Submissions

Author Guidelines

Submission Guidelines - 2023

Full document can fe checked here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fFYQs5Sanvpr6eWFe7_U9VKa2JTU47_R/view?usp=share_link

Estudos de Psicologia [Psychology Studies] (Natal) is a quarterly publication of the Psychology Post-Graduate Program of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte State (UFRN). Its issues provide unpublished Psychology works that fall into one of the following sub-areas (each one of them being under the responsibility of an Associated  Editorial Office):

Psychobiology and Cognitive Psychology: Psychological Assessment; Neurosciences and Neuropsychology; Basic Psychological Processes; Evolutionary Psychology; Experimental Psychology; Physiological Psychology.

Social Psychology of Work: Psychology - Organizations and work, work and subjectivity, work clinics, work and health, psychosociology of work, unemployment, underemployment, dirty work and informal work, the production of meanings and sense at work, work and culture, affect and emotions at work, aging and work, youth and work, public policies and work, career development, social psychology of work, research methods in Psychology - Organizations and work.

Social policies themes: social assistance and the rights guarantees system (SGD - "Sistema de Garantias de Direitos"): Policies, programs, services and actions within the field of social assistance. Psychologists' training and performance within the field of social assistance. Poverty, vulnerabilities and risks associated with social assistance policy. Social movements, community organizing and struggle for social rights. Children's and adolescents' rights and their violations. Policies, programs, services and actions related to the rights guarantees system (SGD - "Sistema de Garantias de Direitos"). Social movements, community organization and struggle for the rights guarantees system (SGD - "Sistema de Garantias de Direitos"). Psychology and the rights guarantees system (SGD - "Sistema de Garantias de Direitos"). Criminal policy, public safety and the prison system.

Psychosocial aspects pertaining to interactions between people and various socio-environmental contexts: Interdisciplinary approaches to person-environment relations in rural, urban and community contexts. The interface between psychology and different spatialities, ways of living and inhabiting territories: macro-environments, built environments, small and large cities; rural and fishing and riverside ("ribeirinhos") communities; indigenous, and quilombola (Brazilian Maroons) communities. Methodologies and research and community intervention strategies.

Submissions for publication in Estudos de Psicologia (Natal) must be compatible with the ARTICLE category; submissions pertaining to reviews, experience reports, technical notes, among other categories will not be accepted.

Submitted articles may consist of:

Empirical studies:  original research reports. It should include secondary analyses to test hypotheses presenting new analyses of data which were not taken into consideration or presented in previous works. These are typically organized so as to mirror the stages of the research process in the following sequence: introduction (a presentation of the research problem and the theoretical framework for conducting it, as well as of the study’s goals and its hypotheses/guiding questions), methods (a presentation of the participants/subjects, theoretical instruments, procedures and ethical procedures, types of data analysis adopted), results (a presentation of the study’s findings and the analyzes carried out, in a way that is consistent with the proposed goas, as well as the guiding hypotheses/questions), discussion (results’ interpretation, which can be given together with the  results’ presentation), conclusions (a summary with the study’s main conclusions, as well as its implications and limitations).

Theoretical essays: such studies propose theoretical advances based on the current empirical literature. The authors must present the development of a theory to expand or refine theoretical constructs; they must present a new theory or analyze an existing one, by showing its weaknesses or by demonstrating the advantage of one theory over the other. Contributions of this kind analyze the internal consistency of a theory, as well as its external validity. The way sections are presented may vary according to their content (unlike empirical studies).

Critical literature reviews: such consist of a critical evaluation of already published material, which may include research syntheses or meta-analyses For meta-analyses, authors should employ quantitative procedures to statistically adjust other studies results. Authors must integrate and evaluate previously published material, considering the progress made    by research, thus seeking to clarify a specific problem. Therefore, the problem should be clearly defined, and the prior information should be summarized to inform the reader about the state of the research, be it the relations, contradictions, gaps and/or inconsistencies identified within the scientific literature, and new investigation directions should also be suggested to solve the problems thus identified. The text's components may be organized in several manners, in such a way that keeps their coherence.

Manuscripts must be submitted online, exclusively on the publication's website (http://submission-pepsic.scielo.br/index.php/epsic). Any and all submissions will be received under the condition that the material has never been published, nor is it under evaluation by another journal.

Manuscript evaluation process

Submissions will undergo an initial evaluation in order to verify:

1) the adequacy of the manuscript regarding compliance with the standards for publication presented here;

2) plagiarism/self-plagiarism screening through the use of proper software.

In case of non-compliance with these prerequisites, manuscripts will be automatically rejected.

If the manuscript is rejected twice due to inadequacy or non-compliance issues pertaining to any of these two items avove, it will not be accepted again for evaluation by Estudos de Psicologia (Natal), within a period of 12 (twelve) months, counting from the last date of rejection.

Submissions found eligible for processing by Psychology Studies (Natal) will then be evaluated by the Associate Editor, who will evaluate:

1) the manuscript’s pertinence regarding the scope of the thematic session to which it is being submitted;

2) originality and theoretical-methodological coherence, as well as its potential to offer a scientific contribuition, depending on the section into which the manuscript was submitted.

In case of a positive evaluation regarding these aspects, the manuscripts will then be forwarded for peer reviewing.

Manuscripts are peer-reviewed through a double blind review process. This preserves the identity of the authors and consultants. Each manuscript will receive a minimum of two reviews prepared by members of the Scientific Council of the Journal and/or ad hoc consultants/es, with the following possible scenarios:

• Not recommended for publication (inappropriate for Estudos de Psicologia).
• Recommended for resubmission in Estudos de Psicologia (Natal)
• Recommended for publication, but needs to be reviewed.
• Recommended for publication. No need to review.

After peer review, the Associate Editor will forward its editorial decision, which may include one of the following alternatives:

• In case of divergent reviews, the Associate Editors’ office will analyze the arguments presented in both opinions to issue its editorial decision. If the impasse persists, a new review may be requested.
• When the reviewers agree on rejecting it or on a recommendation for publication without the need for amendments, the Editorial Decision is final.
• When the reviewers agree on a recommendation for publication albeit subject to reformulation/rewriting, the Editorial Decision takes place in two stages:
  • Preliminary editorial decision: the authors are notified to conduct the revisions indicated by the blind peer review, with a deadline of 14 days and with full copies of the reviews being made available, preserving the identities of the consultants;
  • Review by the Editorial Board: The reformulated manuscripts will be examined by a member of the Editorial Board responsible for the thematic section to which the manuscript was submitted. He or she (based on the recommendations of the consultants) will then recommend that the reformulated text be accepted for publication, be further reformulated or be rejected. In case it is accepted for publication, the Editorial Board reserves the right to introduce changes for the purpose of standardization according to the editorial parameters of the Journal.
• The Final editorial decision belongs to the General Editor’s board of Estudos de Psicologia (Natal).

During any stages of the evaluation, members of the Scientific Council can be called upon to provide opinions, issue further reviews, to opine on ad hoc reviews, among other fkinds of actions to support the Associate Editors offices.

When a manuscript is published entirely in English or in Spanish, its final version, after the Final Editorial Decision, must undergo a proofread review by one of the translators listed by the Journal, with costs falling under the responsibility of the authors themselves. A contact list of professionals accredited by the journal Estudos de Psicologia (Natal) will be forwarded to the authors for this procedure.

Documents required for submitting works

The collection of articles already published by Estudos de Psicologia (Natal) is available, in full text, in the SciELO electronic library (http://www.scielo.br/epsic), in the PePSIC electronic library (http://pepsic.bvsalud.org/scielo.php?script=sci_serial&pid=1413-294X&lng=pt&nrm=iso) and also in our OJS website (https://submission-pepsic.scielo.br/index.php/epsic/issue/archive). We strongly recommend its consultance by authors who plan to submit their work for the first time.

To submit works, the authors must send:

• The manuscript’s text;
• A filled form document through one who commits himself or herself to respecting ethical principles in research and also his or her ethical responsibility for the work (duly signed by all authors) (form template available in: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c7NUFtGuOSXobX3aGqPH9N_RLyhJ_FV9/edit?usp=share_link&ouid=107700531564603284126&rtpof=true&sd=true)
• In case the submitted manuscript results from research which employed animals, the authors must include the following text after the discussion/conclusions of the manuscript:
  • Experiment statement: All animals were kept in accordance with “country” All experiments were in concordance with the ethical regulations (university X ethics committee #XXXX). Fieldwork was carried out in accordance to brazilian fieldwork permission from Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade (#xxxxx).
• An Authorship Identification Document, containing the information about each of the authors (form template available in: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15PnB7uZV4E8Kz47xpK3f8qyC215Df4TL/edit?usp=share_link&ouid=107700531564603284126&rtpof=true&sd=true)
• A document through which the author suggests three to five reviewers who would be able to evaluate the manuscript - the document must contain the respective links to their curriculum on the Lattes Platform (if Brazilian) and a justification for suggesting them. The journal Estudos de Psicologia (Natal) reserves the right not to use the names thus suggested. Suggested names must meet the following criteria: having completed a doctorate, having some experience publishing a scientific article within the last 5 years, not belonging to the same research group and/or graduate program as the authors themselves, not having a history of academic supervising with any of the authors or any type of relationship that may suggest a conflict of interest. Form template available in: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HGHQGJHbJ_IwyXrBx_SLPGPrrLkdVg2-deS-7lsmTDQ/edit?usp=share_link

Manuscripts presentation

Manuscripts must be written in English for the Psychobiology and Cognitive Psychology section; in Portuguese, English or Spanish for the Social Psychology of Work sections as well as Topics in Social Policies: Social Assistance and Rights Guarantee System; and Psychosocial Aspects of Interactions between People and Different Socio-environmental Contexts, and they must be presented according to the editorial standards established in the “Standards” section above, which in turn are adapted from the 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), 2020.

The manuscript file must include: title (título) in Portuguese, Portuguese abbreviated title, Portuguese abstract (resumo) and Portuguese keywords (palavras-chave), title in English, abstract and keywords, title in Spanish, Spanish abstract (resumen) and Spanish keywords, and the text of the work organized in sections (with their respective subtitles), followed by the list of bibliographical references. If there are tables, figures, notes and appendices, they should be included in the body of the manuscript, after the list of references, one on each page.

Note: the presentation order of the abstracts must meet the chosen language. For example:  an article in English should present its English abstract and, subsequently, the Portuguese and Spanish abstracts (resumo and resumen). Likewise, an article in Spanish should display its "resumen", the "resumo" in Portuguese and then its English abstract. An article in Portuguese should display its "resumo", English abstract and then its Spanish "resumen".

The manuscript file must be sent to the Journal's website, after one makes sure it meets all the requirements for submission as indicated there. This file’s format must be compatible   with any word processor convertible to the Word for Windows standard. Files that contain special editing features, such as revision control marks, hyphenation, or macros, will not be accepted.

Manuscript formatting:

• A4 paper size
• Margins: 2,5 cm (all of them)
• The page's number must appear in the upper right corner, in Arabic numerals
• Text must be justified, with 1,27cm indentation fo the each paragraph’s first line
• Font: Times New Roman, 12
• Line spacing: double spacing should occur throughout the entire text, including the abstract, resumo, resumen, list of references, notes and appendices.

It is essential that the material does not contain any form of authorship identification whatsoever, which includes reference to previous works by the author(s), method details that make it possible to identify/locate the source, as well as information contained in the document file's properties fields,  so as not to make the blind peer review process unfeasible.

The initial pages should contain:

• the manuscript's title – which must be concise and informative (20 words maximum) – it must reflect the manuscript's content;;
• a mandatory suggestion for abbreviated title (8 words maximum, similar to the main title);
• a mandatory suggestion for abbreviated titlean abstract in portuguese, with a minimum of 100 and a maximum of 150 words in the case of articles (empirical studies, theoretical studies and critical reviews);;
• three to five keywords in Portuguese, in lowercase, separated by semicolons, according to the subject descriptors available in the Virtual Health Library (BVS-Psi ULAPSI Brasil) http://www.bvs-psi.org.br/;
• The English title of the manuscript (that is, a translation of its title in Portuguese, if the article was written in Portuguese), abstract and three to five keywords in English, in lowercase, separated by semicolons, in accordance with the same descriptors for abstracts in Portuguese.
• Spanish title of the manuscript, resumen, and three to five palabras-clave, in lowercase, separated by semicolons, in accordance with the same descriptors for abstracts in Portuguese.

Note: the initial pages are part of the text flow, and there is no need to present them in separate sheets (for example, the title in English, abstract and keywords should be added just below the keywords of the abstract in Portuguese and so on).

26 pages is the size limit for articles (empirical studies, theoretical studies and critical literature reviews), including all the elements of the manuscript (titles, resumo, abstract, resumen, text, tables, figures, references, notes and appendices).

References presentation

The bibliographic references should be listed alphabetically, at the end of the text, by the names of the authors and chronologically by author, according to the standards of the 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), 2020:

• Line spacing must be doubled, in all references;
• References must be left-aligned, without indentation;
• References must include the number of the Digital Object Identifier System (DOI) of the scientific articles, when available (in URL format). It is not necessary to include the words “Retrieved from” or “Accessed from” before a DOI or URL because the hyperlink leads readers directly to it. One should not add a period after the URL or DOI;
• If a print work does not have a DOI, no URL should be included in the reference; for online works that possess both a DOI and a URL, only the former must be included. PFor works without DOIs from websites (not including academic research databases), a URL must be provided in the reference (as long as this URL has public access and will work for readers). For online works without a DOI from most academic research databases, a URL should not be included in the reference (such works are widely available).
• As for scientific articles’ references, the publisher’s location should not be included in the reference.

For guidance purpose, we present here some examples of the most common cases, including italicized characters, as a formatting that should be employed in manuscripts submitted to the Journal:

Books and works taken in full:

Chauí, M. (1984). Repressão sexual: essa nossa (des)conhecida. Brasiliense.

Moura, M. L. S., & Correa, J. (1997). Estudo psicológico do pensamento: de W. Wundt a uma Ciência da Cognição. EDERJ.

Conselho Federal de Psicologia. (Org.). (1988). Quem é o psicólogo brasileiro? Edicon.

Sabadini, A. A. Z. P., Sampaio, M. I., & Koller, S. H. (2009). (Orgs.). Publicar em Psicologia: um enfoque     para     a          revista  científica. http://publicarempsicologia.blogspot.com/

Collections chapters:

Frigotto, G. (1998). A educação e a formação técnico-profissional frente à globalização excludente e o desemprego estrutural. In L. H. Silva (Org.), A escola cidadã no contexto da globalização (pp. 218-238). Vozes.

Grimm, L. G., & Yarnold, P. R. (1995). Introduction to multivariate statistics. In L. G. Grimm & P. R. Yarnold (Orgs.), Reading and understanding multivariate statistics (pp. 1-18). American Psychological Association.

Rocha, N. M. S., & Alencar, M. A. (2009). Pioneiros da Psicologia brasileira: diversidade e ética. In M. A. T. Ribeiro, J. S. Bernardes, & C. E. Lang (Orgs.), A produção na diversidade: compromissos éticos e políticos em Psicologia (pp. 207-230). Casa do Psicólogo.

Scientific journals articles:

Sawaia, B. B. (2009). Psicologia e desigualdade social: uma reflexão sobre liberdade e transformação social. Psicologia & Sociedade, 21(3), 364-372. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0102-71822009000300010

Mello, S. L. (1992). Classes populares, família e preconceito. Psicologia USP, 3, 123-130.

Torres, C. V., & Neves, L. M. S. Research topics in Social Psychology in Brazil. Estudos de Psicologia (Natal), 18(1), 05-12.

Nicolaci-da-Costa, A. M., Romão-Dias, D., & Di Luccio, F. (2009). Uso de entrevistas on-line no método de explicitação do discurso subjacente (MEDS). Psicologia Reflexão e Crítica, 22(1), 36- 43.

Yamamoto, O. H., Koller, S. H., Guedes, M. C., LoBianco, A. C., Sá, C. P., Hutz, C. S.; Menandro,

1. R. M. (1999). Periódicos científicos em Psicologia: uma proposta de avaliação. Infocapes, 7(3), 5-1.

Theses and Dissertations:

Ferreira, J. H. B. P. (2009). Sócio-sexualidade e Desconto do Futuro: mecanismo de alocação de investimento e tomada de decisão (Master’s thesis). http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/47/47132/tde-08122009-111532/pt-br.php

Paiva, I. L. (2008). Os novos quixotes da Psicologia e a prática social no âmbito do "terceiro setor" (Doctoral dissertation).  http://bdtd.bczm.ufrn.br/tedesimplificado//tde_busca/arquivo.php?codArquivo=1982

Note: in the case of theses and dissertations that have not been accessed from a digital database, they must be cited as follows::

Paiva, I. L. (2008). Os novos quixotes da Psicologia e a prática social no âmbito do "terceiro setor" (Doctoral dissertation). Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte. 

Unpublished or in press works:

Goulart, P. M.  (no prelo). Adaptação do Questionário sobre Significados do trabalho – QST à cultura brasileira. Estudos de Psicologia (Natal).

Papers presented at scientific events and published in annals:

Meneghini, R., & Campos-de-Carvalho, M. I. (1995). Áreas circunscritas e agrupamentos sequenciais entre crianças em creches. In Sociedade Brasileira de Psicologia (Org.), XXV Reunião Anual de Psicologia. Resumos (p. 385).

Trzesniak, P. (2009, maio). 23 anos de Psicologia: o acervo digital científico e administrativo da Anpepp. 6º Congresso Norte Nordeste de Psicologia, Belém. http://www.conpsi6.ufba.br/

Papers presented at scientific events and unpublished:

Haidt, J., Dias, M. G., & Koller, S. (1991, fevereiro). Disgust, disrespect and culture: moral judgment of victimless violation in the USA and Brazil [Unpublished presentation]. Annual Meeting of the Society for Cross-Cultural Research, Isla Verde, Puerto Rico.

Old work re-edited at a much later date and translations:

Piaget, J. (1973). A linguagem e o pensamento da criança (M. Campos, Trad.. Fundo de Cultura (Original text published in 1956).

Note: in the body of the text, the citation must be as follows: Piaget (1956/1973).

Institutional authorship:

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual (6ª ed.).

Note: When the same organization is listed as the author and the publisher, the publisher name must be omitted.

Legislative documents:

Despacho normativo n. 7/2009 do Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior: Estatutos do Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo. (2009). Diário da República n. o 26, Série II de 06-02- 2009. http://www.ipvc.pt/sites/default/files/estatutos_ipvc.pdf

Regulamento n. 552/2014: Regulamento disciplinar dos estudantes do Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo. (2014). Diário da República n. 241, Série II de 2014-12-15.

Note: to cite legislation from other countries, one must indicate the Law or Decree’s number, its name, the date and the Ministry or government agency, as well as any other information that one deems important to cite, in addition to the Official Gazette number and series plus the URL, whenever possible.

Personal communications:

Letters, conversations (telephone or personal) and electronic mail messages should not be included in the References section, but only in the text, in the format: initials and and surname of the issuer and date (S. L. Mello, personal communication, September 15, 1995).

Secondary citations:

When it is absolutely unavoidable to do so, one can cite a text contained in another consulted publication, if the original has not been consulted. In this case, only the consulted work should be mentioned in the section of References, and, in the body of the text, please indicate the authors of the two texts, according to the example: “Piaget, (19xx, as cited by Flavell, 1996)”.

Material obtained from the internet:

The following examples illustrate the most common cases. One should not italicize the titles for items found in online communities such as blogs, newsgroups or forums.

Association of Residents of Vila Real. (2002). Open letter to the City Hall. http://www.amvr.atas/cartaaberta.html

MiddleKid. (2007, Janeiro, 22). Re: The unfortunate prerequisites and consequences of partitioning your mind. Science. http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/01/the_unfortunate_prerequisites.php

Bibliographic references’ presentation

Bibliographical references without literal citations should be incorporated into the text, in parentheses and in alphabetical order, as follow:

• Up to two authors: surname(s) and year of publication in all citations;
• From three to five authors: include only the name of the first author followed by “et al.” and year of publication in all citations (including the first one), unless doing so could create ambiguity.

In the case of literal quotations as well as in an interview excerpts, the excerpt must appear in quotation marks, with indication – right after the quotation – of the page(s) from which it was taken.

Excerpts with more than 40 words should be placed in a separate block, without quotation marks, without changing the size or style of the font, with indentation from the left margin (equivalent to 0.5 inches or 1.27 cm from the paragraph). See example:

Keller (2002) states that the first task of child development is to develop learning relationships with primary caregivers, and conceptualizes learning as:

a development process, guided by epigenetic rules that direct the attention of babies for their social partners and allow a facilitated learning of the parameters that define the relationships within a specific context and, consequently, the development of a contextual self (p. 217).

According to Souza and Paiva (2013), “youth is not a concept that should be taken for granted, but rather encompasses various concepts, which are the result of a specific historical representation of it" (p. 353).

Footnotes

The use of footnotes should be restricted to complementing information which, although deemed relevant, does not fit in the logical sequence of the text. Bibliographic notes are not recommende.

Any additional material considered indispensable for understanding the text (questionnaires, interview protocols, tests, etc.) or very long tables must be presented in an Appendix, on a new page, identified by capital letters (Appendix A, Appendix B, etc.). The numbering of each table presented in the appendix must be preceded by the identifying letter of the appendix (Table A1, Table C4, etc.).

Tables and figures’ presentation

These elements should be included in the body of the manuscript, right after the bibliographical references, one on each page (pay attention to the maximum number of pages allowed for your manuscript's category). The way these are presented must comply with the following standards:

• They should be in black and white;
• Font must be between sizes 8 and14, but the same size must be coherently used throughout the table;
• The table title must go one double spaced line below the table’s number in italics and in title case (that is, the first letter of each major words must be capitalized);
• The font used in tables should be the same as in the rest of the paper;
• The heading should be centered;;
• The table body may be single-spaced, one-and-a-half-spaced, or double-spaced, however double-line spacing must be used for the table number, table titles, and notes;
• Entries in the leftmost column must be left-aligned and appear beneath the centered stub heading, while all other columns and cell entries should should be centered;
• table numbers must appear above the table in bold and left-aligned; the table cannot exceed the size of 17.5 x 23.5 cm;
• Indicate the source only when the table or figure has been extracted from another work (do not indicate it if it is your own authorship);
• Figures must have a minimum resolution of 300dpi, and must be presented in jpg format.

Note: As they will be presented at the end of the submitted document, it is necessary to indicate in the body of the text the approximate place where each of them should be included in case it is published. One should not write “the table below” (or something analogous) to refer to a table or figure, but rather refer to it by its number. It is extremely important that, in the case of tables, they are created with Microsoft Word itself (or similar) and that they are not transformed into figures, should they need editing later. In the case of figures, they must be inserted into the file by means of the copy command (from Excel, for example) and paste (the "insert" command should not be used)

Some examples of tables and figures can be checked at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fFYQs5Sanvpr6eWFe7_U9VKa2JTU47_R/view?usp=share_