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Journal of Experimental Psychopathology

Journal of Experimental Psychopathology


eISSN: 20438087 | ISSN: 20438087 | Current volume: 14 | Current issue: 4 Frequency: Quarterly
The Journal of Experimental Psychopathology is an open access, peer reviewed  journal focused on publishing cutting-edge original contributions to scientific knowledge in the general area of psychopathology.

The APC for this journal is 2000 USD.

For general information on Open Access at SAGE and Open Access FAQs, please visit this page.

Please direct any enquiries about the journal to:

Submissions should be made online at:


* The article processing charge (APC) is payable when a manuscript is accepted after peer review, before it is published. The APC is subject to taxes where applicable. Please see further details here.

The Journal of Experimental Psychopathology is the first peer-reviewed and open access journal dedicated to describing and elucidating the psychological mechanisms that contribute to the development, maintenance and treatment of all forms of psychopathology.

Studies of interest: The journal primarily emphasises studies that use experimental designs and methods and assess cognitive, behavioural, physiological, neural, or self-report measures in humans. Traditional experimental psychopathology studies involve the examination of theoretically-informed mechanisms of psychopathology in laboratory-based research. Illustratively, fear conditioning, extinction and return of fear studies, as well as the role of various cognitive biases in the causation and maintenance of emotional disorders, are among some of the most well-known fields of experimental psychopathology research. The journal encourages manuscripts that report studies of a wide range of experimental psychopathology approaches.

The journal is also interested in manuscripts that address novel directions in experimental psychopathology research. These new directions may include the intersection of experimental psychopathology research and novel approaches to conceptualising psychopathology (e.g., dimensional and hierarchical models), the experimental study of mechanisms via which risk factors lead to different forms of psychopathology, and examining psychological mechanisms as potential targets in novel interventions.

Studies that involve correlational and longitudinal designs, naturalistic settings or animal samples, will only be considered providing it is clear that their aim is to understand the psychological mechanisms that underlie psychopathology in humans. Manuscripts that focus on assessment, psychometric analyses and the description of psychopathology symptoms are not appropriate for this journal. Similarly, studies that primarily focus on independent variables other than psychological variables are not appropriate for this journal (e.g., the effects of diet changes or nutritional supplements on psychopathology).

Populations of interest: Studies of all forms of psychopathology are considered, including those that focus on anxiety-based problems, depression symptoms, schizophrenia and psychotic symptoms, substance use pathology, eating problems, sexual dysfunction and gender identity issues, personality disorders, and childhood psychological problems.

In addition to psychopathology, the journal will consider manuscripts that focus on psychological variables underlying health behaviours and problems associated with psychopathology (e.g., behavioural sleep problems, chronic pain).

In the tradition of experimental psychopathology research, the journal will consider manuscripts reporting studies of underlying psychological mechanisms and processes of psychopathology in healthy, non-clinical populations of adults and youth. Studies that aim to elucidate the psychological and cognitive variables that differentiate clinical/sub-clinical from healthy samples are also considered, as well as those that examine the efficacy of novel interventions in these samples.

Manuscripts of interest: Although empirical studies of underlying mechanisms and processes are the main focus, the journal will consider literature reviews, systematic reviews, theoretical papers and meta-analyses of psychological mechanisms that contribute to psychopathology.
Editor-in-Chief
Allison M. Waters Griffith University, Australia
Associate Editors
Laurence Claes University of Leuven, Belgium
Tobias Kube RPTU, Germany
Rebecca Lawrence Griffith University, Australia
Faith Orchard University of Sussex, UK
Kate Wolitzky-Taylor University of California Los Angeles, United States, USA
Editorial Board
David Barlow Boston University, USA
Richard Bentall University of Liverpool, UK
Susan Bogels University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Chris Brewin University College London, UK
Michelle Craske University of California - Los Angeles, USA
Tim Dalgleish University of Cambridge, UK
Graham Davey University of Sussex, UK
Peter De Jong University of Groningen, the Netherlands
Michel Dugas Concordia University, Canada
Anke Ehlers Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK
Thomas Ehring Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Germany
Daniel Freeman University of Oxford, UK
James Griffith Northwestern University, USA
Allison Harvey University of California Berkeley, USA
Colette Hirsch Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK
Steven Hollon Vanderbilt University, USA
Jennie Hudson Macquarie University, Australia
Jorg Huijding Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Philip C Kendall Temple University, USA
Merel Kindt University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Peter Lovibond University of New South Wales, Australia
Andrew Mathews University of California at Davis, USA
Peter McEvoy Curtin University, Australia
Dean McKay Fordham University, USA
Douglas Mennin City University of New York, USA
Harald Merckelbach University of Maastricht, The Netherlands
Ann Meulders University of Leuven, Belgium
Karin Mogg Southampton University, UK
Anthony Morrison University of Manchester, UK
Michelle Moulds University of New South Wales, Department of Psychology, Australia
Peter Muris Maastricht University, the Netherlands
Bunmi Olatunji Vanderbilt University, USA
Thomas Ollendick Virginia Tech, USA
Lars-Goran Ost Stockholm University, Sweden
Allison Ouimet University of Ottawa, Canada
David Penn University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
Christine Purdon University of Waterloo, Canada
Adam Radomsky Concordia University, Canada
Filip Raes University of Leuven, Belgium
Ron Rapee Macquarie University, Australia
M. Zachary Rosenthal Duke University, USA
John Ruscio The College of New Jersey, USA
Wendy Silverman Florida International University, USA
Nicholas Tarrier Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK
Andrew Tomarken Vanderbilt University, Department of Psychology, USA
Cindy Turk Washburn University, USA
Johan Vlaeyen University of Maastricht, The Netherlands
John T Walkup Cornell University, USA
Ed Watkins University of Exeter, UK
Adrian Wells University of Manchester, UK
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    1. Open Access
    2. Article processing charge (APC)
    3. What do we publish?
      3.1 Aims & scope
      3.2 Article types
      3.3 Writing your paper
    4. Editorial policies
      4.1 Peer Review Policy
      4.2 Authorship
      4.3 Acknowledgements
      4.4 Funding
      4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
      4.6 Research ethics and patient consent
      4.7 Clinical Trials
      4.8 Data
    5. Publishing policies
      5.1 Publication ethics
      5.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
    6. Preparing your manuscript
      6.1 Word processing formats
      6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
      6.3 Supplementary material
      6.4 Reference style
      6.5 English language editing services
    7. Submitting your manuscript
      7.1 How to submit your manuscript
      7.2 Title, keywords and abstracts
      7.3 Information required for completing your submission
      7.4 ORCID
      7.5 Permissions
    8. On acceptance and publication
      8.1 Sage Production
      8.2 Continuous publication
      8.3 Promoting your article
    9. Further information

    This Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

    Please read the guidelines below then visit the journal’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jexp to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.

    Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Journal of Experimental Psychopathology will be reviewed.

    As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.

    Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that Journal of Experimental Psychopathology may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy.

    If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.

    1. Open Access

    Journal of Experimental Psychopathology is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. Each article accepted by peer review is made freely available online immediately upon publication, is published under a Creative Commons license and will be hosted online in perpetuity. Publication costs of the journal are covered by the collection of article processing charges which are paid by the funder, institution or author of each manuscript upon acceptance. There is no charge for submitting a paper to the journal.

    For general information on open access at Sage please visit the Open Access page or view our Open Access FAQs.

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    2. Article processing charge (APC)

    If, after peer review, your manuscript is accepted for publication, a one-time article processing charge (APC) is payable. This APC covers the cost of publication and ensures that your article will be freely available online in perpetuity under a Creative Commons license.

    The APC for this journal is 2,000 USD. This charge is applicable to all manuscripts excluding editorials and book reviews.

    The article processing charge (APC) is payable when a manuscript is accepted after peer review, before it is published. The APC is subject to taxes where applicable. Tax-exempt status can be indicated by providing appropriate registration numbers when payment is requested. Please see further details here.

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    3. What do we publish?

    3.1 Aims & Scope

    Before submitting your manuscript to Journal of Experimental Psychopathology, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope

    3.2 Article types

    Journal of Experimental Psychopathology publishes research articles and review articles.

    There is no word-limit to articles that may be accepted for publication, but the Editors would expect presentation to be efficient, concise and informative. Most articles accepted for publication would usually be no more than 50 manuscript pages.

    3.3 Writing your paper

    The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.

    3.3.1 Making your article discoverable

    When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online

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    4. Editorial policies

    4.1 Peer review policy

    Journal of Experimental Psychopathology’s policy is to have manuscripts reviewed by two expert reviewers. Journal of Experimental Psychopathology utilizes a single-anonymize peer review process. If authors want to have a double anonymize peer review process, they need to ensure to specify it at submission stage and ensure their original manuscript and subsequent revisions are fully anonymised.

    All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, while maintaining rigor. Reviewers make comments to the author and recommendations to the Editor-in-Chief/Associate Editor who then makes the final decision.

    As part of the submission process you will be asked to provide the names of peers who could be called upon to review your manuscript. Recommended reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Please be aware of any conflicts of interest when recommending reviewers. Examples of conflicts of interest include (but are not limited to) the below: 

     

    •             The reviewer should have no prior knowledge of your submission

    •             The reviewer should not have recently collaborated with any of the authors

    •             Reviewer nominees from the same institution as any of the authors are not permitted

     

    You will also be asked to nominate peers who you do not wish to review your manuscript (opposed reviewers).

    Please note that the Editors are not obliged to invite any recommended/opposed reviewers to assess your manuscript.

    The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor / Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.

    4.2 Authorship

    All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.

    Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.

    4.3 Acknowledgements

    All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

    4.3.1 Third party submissions

    Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

    • Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
    • Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
    • Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

    Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

    4.3.2 Writing assistance

    Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.

    It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.

    4.4 Funding

    Journal of Experimental Psychopathology requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading.  Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

    4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

    Journal of Experimental Psychopathology encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.

    4.6 Research ethics and patient consent

    Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.

    Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and all papers reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the methods section that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the approval number.

    For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.

    Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be included in the manuscript text. A statement is required regarding whether written informed consent for patient information and images to be published was provided by the patient(s) or a legally authorized representative.

    Please also refer to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants

    4.7 Clinical trials

    Journal of Experimental Psychopathology conforms to the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrolment as a condition of consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.

    Journal of Experimental Psychopathology endorses the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrolment. However, consistent with the AllTrials campaign, retrospectively registered trials will be considered if the justification for late registration is acceptable. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.

    4.8 Data

    Sage acknowledges the importance of research data availability as an integral part of the research and verification process for academic journal articles.

    Journal of Experimental Psychopathology requests all authors submitting any primary data used in their research articles if the articles are accepted to be published in the online version of the journal, or provide detailed information in their articles on how the data can be obtained. This information should include links to third-party data repositories or detailed contact information for third-party data sources. Data available only on an author-maintained website will need to be loaded onto either the journal’s platform or a third-party platform to ensure continuing accessibility. Examples of data types include but are not limited to statistical data files, replication code, text files, audio files, images, videos, appendices, and additional charts and graphs necessary to understand the original research. The editor(s) can also grant exceptions for data that cannot legally or ethically be released. All data submitted should comply with Institutional or Ethical Review Board requirements and applicable government regulations. For further information, please contact the editorial office at grahamda@sussex.ac.uk

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    5. Publishing policies

    5.1 Publication ethics

    Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.

    5.1.1 Plagiarism

    Journal of Experimental Psychopathology and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

    5.1.2 Prior publication

    If material has been previously published, it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

    5.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

    Before publication Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Journal of Experimental Psychopathology publishes manuscripts under Creative Commons licenses. The standard license for the journal is Creative Commons by Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC), which allows others to re-use the work without permission as long as the work is properly referenced and the use is non-commercial. For more information, you are advised to visit Sage's OA licenses page.

    Alternative license arrangements are available, for example, to meet particular funder mandates, made at the author’s request.

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    6. Preparing your manuscript

    6.1 Word processing formats

    The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

    6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

    For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines  

    Figures supplied in color will appear in color online.

    6.3 Supplementary material

    This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. These will be subjected to peer-review alongside the article.  For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files, which can be found within our Manuscript Submission Guidelines page.

    6.4 Reference style

    Journal of Experimental Psychopathology adheres to the APA reference style. Please review the guidelines on APA to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

    If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the APA output file here.

    6.5 English language editing services

    Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

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    7. Submitting your manuscript

    7.1 How to submit your manuscript

    Journal of Experimental Psychopathology is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit  https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jexp to login and submit your article online. 

    IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created.  For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
     

    7.2 Title, keywords and abstracts

    Please supply a title, short title, an abstract and keywords to accompany your article. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article online through online search engines such as Google. Please refer to the information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords by visiting the Sage Journal Author Gateway for guidelines on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online. 

    7.3 Information required for completing your submission

    Provide full contact details for the corresponding author including email, mailing address and telephone numbers. Academic affiliations are required for all co-authors. These details should be presented separately to the main text of the article to facilitate anonymous peer review.

    You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

    7.4 ORCID

    As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.

    The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.

    If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

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    7.5 Permissions

    Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.

    8. On acceptance and publication

    If your paper is accepted for publication after peer review, you will first be asked to complete the contributor’s publishing agreement. Once your manuscript files have been checked for Sage Production, the corresponding author will be asked to pay the article processing charge (APC) via a payment link. Once the APC has been processed, your article will be prepared for publication and can appear online within an average of 30 days. Please note that no production work will occur on your paper until the APC has been received.

    8.1 Sage Production

    Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly.  Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.

    8.2 Online publication

    One of the many benefits of publishing your research in an open access journal is the speed to publication. With no page count constraints, your article will be published online in a fully citable form with a DOI number as soon as it has completed the production process. At this time it will be completely free to view and download for all.

    8.3 Promoting your article

    Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.

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    9. Further information

    Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the Manuscript Submission process should be sent to the Journal of Experimental Psychopathology editorial office as follows:

    grahamda@sussex.ac.uk.

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