INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

Peer Review Process

All manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Clinical Psychology Research (JCPR) are first reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief. Approximately 40% of the reviewed manuscripts are rejected without proceeding to a further peer-review evaluation, as they are considered not to be related to the scope of the journal or do not have the quality to be published. For all other manuscripts, an Editor (or Associate Editor) is assigned from the Editorial Board according to their subject. Manuscripts decided to proceed to peer review are sent to at least two reviewers.

This journal follows a DOUBLE-BLIND procedure. That is, the author(s) of the manuscript do not know to which reviewers the manuscript is sent, and the reviewers assigned to the manuscript do not know which author(s) the manuscript belongs to. The authors, therefore, are requested not to share any self-identifying information or citations in the text.

The Editor assigned to the manuscript decides to accept, reject or revise it based on the suggestions or comments from the reviewers. Please note that a decision of revision does not imply or guarantee that the revised manuscript will be accepted. Revised articles are reviewed by the Editor (if necessary, they will be forwarded to the Reviewers again) and a decision of acceptance, rejection, or revision/resubmit is made.

In this journal, the average time from submission to first decision is 50 days and the average time from submission to acceptance is 120 days. Please click for journal statistics.

Online Manuscript Submission

This journal uses DergiPark online submission system. Please click to log in or register to submit your manuscript. Please note that to submit your manuscript, you must first register in the system if you don’t already have an account. 

Manuscript Preparation

Before submitting your manuscript, please carefully read and follow the submission guidelines outlined below. Manuscripts that do not adhere to these guidelines may be returned without review.

Article Types

• Original Research Articles: Reports of original scientific research, including data and findings from the author's own study.
• Review Articles: Summaries of existing research on a specific topic, usually synthesizing multiple studies to provide an overview of current knowledge.
• Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: Detailed, structured reviews of literature that follow specific methodologies and may include statistical analysis (meta-analysis) of combined data.
• Case Studies/Case Reports: Detailed reports on the diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of individual patients or clinical cases.
• Short Communications/Brief Reports: Concise reports of new research findings that may be considered less comprehensive than full-length articles.
• Letters to the Editor: Short, opinion-based letters that comment on articles recently published in the journal or present brief observations or concerns.

Format and Language

• The submitted work should be in English or Turkish.
• There is no page or word limit for the submitted work to the JCPR.
• Work submitted for publication must be written in the Microsoft Office Word program (Word 2007 or higher) in A4 paper size, double-spaced, and doc/docs format using a normal, plain font (preferably 11-point Times New Roman for text).
• All text including references, quotations, figures, graphics, tables, and legends should be double-spaced, all margins should be 2.5 cm (Please note that you can arrange your tables that need to be arranged in larger dimensions by making the page orientation horizontal).
• All manuscripts should contain title, abstract, keywords, main text, references, appendices, tables, figures, and figure captions, respectively.
• Abstract, references, appendices, tables, figures, and figure captions should be started on a separate page. Introduction, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion and suggestions sections should not be started on a separate page.
• All pages including references, appendices, tables, figure captions, and figures should be numbered consecutively. Page numbering should be positioned in the upper right corner of each page, with a running head on the left.
• Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter.
• If you need help with writing in English, you can ask a colleague who is a native English speaker or fluent in English to review your manuscript for clarity or contact the Editor for a support request.
• If the manuscript is accepted for publication, a Language Editor reviews your manuscript to ensure that your meaning is clear and identifies problems that require your review.

Title Page

• The title page should include title, running head, all author names and surnames, affiliations (i.e., institution, department), contact information (mail addresses; city, state, country), and all authors' 16-digit ORCIDs. Contact information of the corresponding author (including e-mail and phone) should be written separately at the end of the title page. 
• The above-mentioned information of all authors should not be included anywhere other than the title page.
• Any acknowledgements, or author notes should also be included on title page.
• Title of the manuscript should be concise and informative, with a maximum of 15-20 words. Running head should be a maximum of 4-6 words.
• Title page should not be included in the main text to be submitted via the online submission system; it should be uploaded as a separate file named “titlepage” to the Additional Files section.

Abstracts and Keywords

• Abstract should be in both English and Turkish. The submitted work in Turkish should contain an “Abstract” in English. Similarly, the submitted work in English should contain a Turkish “Abstract” (Öz).
• The abstracts should be between 150 and 250 words, with each starting on a new page and full titles in both English and Turkish.
• Subheadings (e.g., Introduction, Methods), references, and abbreviations should not be included in the Abstract section.
• In the empirical research articles, an abstract should contain general literature related to the subject of the study, purpose, method (e.g., study design, measurement tools, and age range of the participants), results, and clinical implications. In the review articles, an abstract should contain general literature related to the subject of the study, purpose, method (data sources), and important findings (clinical implications and recommendations for future studies).
• A maximum of 4-6 keywords and short phrases which can be used for indexing purposes should be given in this section.

Main Text

• In empirical and meta-analysis research, the main text should include Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion and Suggestions sections. In other article types, the authors can use subheadings suitable for the content of the manuscript. For all article types, conclusions and suggestions that will guide future studies should be included under a separate section title.
• On the first page of the main text, the title of “Introduction” should not be given, instead, the full title of the article should be included.
• In the Introduction part, theoretical work, previous findings in accordance with the subject of the research, the purpose of the research, and/or its hypotheses should be included.
• The Methods part should be formed under four subheadings: Sample, Measures, Statistical Analysis, and Procedure.
• Ethics approval information (i.e., the name of the ethics committee, the number and date of ethics committee decision) must be included in the Procedure or Sample part in the Methods section. The same information on ethics approval should be also included under the subheading “Compliance with Ethical Standards” just before the References section (for detailed information, see Compliance with Ethical Standards).
• In the Results section, significance level and degrees of freedom must be specified in reporting statistically significant results. Non-significant results should be reported without giving statistical values for these results.
• In reporting the results, the publication principles of the American Psychological Association (see Publication Manual of American Psychological Association-7th Edition) should be taken into consideration. In particular, statistical values such as p, F, and B should be written in italics, and p values are expected to be written clearly (e.g., p = .032).
• In the Discussion section, in addition to discussion of the findings with the previous literature, clinical implications of the findings should also be included. Moreover, the limitations of the study should also be included in this section.

References

• This journal follows the publication principles of the American Psychological Association (see Publication Manual of American Psychological Association [APA]-7th Edition) as the style and punctuation of the reference. Every researcher who contributes to the manuscript submitted the JCPR should comply with the writing and publication principles stated in this manual and is suggested to refer to this publication. Manuscripts that do not comply with APA style are not evaluated and sent back to authors without review.
• Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references in the manuscript. All references used in the text should be also included in the “References.” References section should be started on a new page and the references used should be listed in alphabetical order, in a hanging paragraph (0.5 cm) format.
• In-text citations should only include the last names of the authors and the year of publication. If the publication has 1 or 2 authors, the last names of all authors should be provided where the reference is first cited. If the publication has more than 3 authors, the phrase "et al." should be used after the first author's last name throughout the text. Examples are provided below:

Çelik (2017) ...
Yiğit and Çelik (2016) ...
Hisli Şahin et al. (2010) ...
According to Guzey and Yiğit (1992) ...
(Erden et al., 2020).

• For other writing rules regarding references, please refer to Chapters 8, 9, and 10 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th Edition).

Basic examples of references

Journal Article Format: Author, A., Author, B., Author, C., & Author, D. (Year). Title of the article. Title of the Periodical, Volume(Issue number), page range. Example: Kömürcü, B. & Gör, N. (2016). A review on early maladaptive schemas and anxiety. Nesne Psikoloji Dergisi, 8, 183-204.

Book Format: Author, A.A. (Year). Title of the book. Place of Publication: Publisher. Example: Savaşır, I. & Şahin, N. (1995). Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-R) Manual. Ankara: Turkish Psychologists Association Publications.

Book Chapter Format: Author, A., Author, B., & Author, C. (Year). Title of the chapter. In Title of the Book (Edition) (Volume, page range). Place of Publication: Publisher. Example: Kağıtçıbaşı, Ç. (1997). Individualism and collectivism. In Handbook of Cross-Cultural Psychology: Social Behavior and Applications (2nd ed.) (3, 1-49). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Tables, Figure Captions, and Figures

• Tables, Figure Captions, and Figures can be given either in the text or at the end of the text. If they are given at the end of the text, they should be listed as appendices (if any), tables, figures, and figure captions after the References section. Each of these sections should be started on a new page.
• Tables should be prepared by using the Microsoft Word program, with title captions with the initial letters of the words in the capital. A separate page should not be used for the table number and the table caption. Statistical results used in the tables should be expressed with abbreviations.
• Figures and tables should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.
• Figure and table captions should be in bold type.
• Figures should be a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. The author(s) are suggested to use PowerPoint or online tools (e.g., lucidchart).
• The number of figures and tables should be a maximum of 5-6.

Appendices

• Appendices should be at the end of the text, just after the References section. 
• In this section, the author(s) who submit development or adaptation study of a scale can include the measurement tools or related materials.
• Measurement tools, consent forms, or ethics committee forms used in the manuscript should not be added to this section.

Extended English Abstract

• When the submitted work written in Turkish is accepted to the publication, the corresponding author is asked to upload an extended English abstract in 30 days upon the aceptance.
• The extended English abstract should be concise and informative, with a maximum of 1000-2000 words (except Tables, Figures, and References).
• For original articles, it should include Title (including Short Title or Running Head), Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion and References. Any subheadings other than the headings stated above should not be used. For other types of articles (e.g., reviews, case reports), there are no specific titles; the author(s) can determine main or sub-headings according to the content of the article.
• References to be used in the article should be in accordance with APA-7 format (in the English version) and should be placed at the end of the article. The author(s) should take care to use the references they used in the full text of the article as much as possible in the extended English abstract.
• If Tables or Figures are preferred to be used, all of these should also be in APA-7 format (There is no obligation to add Tables or Figures).
• Statements of Compliance with Ethical Principles and Conflict of Interest should not be included in the extended English abstract.
• It is recommended that the extended English abstract be reviewed by a professional or an expert with a good level of English. In addition, JCPR Language Editors will review the extended abstract before publication, making necessary edits.

Declarations and Statements

Authors submitting manuscripts to the journal must include the following declarations and statements in the manuscript, just before the References section.

Ethical Approval: Authors must declare whether their research involved human participants, animals, or biological material, and confirm that the study was approved by an appropriate ethics committee. The name of the committee and the approval/reference number/date should be provided.
Example: "This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of [Institution], approval number [XXX]." Please see "Publication Ethics" section for details. 

Informed Consent: For studies involving human participants, a statement confirming that informed consent was obtained from all participants (or their legal guardians) must be included. If applicable, provide details of consent for publication.
Example: "Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study." Please see "Statement of Informed Consent" section for details. 

Conflict of Interest: All authors are required to disclose any financial or non-financial interests that could be perceived as influencing the research outcomes or interpretations. If no conflicts exist, the authors should state:
Example: "The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest."

Funding Statement: Authors must acknowledge all sources of funding for the study and clearly state if no funding was received. This includes any grant numbers, the name of the funding body, and the role they played in the research process.
Example: "This work was supported by [Funding Agency] under Grant number [XXX]."

Data Availability Statement: Authors should provide a statement regarding the availability of data supporting their findings, including where the data can be accessed, or state if the data is not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.
Example: "The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request."

Trial Registration (for clinical trials): For manuscripts reporting clinical trials, authors must include details of trial registration (e.g., trial registry name, registration number, and URL) in compliance with international guidelines.
Example: "This study was registered at [Registry Name] under registration number [XXX]."

Author Contributions: A detailed description of each author’s contributions to the manuscript should be provided to ensure accountability. Common contribution categories include conceptualization, methodology, data analysis, writing, and supervision.

Every individual listed as an author must meet the authorship criteria established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE - www.icmje.org). The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following four criteria:

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work
2. Drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content
3. Final approval of the version to be published
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Example: "[Author 1] contributed to the conceptualization and design of the study. [Author 2] performed the data analysis. [Author 3] wrote the manuscript. All authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript."

PUBLICATION POLICIES 

Peer Review Policy

• The Journal of Clinical Psychology Research (JCPR) is a peer-reviewed scientific journal. All manuscripts submitted to the Journal are first reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief. Approximately 40% of the reviewed manuscripts are rejected without proceeding to a further peer-review evaluation, as they are considered not to be related to the scope of the journal or do not have the quality to be published. For all other manuscripts, an Editor (or Associate Editor) is assigned from the Editorial Board according to their subject. Manuscripts decided to proceed to peer review are sent to at least two reviewers.
• This journal follows a DOUBLE-BLIND procedure. That is, the author(s) of the manuscript do not know to which reviewers the manuscript is sent, and the reviewers assigned to the manuscript do not know which author(s) the manuscript belongs to. The authors, therefore, are requested not to share any self-identifying information or citations in the text (please make sure you remove personal information on your Word document and upload the title page as a separate file to the Additional Files section.
• The Editor assigned to the manuscript decides to accept, reject or revise it based on the suggestions or comments from the reviewers. Please note that a decision of revision does not imply or guarantee that the revised manuscript will be accepted. Revised articles are reviewed by the Editor (if necessary, they will be forwarded to the Reviewers again) and a decision of acceptance, rejection, or re-revision is made.

Publication Ethics

• All researchers who contribute to the Journal of Clinical Psychology Research (JCPR) are obliged to comply with all kinds of research and publication ethics practices in line with the ethical regulations published by the American Psychological Association and the Turkish Psychologists Association. In addition, this journal declares to follow the recommendations of the International Standards of the Committee on Publication (COPE) for Editors and Authors and takes into account in its publications. Please click for detailed information.
• In original articles and case reports submitted to the JCPR, Ethics approval information (i.e., the name of the ethics committee, the number and date of ethics committee decision) must be included in the Procedure or Sample part in the Method section as well as under the subheading “Compliance with Ethical Principles” just before the References section. Moreover, an (official) document of ethics approval should be uploaded as a file under the name of “ethicsapproval” via the online submission system (i.e., Additional Files).

The ethical rules and principles include the following:

• All manuscripts submitted to this journal should be original and should not have been published elsewhere in any form or language (partially or in full) unless the new work concerns an expansion of previous work.
• The manuscript should not be submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration.
• Author(s) are responsible for the opinions expressed in the manuscripts.
• A single study should not be split up into several parts to increase the quantity of submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time.
• Results should be presented clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate data manipulation.
• No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the author’s own (‘plagiarism’). The authors should cite all scientific work used in the text.
• Before a manuscript is submitted, all authors should approve the final version of the manuscript.
• All authors are responsible for the accuracy of the study’s findings.
• The order of the authors should be determined before the article is submitted. Please note that any change request in authorship should be explained in detail and that changes to authorship cannot be made after acceptance of a manuscript.
• For each article published in the JCPR, researchers are obliged to keep the data of the study for 5(five) years. If deemed necessary, the data and analysis files can be requested from the authors.
• Authors are obliged to report a potential conflict of interest (e.g., institutions that fund the study).
• All authors are requested to include information regarding informed consent if the study involved human participants.

Reviewers or Editors are obliged to reject the article if they suspect that these ethical rules are not followed and withdraw the article if the article has been published. Withdrawal of the article means that the article continues to appear online but is flagged as being withdrawn for ethical reasons.

All articles published in the JCPR can be cited only by using appropriate referencing. Individuals or organizations that cite and publish erroneous information in the content of the quoted articles are responsible before the law.

Plagiarism Policy

The Journal of Clinical Psychology Research (JCPR) employs iThenticate - a plagiarism detection software - to identify instances of plagiarism in academic research. The software includes an extensive academic database that is specifically tailored for evaluating academic publications. Every document submitted to iThenticate undergoes comparison with a vast database, consisting of more than 90,000 newspapers, magazines, periodicals, and books, along with over 17 billion web pages and archives. In addition, the software controls databases containing more than 30 million contents from over 70,000 scientific journals, and over 86 million articles from more than 150 publishers. These publishers include major organizations such as CrossRef, Gale, Emerald, ABC-CLIO, SAGE Reference, Oxford University Press, IEEE, Elsevier, Nature Publishing, Ovid, Taylor & Francis, PubMed, Pearson, McGraw-Hill, Wiley, and EBSCOhost.

It is understood that authors who submit their work to the JCPR have not committed any ethical violations. If an author is found to have plagiarized content using the iThenticate software, their work will not be published in our journal. Additionally, a report will be sent to the author(s) and, if deemed necessary, the relevant institutions and organizations.

Statement of Informed Consent

• For articles concerning human research, it is essential to ensure that informed consent is obtained from participants or their legal guardians following a complete description of the procedures that they may experience. This applies to both prospective and retrospective studies.
• Procedures that were implemented to reduce any pain, harm and, distress in participants should be mentioned. Any interventions that involve potential risk should be justified in the manuscript.
• The authors should state their agreement with internationally trusted guidelines, such as the Declaration of Helsinki or the National Institutes of Health Guidelines for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, and the guidelines issued by the relevant officials of their country. The journal requests a copy of the Ethics Committee Approval obtained from the appropriate authority.
• We take the ethical responsibilities of the authors and editors very seriously and expect the authors to have followed the principles outlined above. If any doubt exists, authors should consult the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines for guidance.

By submitting an article to the JCPR, authors confirm that informed consent was obtained from participants or their legal guardians, and all necessary ethical approvals were obtained for the study.

Open Access Policy

The Journal of Clinical Psychology Research (JCPR) is an academic publication that provides open access to its content. As part of its commitment to promoting free access to scholarly research, the JCPR has subscribed to the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI), which defines open access as the unimpeded availability of research articles on the internet, enabling users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles without facing any financial, legal, or technical barriers apart from those inherent to accessing the internet. The BOAI recommends that copyright should be used only to allow authors to maintain the integrity of their work and to receive proper acknowledgment and citation. Further details on this matter are available at the following link.

Copyright Transfer Policy

The purpose of Copyright Transfer is to safeguard information and ensure that it is distributed in accordance with copyright law. The Association of Clinical Psychology Research (ACPR) assumes copyright ownership for both printed and electronic copies of articles that have been accepted for publication in the Journal of Clinical Psychology Research (JCPR). Following the acceptance of a manuscript, the corresponding author is required to complete and sign "the JCPR Copyright Transfer Form" on behalf of all co-authors. The completed form must then be submitted to editor@klinikpsikoloji.org. To obtain the JCPR Copyright Transfer Form, please click on the link here.