Psychology of Religion and Spirituality

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 Crystal L. Park, please submit manuscripts electronically through the Manuscript Submission Portal in Word Document format (.doc).

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 Manuscript

Crystal L. Park
University of Connecticut

General correspondence may be directed to the Editor's office.

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

Masked review

Masked review is optional for this journal. Include authors' names and affiliations only in the cover letter for the manuscript. Authors who desire masked review 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.

Manuscripts

Style and length

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).

Manuscripts are limited to 30 pages, and brief reports are limited to 12 pages. This includes all parts of the manuscript, including the title page, abstract, text, references, tables, and figures.

Authors may request permission to submit longer papers if there is a clear justification for exceeding the page limit. Nonessential materials should be placed in an online-only supplement rather than in the manuscript.

Avoid first person adjectives ("I", "we"). Use nonsexist language and "person with a disease or disability" terminology (e.g., "children with diabetes" rather than "diabetic children.")

Transparency and openness

Effective January 2023, all articles submitted to Psychology of Religion and Spirituality must, at a minimum, adhere to the Transparency and Openness (TOP) levels as noted in the list below, which details the domains of research planning and reporting, the TOP level required, and a brief description of the journal’s policy. Please see the open science tab for more details.

Authors must include a brief (one short paragraph) subsection in the method description titled “Transparency and openness” that indicates how they complied with the TOP guidelines;
For example:

• We report how we determined our sample size, all data exclusions (if any), all manipulations, and all measures in the study, and we follow JARS (Kazak, 2018). All data, analysis code, and research materials are available at [stable link to repository]. Data were analyzed using R, version 4.0.0 (R Core Team, 2020) and the package ggplot, version 3.2.1 (Wickham, 2016). This study’s design and its analysis were not pre-registered.

Links to preregistrations and data, code, and materials should also be included in the author note.

Preregistration of studies and analysis plans

Preregistration of studies and specific hypotheses can be a useful tool for making strong theoretical claims. Likewise, preregistration of analysis plans can be useful for distinguishing confirmatory and exploratory analyses. Investigators are encouraged to preregister their studies and analysis plans prior to conducting the research (e.g., ClinicalTrials.gov or the Preregistration for Quantitative Research in Psychology template) via a publicly accessible registry system (e.g., OSF, ClinicalTrials.gov, or other trial registries in the WHO Registry Network).

We recognize that there may be good reasons to change the analysis plan after it has been preregistered, and thus encourage authors to do so when appropriate so long as all changes are clearly and transparently disclosed in the manuscript.

Articles must state whether or not any work was preregistered and, if so, where to access the preregistration. If any aspect of the study is preregistered, include the registry link in the method section and the author note.

For example:

• This study’s design was preregistered; see [STABLE LINK OR DOI].
• This study’s design and hypotheses were preregistered; see [STABLE LINK OR DOI].
• This study’s analysis plan was preregistered; see [STABLE LINK OR DOI].
• This study was not preregistered.

Open science badges

Articles are eligible for open science badges recognizing publicly available data, materials, and/or preregistration plans and analyses. These badges are awarded on a self-disclosure basis.

Applying for open science badges is optional.

At submission, authors must confirm that criteria have been fulfilled in a signed badge disclosure form (PDF, 33KB) that must be submitted as supplemental material. If all criteria are met as confirmed by the editor, the form will then be published with the article as supplemental material.

Authors should also note their eligibility for the badge(s) in the cover letter.

For all badges, items must be made available on an open-access repository with a persistent identifier in a format that is time-stamped, immutable, and permanent. For the preregistered badge, this is an institutional registration system.

Data and materials must be made available under an open license allowing others to copy, share, and use the data, with attribution and copyright as applicable.

Available badges are:

Open Data:
All data necessary to reproduce the reported results that are digitally shareable are made publicly available. Information necessary for replication (e.g., codebooks or metadata) must be included.

Open Data: Protected Access:
A "PA" (Protected Access) notation may be added to open data badges if sensitive, personal data are available only from an approved third-party repository that manages access to data to qualified researchers through a documented process. To be eligible for an open data badge with such a notation, the repository must publicly describe the steps necessary to obtain the data and detailed data documentation (e.g. variable names and allowed values) must be made available publicly. View a list of approved repositories.

Open Materials:
All materials necessary to reproduce the reported results that are digitally shareable, along with descriptions of non-digital materials necessary for replication, are made publicly available.

Preregistered:
At least one study’s design has been preregistered with descriptions of (a) the research design and study materials, including the planned sample size; (b) the motivating research question or hypothesis; (c) the outcome variable(s); and (d) the predictor variables, including controls, covariates, and independent variables. Results must be fully disclosed. As long as they are distinguished from other results in the article, results from analyses that were not preregistered may be reported in the article.

Preregistered+Analysis Plan:
At least one study’s design has been preregistered along with an analysis plan for the research — and results are recorded according to that plan.

Registered Reports

The journal now also invites submission of Registered Reports. We are particularly interested in Registered Reports for intervention studies and secondary data analyses. Registered reports require a two-stage review process.

Stage 1 is the submission of the registration, so-called Stage 1 manuscript. This is a partial manuscript that includes introduction, theoretical framework, rationale for the study, hypotheses, experimental design, and methods (including an analysis plan). The partial manuscript will be reviewed for significance, theoretical framework, methodological approach, and analysis plan.

If the Stage 1 Registered Report manuscript receives an “in-principle acceptance (IPA)” it means that the study has the potential to be published if is performed exactly as proposed (also including the proposed statistical evaluation) regardless of the outcome of the study. After this stage and before data collection begins the study is pre-registered (e.g., through the Registered Report tools from OSF).

In Stage 2, the full paper undergoes a second peer-review process, checking if the study protocol was implemented and if the reasons for potential changes were acceptable. Nevertheless, a rejection is still possible, namely if the study’s execution and analysis diverged too much from the proposed study design and/or the manuscript is low quality. The refinement of the discussion and conclusions may still require further revision, but the process will be expedited.

For helpful tips for when and why to publish in a Registered Report format, as well as for how to write Stage 1 and Stage 2 manuscripts most effectively, we encourage authors to review the article “The Past, Present, and Future of Registered Reports” (Chambers & Tzavella, 2022). In particular, we suggest you heed the “Tips for Authors” in Box 1 and the “Tips for Reviewers” in Box 2. In your Stage 1 manuscript, please include an argument and rationale for why it is appropriate and optimal for your study to use a Registered Report format. Examples of registered reports that (to varying degrees) have included such an argument (e.g., as a confirmatory study and analysis of a hypothesized effect) are available.

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.

Guidelines for qualitative manuscripts

In its ongoing effort to promote enhanced rigor and transparency in psychological science, APA has recently released new Journal Article Reporting Standards for Qualitative Primary Research (JARS-Qual) that offer guidelines for what information should be included in each section of qualitative manuscripts.

• Guidelines for Preparing Qualitative Manuscripts for Submission

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 APA PsycArticles^® database. Please see Supplementing Your Article With Online Material for more details.

Abstract and keywords

Abstract: Empirical reports must include a structured abstract with <250 words and these headings:

• Objective: Brief statement of the purpose or aims of the study.
• Methods: Essential information about the study design, procedures, and measures.
• Results: Primary findings; include sample size and primary statistical results, if possible.
• Conclusions: Main conclusions based on the primary findings.

Papers such as narrative reviews or invited commentaries for which a structured abstract would be inappropriate should include an unstructured manuscript with a maximum of 250 words.

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

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.v8

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/

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

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.

• Download Permissions Alert Form (PDF, 13KB)

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).

• Download Full Disclosure of Interests Form (PDF, 41KB)

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

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

Crystal L. Park, PhD
University of Connecticut, United States

Associate editors

Chris Boyatzis, PhD
Bucknell University, United States

Gina Brelsford, PhD
Penn State Harrisburg, United States

Ward Davis, PsyD
Wheaton College, United States

Liz Hall, PhD
Biola University, United States

Kathryn A. Johnson, PhD
Arizona State University, United States 

Jonathan Jong, PhD
Coventry University, United Kingdom 

Sarah Schnitker, PhD
Baylor University, United States

Amy Wachholtz, PhD, MDiv, MS
University of Colorado, Denver, United States

Consulting editors

Mona Abo-Zena, PhD
University of Massachusetts Boston, United States

Hisham Abu-Raiya, PhD
Tel Aviv University, Israel

Amy Ai, PhD
Florida State University, United States

E. Kawika Allen, PhD
Brigham Young University, United States

Zhuo Job Chen, PhD
Clemson University, United States 

Richard G. Cowden, PhD
Harvard University, United States

Joe Currier, PhD
University of South Alabama, United States

Carlos M. Del Rio
Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Julie Exline, PhD
Case Western University, United States

Frank D. Fincham, PhD
Florida State University, United States

Leslie Francis, PhD
University of Warwick, United Kingdom

Luke Galen, PhD
Grand Valley State University, United States

Joshua Grubbs, PhD
Bowling Green State University, United States

Irene Harris, PhD
Minneapolis VA Healthcare System, United States

Kevin Harris, PhD, LP, HSP
University of Texas of the Permian Basin, United States

Ralph Hood, PhD
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, United States

Joshua Hook, PhD
University of North Texas, United States

Jordan P. LaBouff, PhD
University of Maine, United States

Kevin Ladd, PhD
Indiana University South Bend, United States

G. Tyler Lefevor, PhD
Utah State University, United States

Douglas MacDonald, PhD
University of Detroit Mercy, United States

Jesse L. Preston, PhD
University of Warwick, United Kingdom

David H. Rosmarin, PhD, ABPP
McLean Hospital, United States

Wade Rowatt, PhD
Baylor University, United States

Vassilis Saroglou, PhD
Universite catholique de Louvain, Belgium

Tony Scioli, PhD
Keene State College, United States

Jo-Ann Tsang, PhD
Baylor University, United States

Patty Van Cappellen, PhD
Duke University, United States

Michiel van Elk
Leiden University, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Daryl Van Tongeren, PhD
Hope College, United States

David B. Yaden, PhD
Johns Hopkins University, United States

Abstracting and indexing services providing coverage of Psychology of Religion and Spirituality^®

• American Theological Library Association Religion Database
• Arts & Humanities Citation Index
• Cabell's Directory of Publishing Opportunities in Psychology
• Current contents: Arts & Humanities
• Current Contents: Social & Behavioral Sciences
• Journal Citations Report: Social Sciences Edition
• OCLC
• PsycInfo
• PsycLine
• SafetyLit
• SCOPUS
• Social Sciences Citation Index

• Atheism, Agnosticism, and Nonreligious Worldviews:

  Special issue of the APA journal Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, Vol. 10, No. 3, August 2018. The articles highlight starting points and paths for continued growth in developing methodologies and theories that will allow atheists and the nonreligious to be understood apart from, yet compared with, their religious counterparts.

• The Psychology of Virtue:

  Special issue of the APA journal Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, Vol. 9, No. 3, August 2017. The articles underscore the centrality of mooring the positive psychological examination of virtue in religious and spiritual traditions.

• Nature and Evolution of Totemism, Shamanism, Religions, and Spirituality:

  Special issue of the APA journal Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, Vol. 7, No. 4, November 2015. The articles are organized on the basis of two primary themes - evolution and the cultural nature and evolutionary kinship and sociocultural and cognitive investigation of religions and spirituality.

Transparency and Openness Promotion

APA endorses the Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines by a community working group in conjunction with the Center for Open Science (Nosek et al. 2015). The TOP Guidelines cover eight fundamental aspects of research planning and reporting that can be followed by journals and authors at three levels of compliance.

For example:

• Level 1: Disclosure—The article must disclose whether or not the materials are available.
• Level 2: Requirement—The article must share materials when legally and ethically permitted (or disclose the legal and/or ethical restriction when not permitted).
• Level 3: Verification—A third party must verify that the standard is met.

Effective January 2023, all articles submitted to Psychology of Religion and Spirituality must, at a minimum, adhere to the Transparency and Openness (TOP) levels as noted in the list below, which details the domains of research planning and reporting, the TOP level required, and a brief description of the journal’s policy. Please see below and refer to the Center for Open Science TOP guidelines for more details.

APA recommends sharing data, materials, and code via trusted repositories (e.g., APA’s repository on the Open Science Framework (OSF)), and we encourage investigators to preregister their studies and analysis plans prior to conducting the research. There are many available preregistration forms (e.g., the APA Preregistration for Quantitative Research in Psychology template, ClininalTrials.gov, or other preregistration templates available via OSF). Completed preregistration forms should be posted on a publicly accessible registry system (e.g., OSF, ClinicalTrials.gov, or other trial registries in the WHO Registry Network).

• Data Citation: Level 1, Disclosure—All data, program code, and other methods developed by others should be appropriately cited in the text and listed in the references section.
• Data Transparency: Level 2, Requirement—Data must be posted to a trusted repository. Exceptions must be identified at article submission.
• Analysis Code Transparency: Level 1, Disclosure—Article states whether code is available, and, if so, where to access it.
• Materials Transparency: Level 2, Requirement—Materials must be posted to a trusted repository. Exceptions must be identified at article submission.
• Design & Analysis Reporting Guidelines: Level 1, Disclosure—The journal encourages the use of APA Style Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS-Quant, JARS-Qual, and/or MARS). The journal also encourages the use of the 21-word statement, reporting 1) how the sample size was determined, 2) all data exclusions, 3) all manipulations, and 4) all study measures. See Simmons, Nelson, & Simonsohn (2012) for details.
• Study Preregistration: Level 2, Requirement—Article states whether preregistration of study exists, and, if so, allows journal access during peer review for verification.
• Analysis Plan Preregistration: Level 2, Requirement—Article states whether preregistration with analysis plan exists, and, if so, allows journal access during peer review for verification.
• Replication: Level 3: The journal encourages submission of replication studies, particularly of research published in this journal. When possible, replication studies are reviewed in two stages following the Registered Reports format.

Inclusive study designs

• Collaborative research models
• Diverse samples
• Registered Reports

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 (recommended)

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

Other EDI offerings

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).

Guidelines for qualitative manuscripts

This journal provides guidelines for preparing qualitative manuscripts for submission in on ongoing effort to promote enhanced rigor and transparency in psychological science.

From APA Journals Article Spotlight^®

• Losing my religion: Who walks away from their faith and why?
• Do beliefs about God affect suicide risk? A study of “Divine Struggle” among men recovering from substance abuse