GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS

NEW SUBMISSIONS

Submissions should be sent according to the instructions of the relevant journal. See Manuscript Submissions in the top right menu of the journal’s home page.

Manuscript Requirements

Title page: include authors’ names and affiliations, address, telephone number, e-mail address, and suggested running head.

Abstract: Include an abstract of 100 to 150 words.

Text: Manuscripts will generally have sections for introduction/background, Method, Results, and Discussion, though specific articles will deviate from this pattern (e.g., theoretical or review articles for Psychonomic Bulletin & Review; notes and comments).

Bibliography: See Guidelines for References. In general, format references according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.).

Author note: Acknowledgments should include sources of financial support and any possible conflicts of interest. If desirable, contributions of different authors may be briefly described here.

Ethical treatment of humans and/or animals: The journal Editor and the Publications Committee of the Psychonomic Society assume that humans and/or animal subjects should treated ethically. Mistreatment of subjects is grounds for rejection of a manuscript.

Figures and Tables: In submitted manuscripts, please embed figures and tables in the body of the text. If that is not possible, they may be placed at the end, clearly numbered. Once a paper is accepted, however, figures will need to be formatted properly for publication; in the final copy for production, figures may not be embedded within the text of the manuscript. For further information regarding tables and figures, see below.

Cover letter: Authors should provide a cover letter with newly submitted manuscripts. When appropriate, it should very briefly describe the main findings and conclusions of the paper. It is helpful to offer suggestions about appropriate reviewers. However, the final selection of reviewers lies with the editors.

Supplementary material: Authors of accepted papers are encouraged to deposit supplementary material (data sets, demonstrations) in the Psychonomic Society’s electronic archive www.psychonomic.org/archive.

Brief Reports of experimental work for Psychonomic Bulletin & Review are restricted to a maximum of 4,000 words. This word count includes the main text and references but excludes title page, abstract, figures, and tables. Authors of Brief Reports should be sparing with regard to figures and/or tables.

ACCEPTED SUBMISSIONS

Manuscripts should, in general, adhere to the conventions described in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). When in doubt, consult a recent issue of a Psychonomic Society journal. See also the Psychonomic Society Publications Guidelines for References.

Manuscript Tracking: Once a manuscript has been submitted, it is assigned a manuscript number, used by the editor of the journal while the manuscript is under review. When a manuscript is accepted for publication, however, it is assigned a production number (e.g., C325, for Memory & Cognition; P436, for Perception & Psychophysics; etc.). From that time on, authors must identify their manuscripts by referring to this production number in any correspondence with the Publications Office or the editor of the journal. The running head on the final copy of the accepted manuscript (both printed and electronic versions) sent to the Publications Office should include this production number.

Permissions: It is the author’s responsibility to determine from the copyright owner whether or not permission is required for quoting text or for reproducing or adapting all or part of a table or figure from a copyrighted source. Authors must obtain any necessary written permission and enclose a copy with the accepted manuscript.

Personal communications: Please note that authors who cite personal communications must obtain permission from their source. This may be done via e-mail, and the permission may be sent to the Managing Editor at the Publications Office: jbellquist@psychonomic.org.

Proofs: Proofs are sent to authors via e-mail as pdf attachments. It is incumbent upon authors to check the proof carefully. Authors’ responses to the copy editor’s queries, as well as any additional corrections, should be sent via e-mail to the managing editor: jbellquist@psychonomic.org.

Reprints: Reprint order requests are sent via e-mail with the proofs. Reprints should be ordered or rejected at that time using the link provided.

For general questions regarding publication, call or e-mail the Publications Office at (512) 462-2442; frank@psychonomic.org or jbellquist@psychonomic.org. For questions regarding electronic files and figures, see below.

Printed Color Figures: Figures can be printed in color at the author’s expense. Please contact the Publications Office (psp@psychonomic.org) for the cost. Please note which figures you would like printed in color along with acknowledgment of and willingness to pay the charge in the e-mail accompanying your electronic files.

Online Color Figures: Figures can be printed in black and white but published in color online. The cost to the author is $30 per figure. Please note which figures you would like published in color online along with acknowledgment of and willingness to pay the charge in the e-mail accompanying your electronic files. Make sure that the caption applies adequately to both the color and the black and white version.

Electronic Files: For journals that require printed copies, electronic files must agree exactly with the printed copy that is sent to the Publications Office. The electronic files should be sent as e-mailed attachments to newms@psychonomic.org. If any further changes or additions are to be made, please send to the Publications Office a letter that lists the further changes, or, if the changes are extensive, revised electronic and printed versions of the manuscript with the changes indicated. Such changes must be cleared with the Editor of the journal of course.

Electronic File Requirements:

Please note: Authors are urged not to prepare their manuscripts in TEX or LATEX if at all possible.

1. All files must contain the production number at the beginning of the file name.
2. A Microsoft Word document or other word processing document. Files with the extension .doc for MS Word are preferable, but most others are acceptable.
3. An ASCII or text only document of the manuscript. From this document, all printing/formatting commands other than paragraph breaks will have been deleted. (Note: Many word processing programs define ASCII as “text only”; e.g., in Microsoft Word, simply save the document as “text only.”)
4. A .pdf copy of the manuscript. (Be sure you have opened and double-checked the pdf, especially all figures and equations.)
5. Graphics. Please provide separate files for all figures and illustrations. Do not embed graphic boxes within the running text. Please refer to Figures section.

Call or e-mail the Publications Office if you have questions regarding typesetting or electronic files (512-462-2442; kat@psychonomic.org).

Tables

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed., pp. 147–175) gives excellent instructions for constructing tables. The following will emphasize areas that are particularly important and will explain some Psychonomic journal departures from APA style.

Table Software: Tables should be created with your word processing or spreadsheet program. They should never be submitted as graphics files.

General: Make sure the table is necessary. Small tables with few entries can often be dealt with just as effectively in a line or two of text.

Try not to combine two tables of dissimilar format into one table (e.g., if sections A and B of Table 1 are not of similar format, section A should be Table 1 and section B, Table 2). However, do combine small tables of identical format with few entries.

Keep the material as simple and straightforward as possible. Double-space all tables for easy editing and typesetting. Number all tables in the order in which they are mentioned in the text. Make sure all tables are mentioned in the text.

Table Arrangement: Instead of a single column containing two separate values [e.g., “10.00±0.00” or “10.00 (0.00)”], use two columns with separate appropriate headings (e.g., M and SE or SD). Arrange tables so that similar numbers fall into separate columns. That is, if possible, do not mix, in one column, such numbers as 0000, 00.00, .0000.

Avoid unnecessary repetitions throughout the table. Columns with the same numerical entries throughout the table or throughout sections of the table can be put in footnotes (e.g., “In Condition 1, n = 20 for each group; in Condition 2, n = 30 for each group”). Units of measurement can simply be abbreviated in headings—“RTs (in msec)”— or explained in footnotes (“RTs are given in milliseconds”).

Other Requirements: Define all measurements used for values in the table (e.g., “Thresholds are given in decibels”). Define (or avoid using) all abbreviations. Do not use material in tables that should normally be placed in figures (e.g., graphic objects, photographic reproductions).

Define, in the table footnotes, all asterisks, daggers, or other symbols used. General footnotes (denoted by “Note—...”) should be used, rather than the title, to qualify, explain, or provide information relating to the table as a whole or to a major section of the table (e.g., a column or a group of columns). Specific footnotes (denoted by superscripted *, †, ‡, etc.) relate to individual entries or give probability levels.

All major words of table titles and column headings should be capitalized. Column headings refer only to entries in the column(s) below them. A column heading may never refer to other column headings to its right across the top of the table.

Do not print a table in a visible “cellular” format: Vertical rules are never used in Psychonomic journals; horizontal rules are never used within the body of the table.

Figures

Authors submitting to journals that require hard copies of manuscripts must submit hard copies of each individual figure as well as electronic copies. Please make sure that your hard copies match your electronic copies exactly.

Figures must not be embedded within the running text of the manuscript. They must be placed at the end of the Word document, and also submitted as separate files.

We require two electronic files for each figure: (1) A file created with the application used to construct the figure (see below for formats). (2) A pdf copy of the same file.

Label each figure with the figure number, the manuscript’s production number, and the author’s name. The top of each figure should be clearly indicated.

AUTHORS MUST OBTAIN PERMISSION FROM THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER TO REPRODUCE OR ADAPT ANY FIGURE FROM A COPYRIGHTED SOURCE, AND A PERMISSION STATEMENT MUST ACCOMPANY THE FIGURE. Please refer to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed., p. 175) for models of permission statements. The copyright holder’s letter of permission must be submitted to the publications office along with the final copy of the accepted manuscript for production.

Figures should be from 3 in. (18 picas) to 6.5 in. (39 picas) wide.

Panels within figures must be labeled to read from left to right and then down, rather than top to bottom and then left to right.

Legends and captions should explain the contents of figures as they appear from top down, not from the bottom up.

Type should be proportional to the figure. Type should vary by no more than 4 points within a figure. Helvetica and Times are the preferred fonts.

Graph fills or symbols should be easy to distinguish from one another. Do not use similar shades of gray in graphs.

Avoid hairlines or even thin lines in any type of figure.

Please check that legends (if any) match the figure—that is, that lines (e.g., smooth or dashed), colors, and symbols (e.g., filled or unfilled circles) in the legend look like the ones they correspond to within the figure.

If information in the figure was originally in color but the figure is to be printed in black and white, make sure that the caption explains the contents of the figure adequately and that the colors are distinguishable in black and white. If the figure is to be printed in black and white but will be published in color on the Web, make sure that the caption applies adequately to both the color and the black and white versions.

Electronic Preparation of Figures

In addition to the original electronic file of each figure, provide a .pdf copy.

We primarily use Adobe Illustrator to prepare figures for publishing. Any figure that can be submitted as a “.ai” (Illustrator) file is preferable.

Vector-based artwork as opposed to pixel-based artwork is preferred for diagrams, graphs, and other figures with text, lines, boxes, shapes, and line drawings. This can usually be achieved by creating a PDF file from the original software with the fonts embedded.

Figures created in PowerPoint and Excel can be submitted in their original format (.ppt or .xls). MATLAB files can be exported as Illustrator files (ILL), which is preferred, or as an EPS. Canvas and CorelDRAW files can be exported as Illustrator files (.ai), which is preferred, or as an EPS. GraphPad files can be exported as “.pict” files. Chem Draw files can be Saved As an “.eps” file. Can also be saved as a “.pict” file. SigmaPlot files can also be exported as “EPS vector.” Chartsmith files can be exported as a “.pdf” file (preferred) or an “.eps” file.

KaleidaGraph provides the following instructions for exporting files as EPS:

For Macintosh

• Choose Print Graphics or Print Layout from the File menu.
• Using the pop-up menus in the Print dialog, change the Destination to File, change General to Save as File, and change the Format to EPS Mac Enhanced Preview.
• Click Save. Once you enter a file name and click Save, an EPS file is created on your hard disk.

• Choose Print Graphics or Print Layout from the File menu.
• Select the Print to File check box.
• Choose a PostScript driver and click Properties.
This step varies depending on the operating system:
• Under Windows 98, click the PostScript tab and choose EPS for the Output Format.
• Under Windows 2000 or XP, click the Layout or Paper/Quality tab and click the Advanced button. Under Document Options, you can choose EPS for the PostScript Output Option.
• Click OK until the Print To File dialog is displayed.
• Enter a file name and change the file name extension from .prn to .eps. Once you click OK, an EPS file is created on your hard disk that can be imported into another program.

KaleidaGraph files can also be Saved As “.pict” files.

High-resolution (300 dpi or more) Photoshop files, EPSs, TIFFs, or JPEGs (at maximum quality) are acceptable for photographic-type figures with little text.

Hand-drawn originals (except when appropriate) are not acceptable.

With specific exceptions approved by the editor of the journal, figures are printed in black and white. Any color figures converted to grayscale or black and white must be checked for clarity and contrast before they are submitted.

Color figures approved for publication must be high resolution (at least 300 dpi). RGB or CMYK files are acceptable. There is a charge for color figures. Contact psp@psychonomic.org for an estimate of the cost.

Refer to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed., pp. 176–201) for additional guidelines on the preparation of figures.

E-mail kat@psychonomic.org with figure questions or concerns.