ISSN 2451-6600
online version

ISSN 1515-2251
printed version

Instructions to authors

• Scope and policy
• Form and preparation of manuscripts
• Sending of manuscripts

Psicodebate publishes papers on psychology in Spanish and English and other social and human sciences. All manuscripts go through a peer review process where external reviewers examine their content without knowing the authorship of the paper, and recommend accepting or rejecting the paper for its publication. Manuscripts may be directly accepted, accepted with a request of modifications (major/min) or rejected. The editor will inform the corresponding author of the decision made within the following eight weeks since the paper was sent.

All papers must be written according to the latest American Psychological Association (APA) style indications (third edition in Spanish, and sixth edition in English). The Word file must obey the following criteria: Times New Roman font, size 12, 1.5 spacing. It is expected that all papers do not exceed 8000 words (excluding title, authors information, abstract and keywords). All papers must be original and not under evaluation by another journal.
For submitting your paper authors must have their work in a Word file that will be uploaded using Open Journal System (OJS). The web address for user registration and uploading the paper is:: https://dspace.palermo.edu/ojs/index.php/psicodebate
 IMPORTANT: The Word file MUST NOT contain any information about the authors. Authors’ data (name and surname, affiliation, e–mail) are registered in STEP 3 (Metadata).
How to submit a paper to be considered for its publication in Psicodebate with OJS?
PREVIOUS STEP: Register as a user by clicking in LOGIN and then in “Not a user? Register with this site”. You will be asked to inform your personal data to register.
STEP 1: Once you are registered as a user, login with your user name and password and click on “New submission”. Go through the Submission Checklist to review if your papers meets all the requirements for it to be considered for publication. Check all elements if it does. If you wish, you may leave a comment to the editor in the text box below. Once you’ve done that, click on “Save and continue”.
STEP 2: In this step you have to upload the Word file with the paper that will be reviewed. IMPORTANT: This file MUST NOT have any author information. Choose the file and upload it. We suggest that you previously review the authors’ instructions before submitting your paper. Then click on “Save and continue”.
STEP 3: In this step you must upload all the submission’s metadata. Firstly, enter all authors’ information in the authorship order that should be published. Using the “Add author” button you may add additional authors. The, enter the title and the abstract, the keywords, the contributors or supporting agencies that must be acknowledge and the complete reference list (IMPORTANT: All references with DOI must inform it. You can check this with the Simple Text Query service of CrossRef: http://www.crossref.org/SimpleTextQuery).
STEP 4: Here you may upload any supplementary file that you consider important. Tables and figures must be placed in the Word file uploaded in STEP 2. Please place them within the text. It is likely that you won’t need to upload any file in this step..
STEP 5: Confirm your submission.

FILE TO BE UPLOADED IN STEP 2: ARTICLE WITHOUT AUTHORS’ INFORMATION

• Cover WITHOUT authors data. Title in Spanish. Running head in Spanish. Abstract in Spanish (300 words maximum): Briefly, include information about the papers aim, sample studied, materials, results and principal conclusions. Keywords in Spanish (between 4 and 6 words). Title in English. Abstract (300 words maximum). Keywords (between 4 and 6 words).
• Introduction (no heading). Clearly delimit and lay out the research problem. Use subtitles to present theoretical and background research. Here, objectives and hypotheses must be enunciated.
• Method. It must include the following subsections: Participants, Materials and Procedure. In them, authors must inform about the sample studied, sampling method, type of study and design, materials and procedures used for data recollection.
• Results. Here authors must inform the statistical analysis performed and the results obtained for each research objective.
• Discussion. In this section include the interpretation of the results obtained contrasting them to theoretical and background research.
• References. They should be listed in a complete and organized manner. All of the text citations must have their correspondent reference in the list, and all references must be cited in the text at least once. Use the Simple Text Query service of CrossRef to review if the elements of your list have doi. In that case add them for the reference to be complete. The web address is: http://www.crossref.org/SimpleTextQuery
• IMPORTANT: Check that there is no author information in the file

 MAIN INDICATIONS REGARDING APA STYLE:

Citing references in text:

• All citations must include only the authors last names (not their initials) and the year of publication.
• The use of direct quotations will be exceptional. In case where direct quotations are necessary and the text to be quoted has less than 40 words it will be incorporated in the text within quotation marks with the authors last name, year of publication and number page. Examples:

… as pointed out by Castro Solano (2012): “Estudiantes extranjeros, líderes expatriados, diplomáticos, militares desempeñándose en misiones de paz, residentes transitorios deben adaptarse de modo efectivo a la cultura y tener éxito en la tarea, sea de trabajo o de estudio” (p. 1).
or
…as it has been stated: “Estudiantes extranjeros, líderes expatriados, diplomáticos, militares desempeñándose en misiones de paz, residentes transitorios deben adaptarse de modo efectivo a la cultura y tener éxito en la tarea, sea de trabajo o de estudio” (Castro Solano, 2012, p. 1).

In those cases where the text bears more that 40 words, no quotations are used and the text will be copied in a new paragraph using indentation. Examples:

… as pointed out by Castro Solano (2012).
Estudiantes extranjeros, líderes expatriados, diplomáticos, militares desempeñándose en misiones de paz, residentes transitorios deben adaptarse de modo efectivo a la cultura y tener éxito en la tarea, sea de trabajo o de estudio. Las poblaciones migrantes comentadas son denominadas residentes temporarios (soujourners) ya que son personas que migran a un contexto cultural distinto por un tiempo relativamente largo (6 meses a 5 años), para realizar una tarea determinada y ponen en juego las habilidades de adaptación sociocultural, que definimos como competencias culturales. (p. 1).
or
…as pointed out in a previous study.
Estudiantes extranjeros, líderes expatriados, diplomáticos, militares desempeñándose en misiones de paz, residentes transitorios deben adaptarse de modo efectivo a la cultura y tener éxito en la tarea, sea de trabajo o de estudio. Las poblaciones migrantes comentadas son denominadas residentes temporarios (soujourners) ya que son personas que migran a un contexto cultural distinto por un tiempo relativamente largo (6 meses a 5 años), para realizar una tarea determinada y ponen en juego las habilidades de adaptación sociocultural, que definimos como competencias culturales. (Castro Solano, 2012, p. 1).

• In all other citations use the conjunction of authors last names by and in the text, and by using the & symbol within parenthesis. Examples:

Castro Solano, Góngora and Lupano (2011) concluded….

… as it was concluded by a previous study (Castro Solano, Góngora & Lupano, 2011).

• When the reference has between three and five authors, name all of them once and use et al. in the following citations.
• When references have six or more authors always use et al.

About statistical data and numbers:

• Some statistics are written in lower case letter and in italics (example: p, r, t).
• A colon must indicate decimals.
• No precedent zero must be used in those values that cannot exceed the unit (example: Pearson’s r, Cronbach’s alpha, p value).

Figures:

• Indicate the number and name of the figure right after it. Example:

Figure 1. Diamonds’ diagram.

• Reference each figure within the text.
• Number all figures consecutively.

Tables:

• Use the first line of the table to indicate the number and name of the table. Example:

• Use the last line of the table when further explanations are needed. Example:

• Reference all tables within the text and number them consecutively.

Reference list:

• Each reference will be complete when the following information is included:

For papers: Last name and initial of the authors – Year of publication – Paper title – Journal’s full name (do not use abbreviations) – Volume – Number (if available) – Beginning and ending page number – doi number (if available)
Example:

Demaray, M. K., & Malecki, C. K. (2002). Critical Levels of Perceived Social Support Associated with Student Adjustment. School Psychology Quarterly, 17(3), 213–241. doi: 10.1521/scpq.17.3.213.20883

For books: Last name and initial of authors – Year of publication – Book title – City where it was published – Editorial – doi number (if available)
Example:

Castro Solano, A. (2014). Positive Psychology in Latin America. Amsterdam: Springer.

For book chapters: Last name and initial of the authors – Year of publication – Title of the chapter – Initial and last name of the editors – Book title – Beginning and ending page number – City where it was published – Editorial – doi number (if available)
Example:

Lupano Perugini, M. L. (2014). Positive Psychological Assessment in Latin America. En A. Castro Solano (Ed.), Positive Psychology in Latin America (pp. 37–60). Amsterdam: Springer.

• Use hanging indentation.
• Arrange them according to the following criteria: alphabetical order – nothing comes before something – from the oldest to the newer.
• Look over the correct use of colons, commas, parentheses and italics.
• For other kind of references refer to the APA style manual.