Canadian Psychology / Psychologie canadienne

Canadian Psychology
ISSN: 0708-5591
eISSN: 1878-7304
Published: quarterly, beginning in February
Impact Factor: 2.9
Psychology - Multidisciplinary: 46 of 218
5-Year Impact Factor: 4.2

Journal scope statement

This journal is a publication of the Canadian Psychological Association.

Canadian Psychology / Psychologie canadienne publishes generalist articles in areas of theory, research, practice, education, and policy that are of interest to a broad cross-section of psychologists. The journal publishes systematic reviews (including meta-analyses) and literature reviews relevant to theory or research in basic and applied areas—for example, human and non-human neurosciences, cognitive, perception, history and theoretical systems, quantitative, developmental, social, personality, clinical, counselling, educational and school, industrial/organizational, community, as well as teaching and learning.

Original, empirical contributions are welcome if large-scale work is involved and the research is of direct relevance to the discipline as a whole.

Commentaries and articles discussing professional issues and case material illustrative of theoretical principles or professional problems are also appropriate. In all cases, the manuscript should be of relevance to a generalist audience and discuss implications for the field.

Manuscripts with direct relevance to the Canadian context are also welcome for submission; authors should ensure that the article speaks to the broad interest. Canadian Psychology / Psychologie canadienne accepts submissions in either English or French.

Equity, diversity, and inclusion

Canadian Psychology / Psychologie canadienne supports equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in its practices. More information on these initiatives is available under EDI Efforts.

Editor’s Choice

One article from each issue of Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne will be highlighted as an “Editor’s Choice” article. Selection is based on the recommendations of the associate editors, the paper’s potential impact to the field, the distinction of expanding the contributors to, or the focus of, the science, or its discussion of an important future direction for science. Editor’s Choice articles are featured alongside articles from other APA published journals in a bi-weekly newsletter and are temporarily made freely available to newsletter subscribers.

Author and editor spotlights

Explore journal highlights: free article summaries, editor interviews and editorials, journal awards, mentorship opportunities, and more.

 

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

To submit to the editorial office of Don Saklofske, please submit manuscripts electronically through the Manuscript Submission Portal.

Prepare manuscripts according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association using the 7th edition. Manuscripts may be copyedited for bias-free language (see Chapter 5 of the Publication Manual). APA Style and Grammar Guidelines for the 7th edition are available.

Submit Manuscript

Donald H. Saklofske, PhD
Adjunct Research Professor
Department of Psychology
Social Science Centre
University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5C2
Email

The file format should be Rich Text Format (.rtf) or Microsoft Word Format (.doc). The file must exactly copy, in all respects and in a single file, the complete APA-style printed version of the manuscript.

Masked review policy

All submissions undergo an anonymous review. If an author does not want a masked review, this should be indicated in the cover letter along with a brief explanation. Instead of indicating authors' names and affiliations on the title page, authors should place this information in the cover letter, which is not seen by reviewers.

All identifying information should be removed from the manuscript. Authors should make every effort to see that the manuscript itself contains no clues to their identities.

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

Canadian Psychology considers all manuscripts on the strict condition that they have been submitted only to Canadian Psychology , that they have not been published already, and that they are not under consideration for publication or in press elsewhere.

Manuscript language

Manuscripts may be submitted in French or in English.

Author contribution statements using CRediT

The APA Publication Manual (7th ed.) stipulates that “authorship encompasses…not only persons who do the writing but also those who have made substantial scientific contributions to a study.” In the spirit of transparency and openness, JOURNAL has adopted the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) to describe each author's individual contributions to the work. CRediT offers authors the opportunity to share an accurate and detailed description of their diverse contributions to a manuscript.

Submitting authors will be asked to identify the contributions of all authors at initial submission according to this taxonomy. If the manuscript is accepted for publication, the CRediT designations will be published as an Author Contributions Statement in the author note of the final article. All authors should have reviewed and agreed to their individual contribution(s) before submission.

CRediT includes 14 contributor roles, as described below:

  • Conceptualization: Ideas; formulation or evolution of overarching research goals and aims.
  • Data curation: Management activities to annotate (produce metadata), scrub data and maintain research data (including software code, where it is necessary for interpreting the data itself) for initial use and later reuse.
  • Formal analysis: Application of statistical, mathematical, computational, or other formal techniques to analyze or synthesize study data.
  • Funding acquisition: Acquisition of the financial support for the project leading to this publication.
  • Investigation: Conducting a research and investigation process, specifically performing the experiments, or data/evidence collection.
  • Methodology: Development or design of methodology; creation of models.
  • Project administration: Management and coordination responsibility for the research activity planning and execution.
  • Resources: Provision of study materials, reagents, materials, patients, laboratory samples, animals, instrumentation, computing resources, or other analysis tools.
  • Software: Programming, software development; designing computer programs; implementation of the computer code and supporting algorithms; testing of existing code components.
  • Supervision: Oversight and leadership responsibility for the research activity planning and execution, including mentorship external to the core team.
  • Validation: Verification, whether as a part of the activity or separate, of the overall replication/reproducibility of results/experiments and other research outputs.
  • Visualization: Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically visualization/data presentation.
  • Writing—original draft: Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically writing the initial draft (including substantive translation).
  • Writing—review and editing: Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work by those from the original research group, specifically critical review, commentary or revision—including pre- or post-publication stages.

Authors can claim credit for more than one contributor role, and the same role can be attributed to more than one author.

Manuscript preparation

Prepare manuscripts according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association using the 7th edition. Manuscripts may be copyedited for bias-free language (see Chapter 5 of the Publication Manual).

Review APA's Journal Manuscript Preparation Guidelines before submitting your article.

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 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.

Academic writing and English language editing services

Authors who feel that their manuscript may benefit from additional academic writing or language editing support prior to submission are encouraged to seek out such services at their host institutions, engage with colleagues and subject matter experts, and/or consider several vendors that offer discounts to APA authors.

Please note that APA does not endorse or take responsibility for the service providers listed. It is strictly a referral service.

Use of such service is not mandatory for publication in an APA journal. Use of one or more of these services does not guarantee selection for peer review, manuscript acceptance, or preference for publication in any APA journal.

Submitting supplemental materials

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

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 Canadian Psychology are required to provide 2–3 brief sentences regarding the public significance of the study or meta-analysis described in their paper.

This description should be included within the manuscript on the abstract/keywords page. It should be written in language that is easily understood by both professionals and members of the lay public.

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.

Examples of these 2–3 sentences include the following:

  • “It has been suggested that when people read words, they think of the images and sensations that are linked to that word. That idea was supported by the results of this study, which showed that people seemed to think of words' visual and sensory characteristics, even though they were not required to do so.”
  • “Different countries have different systems of math education. The basic arithmetic concepts of adults educated in China and Canada were compared. The adults educated in China had stronger knowledge of arithmetic than did the adults educated in Canada, likely due to differences in the way math concepts are taught.”
  • “People tend to remember words better after reading them aloud than after reading them silently. The reasons for this production effect were examined, and results suggested that there are multiple explanations: saying words aloud seems to make them more distinctive and also seems to store them more effectively in memory.”

To be maximally useful, these statements of public significance should not simply be sentences lifted directly from the manuscript.

They are meant to be informative and useful to any reader. They should provide a bottom-line, take-home message that is accurate and easily understood. In addition, they should be able to be translated into media-appropriate statements for use in press releases and on social media.

Prior to final acceptance and publication, all public significance statements will be carefully reviewed to make sure they meet these standards. Authors will be expected to revise statements as necessary.

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

McCauley, S. M., & Christiansen, M. H. (2019). Language learning as language use: A cross-linguistic model of child language development. Psychological Review, 126(1), 1–51. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000126

Authored book

Brown, L. S. (2018). Feminist therapy (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000092-000

Chapter in an edited book

Balsam, K. F., Martell, C. R., Jones. K. P., & Safren, S. A. (2019). Affirmative cognitive behavior therapy with sexual and gender minority people. In G. Y. Iwamasa & P. A. Hays (Eds.), Culturally responsive cognitive behavior therapy: Practice and supervision (2nd ed., pp. 287–314). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000119-012

Figures

Preferred formats for graphics files are TIFF and JPG, and preferred format for vector-based files is EPS. Graphics downloaded or saved from web pages are not acceptable for publication. Multipanel figures (i.e., figures with parts labeled a, b, c, d, etc.) should be assembled into one file. When possible, please place symbol legends below the figure instead of to the side.

Resolution

  • All color line art and halftones: 300 DPI
  • Black and white line tone and gray halftone images: 600 DPI

Line weights

  • Adobe Photoshop images
    • Color (RGB, CMYK) images: 2 pixels
    • Grayscale images: 4 pixels
  • Adobe Illustrator Images
    • Stroke weight: 0.5 points

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.

Publication policies

For full details on publication policies, including use of Artificial Intelligence tools, please see APA Publishing Policies.

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

Authors may post the final accepted, preformatted version of their article—the accepted manuscript—on their personal websites, university and preprint repositories and author networking sites. If your article is accepted for publication, the posted manuscript must include a note linking to the final published article.

If your manuscript has been posted to a preprint archive, include a link to the preprint in the cover letter and in the author note. Note that any press coverage of prepublication manuscripts may preclude press releases by APA’s Public Affairs Office.

See also APA Journals® Internet Posting Guidelines.

Authors must disclose any prior uses of data reported in the manuscript in the author note and in the cover letter, which should include a complete reference list of these articles as well as a description of the extent and nature of any overlap between the present submission and the previous work.

Authors must disclose 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. Also 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 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.

If the manuscript has been posted to a preprint archive, include a link to the preprint

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.

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 APA Ethics Office (202-336-5930). You may also read “Ethical Principles,” December 1992, American Psychologist, Vol. 47, pp. 1597–1611.

Other information

See APA’s Publishing Policies page for more information on publication policies, including information on author contributorship and responsibilities of authors, author name changes after publication, the use of generative artificial intelligence, funder information and conflict-of-interest disclosures, duplicate publication, data publication and reuse, and preprints.

Visit the Journals Publishing Resource Center for more resources for writing, reviewing, and editing articles for publishing in APA journals.

Editor / Rédactrice en chef

Donald H. Saklofske, PhD
University of Western Ontario, Canada

Managing editor / Directrice des services de rédaction

Lauren Thompson, PhD
Canadian Psychological Association, Canada

Peer review coordinator / Coordonnatrice de l’évaluation des manuscrits

Maddie Boots
American Psychological Association, United States

Associate editors / Rédacteurs adjoints

Gordon Flett, PhD
York University, Canada

Natacha Godbout, PhD
Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada

Donald Sharpe, PhD
University of Regina, Canada

Editorial board / Comité de redaction

Jac Andrews, PhD
University of Calgary, Canada

Martin M. Antony, PhD
Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada

Michael C. Ashton, PhD
Brock University, Canada

Ann Beaton, PhD
Université de Moncton, Canada

Noémie Bigras, PhD
Université de Montréal, Canada

Genevieve Bouchard, PhD
Université de Moncton, Canada

Jessica J. Cameron
University of Manitoba, Canada

Valery Chirkov
University of Saskatchewan, Canada

Elena Choleris, PhD
University of Guelph, Canada

David J. A. Dozois, PhD
Western University, Canada

Martin Drapeau, PhD
McGill University, Canada

Michel Dugas, PhD
Université du Québec en Outaouais, Canada

David Flora, PhD
York University, Canada

Dominick Gamache, PhD
Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR), Canada

Vina Goghari, PhD
University of Toronto, Canada

Joel Goldberg, PhD
York University, Canada

Peter Graf, PhD
University of British Columbia, Canada

Simon Grondin, PhD
Université Laval, Canada

Frédéric Guay, PhD
Université Laval, Canada

Thomas Hadjistavropoulos, PhD
University of Regina, Canada

Anita Hubley, PhD
University of British Columbia, Canada

Eunice Eunhee Jang, PhD
University of Toronto, Canada

Sandy Jung, PhD
MacEwan University, Canada

Anusha Kassan, PhD
University of Calgary, Canada

Naomi Koerner, PhD
Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada

David Lafortune
Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada

Kibeom Lee, PhD
University of Calgary, Canada

Donald McCreary, PhD
Brock University, Canada

C. Meghan McMurtry, PhD
University of Guelph, Canada

Christopher Mushquash, PhD
Lakehead University, Canada

Kimberly Noels, PhD
University of Alberta, Canada

Lucia O'Sullivan, PhD
University of New Brunswick, Canada

Johanna Peetz, PhD
Carleton University, Canada

Nicole Racine, PhD
University of Calgary, Canada

Mark Sabbagh, PhD
Queens University, Canada

Louis A. Schmidt, PhD
McMaster University, Canada

Christopher Sears, PhD
University of Calgary, Canada

Lisa Serbin, PhD
Concordia University, Canada

Simon Sherry, PhD
Dalhousie University, Canada

Kevin O. St. Arnaud, PhD
Concordia University of Edmonton, Canada

Henderikus Stam, PhD
University of Calgary, Canada

Laura Summerfeldt, PhD
Trent University, Canada

Giorgio Tasca, PhD
University of Ottawa, Canada

Paul F. Tremblay, PhD
University of Western Ontario, Canada

International editorial board / Membres internationaux

Vincent C. Alfonso, PhD
Montclair State University, United States

Annamaria Di Fabio, PhD
University of Florence, Italy

Marina Fiori, PhD
University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Andrew P. Hill, PhD
York St John University, United Kingdom

Rachel A. Plouffe, PhD
University of Dundee, Scotland

Gonggu Yan, PhD
Beijing Normal University, China

Moshe Zeidner, PhD
Haifa University, Israel

Abstracting and indexing services providing coverage of Canadian Psychology

  • Advanced Placement Psychology Collection
  • Cabell's Directory of Publishing Opportunities in Psychology
  • Canadian Periodical Index Quarterly
  • CBCA Reference
  • Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS) Academic Journal Guide
  • Current Contents: Social & Behavioral Sciences
  • IBZ / IBR (Internationale Bibliographie der Rezensionen Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaftlicher Literatur)
  • Journal Citations Report: Social Sciences Edition
  • MLA International Bibliography
  • OCLC
  • PsycInfo
  • PsycLine
  • SCOPUS
  • Social Sciences Citation Index

Inclusive reporting standards

  • Bias-free language and community-driven language guidelines (required)
  • Impact statements (required)

More information on this journal’s reporting standards is listed under the submission guidelines tab.

Pathways to authorship and editorship

Reviewer mentorship program

This journal encourages reviewers to submit co-reviews with their students and trainees. The journal likewise offers a formal reviewer mentorship program where graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from historically excluded groups are matched with a senior reviewer to produce an integrated review.

Other EDI offerings

ORCID reviewer recognition

Open Research and Contributor ID (ORCID) Reviewer Recognition provides a visible and verifiable way for journals to publicly credit reviewers without compromising the confidentiality of the peer-review process. This journal has implemented the ORCID Reviewer Recognition feature in Editorial Manager, meaning that reviewers can be recognized for their contributions to the peer-review process.

Translated abstracts

Abstracts which are translated into multiple languages provide accessibility and discoverability for a global community of scholars.

French language publications

This journal publishes some full articles in French.

Masked peer review

This journal offers masked peer review (where both the authors’ and reviewers’ identities are not known to the other). Research has shown that masked peer review can help reduce implicit bias against traditionally female names or early-career scientists with smaller publication records (Budden et al., 2008; Darling, 2015).

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