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Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

Manuscript Submission Guidelines

General Rules and Guidelines

Original articles: As stated on the Policies page, only original manuscripts should be submitted. Manuscripts that have been previously published or are forthcoming in an archival journal or book (print or electronic) are not eligible for submission. Manuscripts that under currently review at another journal (electronic or print) are also not eligible for submission. Please note: "publication" in a working-paper series does not constitute prior publication.

Suitability of Manuscripts

The Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences will publish content in the following domains as long as the articles are (a) theoretically-based, (b) clearly address gaps/limitations in the scientific literature, and (c) are multi- or inter-disciplinary in scope or have implications that are multi- or inter-disciplinary. Narrowly focused manuscripts, manuscripts that do not address advance science, manuscripts that are not grounded in theory, or manuscripts that do not include clear multi- or inter-disciplinary implications will not be accepted for review.

Suitable Content Domains

  • Interdisciplinary/Multidisciplinary: Includes scholarly activities that are collaborative in nature and that integrate the analytical strengths of two or more disparate scientific disciplines to solve a given research and social problem.
  • Social Sciences: Includes scholarly activities involving the relationships between individual society members and the larger social and societal context. Domains include Public Policy, Public Administration, Criminal Justice, Political Science, Criminal Justice, Anthropology, and Sociology.
  • Behavioral Sciences: Includes empirically-oriented and theoretically-based activities that involve the study of the actions and reactions of humans and animals through non-experimental and experimental methods: Domains include Psychology, Social Neuroscience, and Cognitive Science.
  • Health Sciences: Includes theoretically-based scholarly activities involving the study of human and animal health, the application of knowledge toward improving health, and health-care administration: Domains include Health Services, Public Health, Nursing, Pharmacology, Medicine, etc.

Types of articles:

  • Full-length empirical articles: No more than 10,000 words excluding title page, abstract, references, and appendices.
  • Brief empirical articles: No more than 5000 words excluding title page, abstract, references, tables, and appendices.
  • Integrative literature reviews: No more than 10,000 words excluding title page, abstract, references, and appendices. Lengthier reviews or meta-analyses will be considered at the discretion of the editors. An integrative literature review should include a synthesis that includes (a) the authors’ assessments of the current state of knowledge regarding the topic of interest, (b) critical assessments of the strengths and weaknesses of past research, and (c) the identification of limitations and gaps in the literature as well as directions for future research.
  • Scholarly essays: :This section is for non-research but scholarly and academic insights related to issues of social, behavioral, or health sciences. These essays can be reports of innovative practice, reports of new practice, or other scholarly writing about the fields of social, behavioral and health sciences. Such essays should be written in a scholar-practitioner voice that speaks to a knowledgeable audience. No more than 5,000 words (excluding references).
  • Book reviews: No more than 1000 words, not including title page, abstract, and references.

Student Work

  • Definition: Student work is defined as any work initiated and/or completed as part of any college or university’s degree requirements, and includes theses, dissertations, class-related projects/papers, and encompasses but is not limited to case studies, empirical studies, theoretical overviews, and comprehensive literature reviews. Only completed empirical studies (quantitative or qualitative) or integrated comprehensive literature reviews will be accepted for review.
  • Authorship: JSBHS strongly recommends that students work with faculty (as a co-author) in preparing their paper for submission to the journal. However, having a faculty member as a co-author is not required for publication. Please refer to the APA publication manual guidelines regarding determining authorship and order of authorship.
  • Acknowledgement: As per the APA Publication Manual, p. 25, student work must be acknowledged as such in an author note on the title page and include the institution and major professor associated with the work. An example of such an author note is as follows:
    This manuscript was completed in partial fulfillment of the Ph.D. requirements in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at the University of Albany, SUNY, under the direction of Kevin Williams, Ph.D.

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Submission Rules, Guidelines, and Required Files

Masked Review: All submitted manuscripts will be subject to masked review. To facilitate masked review, authors are requested to submit two versions of their document: an anonymous version and a non-anonymous version. The anonymous version should not include identifying information on the title page or anywhere else in the manuscript. The non-anonymous version should include ALL identifying information on the title page (see Title page below).

File format: All manuscripts should be submitted as a Microsoft™ .doc, docx. or .rtf file. Do not submit PDF files. All authors should crosscheck their references and citations and check for and insert DOI wherever they exist. The crossref site makes this easy: DOI checking site: https://doi.crossref.org/simpleTextQuery

Initial Submissions

Initial submissions must include the following:

  1. A cover letter (see below)
  2. An anonymous version of the manuscript
  3. A non-anonymous version of the manuscript
  4. Additional files as appropriate.

Note: the non-anonymous version of the manuscript and any additional files must be submitted as ‘supplemental’ content. Submissions will be returned if not accompanied by a non-anonymous version of the manuscript.

File Naming for Initial Submissions:

  1. Cover letter: cover letter.doc (or .docx)
  2. Anonymous version: anonymous.doc (or .docx)
  3. Non-anonymous version: First initial and last name of first author (only) followed by the date:
  • Example: vfortunato_2-1-13.doc (or .docx)

Subsequent submissions (these refer to invited submissions based on a previous editorial review)

Subsequent revisions must include the following:

  1. A cover letter (see below)
  2. An anonymous version of the manuscript
  3. A non-anonymous version of the manuscript
  4. Detailed response to reviewers.

File Naming for Subsequent Revision:

  1. Anonymous version: manuscript number followed by R1 (if first revision; R2 if second revision) followed by “anonymous”

    • Example: 1064R1_anonymous.doc

  2. Non-anonymous version: manuscript number followed by R1 (if first revision; R2 if second revision) followed by “non-anonymous”
  • Example: 1064R1_non-anonymous.doc

    • Cover letter: All cover letters must include the following information

    • Title of manuscript
    • Type of article (i.e., full-length empirical article, etc.)
    • Word count of manuscript
    • Statements indicating (a) adherence to the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (see APA, 2002) and (b) that proper Institutional Review Board approval was obtained for all data collection involving human and animal participants. Please specify the institution that approved the research.
    • Names, addresses, affiliations, and contact information of all authors.

    Detailed Response to Reviewers (applies only to invited revisions): A separate file is required that provides a detailed (point by point) response to all of the reviewers’ comments.

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    Formatting Requirements

    Authors are required to submit manuscripts with formatting consistent with the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.).

    • Manuscript submissions must be in English.
    • Page size should be 8.5 x 11-inches.
    • All margins (left, right, top and bottom) should be 1 inch (2.54 cm), including tables and figures.
    • Use a single column layout with both left justification.
    • All text should be double-spaced with no extra line spacing between paragraphs or between headers and paragraphs.
    • Indent the first line of all paragraphs ½ inch. Please use the tab or indent function of your word processor; do not use character spaces.
    • Do not insert extra space between paragraphs of text with the exception of long quotations, theorems, propositions, special remarks, etc. These should be set off from the surrounding text by additional space above and below. All text should be left-justified (i.e., flush with the left margin—except where indented).
    • Use page breaks, not line spaces, if starting material on a new page, such as tables.
    • Manuscript font type and size: Times New Roman 12pt Roman or the closest comparable serif font available.
    • Tables and figures should appear in the document near where they are referenced in the text. Do not split tables or figures across pages. Large tables or figures should be put on pages by themselves.
    • Copy edit your manuscript carefully prior to submission. Spell and grammar checkers should be utilized, but not relied on for their accuracy. Please be sure to proofread your manuscript before submission.

    Manuscript Elements: All elements should be consistent with the APA Publication Manual (7th ed.).

    Title page: The title page should include the following:

    • Title (no more than 12 words, if possible; no abbreviations)
    • Author names (only on non-anonymous version)
    • Author affiliations (only on non-anonymous version)
    • Author contact information (only on non-anonymous version)
    • Author notes (only on non-anonymous version)

    Abstract

    • The abstract should be no more than 200 words and clearly summarize the contents of the article.

    Body of Manuscript

    • Empirical articles should have clearly delineated sections including the Introduction, Method, Results, and Discussion. Use Level 1 headers for the above. Sub-sections should use Level 2 and Level 3 headers as appropriate.
    • Theoretical articles should have clearly delineated sections consistent with the content and organization of the manuscript.

    Tables

    • Tables should appear in the document near where they are referenced in the text. Do not split tables across pages. Large figures should be put on pages by themselves (use page breaks to format tables on their own page).
    • Orientation of tables or figures may be portrait or landscape depending on content of table.
    • Table font size should be Times New Roman 10pt or 12pt depending on density of content.
    • Font size for table notes should be Times New Roman 9 pt.
    • Tables should be listed Table 1, Table 2, etc., in order of their citation in the text.
    • Table titles should be italicized.

    Figures

    • Figures should appear in the document near where they are referenced in the text.
    • All figures should be put on their own pages. Do not split figures across pages.
    • Figures should of high quality, easily readable, and copy ready.
    • Each figure should be accompanied by a Figure Caption at the top of the page.
    • Figures should be listed Figure 1, Figure 2, etc., in order of their citation in the text.

    Footnotes

    • As per the APA Publication Manual 7th edition (p. 37-38), content footnotes should supplement or amplify information provided in the text and should not include complicated, irrelevant, or nonessential information.
    • A content footnote should convey just one idea.
    • Copyright permission footnotes acknowledge the source of lengthy quotations, scale and test items, and figures and tables that have been reprinted or adapted. Copyright permission footnotes for tables and figures are provided in the table note or in the figure caption (see p. 38 of the APA manual.
    • Number all footnotes consecutively in the order in which they appear in the manuscript.
    • Footnote numbers should be superscripted, following any punctuation mark except a dash.
    • Use the footnote function in your work-processing program to place each footnote at the bottom of the page on which it is discussed. Alternatively, footnotes may be placed in consecutive order on a separate page after the references. Be sure the footnote number corresponds with the appropriate text discussion.
    • Footnotes placed at the bottom of the page should be in 10 pt font, single spaced and be preceded by a footnote number corresponding to the footnote number cited in the body of the manuscript. Excessively long footnotes are probably better handled in an appendix.

    References

    • References must conform to standards set by the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). Authors will be required to ensure their manuscripts conform to this style upon final submission if accepted. Please refer directly to the Publication Manual for specific guidance on citing peer reviewed sources, books, electronic sources, etc.

    Permissions

  • Authors are required to obtain written permission for the use of any table, figure, or extensive text extract (more than 50 words) from a source that is owned or copyrighted by a party other than the author. This requirement pertains to both direct reproduction and derivative reproduction when the author has created a new table or figure that was derived substantially from a copyrighted source. A statement of permission must be included in the Figure Caption (for a Figure) or in a Note (for a Table). A copy of the publisher’s written permission must be provided to the editor immediately upon acceptance for publication.

Ethics Approvals

  • Where applicable, manuscripts must contain acknowledgement of institutional review board approval for the study. Appropriate credit must also be given (on the title page, in the form of an author note) to funding sources for sponsored research.

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Additional Considerations

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is defined as the use of intellectual material produced by another person without acknowledging its source, which includes:

  • copying passages from works of others without acknowledgment;
  • Using the views, opinions, or insights of another without acknowledgment;
  • Paraphrasing another person’s characteristic or original phraseology, metaphor, or other literary device without acknowledgment.
    • Authors are encouraged to review their manuscripts carefully for potential plagiarism. Previous published work used by the author must be appropriately cited as such consistent with citation requirements.

Language & Grammar
All submissions must be in English. The use of foreign words and phrases should be avoided (if they are used, they must be clearly defined). Authors should use proper, standard English grammar. The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White (now in its fourth edition) is the "standard" guide, but other excellent guides (e.g., The Chicago Manual of Style, University of Chicago Press) exist as well. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed) provides detailed guidance on grammar and style as well.

Acronyms
Acronyms should be avoided unless it is a commonly recognized acronym, such as IQ, or when used to shorten the names of the instruments used to measure constructs, such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI).

Colored text
Set the font color to black for the majority of the text. We encourage authors to take advantage of the ability to use color in the production of figures, maps, etc., however, you need to appreciate that this will cause problems for some of your readers when they print the document on a black and white printer. For this reason, you are advised to avoid the use of colors in situations in which their translation to black-and-white would render the material illegible or incomprehensible. Please ensure that there are no colored mark-ups or comments in the final version, unless they are meant to be part of the final text. (You may need to "accept all changes" in track changes or set your document to "normal" in final markup.)

Emphasized text
Use italics to indicate text you wish to emphasize rather than underlining it or setting it in quotations. The use of color and underlining to emphasize text is discouraged.

Foreign terms
Foreign terms should be set in italics rather than underlined.

Main text
The font for the main body of text must be black and consistent with font and size guidelines provided above.

Titles
Titles of books, movies, etc., should be set in italics rather than underlined.

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