Practice in Clinical Psychology- Instruction for Authors
Instruction for Authors

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‎‎Practice in Clinical Psychology (PCP) accepts only manuscripts through the online submission system, thus by conducting all procedures electronically your submission will be done rather faster. The address of our website is: http://jpcp.uswr.ac.ir
  Once you submit an article, it will be forwarded to one of the editors and afterwards to at least two of the peer-reviewers. At once after submission, the author will be notified of both the submission process by means of email and the follow-up ID code.
 
COVER LETTER [required for original articles, review articles, case reports]
  This letter should be uploaded through online system as a word file. By an official letter corresponding author should state that:
  1. The manuscript has not been and will not be published elsewhere or submitted elsewhere for publication.
  2. To prevent the information on potential conflict of interest for authors from being overlooked or misplaced, mention this information in the cover letter.
 3. Ethics of experimentation/informed consent: the cover letter must include a statement declaring that the study complies with current ethical considerations. Authors reporting experimental studies on human subjects must include a statement of assurance in the materials and methods section of the manuscript reading that: (1) informed consent was obtained from each patient included in the study and (2) the study protocol conforms to the ethical guidelines of the 1975 declaration of Helsinki as reflected in a priori approval by the institutions human research committee. In studies involving animal experimentation, provide assurance that all animals received human care according to the criteria outlined in the “guide for the care and use of laboratory animals” prepared by the “National academy of sciences” and published by the “National institutes of Health” (NIH publication 86-23 revised 1985).
 
 
MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION
  To send electronically, manuscripts should be in word document (Microsoft word 97,2003,2007). Other details are mentioned bellow:
 
TYPE OF ARTICLES
‎‎Practice in Clinical Psychology publishes original articles, systematic review articles, meta- analyses, invited review articles, case reports, and letter to editors. The papers in all fields of clinical psychology which will assist the practitioners in making clinical decisions and psychologists to conduct basic research are welcomed.
 
WORD COUNT LIMITES
  These items show ‎‎Practice in Clinical Psychology word count limitation:
- Short articles: 1500-2000 words (maximum number of references is 20, maximum number of illustrations/tables is 2)
 - Original reports: 2500-3500 words (maximum number of references is 55, maximum number of illustrations/tables is 5)
- Review articles: 3500-4000 words (maximum number of references is 80, maximum number of illustrations/tables is 5)
- Case report: 1500-2000 words (maximum number of references is 20, maximum number of illustrations/tables is 2)
 - Figure legends (including multiple figure parts): 55-75 words
 - Acknowledgements (not including research funding): 45-55 words
 
FONTS
  To distinguish different parts of the article, it is recommended to use the font TIMES NEW ROMAN size 12 for the body, size 12 bold for sub-headings, size 14 for headings and size 14 bold for the title. 
 
TITTLE PAGE
  All the following should be clearly stated on the title page:
  · Title: choose a title that is long enough to cover the main points and by considering the importance of shortness. Only the first letter of the first word of each title and also abbreviations should be in upper case.
  · Author(s): full name of all authors should be mentioned.
  · Affiliation: author’s affiliation contains only department and university not author’s degree or position. Example: (name of department), (name of university), (city), (country).
  · Institution(s): all institutions should be written for each author.
  · Corresponding author: one of the authors should be pick out for possible correspondence before and after publication. Their address, telephone and fax number and email should be written.
  · Support: sources of any supports should be mentioned.
  · Running title: a shorter version of the title (40 characters at most) is needed for page footer.
  · Word counts: especially for long articles, it is necessary to mention the total number of words.
 
ABSTRACT AND KEYWORDS [required for original articles, review articles, case report]
  An abstract of 250-350 words should be provided to state the reason for the study, the main findings and the conclusions drawn from the observation.
  Abstract of original articles and brief reports should be structured under the following, headings: Objective, Methods, Results, and Conclusion. A list of 3-10 keywords must be provided for indexing purpose. All keywords should be provided according to MeSh terms at:
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/
 
ARTICLE BODY [especially required for original articles]
  The rest of the article differs according to the article type you are submitting but generally includes the following headings, background, objectives, materials/ patients and methods, results, discussion and references.
  · Background: This should summarize the purpose and the rationally for the study. It should neither review the subject extensively not should it have data or conclusions of the study.
  · Objectives: Author(s) should declare objective/aims of the study. 
  · Methods: This should include exact method or observation or experiment. If an apparatus is used, its manufacture’s name and address should be given in parenthesis. If the method is established, give reference but if the methods is new, give enough information so that another author is able to performed it. If a drug is used, its generic name, dose and route of administration must be given. Statistical method must be mentioned and specify any general computer program used.
  · Results: It must be presented in the form of text, tables and illustrations. The contents of the tables should not be all reported in the text. Instead, a reference to the tables number may be given. Long articles may need sub-headings within some sections (especial the results and discussion parts) to clarify their contents.
  · Discussion: This should emphasize the present findings and the variations or similarities with other work done in the field by other workers. The detailed data should not be repeated in the discussion again. Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them.
  It must be mentioned whether the hypothesis mentioned in the article is true, false or no conclusions can be derived. 
  · Acknowledgments: All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be covered in the acknowledgment section. It should include persons who provided technical help, writing assistance and departmental head that only provided general support. Financial and material supports should also be acknowledged.
  · Tables: All tables must be included at the end of the manuscript.
- Table in the WORD file should be separated by page break (each table in a separate page).
- Each table should have borders with normal style without any colored row or column.
- The style of table should be simple.
- Each cell contains only one paragraph or one line.
  · Figures: (Figures must be submitted as separate files)
- Authors should declare in the cover letter that all figures of their manuscripts are original, otherwise the original source of figures should be mentioned and reprint form must be uploaded in the attachments.
- Scanned graph or form other resources will not be accepted to publish.
- All line arts should be in the form of encapsulated postscript (.eps) power point (.ppt) or portable document format (.pdf). It is highly recommended that figures not be sent as TIF (.tiff) or JPG (.jpg) files. If you are unsure about this, please send to us the graph or its data in Microsoft excel format and we will convert it into eps or tif formats.
- All halftones should be in the form of tiff (.tif), jpeg (.jpg) png (.png) or Photoshop (.psd).
- Combination on halftone and text or line art elements should be in the form of encapsulated postscript (.eps) power. Point (.ppt) or portable document format (.pdf).
- Please scan all images in at least 300dpi. Most consumer scanners scan in sRGB by default. However, if you are using a high-end scanner then adobe RGB is recommended for optimum color depth. Color space should be in RGB.
- Image quality specification for line art (an image composed of lines and text which does not contain tonal or shaded areas) has resolution of 900 dpi, half one (a continuous tone photograph which contains no text) with 300 dpi and combination of both should have 500 dpi of resolution. 
- We will not accept any images with resolution below 300 dpi.
 
  Units, symbols, and abbreviations:
  Internationally accepted units (international system of units), symbols, and abbreviations must be used. Abbreviations should be used sparingly and must be introduced in parentheses upon first mention. Abbreviations that have meaning only within the context of the specific manuscript should be avoided. 
 
REFERENCES
‎‎Practice in Clinical Psychology accepts references according to a style based on APA style (with some minor changes). APA style, follows rules established by the international committee of medical journal editors. Writing references as an ENDNOTE files will be considered as an advantage when submitting a manuscript.
For more information on the journal reference guideline, please click here.

Highlights
In Highlights part, you have to provide a summary of the key points of your article in the form of BULLET. Highlights are three to five result-oriented points that provide readers with an at-a-glance overview of the main findings of your article. Think of them as a quick snippet of the results—short and sweet. Each Highlight must be 85 characters or fewer, including spaces, and the Highlights together must clearly convey only the results of the study.
Plain Language Summary
In this section, you have to provide a Plain Language Summary for the article in 200-300 words. Consider that Plain Language Summary is different from abstract and it has to be written for non-specialists. To provide it, consider the following points: 1. think about your audience (e.g. journalists, science-interested public), 2. Get rid of jargon, 3. Explain what the study is about. Remember, others will need more context about what you studied, 4. Explain what you found, 5. Explain why this matters. Discuss the importance of these findings not just in terms of their implications for your field but in terms of their relevance to the public.
 
Authors’ contribution
In this section, you have to provide the contributor role of each author on these divisions:
Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data Curation, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project Administration, Funding Acquisition.
The example below shows the Author Contributions:
Author Contributions: Conceptualization, Author names [A, B, C, or all authors]; Methodology, Author names [A, B, C, or all authors]; Investigation, Author names [A, B, C, or all authors]; Writing – Original Draft, Author names [A, B, C, or all authors]; Writing – Review & Editing, Author names [A, B, C, or all authors]; Funding Acquisition, Author names [A, B, C, or all authors]; Resources, Author names [A, B, C, or all authors]; Supervision, Author names [A, B, C, or all authors]
 
Ethical Considerations
‎‎Practice in Clinical Psychology (PCP) is committed to apply ethics of publication, based on the COPE’s Code of Conduct and Best Practices. Also, in medical studies, PCP has engaged to apply ethics of research, based on Declaration of Helsinki: Statement of Ethical Principles for Medical Research. In addition, PCP has promised to apply ethics of research, based on American Psychological Association’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, in psychological studies. So, the research’s ethical considerations must be addressed in the Materials and Methods section.  For more information on the journal’s ethical Principles, please refer to following links:
- PCP’s Principles of Publishing Ethics
- PCP’s Ethical Principles for Psychological Research
- PCP’s Ethical Principles for Medical Research
 
Plagiarism
‎‎Practice in Clinical Psychology (PCP) as a member of Negah Journals, has accepted all terms and conditions of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) on plagiarism. So, in any case of plagiarism, which is brought to the journal’s editors attention and accompanied with convincing evidence, we act based on flowcharts and workflows determined in COPE. Meanwhile, to detect and prevent plagiarism in the journal articles, all submissions will be checked with iTheticate software in both stages of submission and acceptance.
 
PEER-REVIEW PROCESS
  All submitted manuscripts are subject to peer review and editorial approval. Articles will be sent to at least three reviewers. The reviewers are always masked to the identity of the authors and their affiliation. Authors are usually notified within 1-2 months about the acceptability of their manuscript.
  Reviewers are selected based on their expertise within the topic area of the submission, and their purpose is to assist the authors and the journal by providing a critical reviewer of the manuscript. On receiving reviewer receiving reviewer comments, authors are requested to send the revised article, and a copy of their reply to the reviewers, including the comment and explaining the reply to the replies to questions and changes made to the revised version. Communication regarding a specific manuscript will take place between the journal and the designated corresponding author only.
For more information on the journal peer review process, please click here.
 
PROOF
  Proofs will be sent to the corresponding author. Galley proofs should be returned within 72 hours from receipt with clear indication of any changes.
 
Conflicts of Interest
‎‎Practice in Clinical Psychology (PCP) as a member of Negah Journals, published by Negah Institute for Scientific Communication, is committed to apply ICMJE recommendation on “Author Responsibilities—Conflicts of Interest” in authors’ conflict of interest issues. Authors should disclose, at the time of submission, information on financial conflicts of interest or other interests that may influence the manuscript. Authors should declare sources of funding for the work undertaken, too. So, completion and signing the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest is necessary for all authors and the articles submission won’t be accepted without filling this form.
 
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
  The content of the paper must justify its length. For reports of original investigative work, traditional division into sections is required. Title, keywords, address and which author address for correspondence, structured abstract, background, objectives, materials/patients and methods, results, discussion, references and acknowledgements, legends for display items (figures and tables).
 
SYSTEMATIC REVIEW/ META-ANALYSIS
  Authors should report systematic reviews and meta-analyses in accordance with the PRISMA (preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses) statement. For systematic reviews the abstract should be subdivided into the following sequential sections: background, objectives, search, strategy, selection criteria, data collection and analysis, main results, conclusions, and keywords. Systematic reviews are welcome. They should be critical assessments of current evidence covering a broad range of topics of concern to those working in the field of clinical psychology systematic reviews should be 4000- 5000 words (abstracts to be structured as above). N.B. For advice on writing systematic reviews consult: “the Cochrane reviewers hand book”.
  Meta-analysis of observational studies. A MOOSE checklist is required for meta-analysis of observational studies. 
 
REVIEW ARTICLE
  Only invited review articles will be accepted. In a review article both abstract and text of the manuscript, include following items:
- Context: include 1 or 2 sentences describing the clinical question or issue and its importance in clinical practice or public health.
- Evidence acquisition: describe the data sources used, including the search strategies, years searched, and other sources of material, such as subsequent reference searches of retrieved article. Explain the methods used for quality assessment and the inclusion of identified articles.
- Results: address the major findings of the review of the clinical issue or topic in an evidence-based, objective, and balances fashion, emphasizing the highest –quality evidence available.
- Conclusions: clearly state the conclusions to answer the questions posed if applicable, basing the conclusions on available evidence, and emphasize how clinicians should apply current knowledge.
 
BRIEF PERORT
  Report sorts should not exceed 1000 words and should contain a structured abstract of 200 words maximum. Short reports should comprise sections of introduction, materials & methods, results and discussion with not more than 2 tables or figures and up to 20 references.
 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
  Letters to the editor will be considered if they give significant comments on recent articles published in ‎‎Practice in Clinical Psychology or they contain relevant preliminary data providing new insights. Letters need no abstract and must cite the previous article in ‎ ‎‎Practice in Clinical Psychology that is binge discussed, and should have no more than 10 references.
 
CLINICAL CHALLENGE
Clinical challenges present a striking clinical image that is meant to challenge and inform readers and to illustrate and teach important medical points and the diagnosis and discussion should make an important medical teaching point. Clinical challenges need no abstract but should include up to 10 references.
 
PERMISSION TO REUSE
‎‎Practice in Clinical Psychology supports the exchange of information through the use of established procedures designed to expedite the granting of permissions for the use of material for professional purpose. It is not allowed to use any ‎ ‎‎Practice in Clinical Psychology trademarks or logos without prior written consent from ‎ ‎‎Practice in Clinical Psychology. The only permitted form of link is a text link on the ‎ ‎‎Practice in Clinical Psychology name.
  You can download permission to reprint copy righted material form: http://jpcp.uswr.ac.ir
 
 

Topic URL in Practice in Clinical Psychology website:
http://jpcp.uswr.ac.ir/find-1.66.19.en.html
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