Journal Guide

The mission of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied® is to publish original empirical investigations in experimental psychology that bridge practically oriented problems and psychological theory. The journal also publishes research aimed at developing and testing of models of cognitive processing or behavior in applied situations, including laboratory and field settings. Occasionally, review articles are considered for publication if they contribute significantly to important topics within applied experimental psychology. Areas of interest include applications of perception, attention, memory, decision making, reasoning, information processing, problem solving, learning, and skill acquisition. Settings may be industrial (such as human–computer interface design), academic (such as intelligent computer-aided instruction), forensic (such as eyewitness memory), or consumer oriented (such as product instructions).

The Journal of Experimental Psychology: General® publishes articles describing empirical work that bridges the traditional interests of two or more communities of psychology.The work may touch on issues dealt with in JEP: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, JEP: Human Perception and Performance, JEP: Animal Behavior Processes, or JEP: Applied, but may also concern issues in other subdisciplines of psychology, including social processes, developmental processes, psychopathology, neuroscience, or computational modeling.Articles in JEP: General may be longer than the usual journal publication if necessary.Brief reports will also be accepted (up to 3,000 words, excluding title, references, author affiliations, acknowledgments, figures and figure legends, but including the abstract). Brief reports will be rejected without review by editors at a higher rate than longer articles and the Journal will only accept the most innovative and significant empirical and theoretical contributions, with a preference for work that impacts more than one area of psychology.

The Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance® publishes studies on perception, control of action, perceptual aspects of language processing, and related cognitive processes. All sensory modalities and motor systems are within its purview.The journal also encourages studies with a neuroscientific perspective that contribute to the functional understanding of perception and performance.There are three types of articles: * Observations facilitate the rapid communication of ground-breaking research of general interest to readers of the journal. Observations are limited to 2,000 words in the main body of the text. A cover letter should explain why the research is appropriate to present as an Observation. * Reports consist of empirical studies that increase theoretical understanding of human perception and performance. Studies will typically include human data, although machine and animal studies that reflect on human capabilities may also be published. Should an author submit a full Report following an Observation, the relationship between the two manuscripts must be acknowledged in an author footnote. * Commentary may occasionally be published consisting of nonempirical reports, theoretical notes, or criticism on topics pertinent to the journal's concerns.

The Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition® publishes original experimental studies on basic processes of cognition, learning, memory, imagery, concept formation, problem solving, decision making, thinking, reading, and language processing.The journal emphasizes empirical reports, which may be either multi-experiment, integrative articles, or research reports. Research reports are limited to 3,000 to 5,000 words in length (including references, but excluding abstract and footnotes).The journal also publishes specialized reviews and other non-empirical reports, called observations, which are theoretical notes, commentary, or criticism on topics appropriate to the journal's content area. The journal will only consider commentaries on articles that were published in the journal. Observations are limited to a maximum of twenty pages of text all-inclusive. Commentaries on articles should be at maximum half the length of the target article.

The Journal of Occupational Health Psychology® publishes research, theory, and public policy articles in occupational health psychology, an interdisciplinary field representing a broad range of backgrounds, interests, and specializations. Occupational health psychology concerns the application of psychology to improving the quality of work life and to protecting and promoting the safety, health, and well-being of workers. The Journal has a threefold focus on the work environment, the individual, and the work–family interface. The Journal seeks scholarly articles, from both researchers and practitioners, concerning psychological factors in relationship to all aspects of occupational health and safety. Included in this broad domain of interest are articles in which work-related psychological factors play a role in the etiology of health problems articles examining the psychological and associated health consequences of work articles concerned with the use of psychological approaches to prevent or mitigate occupational health problems Special attention is given to articles with a prevention emphasis. Authors should consider the financial costs of identified problems and/or economic benefits of interventions they evaluate. Manuscripts dealing with issues of contemporary relevance to the workplace, especially with regard to minority, cultural, or occupationally underrepresented groups, or topics at the interface of the family and the workplace, are encouraged.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology® publishes original papers in all areas of personality and social psychology and emphasizes empirical reports, but may include specialized theoretical, methodological, and review papers.The journal is divided into three independently edited sections.Attitudes and Social Cognition addresses those domains of social behavior in which cognition plays a major role, including the interface of cognition with overt behavior, affect, and motivation.Among topics covered are the formation, change, and utilization of attitudes, attributions, and stereotypes, person memory, self-regulation, and the origins and consequences of moods and emotions insofar as these interact with cognition.Of interest also is the influence of cognition and its various interfaces on significant social phenomena such as persuasion, communication, prejudice, social development, and cultural trends.Interpersonal Relations and Group Processes focuses on psychological and structural features of interaction in dyads and groups.Appropriate to this section are papers on the nature and dynamics of interactions and social relationships, including interpersonal attraction, communication, emotion, and relationship development, and on group and organizational processes such as social influence, group decision making and task performance, intergroup relations and aggression, prosocial behavior and other types of social behavior.Personality Processes and Individual Differences publishes research on all aspects of personality psychology. It includes studies of individual differences and basic processes in behavior, emotions, coping, health, motivation, and other phenomena that reflect personality.Articles in areas such as personality structure, personality development, and personality assessment are also appropriate to this section of the journal, as are studies of the interplay of culture and personality and manifestations of personality in everyday behavior.

The Journal of Abnormal Psychology® publishes articles on basic research and theory in the broad field of abnormal behavior, its determinants, and its correlates. The following general topics fall within its area of major focus: psychopathology—its etiology, development, symptomatology, and course; normal processes in abnormal individuals; pathological or atypical features of the behavior of normal persons; experimental studies, with human or animal subjects, relating to disordered emotional behavior or pathology; sociocultural effects on pathological processes, including the influence of gender and ethnicity; and tests of hypotheses from psychological theories that relate to abnormal behavior. Theoretical papers of scholarly substance on abnormality may be appropriate if they advance understanding of a specific issue directly relevant to abnormal psychology and fall within the length restrictions of a regular (not extended) article. The priority is empirical papers. Each article should represent an addition to knowledge and understanding of abnormal behavior in its etiology, description, or change. In order to improve the use of journal resources, it has been agreed that the Journal of Abnormal Psychology will not consider articles dealing with the diagnosis or treatment of abnormal behavior, and the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology will not consider articles dealing with the etiology or descriptive pathology of abnormal behavior. Therefore, a study that focuses primarily on treatment efficacy should be submitted to the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. However, a longitudinal study focusing on developmental influences or origins of abnormal behavior should be submitted to the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

Journal closed. Law and Human Behavior, the official journal of the American Psychology-Law Society/Division 41 of the American Psychological Association, is a multidisciplinary forum for the publication of articles and discussions of issues arising out of the relationships between human behavior and the law, our legal system, and the legal process. This journal publishes original research, reviews of past research, and theoretical studies from professionals in criminal justice, law, psychology, sociology, psychiatry, political science, education, communication, and other areas germane to the field.

Neuropsychology publishes primarily original, empirical research on the relation between brain and human cognitive, emotional, and behavioral function. Sought are submissions of experimental, cognitive, behavioral, and neuroimaging research with implications for neuropsychological theory, research, and practice.Articles that increase understanding of neuropsychological functions in both normal and disordered states and across the lifespan are encouraged. Neuropsychology focuses on basic research as well as on applied, clinical research that will stimulate systematic experimental, cognitive, and behavioral investigations as well as improve the effectiveness, range, and depth of clinical practice. Theoretical reviews, meta-analyses, and case reports with heuristic value are also published.