About the Journal

Focus and Scope

Quaderns de Psicologia publishes original studies that cover a wide range of topics within psychology in general: empirical studies, critical reviews of the usual literature in any area of psychology and theoretic contributions, essays, commentaries and debates, preferably ones that discuss particularly controversial approaches with the goal of enhancing our understanding of psychology. The journal welcomes studies that address these topics using a variety of approaches and methods, both quantitative and qualitative. To fulfil its mission, the journal may include the following sections:

a) Research
b) Research notes
c) Critical reviews
d) Letters
e) Reviews
f) Monographic issues

The journal comes out every six months.

Peer Review Process

Quaderns de Psicologiais a refereed journal. All the articles are reviewed by at least two evaluators.

As a general rule, the evaluators shall be members of the Editorial Board and/or the Advisory Board. When the topic of the article requires, submissions may also be sent for revision to an expert in the field of the proposed article.

Authors may propose the names of three people to act as potential reviewers of their texts. This does not obligate the Editorial Board to accept their proposals, nor shall this be construed as casting doubt on the blind evaluation procedure. The full name, email address and institutional affiliation of each proposed reviewer must be included.

The updated cumulative list of all ad hoc external evaluators shall appear in each issue.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate free access to its contents under the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

This is an open access journal licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License from vol. 17 no. 1 (2015).

Editorial Policy

Quaderns de Psicologia wants to remain a high-quality general journal in the field of psychology. To accomplish this, it particularly seeks works with the following characteristics:

- Articles or groups of articles that present the results of theoretically-oriented empirical research;

- Articles or groups of empirical and/or theoretical articles that examine topics of interest for researchers in more than one speciality or area of psychology, or that examine subjects or problems found at the interface between different specialities or areas within psychology;

- Articles or groups of articles related to new areas, theories or methodologies, or which entail extensions or integrations of existing areas, theories or methodologies;

- Critical reviews that assess the work underway in a given area of psychology and present proposals for future research;

- Articles or groups of articles that examine the history of psychology;

- Brief reports that outline the results of research or make theoretical contributions;

- Interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary studies in which the contribution of psychological theory or practice is evident;

- Essay-style reviews, especially when the review offers new analyses (such as meta-analyses) or a new theory, or pinpoints new implications for psychological research or practice.

Invited articles

Invited articles must contain the launch or update of a significant theory or an important new discovery. Their main characteristic of these articles, however, is that they must foster debate; therefore, commentaries from renowned experts may also be published along with the article. Anyone interested in writing an article of this kind should get in touch with the editor to outline their reasons. If the editor issues the invitation, the article will be reviewed following the usual procedure. These articles shall be approximately 7,000 words in length, and the possible commentaries accompanying them should not exceed 1,000 words. The commentaries may appear in the same issue or in subsequent issues. Between one and two articles of this kind may be published per year.

Monographic issues

All or some of the articles in a given issue may revolve around a specific topic. The articles may be promoted either by a researcher or directly by the Editorial Board. An associate editor of the journal shall oversee the process, and the articles shall be evaluated following the usual procedure. When several thematic articles are accepted for publication, they shall appear as a special theme and shall come with a brief editorial introduction or a commentary, if suitable. A distinction shall be made between a "monographic issue", in which all the articles in the issue are on a single topic, and a "portfolio", when only some of the articles in a given issue share the same theme. In this case, they shall be highlighted in the table of contents.

Reviews

Reviews shall consist of an essay on more than one book by one or several authors, on a series of works by a single author or on a detailed critique of a specific work. These essays shall be evaluated in order to guarantee their quality and ensure that they have a higher impact. Proposed reviews shall be submitted to the editor of the corresponding section.

Internationalisation

Quaderns de Psicologia is an international journal that seeks an audience of readers all over the world. To accomplish this, it publishes works in different languages (see the journal's language policy). Therefore, it encourages authors from all over the world to submit articles or suggest monographic themes.

Statement on publication ethics and misconduct

The Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) is committed to the promotion of ethical conduct in the publication of its journals, and draws on the principles published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (http://publicationethics.org).

The UAB considers it essential that all parties involved in the process of providing material for its journals - editors, reviewers and authors- abide by the principles below.

The Publisher

The publisher will:

• define its relationship with the editor, and other parties, with a written contract.
• support editorial independence
• respect confidentiality
• protect intellectual property
• maintain the integrity of published content
• publish content in a timely manner

Editors

• Decision on publication of manuscripts: The responsibility for the decision to accept a submisson for publication rests with the Editor. The Editor will make their decision after due consultation with independent reviewers and, where appropriate, the editorial board.  Editors will accept or reject submissions in accordance with their scholarly quality, originality, relevance, and clarity.
• Appeal: Editors will provide means for appealing editorial decisions. Editors will also provide complete and up-to-date guidelines on authors' responsibilities and the requirements of papers submitted to the journal.
• No discrimination: The editor will review submitted manuscripts without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, country of origin, citizenship or political orientation of the authors.
• Confidentiality: Editors will not disclose to third parties information about submitted manuscripts. Likewise, they will guarantee the anonymity of reviewers and authors throughout the peer review process.
• Conflict of interest and disclosure: Editors will not use the results of manuscripts for their personal benefit without the explicit consent of authors.
• Recognition of errors: Editor will publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies if needed.
• Quality: Editors will solicit the views of authors, reviewers, and editorial board in making improvements to the editorial process.

Authors

• Author of the text: Authors must sign their manuscripts. In case of co-authorship, the author who sends the manuscript must explicitly state that the names of all authors appear on the submission, and that they have approved the final version to be submitted to a UAB journal.
• Preparation: In preparing the document for submission, authors should follow the rules of The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA).
• Responsibility: Authors are responsible for the content of their manuscript.
• Originality and plagiarism:  Authors will declare that their manuscript is entirely original, and that they have credited any use of the ideas of others.
• Access and data retention: Authors must clarify, at the request of the editor, the sources of data on which their research is based. Authors  will retain these data for a reasonable period after publication and may be published if required.
• Multiple, repetitive or conflicting publications: Authors will not submit articles that have the same content to more than one journal simultaneously.
• Conflict of interest and disclosure: Authors will explicitly state that there is no conflict of interest affecting the results and interpretations of their research. Authors will indicate the sources of funding for the research, if applicable. Authors should also state whether the work is part of a larger project.
• Errors in the published articles: In the event that an author identifies a significant error in a published article, he/she must inform the Editor of the journal and provide all necessary information to correct it.

Reviewers

• Blind review: Journals will adopt the double-blind review system. This procedure will help editors and editorial boards to make impartial decisions about manuscript.
• Respect for deadlines: Once a reviewer has accepted an invitation to review a manuscript, they will respect the Editor's deadline for the receipt of the review. If they cannot respect an agreed deadline, they must notify the Editor well in advance.
• Confidentiality: Manuscripts submitted for review are considered confidential and, therefore, reviewers should not discuss them with third parties without the consent of editors.
• Objectivity: The review will be conducted objectively. Personal judgments about authors should be avoided. The statements of reviewers should be appropriate and well-founded.
• Bibliographical information: If the reviewer considers that authors have omitted key works in their manuscripts, the reviewers will provide accurate bibliographic data on such works.
• Similarity and overlap: Reviewers will notify the editors of the similarities of the manuscript with other work.
• Conflict of interest and disclosure: Any information produced during the review process will be considered confidential and will not be used for personal purposes. If the review involves a potential conflict of interest, the reviewer will inform the Editor.

Publication frequency

Since 2015, Quaderns de Psicologia is published three times a year, appearing in the months of April, August and December.

Publication Fees

Since the publication costs for Quaderns de Psicologia are covered by the editing university internal budgets, authors do not need to pay an article-processing charge (APC) and no waivers are offered.

Sponsors

• Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona