Spiritual Psychology and Counseling

Spiritual Psychology and Counseling (SPC) is an international peer-reviewed scientific journal for the publication of research and studies covering all aspects of spirituality and spirituality-related issues within the context of psychological processes. Culturally sensitive counseling theories and practices are also covered by the journal.

The scope of the journal encompasses research topics that fall within the broad range of spirituality such as spiritual constructs, spiritually oriented and culturally sensitive psychotherapy and counseling interventions, psychological inquiry on all spiritual traditions all over the world. The journal’s vision is to stimulate and facilitate national, international, and interdisciplinary scientific communication, to strengthen the links between scientific research, theory and practice on its area. SPC is aimed to serve as an interdisciplinary forum for the exchange of recent empirical research and scholarly contributions adhering to international standards on scientific methodology and scholarly presentation of scientific contributions.

Spiritual Psychology and Counseling editorial board consider several qualities that can increase the chance that a manuscript could be evaluated favorably: (1) The remarkable conceptual contribution of the paper. (2) Clear understanding of how literature critically relates to the topic studied. (3) The research presented is systematically as well as being methodologically and conceptually innovative. (4) The methods are sophisticated and include measures in addition to self-reporting. (5) Critical recommendations for further research, theory and practice in national and international contexts.

Spiritual Psychology and Counseling publishes peer-reviewed research reports, theoretical papers and book reviews on spiritual psychology and counseling, bringing together research conducted within a variety of different disciplines. Articles include theoretical and empirical research papers; case reports and historical research related to issues within the scope of spiritual psychology and counseling.

Manuscript Submission
In Spiritual Psychology and Counseling (SPC);

Articles and features are normally published only in English. Manuscripts in Turkish are accepted for review but must be translated into English if the manuscript is to be accepted for publication.
SPC does not charge any submission, publication or processing fees from authors.
Manuscripts should adhere to the standards of Publication Manual of American Psychological Association (APA) (6th edition).
Contributors submitting their work to SPC should be informed that articles should include the following:

Quantitative, qualitative, or mixed research methods,
Comprehensive literature reviews, meta-analysis, or meta-synthesis,
Model proposals, clinical experimental research model, or original writings of similar quality.
Editorial and Review Process
SPC gives priority to current studies using advanced research and statistical methods and techniques. The Journal’s main criteria for publication are original contribution to the field and competency in methodology.

Manuscripts are first assessed by the Editorial Board for purpose, topic, content, presentation style, and mechanics of writing. The Editors emphasize that SPC articles should not include studies based on very frequently used measurement tools or on research topics that have been overly examined, unless they propose an innovative approach to the topic in question.

Ethical Considerations

Ethics committee approval must be obtained for studies using human participant data sent to be published in SPC as of 2020, this approval must be stated and documented in the article. These articles should include the statement regarding the compliance with Research and Publication Ethics and the information of the relevant ethics committee decision.

“Contribution Rate Statement” (For multiple authors), Statement of Support or Acknowledgment, if any, and “Conflict of Interest” should be included at the end of the article.

Manuscripts based on thesis-related research should include all data used in the thesis. SPC does not publish any article including unethical practices such as sliding.

SPC editorial believe that the data collection process for original research should have been done in the last 5 years.

Flow of the Review Procedure

After the submission, authors are sent a confirmation of receipt by email.
Manuscripts are evaluated by the Editorial Board following the submission.
A plagiarism check is conducted by a plagiarism detection software right after the submission.
Manuscripts failing the originality check are rejected without further scrutiny.
Manuscripts that meet the criteria for SPC proceed to the next stage, which is reviewer evaluation.
Manuscripts that do not meet the SPC criteria are notified of the decision with the relevant justification for rejection.
Receipt of manuscripts and Editorial Board decisions may take approximately two weeks.
Manuscripts are sent to two specialists in the relevant field.
If the reviewers differ in opinion about the quality of your work, the paper will be referred to a third reviewer.
The Editorial Board and referee reviews take approximately 2-3 months to complete. This time may be extended depending on the availability of referees in the area that the manuscript is related.
Reviewer reports are kept confidential. We adopt a double-blind peer-review evaluating process.
Authors must be attentive to the criticisms, suggestions, and corrections of the referees and the Editorial Board. In case of disagreement with the reports, authors must explain why they do not agree with the points made by the reviewers.
For more details of the review process, visit the Notes for Reviewers page.
There are three possible results for a manuscript:
Acceptance with minor or major revisions
Reject and Resubmit process
Rejection
Manuscripts go through the following stages once accepted for publication:

Reviewer reports and Editorial Board reports are sent to the author.
Authors revise their manuscripts according to the reports, and the Editorial Board reviews the revised manuscripts before they advance to the proofreading stage.
Authors are sent the proofreading notes.
When proofreading is complete, manuscripts advance to the formatting and pagination stage.
Following the pagination process, authors are asked to conduct a final check of their manuscripts.
After completion of these processes, manuscripts are initially published on OnlineFirst. As each article is assigned a DOI, this version could be treated as the authentic version.
The manuscripts are published in an issue relevant to the planning and workload of the journal.
It is the responsibility of the authors to have the articles proofread. In the event that the manuscripts are accepted for publication, the corresponding authors are asked to document that their final version has passed through proofreading from a competent service.
Manuscript submission and all communications are done through the following e-mail address: spiritualpcj@gmail.com

Ethical Considerations
Ethics committee approval must be obtained for studies using human participant data sent to be published in SPC as of 2020, this approval must be stated and documented in the article. These articles should include the statement regarding the compliance with Research and Publication Ethics and the information of the relevant ethics committee decision.
“Contribution Rate Statement” (For multiple authors), Statement of Support or Acknowledgment, if any, and “Conflict of Interest” should be included at the end of the article.
Manuscripts based on thesis-related research should include all data used in the thesis. SPC does not publish any article including unethical practices such as sliding.
SPC editorial believe that the data collection process for original research should have been done in the last 5 years.

Plagiarism Policy
All manuscripts submitted to SPC are checked by a leading commercial online plagiarism detection software package. Similarity analysis reports are evaluated by the handling editor. If the similarity analysis indicates plagiarism or any similar misconducts with respect to publication ethics (self-plagiarism, duplication or redundant publication etc.); manuscripts are rejected without being considered for further review processes.

In some cases, there can be instances of plagiarism which cannot be detected by the software packages such as in translated pieces. SPC reviewers are required to report these kind of infringements to the respective editor. If there is a detection of plagiarism in already published SPC articles; SPC editorial board may take necessary measures by adherence to the international ethical standards of Publication Manual of American Psychological Association (APA) (6th edition) and “COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors”.

No fee is charged from the authors at any stage during the SPC Journal processes.