Submission guidelines

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.

Submissions are handled only through our Editorial Manager platform, and the only official journal website is through APA. If you believe you interacted with a fraudulent website for this journal, please email APA Journalsopens in new window. Review our resource for authors for more information on identifying predatory journals.

To submit to the Editorial Office of Guido H. E. Gendolla and Rex A. Wright, please submit manuscripts electronically through the Manuscript Submission Portal in Word Document format (.doc) or LaTex (.tex) as a zip file with an accompanied Portable Document Format (.pdf) of the manuscript file.

Guido H. E. Gendolla
University of Geneva

Rex A. Wright
University of Texas Dell School of Medicine & University of North Texas, United States

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

Submit Manuscriptopens in new window

Motivation Science welcomes significant high-quality manuscripts reporting research on diverse aspects of and approaches to the science of motivation.

Manuscripts should fall into one of the following categories:

These are full-length manuscripts reporting empirical research that advances the comprehension of variables and processes that influence motivation and behavior. Research articles can report more than one empirical study but are not required to do so. Preference will be given to reports that present theory-driven research involving tests of clearly derived hypotheses and findings with straightforward and substantive implications. Replication studies are welcome if they provide conclusive results. There is no space limit for research articles, but manuscripts should typically range between 2,500 and 7,000 words, exclusive of references, figures, and tables.

These are abbreviated manuscripts succinctly reporting empirical research that advances the comprehension of variables and processes that influence motivation and behavior. Original research brief reports should report one empirical study or a short series of studies with similar designs and methods. Preference will be given to reports that present theory-driven research involving tests of clearly derived hypotheses and findings with straightforward and substantive implications. Replication studies are welcome if they provide conclusive results. The space limit for brief reports is 2,500 words, exclusive of references, figures, and tables.

These are full-length theoretical papers and literature reviews that can — but are not required to — apply meta-analytic techniques. Preference will be given to analyses and reviews that have straightforward and substantive implications. There is no space limit for conceptual articles, but manuscripts should typically rage between 2,500 and 7,000 words, exclusive of references, figures, and tables.

These are abbreviated theoretical papers and literature reviews that can — but are not required to — apply meta-analytic techniques. Preference will be given to analyses and reviews that have straightforward and substantive implications. Conceptual brief reports also can involve reactive commentary (e.g., to a research or conceptual article). The space limit for conceptual brief reports is 2,500 words, exclusive of references, figures, and tables.

These manuscripts are intended to draw attention to methodological developments relevant to the scientific study of motivation. They should aim to enhance the use of techniques and insights that advance motivation science and its application. Examples might include articles (1) that describe techniques for validating new research instruments, (2) that introduce new quantitative methods, or (3) that debate important methodological issues. Articles should be accessible to non-expert readers with doctoral level training and avoid use of unnecessary technical content. They also should make clear how their content advances theory and/or practice. Preference will be given to well-constructed and documented reports that have substantive implications. There is no space limit for Methods articles, but manuscripts should typically range between 2,500 and 7,000 words, exclusive of references, figures, and tables.

These are brief contributions that might attract broad interest but do not fit neatly into preceding submission categories. Submissions will include no more than 2,500 words and can involve a variety of formats. Examples include short thought pieces, humor pieces, pieces concerned with history, and pieces concerned with contemporary issues. Contributions might involve personal profiles (e.g., of important figures), interviews, and even substantive fictional depictions.

Masked review, which means that the identities of both authors and reviewers are masked, is optional for Motivation Science. Authors should note in their cover letters whether they have opted for masked or unmasked review.

Authors who desire masked review should make every effort to see that the manuscript itself contains no clues to their identities:

• Authors should never use first person (I, my, we, our) when referring to a study conducted by the author(s) or when doing so reveals the authors' identities (e.g., "in our previous work, Johnson et al. (1998) reported that..."). Instead, references to the authors' work should be in third person (e.g., "Johnson et al. (1998) reported that...").
• The authors' institutional affiliations should also be masked in the manuscript.
• Include the title of the manuscript along with all authors' names and institutional affiliations in the cover letter.
• The first page of the manuscript should omit the authors' names and affiliations but should include the title of the manuscript and the date it is submitted.
• Responsibility for masking the manuscript rests with the authors; manuscripts will be returned to the author if not appropriately masked. If the manuscript is accepted, authors will be asked to make changes in wording so that the paper is no longer masked.
• After masked review, please ensure that the final version for production includes a byline and full author note for typesetting.

Motivation Science encourages both methodological and data transparency to ensure the reproducibility of research results. Thus, we ask authors to ensure their manuscripts meet certain standards aligned with APA Style Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS). These items include:

• Sample size and stopping rules: Authors must describe the sample size, power, and precision, including:

▪ Intended sample size

▪ Achieved sample size, if different from the intended sample size

▪ Determination of sample size, including:

◦ Power analysis, or methods used to determine precision of parameter estimates

◦ Explanation of any interim analyses and stopping rules employed

• Reporting the full methods for empirical studies, including all manipulations, measures, and eventual data exclusions.

• Reporting in the author note when data stem from related research. APA Style stipulates that authors must include any disclosures of data stemming from related research in the author note. The original findings, if published, should be referenced in an in-text citation.

▪ If data stem from related research, authors should report:

◦ Whether the full methods are available, either as a citation to a published paper or hosted repository.

• Ethical approval: authors must include IRB or related institution ethical approval for the reported research. For empirical studies, if no ethical approval was sought, authors must explain why.

• Open data: Authors for Motivation Science are encouraged to make their data and stimulus materials publicly available, if possible, by providing a link in their submission to a relevant data repository.

Making data and materials publicly available can increase the impact of the research, enabling future researchers to incorporate the original authors’ work in model testing, replication projects, and meta-analyses, in addition to increasing the transparency of the research.

Consideration for publication in Motivation Science does not require public posting, so it is at the author(s)’ discretion to decide what is best for their projects in terms of public data, materials, and conditions on their use.

Data Availability Statement:

Regardless of whether or not they choose to make the article data openly available, authors must include a Data Availability Statement in the author note. Authors must indicate whether the data and code reported in the manuscript will be made available or provide a reason for not sharing the data. The link to the permanent repository for the dataset and codebook (or the brief statement explaining why data are not being shared) must be included in the author note.

Please note that the APA Publication Manual (7th ed.) does note that researchers must make their data available to permit other qualified professionals to confirm the analyses and results, upon request. Therefore, making data openly available now may save the authors time later on.

Authors opting for masked review should ensure their datasets and supporting materials are anonymized prior to submission. The Open Science Frameworkopens in new window provides instructions for creating anonymized links to data sets, codebooks, and relevant scripts or materials to protect the integrity of the masked review process.

Should the manuscript be accepted, links to the data set, codebook, and supporting materials (now made non-anonymized) should be included in the author note, per the Data Availability Statement requirements described above.

Authors should review the updated JARS for quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research before submitting. These 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. For further resources, including flowcharts, see the Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS) website.

The APA Publication Manual (7th ed.opens in new window) 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, this journal has adopted the Contributor Roles Taxonomyopens in new window (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 prompted to select one or more contributor roles for each author at initial submission. All authors should have reviewed and agreed to their individual contribution(s) before submission. If the manuscript is accepted for publication, an Author Contributions Statement will be generated during the typesetting process and published in the author note of the final article. It is not necessary for authors to provide a written Author Contributions Statement upon 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. Not all roles will be applicable to any particular scholarly work.

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 the APA Style websiteopens in new window.

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.

APA can place supplemental materials online, available via the published article in the APA PsycArticles^® database.

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.

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/rev0000126opens in new window

Authored book

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

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/10.1037/0000119-012opens in new window

Data set citation

Alegria, M., Jackson, J. S., Kessler, R. C., & Takeuchi, D. (2016). Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys (CPES), 2001–2003 [Data set]. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR20240.v8opens in new window

Software/Code citation

Viechtbauer, W. (2010). Conducting meta-analyses in R with the metafor package.  Journal of Statistical Software, 36(3), 1–48. https://www.jstatsoft.org/v36/i03/opens in new window

Wickham, H. et al., (2019). Welcome to the tidyverse. Journal of Open Source Software, 4(43), 1686, https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.01686opens in new window

All data, program code, and other methods must be appropriately cited in the text and listed in the references section.

Tables should adhere to APA Styleopens in new window. Use Word’s Insert Table function to create tables, and do not insert tabs or extra spaces to align columns as this will create problems when the table is typeset.

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.

Color figure fees

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

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.

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 the article in the production process. Supply separate files for computer code.

In online supplemental material

Runnable source code should 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 authors would like to include code in the text of the published article, submit a separate file with your code exactly as it should appear, using Courier New font with a type size of 8 points. An image will be made 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.

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)opens in new window

APA holds policies that apply to all journals published. These include policies 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. Please also refer to individual journal submission guidance for specific practices and requirements for manuscript submission.

A key convention in the publication of research is the peer review process, in which the quality and potential contribution of each manuscript is evaluated by one's peers in the scientific community. Like other scientific journals, APA journals utilize a peer review process to guide manuscript selection and publication decisions.

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.

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

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).

APA Journals aims to address systemic inequities and bias, promote equitable opportunities for researchers, and foster an inclusive environment within the psychological research and scholarly publishing communities, representative of the wide array of people that psychology consists of and serves. Please refer to individual journal submission guidance for specific EDI practices and requirements for manuscript submission.

The APA Journals™ Program is committed to publishing transparent, rigorous research; improving reproducibility in science; and aiding research discovery. Open science practices vary across subfields and per editor discretion, and APA Publishing supports all efforts to improve openness and transparency, especially as they improve diversity, equity, and inclusion. Please refer to individual journal submission guidance for specific OS practices and requirements for manuscript submission.

The APA Journals Office supports authors’ choices on how to publish their work. We are committed to offering options that we believe comply with most funder and institutional requirements and support both self-archiving (“green”) and APC (paid for via an article processing charge and also known as “gold”) Open Access options. Submitting a manuscript for peer review is free of charge.

APA’s current policies on generative AI include:

• When a generative AI model is used in the drafting of a manuscript for an APA publication, the use of AI must be disclosed in the methods section and cited.
• AI cannot be named as an author on an APA scholarly publication.

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

Authors of accepted papers must obtain and provide 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.

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

APA Ethical Principles also state 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 make their data available if asked during the editorial process and for at least five years after the date of publication.

If the manuscript is accepted, the corresponding author is required to sign and submit a Certification of Compliance with APA Ethical Principles (PDF, 26KB).opens in new window

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.