Journal scope statement
Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences (EBS) publishes manuscripts that advance the study of all aspects of the human mind and human behavior from an evolutionary perspective, with an emphasis on social processes (e.g., affiliation, alliances, competition, conflict, cooperation, friendship, relationships, sexuality, status, etc.), cognition, emotion and motivation, and development.
EBS welcomes studies that address commonalities as well as differences between individuals and groups in psychological functioning and behavior (e.g., studies of temperament or personality, cross-cultural studies), particularly if they integrate methods and perspectives from different scientific disciplines.
EBS also welcomes studies that address the interplay between evolved psychological mechanisms and cultural influences in driving behavior (e.g., studies of morality, religion, law, politics, and other human institutions), including studies that test established theory in new cultural contexts.
Finally, EBS is strongly committed to the publication of research conducted within the framework of consilience, which aims to integrate evolutionary psychological and behavioral perspectives with perspectives from humanistic disciplines such as history, philosophy, art and art history, literature and literary criticism, and music.
EBS publishes both empirical and theoretical manuscripts and welcomes quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method approaches. EBS will consider research on non-human animals provided it offers some insight on a current question in the study of human behavior.
All manuscripts will be evaluated on the basis of their quality (e.g., originality, strong theoretical foundations, conceptual clarity, strong methodology and rigorous analyses, attention to construct and measurement validity, adequate sample sizes, impactful findings) and regardless of their length. In addition to original research articles, EBS encourages the submission of reviews of the literature, meta-analyses of previous research, replication studies, and commentaries on articles previously published in EBS or other journals. The use of open science practices is encouraged but not mandatory.
Equity, diversity, and inclusion
Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences supports equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in its practices. More information on these initiatives is available under EDI Efforts.
Call for papers
Editor’s Choice
One article from each issue of Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences 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, please submit manuscripts electronically through the Manuscript Submission portal Microsoft Word (.docx) or LaTex (.tex) as a zip file with an accompanied Portable Document Format (.pdf) of the manuscript file.
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.
Dario Maestripieri, PhD
Department of Comparative Human Development, The University of Chicago
940 E. 57th Street, Chicago, IL 60637
General correspondence may be directed to the editor’s office.
Manuscript preparation
Review APA's Journal Manuscript Preparation Guidelines 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.
Authors should review the APA Style Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS) for quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research. Updated in 2018, the standards offer ways to improve transparency in reporting to ensure that readers have the information necessary to evaluate the quality of the research and to facilitate collaboration and replication. The new JARS:
- recommend the division of hypotheses, analyses, and conclusions into primary, secondary, and exploratory groupings to allow for a full understanding of quantitative analyses presented in a manuscript and to enhance reproducibility;
- offer modules for authors reporting on N-of-1 designs, replications, clinical trials, longitudinal studies, and observational studies, as well as the analytic methods of structural equation modeling and Bayesian analysis; and
- include guidelines on reporting on registration (including making protocols public); participant characteristics, including demographic characteristics; inclusion and exclusion criteria; psychometric characteristics of outcome measures and other variables; and planned data diagnostics and analytic strategy.
JARS-Qual are of use to researchers using qualitative methods like narrative, grounded theory, phenomenological, critical, discursive, performative, ethnographic, consensual qualitative, case study, psychobiography, and thematic analysis approaches. The guidelines focus on transparency in quantitative and mixed methods reporting, recommending descriptions of how the researcher's own perspective affected the study as well as the contexts in which the research and analysis took place.
Formatting
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.
Commentaries
Commentaries on articles previously published in Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences are also considered for publication. Commentaries are subject to the same process of peer review and the same editorial criteria and standards as any other manuscript. If a commentary is deemed acceptable for publication, authors of the original submission are given the opportunity to reply to the commentary. Commentaries may be no more than half the length of the original article, and replies may be no more than half the length of the commentary. A commentary and reply will be published together. Except under rare circumstances, there will be only one round of comment and reply.
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 the 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 Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences 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:
- "A brief cognitive–behavioral intervention for caregivers of children undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplant reduced caregiver distress during the transplant hospitalization. Long-term effects on caregiver distress were found for more anxious caregivers as well as caregivers of children who developed graft-versus-host disease after the transplant."
- "Inhibitory processes, particularly related to temporal attention, may play a critical role in response to exposure therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The main finding that individuals with PTSD who made more clinical improvement showed faster improvement in inhibition over the course of exposure therapy supports the utility of novel therapeutic interventions that specifically target attentional inhibition and better patient-treatment matching."
- "When children participated in the enriched preschool program Head Start REDI, they were more likely to follow optimal developmental trajectories of social–emotional functioning through third grade. Ensuring that all children living in poverty have access to high-quality preschool may be one of the more effective means of reducing disparities in school readiness and increasing the likelihood of lifelong success.
To be maximally useful, these statements of public health 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 health 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
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.
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.
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).
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.
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
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
Dario Maestripieri, PhD
The University of Chicago, United States
Associate editors
Robert C. Brooks, PhD
University of New South Wales, Australia
Mitch Brown, PhD
University of Arkansas Fayetteville, United States
Emelie Jonsson, PhD
The Arctic University of Norway, Norway
Tania Reynolds, PhD
University of New Mexico, United States
Catherine Salmon, PhD
University of Redlands, United States
Editorial board members
Coren Apicella, PhD
University of Pennsylvania, United States
Stephen Asma, PhD
Columbia College, United States
Nicolas Baumard, PhD
École Normale Supérieure Université PSL, France
April Bleske-Rechek, PhD
University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, United States
Brian Boutwell, PhD
University of Mississippi, United States
Pascal Boyer, PhD
Washington University St. Louis, United States
Rebecca Burch, PhD
SUNY Oswego, United States
Jennifer Byrd-Craven, PhD
Oklahoma State University, United States
Bernard Crespi, PhD
Simon Fraser University, Canada
Erica Cartmill, PhD
Indiana University, United States
Cory Clark, PhD
University of Pennsylvania, United States
Mathias Clasen, PhD
Aarhus University, Denmark
Nathan Cofnas, PhD
University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Maryanne L. Fisher, PhD
Saint Mary's University, Canada
Iris Holzleitner, PhD
University of the West of England, United Kingdom
Peter Karl Jonason, PhD
University of Economics and Human Sciences, Poland
Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair, PhD
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
Mads Larsen, PhD
University of Oslo, Norway
Anastasia Makhanova, PhD
University of Arkansas, United States
Janko Međedović, PhD
Institute of Criminological and Sociological Research, Serbia
Ara Norenzayan, PhD
University of British Columbia, Canada
Ryo Oda, PhD
Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan
Carin Perilloux, PhD
Southwestern University, United States
Steven Pinker, PhD
Harvard University, United States
Aaron Sell, PhD
Heidelberg University, United States
Alex Shaw, PhD
The University of Chicago, United States
Edward Slingerland, PhD
University of British Columbia, Canada
Joshua Tybur, PhD
Vrije Universiteit, the Netherlands
Mark Van Vugt, PhD
Vrije Universiteit, the Netherlands
Abstracting and indexing services providing coverage of Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences
- OCLC
- PsycInfo
- Sports, Games, and Athletics in Evolutionary Perspective:
Special issue of APA’s journal Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 15, No. 2, April 2021. This special issue consists of eight articles that illustrate some of the many approaches that can be taken when studying sports and games from an evolutionary perspective.
- Beyond the Ingénue:
Special issue of the APA journal Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 14, No. 1, January 2020. A diverse range of articles show women as active agents, work that questions past assumptions, and/or findings that pertain to the field limiting a more comprehensive view of women.
- Evolution of Cognitive Mechanisms:
Special issue of the APA journal Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 12, No. 3, July 2018, on human cognitive evolution. The articles cover diverse adaptive problem domains (e.g., mating, foraging, group living) and topics (e.g., conflict, interpersonal relationships, social learning, decision-making, risk assessment).
- Committed Romantic Relationships:
Special issue of the APA journal Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 11, No. 2, April 2017. The articles draw from many established theoretical models about the nature of long-term committed romantic relationships, including predictors of stability and commitment, and present a variety of available methodological tools, with samples from around the world.
- The Behavioral Immune System:
Special issue of the APA journal Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 8, No. 4, October 2014. Articles discuss circumscribing the behavioral immune system; affect and cognition; implications for societal dynamics; and methodology and theory.
Inclusive study designs
- Diverse samples
Definitions and further details on inclusive study designs are available on the Journals EDI homepage.
Inclusive reporting standards
- Bias-free language and community-driven language guidelines (required)
- Data sharing and data availability statements (recommended)
- Impact statements (required)
- Participant sample descriptions (recommended)
More information on this journal’s reporting standards is listed under the submission guidelines tab.
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.
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).
From APA Journals Article Spotlight®
- Current evolutionary perspectives on women
- A sex difference in sports interest: What does evolution say?
