INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

Psychological Topics publishes original empirical and theoretical articles, as well as review articles concerning scientific and applied psychology. The editorial board only accepts manuscripts in Croatian and English, that have not been published previously. All submissions will be peer reviewed by two independent reviewers.

Authors should submit their manuscripts in electronic form, after registering to http://www.pt.ffri.hr/index.php/pt/user/register and providing all the required data:

Several word-processing formats are accepted: Word document (preferred), OpenOffice, RTF and Wordperfect.

Text should be typed using the font Times New Roman 12 pt, and line spacing should be 1.5.

Pictures and tables should be placed at the end of the manuscript, integrated into Word Documnet (or OpenOffice, RTF and Wordperfect).

If you need assistance during manuscript submission please contact system administrator at: dsvegar@ffri.hr

Authors should follow the instructions from the last edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6thed., 2010.

Short instructions can be found at the following address http://www.psywww.com/resource/apacrib.htm

Very useful guide is available at http://flash1r.apa.org/apastyle/basics/index.htm

Manuscript layout

1. Original empirical and review articles

Articles, including summary, key words and attachments, should be between 5000 and 9000 words in length. Review articles should be up to 7000 words in length.

2. Brief reports

Brief report refers to a clear and concise presentation that can include brief original empirical research (without extensive elaboration), description of the development of new measuring instruments, standardization and validation of psychometric measures, case study report or evaluation of treatment, etc.
Brief reports should not exceed 3000 words in length, including summary, keywords and attachments. That form of manuscript could only include up to two tables or figures.

Articles should consist of the following parts (in this order):

1. Title Page

This part should contain full title of the article, name and surname of each contributor and their affiliation. Full postal and electronic address of the corresponding author should also be provided.

2. Abstract and Keywords

The manuscript must include an abstract containing maximum 250 words typed on a separate page. Abstracts should include the aim of the study, method, results and conclusions. After the abstract, 4 to 6 key words should be provided.

Also, an abstract in English should be included, as abstracts are indexed in PsychINFO, EBSCO (Academic Search Complete, Central & Eastern European Academic Source), Scopus, DOAJ, ProQuest (Academic Research Library, Research Library, Professional ProQuest Central).

3. Text

The text of empirical articles should contain following headings: Introduction, Method, Results and Discussion.

4. References

Literature should be cited in the following way (strictly adhering to the cursive):

Chapter in the book with more than one volume:

Nilsson, L.G., & Cohen, R.L. (1988). Enrichment and generation in the recall of enacted and non-enacted instructions. In M. Gruneberg, P. Morris, & R. Sykes (Eds.), Practical aspects of memory: Current research and issues (Vol. 1, pp. 117-182). London: Wiley.

Chapter in the book with only one volume:

Nilsson, L.G., & Cohen, R.L. (1988). Enrichment and generation in the recall of enacted and non-enacted instructions. In M. Gruneberg, P. Morris, & R. Sykes (Eds.), Practical aspects of memory: Current research and issues (pp. 117-182). London: Wiley.

Book:

Tulving, E. (1983). Elements of episodic memory. New York: Oxford University Press.

Article:

Aldwin, C.M., & Ravenson, T.A. (1987). Does coping help? Reexamination of the relation between coping and mental health. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53(2), 337-348.

Dissertation:

Robbins, R. J. (1994). An assessment of perceptions of parental autonomy support and control: Child and parent correlates. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation), Department of Psychology, University of Rochester. Rochester, NY, USA.

Reference citations within the text. Use author's last name, with the year of publication in parentheses (e.g. Nilsson and Cohen (1988) or (Nilsson & Cohen, 1988). On first citation of references with three to five authors, give all names in full, thereafter use first author "et al.". When the work has six or more authors cite only the surname of the first author, followed by et al. (Lewine et al., 2010).

Any direct quotation, regardless of length, must be accompanied by reference citation that includes a page number.

For further information, see the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th ed., 2010.

Tables and Figures

Tables and figures should be provided after the References section, followed by a separate page containing titles of the figures. Each table and figure should be placed on a separate page. Instructions for placing the tables and figures in the text should be given in parentheses in the text, e.g., (-Table 1 about here-).

Tables and figures should be numbered using Arabic numerals (e.g. Table 1., Table 2.). A title should be placed above each table. Tables should be without vertical lines and each column should have its own heading.

Figures should be placed within the Word document (OpenOffice, RTF or Word Perfect). All the elements in the figure should be large enough to facilitate legibility even when the figure has been reduced in order to conform to the format of the journal. Tables with values that are shown in the figures should also be provided on a separate page.

When the results of statistical analyses are presented in the Tables, the significance of statistical tests should also be given (e.g., if the mean value for more than one group of subjects is compared, F-ratio and asterisks signifying statistical significance should be presented in the last column). All numbers in the paper should generally be rounded to two decimal places.

Tables and figures should supplement information presented in the text, and in no way repeat it, and vice versa: it is not necessary to put all data in the text that have already been presented in Tables.

14 June 2012