluding references).
- Short Report: concise empirical contribution; single study or focused finding (up to 4,000 words).
- Review Article: systematic or critical synthesis that advances the field (8,000–12,000 words).
- Registered Report: peer-reviewed protocol with in-principle acceptance before data collection (stage-dependent).
- Methods & Tools: new paradigms, instruments, datasets, or analysis approaches (variable length).
- Commentary: scholarly response to a published article (up to 2,000 words).
LANGUAGE AND STYLE
Manuscripts must be written in clear, scholarly English. Authors whose first language is not English are encouraged to have their manuscript edited for language before submission. Use SI units, and define all abbreviations at first use.
MANUSCRIPT STRUCTURE
A typical empirical manuscript should contain, in order: - Title page (uploaded separately or as a removable first page): full title, all authors with affiliations and ORCID iDs, the corresponding author's contact details, and the required statements. This page must NOT be part of the anonymized manuscript file.
- Abstract: no more than 250 words, summarising background, aims, method, results, and conclusions.
- Keywords: four to six. - Introduction: the research question, its theoretical motivation, and the relevant literature.
- Method: participants, materials and stimuli, design, procedure, and analysis approach, in sufficient detail to permit replication.
- Results: the findings, with appropriate statistics, figures, and tables. - Discussion: interpretation, implications, limitations, and future directions.
- References: APA style (7th edition). - Statements: ethics, funding, conflicts of interest, data availability, and AI-use disclosure.
ANONYMIZATION FOR REVIEW
Because the journal uses double-anonymized review, the manuscript file uploaded for review must not contain any information that could identify the authors. Remove author names, affiliations, and acknowledgements; refer to your own prior work in the third person; remove identifying information from file properties; and present repository links in an anonymized or blinded form where possible.
REQUIRED STATEMENTS
Every manuscript must include: - Ethics statement: approval body and reference, and confirmation of informed consent, for research involving human participants. - Funding statement: all sources of financial support, or a statement that none was received. - Conflict-of-interest statement: any competing interests, or a statement that none exist. - Data-availability statement: where data, stimuli, and analysis code can be accessed, or the reason they cannot be shared. - AI-use disclosure: any use of generative AI tools, or a statement that none was used. - Author-contribution statement: preferably using the CRediT taxonomy.
REFERENCES
Use APA style (7th edition). All references must be given in the Roman alphabet with English-language bibliographic information; for sources in other languages, provide the original title followed by an English translation in square brackets. Include DOIs for all sources that have them.
FIGURES, TABLES, AND SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
Figures and tables should be numbered, cited in the text, and accompanied by descriptive captions. Figures should be supplied at a resolution suitable for publication. Large datasets, stimuli, code, and additional analyses should be deposited in a public repository and cited, rather than included as supplementary files, wherever possible.
SUBMISSION
Manuscripts are submitted through the journal's online system. The corresponding author must hold an account and provide an ORCID iD; all co-authors should be entered with full affiliations and, where available, ORCID iDs. The submission process will ask authors to confirm the checklist items, select the appropriate section, and provide the title, abstract, keywords, and other metadata.