Submissions
Psichologija
Submissions
Login or Register to make a submission.

Submission Preparation Checklist

All submissions must meet the following requirements.

  • The manuscript has not been published or submitted elsewhere and is not under consideration by any other journal.
  • All the authors who contributed to the manuscript are indicated.
  • Article style and bibliographic references meet the requirements of the Psichologija Journal.
  • The manuscript is uploaded in Open Office, Microsoft Work or RFT formats.

Author Guidelines

The Editorial Board of the journal Psichologija accepts empirical research, analytical surveys, brief reports, and theoretical articles on various topics written in Lithuanian or English. In addition, the journal contains a section on Psychology for practice, where the works overview the scientific achievements and practical applications of some specialized fields. This rubric might be replaced by academic reviews of significant works in psychology. Hence the Editorial Board encourages the authors to submit texts of this sort. Psichologija also accepts Brief Reports (in English only).

General requirements

Papers introducing empirical research must be written under the following structure:

Title. Provide a concise and informative title.

Abstract. Present the essence and value of the study and should appear in a paragraph format, not exceeding 250 words.  The abstracts should be provided in Lithuania and English. At the request of the authors, the Editorial  Board may propose options for translating the abstract into Lithuanian.

When writing an abstract, you should focus on the following:

  • what your research is about;
  • what methods and procedures have been used;
  • what are the research findings/results.

Keywords. Present 3 to 5 keywords separated by commas that reflect the main aspects of the study. When selecting the keywords, put yourself in the mindset of someone searching for articles on your topic. The keywords can be listed in any order. Do not use a period or other punctuation after the last keyword.

The main text. The structure may vary, depending on the specifics of a study. However, empirical studies typically should include (but not be limited to) sections of 1)  introduction, where the problem, goals and hypothesis of research are formulated; 2) methodology, consisting of descriptions of a) participants; b) tasks and methods of evaluation; c) research process; 3) results; 4) discussion of results; 6) list of references (follow APA guidelines). Each part of the paper shall be titled and separated. Names of sub-sections of methodology should not be written in a separate line.

References. Please use APA referencing style.

Appendices (if needed). They are used to provide any helpful additional information (measurement scales, important calculations, etc.). If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. or else submitted as supplementary files.

Style guidelines

Length of the Text. A typical paper for this journal should be no more than 40 000 characters (including spaces), including the abstract, tables, references, figure captions, endnotes. The minimum length – 10 000 characters. Papers to be published should be supplemented with an abstract no longer than 250 words in Lithuanian and English.

Fonts. Use Times New Roman font in size 12 with 1,5 line spacing.

Margins. Margins at 1"/2.5 cm on all sides of the A4 format page.

Title. Centre and use bold for your article title, with Title Case Heading.

Headings. 

  • First-level headings (e.g. Introduction, Conclusion) should be centred in bold, Title Case Heading. The text begins as a new paragraph.
  • Second-level headings should be flushed left in bold, Title Case Heading. The text begins as a new paragraph.
  • Third-level headings should be flushed left in bold, italic, Title Case Heading. The text begins as a new paragraph.
  • Fourth-level headings should be avoided. If their use is justified, fourth-level headings should be indented in bold, Title Case Heading, at the beginning of a paragraph. The text follows immediately after a full stop (full point) or another punctuation mark.
  • Fifth-level headings should be avoided. If their use is justified, fifth-level headings should be indented in bold italic, Title Case Heading, at the beginning of a paragraph. The text follows immediately after a full stop (full point) or another punctuation mark.

Requirements for text design

If the article is submitted in English, all requirements of the latest edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association must be followed. If the article is written in Lithuanian, the requirements of the aforementioned publication must be followed by submitting statistical data analysis, tables, pictures, quoting and making a list of literature. Also, when submitting an article in Lithuanian, you must refer to these instructions and the general spelling rules of the Lithuanian language.

Descriptions of statistical analysis

Descriptions of statistical analysis must contain all the information necessary for the reader to understand what sort of analysis was carried out and what kind of results are presented (it is recommended to provide the test statistics, degrees of freedom, effect size, if needed – confidence intervals). It is also desirable that the text contains information (i.e., mean, standard deviation, correlations) that would allow readers interested or concerned with meta-analysis to verify the provided analysis or recalculate the effect sizes. The notation of statistical criteria should meet the requirements of the latest edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (e.g., mean shall be designated as M or x̄). It is not necessary to provide a table for each analysis performed. Some results can be included in the text.

Tables

You must obtain permission to use any tables or figures you are reproducing from another source before you submit. Tables should present new information rather than duplicating what is said in the text. Readers should be able to interpret the table without reference to the text, but ensure you refer to each table in the text. The table caption should be placed above it, while table notes, specific notes or probability notes (if needed) should be placed below it. When including multiple tables, consistency in presentation is advised. Please note that colour, shading, and grids are not compatible with the final layout of the table in the published article. Please also add notes explaining any acronyms or abbreviations in table titles or column headings. For numbers, use as many decimal places as appropriate for your purposes. This number should be consistent throughout the column or the table, if possible. Please ensure that spelling, punctuation and reference style within tables are consistent with the rest of the text (unless reproduced from another source).

Numbers

Number all tables with Arabic numerals sequentially. Do not use suffix letters (e.g. Table 3a, 3b, 3c); instead, combine the related tables. If the manuscript includes an appendix with tables, identify them with capital letters and Arabic numerals (e.g. Table A1, Table B2). Table number (e.g., Table 1) appears above the table title in bold font left aligned. Number tables in the order in which they are mentioned in your paper. The table title appears italic.

For more detailed instructions for tables, please see APA style.

Figures

Just like tables, figures should be made as self-explanatory as possible, be referenced and explained or be commented upon in the text. A figure's message and its readability are the ultimate criteria. Avoid the temptation to use any special effects just for its sake. Line drawings are usually a good option to achieve readability and simplicity; for photographs, high contrast between the background and focal point is important, as well as cropping out extraneous detail to help the reader focus on the important aspects of the photo. All figures that are part of the main text require a number using Arabic numbers (Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.). Numbers are assigned based on the order in which figures appear in the text and are bolded and left-aligned. The figure number (e.g., Figure 1) appears above the figure title and image in bold font left-aligned. Number figures in the order in which they are mentioned in your paper. Figure name appears in italics.

Figures should be high quality (1200 dpi for line art, 600 dpi for grayscale and 300 dpi for colour, at the correct size). Figures should be supplied in one of our preferred file formats: EPS, PS, JPEG, TIFF or Microsoft Word (DOC or DOCX).

For more detailed instructions for figures, please see APA requirements.

Funding details. Please supply all details required by your funding and grant-awarding bodies as follows:
For single agency grants
This work was supported by the [Funding Agency] under Grant [number xxxx].

For multiple agency grants
This work was supported by the [Funding Agency #1] under Grant [number xxxx]; [Funding Agency #2] under Grant [number xxxx]; and [Funding Agency #3] under Grant [number xxxx].

Disclosure statement. This is to acknowledge any financial interest or benefit that has arisen from the direct applications of your research.

Spelling and punctuation. Please see a detailed instruction for spelling and punctuation (https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples).

Note. Any spelling style (UK, US) is acceptable as long as it is consistent within the manuscript.

References

All sources mentioned in the article must be reflected in the bibliography; this list includes only the authors mentioned in the text. The list of sources is presented in alphabetical order; it should not exceed 50 positions. If the article has a DOI index, it must be cited. References inside the text are handled according to the requirements of the latest edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 

When citing different publications of the same author published in the same year, letters a, b, c, etc., should be added after the year of publication (e.g., Smith, 2003a, 2003b ). In case there are a few sources of more than two authors and the name of the first author and the year coincide, then citing that source for the second and subsequent times it is necessary to specify so many authors that it is possible to distinguish between these sources, followed by et al. (e.g., Brown, Jones et al., 2013, Brown, Smith et al., 2013). When an exact quotation of another author is cited, the source and page number shall be indicated (e.g., Smith, 2003, p. 22). When citing a secondary source, it shall also be indicated (e.g., “according to Allport (as cited in Nicholson, 2003)”). References can only be spelled using the Latin alphabet. The names are written in the text without initials, in original form. These instructions are provided only for the most common cases. When dealing with other types of references or quotes, please refer to the latest edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

The procedure of Submission and Peer-Review

All papers must be submitted via the online submission system. Please make sure that you provide all the required information.

Every paper is evaluated by two reviewers chosen by the Editorial Board. Referees receive versions without information about the author. Reviews are then presented to the authors (without revealing the names of the referees). If the reviews are favourable, the authors are expected to revise the papers according to the suggestions and provide a written explanation of how the suggestions were considered. The Editorial Board, having received the revised papers and written responses to reviews, if needed, may request the referees to evaluate the papers one more time before making the final decision to publish the paper.

Requirements for Brief Reports

Psichologija accepts brief empirical reports written in English only. However, we kindly ask you to provide the title, abstract and keywords in Lithuanian too. In case you need assistance, please contact Executive Secretary. Brief reports aim to stimulate further research in the field. Brief reports are relatively short and are useful for scientists with time-sensitive results (for example, those in highly competitive or quickly changing fields). Psichologija encourages original and significant empirical contributions, with a preference for work that impacts a certain psychology topic, demonstrates the results' reliability, represents preliminary findings, or is conducted in small samples.

The following types of studies usually are appropriate for a brief report:

  • Replication or extension of a previously published study. A replication is repeating the same method with a different sample. Replications may be direct, or they may be conceptual. The brief report could include single or multiple replications. Reproductions of results using the same data as it was already published are not acceptable.
  • Executive summary of a large study or group of studies (for example, multiple studies from a grant).
  • Research that has an original empirical contribution but is smaller or narrower in scope than a full article.

Brief study reports are reviewed in the usual way.

Length. Brief reports should be no longer than 3000 words, including abstract, tables, figure captions, references. In addition, they should have no more than 3‒4 tables and/or figures (data in the text should not be repeated extensively in tables or figures). If your brief report is longer, you will need to submit it as a Full Article.

The brief empirical report should follow a standard format:

Title. The title of the brief report should be less than 150‒300 characters, including spaces.
Abstract. Abstracts should be up to 250 words long and provide a summary of the article, unstructured. Citations should not be used in the abstract. Abbreviations, if needed, should be spelt out.
Keywords. Authors should provide up to five relevant keywords that describe the subject of the report.
Introduction. Brief introduction to the problem or issue under consideration (literature review). A context, objective, or background for the study should be provided while describing the study question or hypothesis. Only directly related references should be provided. There should be enough information for the general reader to understand the scope of the report.
Methods. Presentation of the methodological part of the research. The methods section should include information on methods, materials, and procedures in sufficient detail such that the study can be repeated and/or validated. Information about participants, instruments must be provided, and any technical information should be provided as well.
Results. Brief description of the results. Results must be presented in a logical sequence in the text, tables, and illustrations, giving the main or most important findings. Do not repeat the data in the tables or illustrations in the text. In the case of replication or extension, a comparison of the results of the two studies (they may be related to the preliminary study with methodological information) should be included.
Discussion/Conclusions. A concise summary, but no wide-ranging discussion. The new and important aspects of the study should be emphasized and the conclusions that follow from them. It could have implications for policy and practice stated in bulleted format, if relevant.
References. 20 or less.

The average time from submission until the first decision is 45 days.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.