Journal Details
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
Instructions for Authors
This journal uses ScholarOne Manuscripts (previously Manuscript Central) to peer review manuscript submissions. Please read the guide for ScholarOne authors before making a submission. Complete guidelines for preparing and submitting your manuscript to this journal are provided below.
The journal is keen to encourage submissions across a broad range of areas in experimental psychology, including those reporting work on human and animal subjects. Manuscripts including the use of functional brain imaging are also encouraged, as are papers reporting computational modelling of behavioural data.
QJEP offers a competitive publication time-scale. Accepted Rapid Communications have priority in the publication, and usually appear within a few months. Full articles appear on-line, through the iFirst system, making them available to readers several months prior to paper publication.
Ethical considerations: Research reported in this journal is expected to conform to appropriate ethical standards.
Humans: Ethical guidelines for research using human subjects are outlined in the Medical Research Council's guidelines for clinical experiments: Responsibility in Investigations on Human Subjects, British Medical Journal, 1964, 2, 178-180; or in the British Psychological Society's guidelines for non-clinical experiments: Ethical Principles for Research with Human Participants, The Psychologist, 1992, 6 (1), 33-35.
Animals: Ethical guidelines for research with animals that were prepared by the British Psychological Society and the Experimental Psychology Society can be found in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2001, 54B, 81-91. Authors of accepted manuscripts that report research with animals will be requested to submit a letter to the Editor confirming that the research was conducted in accordance with the Guidelines, and in accordance with the European Communities Council Directive of 24 November 1986 (86/609/EEC), or with the Guidelines laid down by the NIH in the US regarding the care and use of animals for experimental procedures, or with equivalent legislation in the country where the research was conducted.
The Editors reserve the right to reject, after consultation with the President of the Experimental Psychology Society, any paper that in their judgement contravenes these principles.
SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS
Manuscripts should be submitted through the journal's ScholarOne Manuscripts online submission site: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/pqje
The Journal will not consider papers that are currently under consideration by other journals.
If you have any questions about your submission, please contact the editorial assistant Ralph Pawling at pss82d@bangor.ac.uk
Rapid Communication: Aside from the regular substantial experimental reports and reviews, the journal also publishes Rapid Communication articles. The intention of the Rapid Communication format is to allow authors to disseminate innovative results of high quality research quickly, and at a relatively early stage in a research programme. Articles under 3000 words in length (including abstract but excluding references), and with a limit of 20 references, will be eligible for fast review, and fast-track publication. The quid pro quo will be that reviews will be light-touch, and little feedback will be given to rejected manuscripts. "Light-touch" here refers to the fact that reviewers will be asked to make categorical accept or reject decisions for manuscripts. Of course, the high standard of the Rapid Communications will reflect ground-breaking results without compromising their methodological rigour.
Decision process: Papers are normally sent out to at least two independent and anonymous reviewers. If authors wish their paper to be anonymous when reviewed, they should make this request to the editor and prepare their paper appropriately. The editor handling a paper may accept it outright, accept it subject to satisfactory revision, invite submission of a revised version without commitment, or reject the paper, with or without encouragement to submit a new paper when further work has been undertaken. The journal aims to reach an editorial decision within three months of receipt.
Submission of Revised Manuscripts: Please notify the action editor within four weeks of receiving a decision if you intend to submit a revised version of your manuscript. Please note that if you choose to re-submit your article to QJEP this must be done within 8 months of the decision date. Submission after this date will be considered to be a new submission.
Publication: Accepted papers are ordinarily selected for publication in an order determined by the date of receipt of an acceptable version of the manuscript, which is printed at the end of the paper, together with the original date of submission. Most papers will first appear online, as part of the Journal's i-First service.
Copyright - It is a condition of publication that authors assign copyright or license the publication rights in their articles, including abstracts, to Taylor & Francis. This enables us to ensure full copyright protection and to disseminate the article, and of course the Journal, to the widest possible readership in print and electronic formats as appropriate. Authors retain many rights under Taylor & Francis rights policy.
Format:
Manuscripts: The style and format of the typescripts should conform to the specifications given in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.).
Manuscripts should be submitted in Word.doc or PDF formats, typed throughout in double spacing, with adequate margins, and numbered throughout. British English spelling is required (including “-ize”, etc.) On acceptance of a manuscript, authors will be asked to provide a copy of their main text in MS Word format, with figures as separate high quality image files and tables as separate MS Word files.
The title page of an article should contain only:
(1) The title of the paper, the name(s) and address(es) of the author(s)
(2) A short title not exceeding 40 letters and spaces, which will be used for page headlines
(3) Name and address of the author to whom correspondence and proofs should be sent
(4) Your telephone, fax and e-mail numbers, as this helps speed of processing considerably.
Title: The title should be as concise as possible.
Abstract: An abstract of 50-200 words should follow the title page on a separate page.
Headings: Indicate headings and subheadings for different sections of the paper clearly. Do not number headings.
Acknowledgements: These should be as brief as possible and typed on a separate page at the beginning of the text.
Permission to quote: Any quote over six manuscript lines should have formal written permission to quote from the copyright owner. It is the author's responsibility to determine whether permission is required from the copyright owner and, if so, to obtain it. (See "Seeking permission to use other sources" for a template letter to use when seeking copyright permission.)
Footnotes: These should be avoided unless absolutely necessary. Essential footnotes should be indicated by superscript figures in the text and collected in a separate section at the end of the manuscript.
References:
Reference citations within the text. Use authors' last names, with the year of publication, e.g., “(Brown, 1982; Jones & Smith, 1987; White, Johnson, & Thomas, 1990)”. On first citation of references with three to five authors, give all names in full, thereafter use [first author] “et al.”. In the references, the first six authors should be listed in full.
If more than one article by the same author(s) in the same year is cited, the letters a, b, c, etc., should follow the year. If a paper is in preparation, submitted, or under review, the reference should include the authors, the title, and the year of the draft (the paper should also be cited throughout the paper using the year of the draft). Manuscripts that are “in press” should also include the publisher or journal, and should substitute “in press” for the date.
Reference list. A full list of references quoted in the text should be given at the end of the paper in alphabetical order of authors' surnames (or chronologically for a group of references by the same authors), commencing as a new page, typed double spaced. Titles of journals and books should be given in full, e.g.:
Books:
Rayner, E., Joyce, A., Rose, J., Twyman, M., & Clulow, C. (2008). Human development: An introduction to the psychodynamics of growth, maturity and ageing (4th ed.). Hove, UK: Routledge.
Chapter in edited book:
Craik, F. I. M., Naveh-Benjamin, M., & Anderson, N. D. (1998). Encoding processes: Similarities and differences. In M. A. Conway, S. E. Gathercole, & C. Cornoldi (Eds.), Theories of memory (Vol. 2, pp. 61-86). Hove, UK: Psychology Press.
Journal article:
Adlington, R. L., Laws, K. R., & Gale, T. M. (2009). The Hatfield Image Test (HIT): A new picture test and norms for experimental and clinical use. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 31, 731-753. doi:10.1080/13803390802488103
"(Table 2 about here)"
Figures: Figures should only be used when essential and the same data should not be presented both as a figure and in a table. Where possible, related diagrams should be grouped together to form a single figure. Each figure should be on a separate page, not integrated with the text. The figure captions should be typed in a separate section, headed, e.g., "Figure 2", in Arabic numerals. Instructions for placing the figure should be given in parentheses in the text, e.g., "(Figure 2 about here)".
For more detailed guidelines see Preparation of Figure Artwork.
"... results showed an effect of group, F(2, 21) = 13.74, MSE = 451.98, p < .001, but there was no effect of repeated trials, F(5, 105) = 1.44, MSE = 17.70, and no interaction, F(10, 105) = 1.34, MSE = 17.70."
Other tests should be reported in a similar manner to the above example of an F-ratio. For a fuller explanation of statistical presentation, see the APA Publication Manual (6th ed.).
Units: The Systeme Internationale (SI) will be used for all units. (If measures such as inches are used, then SI equivalents should be given.) If in doubt, refer to Quantities, Units and Symbols , published by the Royal Society, 6 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1 5 AG, UK.
Abbreviations: Abbreviations that are specific to a particular manuscript or to a very specific area of research should be avoided, and authors will be asked to spell out in full any such abbreviations throughout the text. Standard abbreviations such as RT for reaction time, SOA for stimulus onset asynchrony or other standard abbreviations that will be readily understood by readers of the journal are acceptable. Experimental conditions should be named in full, except in tables and figures.
AFTER ACCEPTANCE
The Production Process
Reprints
Corresponding authors will receive free online access to their article through our website, Taylor & Francis Online. Additional reprints of articles published in this journal can be purchased through Rightslink® when proofs are received. If you have any queries, please contact our reprints department at reprints@tandf.co.uk.
iOpenAccess
Authors whose manuscripts have been accepted for publication in certain journals have the option to pay a one-off fee to make their article free to read online via the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology website. Choosing this option also allows authors to post their article in an institutional or subject repository immediately upon publication.
- Further details on iOpenAccess
Visit our Author Services website for further resources and guides to the complete publication process and beyond.
