Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology^®

Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology^® publishes advances in translational and interdisciplinary research on psychopharmacology, broadly defined, and/or substance abuse.

The scope of research in these areas continues to expand and to benefit from collaborations across a broad range of disciplines, including behavioral science, biochemistry, brain imaging, genetics, medicine, neuroendocrinology, neuroscience, and pharmacology.

The overall goal of Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology is to provide a forum for high-quality, innovative preclinical and clinical research that advances our understanding of the behavioral and biological determinants of the effects of centrally acting drugs.

The journal publishes original reports and brief communications on the development and evaluation of pharmacotherapies for a range of mental health diagnoses, the influence of genetics and hormones on responses to psychoactive drugs, the pharmacological management of pain, and brain imaging studies of the neural correlates of psychoactive drug effects.

Rigorous preclinical and human laboratory studies, as well as controlled clinical trials of novel interventions, relevant to psychopharmacology and/or substance abuse, are particularly encouraged. The journal recommends that all submissions consider relevant biological variables (e.g., age, animal strain, sex) that may influence outcomes in study design and statistical analyses.

When appropriate (e.g., to provide initial clinical documentation of an emerging issue or topic in psychopharmacology and/or substance abuse), the journal will publish case reports. Case reports are expected to be thoughtful and thorough with attention paid to underlying etiology, behavioral, clinical, and laboratory findings. Any hypotheses should be supported by data and extant literature.

The journal will also include integrative reviews, both full and brief, of advances in research on psychopharmacology and/or substance abuse. Full reviews should provide a broad perspective on a particular area of research or trace the development of critical concepts and experimental approaches. Brief reviews should provide a scholarly perspective on a circumscribed topic or a novel area that has a relatively small number of relevant research studies to consider. It is recommended that authors contact the editor prior to review preparation regarding suitability for the journal.

Each year, the journal will recognize individuals who are recipients of awards from APA Division 28 (Psychopharmacology and Substance Abuse). Awardees will be invited to submit a full or brief review paper based on their award-winning research contributions.

Incoming (2018) Editorial Board

(handling all new submissions in 2017)

Incoming (2018) Editor

William W. Stoops
University of Kentucky College of Medicine

Incoming (2018) Consulting Editors

Warren K. Bickel (Editor Emeritus)
Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute

Ziva D. Cooper
Columbia University Medical Center

Paul Czoty
Wake Forest University School of Medicine

Richard De La Garza II
Baylor College of Medicine

Don C. Des Jarlais
Mount Sinai Hospital

Kelly E. Dunn
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Suzette M. Evans (Editor Emeritus)
Columbia University Medical Center

Charles P. France
University of Texas

Cassandra Gipson-Reichardt
Arizona State University

Colleen A. Hanlon
Medical University of South Carolina

Keith G. Heinzerling
University of California, Los Angeles

Matthew W. Johnson
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Jermaine Jones
Columbia University Medical Center

David Kearns
American University

Adam M. Leventhal
University of Southern California

Joshua A. Lile
University of Kentucky

Wendy J. Lynch
University of Virginia

Cecile A. Marczinski
Northern Kentucky University

Eileen M. Martin
Rush University Medical Center

Sterling McPherson
Washington State University Elson S Floyd College of Medicine

Scott J. Moeller
Mount Sinai Hospital

S. Steven Negus
Virginia Commonwealth University

Sara Jo Nixon
University of Florida

Matthew Pearson
University of New Mexico

Adam Joseph Prus
Northern Michigan University

Stacey C. Sigmon
University of Vermont

Mark A. Smith
Davidson College

Catherine Stanger
Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

Michael Taffe
The Scripps Research Institute

Jennifer Tidey
Brown University

---

Outgoing Editorial Board

(handling invited revisions only in 2017)

Outgoing Editor

Suzette M. Evans
Columbia University Medical Center and the New York State Psychiatric Institute

Outgoing Consulting Editors

Michael T. Amlung
McMaster University

Justin J. Anker
University of Minnesota

Robert L. Balster
Center for the Study of Tobacco Products, Virginia Commonwealth University

Warren K. Bickel (Editor Emeritus)
Addiction Recovery Research Center, Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute

Thomas H. Brandon
Health Outcomes & Behavior, Moffitt Cancer Center

Cynthia A. Conklin
University of Pittsburgh

Donald M. Dougherty
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

Stephen T. Higgins
University of Vermont

Leonard L. Howell
Emory University

Andrew J. Jones
University of Liverpool

Hendree E. Jones
University of North Carolina School of Medicine

Marc J. Kaufman
McLean Imaging Center, McLean Hospital

Mikhail N. Koffarnus
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Henry R. Kranzler
Center for Studies of Addiction, University of Pennsylvania

Anthony Liguori
Lakeland University

John E. McGeary
Brown University Medical School, Rhode Island Hospital and Providence VA Medical Center

Robert Miranda Jr.
Brown University

S. Stevens Negus
Virginia Commonwealth University

Patrick D. Quinn
Indiana University

Stephanie C. Reed
New York State Psychiatric Institute

Brady Reynolds
University of Kentucky

Stacey Sigmon
University of Vermont

Mark A. Smith
Davidson College

Roger D. Spealman
Preclinical Pharmacology Laboratory, Harvard Medical School

Catherine Stanger
Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

Dace S. Svikis
Virginia Commonwealth University

Sharon L. Walsh
University of Kentucky

Jessica Weafer
University of Chicago

Cora Lee Wetherington
National Institute on Drug Abuse

Richard Yi
University of Florida

Abstracting and indexing services providing coverage of Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology^®

• BIOSIS Previews
• Cabell's Directory of Publishing Opportunities in Psychology
• Chemical Abstracts
• Educational Research Abstracts Online
• Embase (Excerpta Medica)
• Journal Citations Report: Social Sciences Edition
• MEDLINE
• OCLC
• PsycINFO
• PsycLine
• SafetyLit
• Science Citation Index Expanded
• SCOPUS
• Social Sciences Citation Index
• Studies on Women and Gender Abstracts

Prior to submission, please carefully read and follow the submission guidelines detailed below. Manuscripts that do not conform to the submission guidelines may be returned without review.

Submission

Beginning April 2012, the completion of the Author Checklist (PDF, 36KB) that signifies that authors have read this material and agree to adhere to the guidelines is now required. The checklist should follow the cover letter as part of the submission, or it can also be inserted into the manuscript file itself. Submissions lacking the checklist will be returned to the author as incomplete.

Submit manuscripts electronically through the Manuscript Submission Portal (.doc/.docx or .rtf format).

Submissions mailed to the editorial office will not be processed.

General correspondence may be directed to:

William W. Stoops, PhD, Editor
University of Kentucky College of Medicine
1100 Veterans Drive
Medical Behavioral Science Building, Room 140
Lexington, KY 40536-0086
Email

In addition to complete addresses and phone numbers, please supply email addresses and fax numbers for all authors for potential use by the editorial office and, later, by the production office.

Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology^® publishes five types of manuscripts:

• original research reports (no word limit, but should typically range between 4,000 and 8,000 words, excluding references)
• brief communications (no more than 3,000 words, excluding references; no more than 2 total figures or tables)
• case reports (no more than 2,000 words, excluding references; only 1 figure or table)
• full reviews of the literature (no word limit)
• brief reviews of the literature (no more than 5,000 words, excluding references)

In recognition of the reality that institutional spam filters may capture files from the APA and the Journals Back Office, please take the following steps to facilitate communication with our editorial office:

• Provide an alternative email address which we can use to contact you in the event of technical difficulties with email communication using your primary address
• Add "apa.org" to your list of "safe" addresses and consider asking your IT administrators to add it to their "white list"
• Contact Lorie Van Olst if you do not receive confirmation of your submission within three business days or an editorial decision letter within three months

Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology is now using a software system to screen submitted content for similarity with other published content. The system compares the initial version of each submitted manuscript against a database of 40+ million scholarly documents, as well as content appearing on the open web. This allows APA to check submissions for potential overlap with material previously published in scholarly journals (e.g., lifted or republished material).

Cover Letter

To help with the review process, authors should provide up to five scientists who are qualified to review their manuscript without bias or conflict of interest. Please provide prospective reviewers' names, affiliations, academic rank, email address, complete mailing address, and phone number in the cover letter. Submissions lacking reviewer recommendations will be returned to the author as incomplete.

Title Page

Include the corresponding author's email and mailing addresses; phone and fax numbers; and the names, degrees, and affiliations of all authors, as well as the number of figures and tables in the manuscript.

Abstract and Keywords

All manuscripts must include an abstract containing a maximum of 250 words typed on a separate page. After the abstract, please supply up to five keywords or brief phrases.

Public Significance Statements

Authors submitting manuscripts to the journal Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology are now required to provide 2–3 brief sentences regarding the relevance or public health significance of their study or review described in their manuscript. This description should be included within the manuscript on the abstract/keywords page.

The public significance statement (similar to the Relevance section of NIH grant submissions) summarizes the significance of the study's findings for a public audience in one to three sentences (approximately 30-70 words long). It should be written in language that is easily understood by both professionals and members of the lay public. This statement supports efforts to increase dissemination and usage of research findings by larger and more diverse audiences.

When an accepted paper is published, these sentences will be boxed beneath the abstract for easy accessibility. All such descriptions will also be published as part of the Table of Contents, as well as on the journal's web page. This new policy is in keeping with efforts to increase dissemination and usage by larger and diverse audiences.

Guidelines for Writing a Public Significance Statement

When writing the public significance statement, consider the following recommendations:

• Answer the following questions: What did the study find? Why are these findings important to the audience you are trying to reach (e.g., practitioners, policy makers, news media, or other parties)?
• Write the statement in language that is easily understood by people outside of your field. Avoid jargon or overly technical language. Avoid using acronyms in the statement, and if you do use them, define them.
• Ensure that the statement adequately represents the study's implications if read separately, without the abstract. For example, specifically refer to "patients with depression" rather than "these patients" or "behavioral interventions for bullying" rather than "these interventions."

Below are several public significance statements that appeared in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, the first APA journal to require public significance statements as a complement to the abstract. These examples are meant to aid you, the author, in writing your own statements; however, keep in mind that you may make different choices depending on factors such as the topic of the study, specific secondary audiences of the journal, and personal preferences and writing style.

Example 1: "This study strongly suggests that (description of a given psychosocial treatment) is an effective treatment for anxiety, but only if it is of mild to moderate severity. For persons with severe anxiety, additional treatments may be necessary."

Example 2: "Defining and Characterizing Differences in College Alcohol Intervention Efficacy: A Growth Mixture Modeling Application," by Henson, Pearson, and Carey (2015) http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0038897

This study suggests that there are distinct subgroups of college students defined by how they respond to alcohol intervention and that interventions need to target freshmen men and those who play drinking games. Although most students initially respond to interventions, most also show decay over the next 12 months, which suggests that we need to determine ways of improving the long-term effects of alcohol interventions.

Disclosures and Acknowledgments

Authors are now required to provide a Disclosures and Acknowledgements section. This section should be included on a separate page after the Abstract, as separate paragraphs for each of the four points (do not number or provide headers). This section will be automatically incorporated into the online submission system and if the paper is accepted, will appear in the published journal article.

First, authors should state all sources of financial support for the conduct of the research (e.g., This research was supported by NIDA grant X). If the funding source was involved in any other aspects of the research (e.g., study design, analysis, interpretation, writing), then clearly state the role. If the funding source had no other involvement other than financial support, then simply state that the funding source had no other role other than financial support.

Second, a contributors statement should be included indicating that all authors contributed in a significant way to the manuscript and that all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

Third, all authors are expected to provide a conflict of interest statement disclosing any real or potential conflict(s) of interest, including financial, personal, or other relationships with other organizations or pharmaceutical/biomedical companies that may inappropriately impact or influence the research and interpretation of the findings. If there are no conflicts of interest, this should be clearly stated.

Fourth, authors are encouraged to acknowledge the assistance or contribution of others in the endeavors of the research.

Review Policy

Authors may suggest up to five scientists who are qualified to review their manuscript without bias or conflict of interest. Send prospective reviewers' names, affiliations, academic rank, email address, complete mailing address, and phone number in your cover letter.

Manuscript Preparation

Prepare manuscripts according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6^th edition). Manuscripts may be copyedited for bias-free language (see Chapter 3 of the Publication Manual).

Review APA's Checklist for Manuscript Submission before submitting your article.

If your manuscript was mask reviewed, please ensure that the final version for production includes a byline and full author note for typesetting.

Double-space all copy. Other formatting instructions, as well as instructions on preparing tables, figures, references, metrics, and abstracts, appear in the Manual. Additional guidance on APA Style is available on the APA Style website.

Below are additional instructions regarding the preparation of display equations, computer code, and tables.

Display Equations

We strongly encourage you to use MathType (third-party software) or Equation Editor 3.0 (built into pre-2007 versions of Word) to construct your equations, rather than the equation support that is built into Word 2007 and Word 2010. Equations composed with the built-in Word 2007/Word 2010 equation support are converted to low-resolution graphics when they enter the production process and must be rekeyed by the typesetter, which may introduce errors.

To construct your equations with MathType or Equation Editor 3.0:

• Go to the Text section of the Insert tab and select Object.
• Select MathType or Equation Editor 3.0 in the drop-down menu.

If you have an equation that has already been produced using Microsoft Word 2007 or 2010 and you have access to the full version of MathType 6.5 or later, you can convert this equation to MathType by clicking on MathType Insert Equation. Copy the equation from Microsoft Word and paste it into the MathType box. Verify that your equation is correct, click File, and then click Update. Your equation has now been inserted into your Word file as a MathType Equation.

Use Equation Editor 3.0 or MathType only for equations or for formulas that cannot be produced as Word text using the Times or Symbol font.

Computer Code

Because altering computer code in any way (e.g., indents, line spacing, line breaks, page breaks) during the typesetting process could alter its meaning, we treat computer code differently from the rest of your article in our production process. To that end, we request separate files for computer code.

In Online Supplemental Material
We request that runnable source code be included as supplemental material to the article. For more information, visit Supplementing Your Article With Online Material.

In the Text of the Article
If you would like to include code in the text of your published manuscript, please submit a separate file with your code exactly as you want it to appear, using Courier New font with a type size of 8 points. We will make an image of each segment of code in your article that exceeds 40 characters in length. (Shorter snippets of code that appear in text will be typeset in Courier New and run in with the rest of the text.) If an appendix contains a mix of code and explanatory text, please submit a file that contains the entire appendix, with the code keyed in 8-point Courier New.

Tables

Use Word's Insert Table function when you create tables. Using spaces or tabs in your table will create problems when the table is typeset and may result in errors.

Submitting Supplemental Materials

APA can place supplemental materials online, available via the published article in the PsycARTICLES^® database. Please see Supplementing Your Article With Online Material for more details.

References

List references in alphabetical order. Each listed reference should be cited in text, and each text citation should be listed in the References section.

Examples of basic reference formats:

• Journal Article:
  Hughes, G., Desantis, A., & Waszak, F. (2013). Mechanisms of intentional binding and sensory attenuation: The role of temporal prediction, temporal control, identity prediction, and motor prediction. Psychological Bulletin, 139, 133–151. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0028566
• Authored Book:
  Rogers, T. T., & McClelland, J. L. (2004). Semantic cognition: A parallel distributed processing approach. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Chapter in an Edited Book:
  Gill, M. J., & Sypher, B. D. (2009). Workplace incivility and organizational trust. In P. Lutgen-Sandvik & B. D. Sypher (Eds.), Destructive organizational communication: Processes, consequences, and constructive ways of organizing (pp. 53–73). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.

Figures

Graphics files are welcome if supplied as Tiff or EPS files. Multipanel figures (i.e., figures with parts labeled a, b, c, d, etc.) should be assembled into one file.

The minimum line weight for line art is 0.5 point for optimal printing.

For more information about acceptable resolutions, fonts, sizing, and other figure issues, please see the general guidelines.

When possible, please place symbol legends below the figure instead of to the side.

APA offers authors the option to publish their figures online in color without the costs associated with print publication of color figures.

The same caption will appear on both the online (color) and print (black and white) versions. To ensure that the figure can be understood in both formats, authors should add alternative wording (e.g., "the red (dark gray) bars represent") as needed.

For authors who prefer their figures to be published in color both in print and online, original color figures can be printed in color at the editor's and publisher's discretion provided the author agrees to pay:

• $900 for one figure
• An additional $600 for the second figure
• An additional $450 for each subsequent figure

Permissions

Authors of accepted papers must obtain and provide to the editor on final acceptance all necessary permissions to reproduce in print and electronic form any copyrighted work, including test materials (or portions thereof), photographs, and other graphic images (including those used as stimuli in experiments).

On advice of counsel, APA may decline to publish any image whose copyright status is unknown.

• Download Permissions Alert Form (PDF, 13KB)

Publication Policies

APA policy prohibits an author from submitting the same manuscript for concurrent consideration by two or more publications.

See also APA Journals^® Internet Posting Guidelines.

APA requires authors to reveal any possible conflict of interest in the conduct and reporting of research (e.g., financial interests in a test or procedure, funding by pharmaceutical companies for drug research).

• Download Disclosure of Interests Form (PDF, 38KB)

In light of changing patterns of scientific knowledge dissemination, APA requires authors to provide information on prior dissemination of the data and narrative interpretations of the data/research appearing in the manuscript (e.g., if some or all were presented at a conference or meeting, posted on a listserv, shared on a website, including academic social networks like ResearchGate, etc.). This information (2–4 sentences) must be provided as part of the Author Note.

Authors of accepted manuscripts are required to transfer the copyright to APA.

• For manuscripts not funded by the Wellcome Trust or the Research Councils UK
  Publication Rights (Copyright Transfer) Form (PDF, 83KB)
• For manuscripts funded by the Wellcome Trust or the Research Councils UK
  Wellcome Trust or Research Councils UK Publication Rights Form (PDF, 34KB)

Ethical Principles

It is a violation of APA Ethical Principles to publish "as original data, data that have been previously published" (Standard 8.13).

In addition, APA Ethical Principles specify that "after research results are published, psychologists do not withhold the data on which their conclusions are based from other competent professionals who seek to verify the substantive claims through reanalysis and who intend to use such data only for that purpose, provided that the confidentiality of the participants can be protected and unless legal rights concerning proprietary data preclude their release" (Standard 8.14).

APA expects authors to adhere to these standards. Specifically, APA expects authors to have their data available throughout the editorial review process and for at least 5 years after the date of publication.

Authors are required to state in writing that they have complied with APA ethical standards in the treatment of their sample, human or animal, or to describe the details of treatment.

• Download Certification of Compliance With APA Ethical Principles Form (PDF, 26KB)

The APA Ethics Office provides the full Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct electronically on its website in HTML, PDF, and Word format. You may also request a copy by emailing or calling the APA Ethics Office (202-336-5930). You may also read "Ethical Principles," December 1992, American Psychologist, Vol. 47, pp. 1597–1611.

Other Information

• Appeals Process for Manuscript Submissions
• Preparing Auxiliary Files for Production
• Document Deposit Procedures for APA Journals