Prior to submission please read and carefully follow the submission guidelines below.
Manuscript Structure
Manuscripts submitted to Covenant International Journal of Psychology should be written in English and divided into the following sections (in this order):
Title page
The title page, covering letter and competing interests section, acknowledgment should be uploaded separately and not included with the main body of manuscript file. Please do not include the title page, covering letter, competing interests section and acknowledgement with the main body of the manuscript. The title page should provide the following information:
Abstract
The abstract of the manuscript should not exceed 350 words and should be written in a way that is understandable to researchers without specialist knowledge in that area. Please do not use abbreviations and do not cite references in the abstract.
Keywords
Indicate three to seven keywords representing the main content of the article.
Background
The background section should review current literature, clearly state the problem focus of the research and establish the theoretical background to the study and its aims.
Methods
The methods section should include the design of the study, procedures for sample selection and recruitment, description of the instruments or the type of materials involved, and the type of analysis used, to enable replication. Major demographic characteristics should be reported, such as age, sex and socioeconomic status. Even when such demographic characteristics are not analytic variables they provide a more complete understanding of the sample and of the generalizability of the findings and are useful in future meta-analytic studies.
Results and discussion
The results and discussion may be combined into a single section or presented separately. The Results and discussion sections may also be broken into subsections with short, informative headings.
Conclusions
This should state clearly the main conclusions of the research and give a clear explanation of their importance and relevance. Summary illustrations may be included.
List of abbreviations
If abbreviations are used in the text they should be defined in the text at first use, and a list of abbreviations can be provided, which should precede the competing interests and authors' contributions.
Competing interests
A competing interest exists when your interpretation of data or presentation of information may be influenced by your personal or financial relationship with other people or organizations. Authors must disclose any financial competing interests; they should also reveal any non-financial competing interests that may cause them embarrassment were they to become public after the publication of the manuscript.
Authors are required to complete a declaration of competing interests. All competing interests that are declared will be listed at the end of published articles. Where an author gives no competing interests, the listing will read 'The author(s) declare that they have no competing interests'. When completing your declaration, please consider the following questions:
Financial competing interests
Non-financial competing interests
Are there any non-financial competing interests (political, personal, religious, ideological, academic, intellectual, commercial or any other) to declare in relation to this manuscript? If so, please specify. If you are unsure as to whether you, or one your co-authors, has a competing interest please discuss it with the editorial office.
Authors' contributions
In order to give appropriate credit to each author of a paper, the individual contributions of authors to the manuscript should be specified in this section.
An 'author' is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study. To qualify as an author one should 1) have made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) have been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; 3) have given final approval of the version to be published; and 4) agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, alone, does not justify authorship.
We suggest the following kind of format (please use initials to refer to each author's contribution): CO participated in the sequence alignment and drafted the manuscript. JY carried out the literature review. MT participated in the instrument development. JA participated in the design of the study and performed the statistical analysis. YG conceived of the study, and participated in its design and coordination and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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, writing assistance, or a person who provided only general support.
Acknowledgements
Please acknowledge anyone who contributed towards the article by making substantial contributions to conception, design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, or who was involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content, but who does not meet the criteria for authorship. Please also include the source(s) of funding for each author, and for the manuscript preparation. Authors must describe the role of the funding body, if any, in design, in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; and in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. Please also acknowledge anyone who contributed materials essential for the study. If a language editor has made significant revision of the manuscript, we recommend that you acknowledge the editor by name, where possible. Authors should obtain permission to acknowledge from all those mentioned in the Acknowledgements section.
References
Citation by name and year can be given entirely in parentheses or by citing the year in parentheses after an author's name used in the text. Adhere to the following usage:
Generally, the author names are in normal type.
Only articles and abstracts that have been published or are in press, or are available through public e-print/preprint servers, may be cited; unpublished abstracts, unpublished data and personal communications should not be included in the reference list, but may be included in the text and referred to as "unpublished observations" or "personal communications" giving the names of the involved researchers. Obtaining permission to quote personal communications and unpublished data from the cited colleagues is the responsibility of the author. Footnotes are not allowed, but endnotes are permitted. Journal abbreviations follow Index Medicus/MEDLINE. Citations in the reference list should include all named authors, up to the first 30 before adding 'et al.'Any in press articles cited within the references and necessary for the reviewers' assessment of the manuscript should be made available if requested by the editorial office.
Examples of the Covenant International Journal of Psychology reference style are shown below. Please ensure that the reference style is followed precisely; if the references are not in the correct style they may have to be retyped and carefully proofread.
Examples of the Covenant International Journal of Psychology reference style
Article within a journal
Harris, M., Karper, E., Stacks, G., Hoffman, D., DeNiro. R., Cruz, P. (2001). Writing labs and the Hollywood connection. Journal of Film Writing, 44(3), 213-245.
Article by DOI (with page numbers)
Slifka, M. K. & Whitton, J. L. (2000). Clinical implications of dysregulated cytokine production. Journal of Molecular Medicine, 78, 74-80 . doi:10.1007/s001090000086.
Article by DOI (before issue publication and without page numbers)
Kreger, M., Brindis, C. D., Manuel, D. M., Sassoubre, L. (2007). Lessons learned in systems change initiatives: benchmarks and indicators. American Journal of Community Psychology. doi: 10.1007/s10464-007-9108-14.
Article in electronic journal by DOI (no paginated version)
Kruger, M., Brandis, C. D., Mandel, D. M, Sassoure, J (2007). Lessons to be learned in systems change initiatives: benchmarks and indicators. American Journal of Digital Psychology. doi: 10.1007/s10469-007-5108-14.
Complete book
Calfee, R. C. & Valencia, RR (1991). APA guide to preparing manuscripts for journal publication. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Book chapter, or an article within a book
O'Neil, J. M. & Egan, J. (1992). Men's and women's gender role journeys: Metaphor for healing, transition, and transformation. In BR Wainrib (Ed.), Gender issues across the life cycle (pp. 107-123). New York: Springer.
Online First chapter in a series (without a volume designation but with a DOI)
Saito, Y. & Hyuga, H. (2007). Rate equation approaches to amplification of enantiomeric excess and chiral symmetry breaking. Topics in Current Chemostry. doi:10.1007/128_2006_108.
Complete book, also showing a translated edition [Either edition may be listed first.]
Adorno, T. W. (1966). Negative Dialektik. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp. English edition: Adorno, TW (1973). Negative Dialectics (trans: Ashton, EB). London: Routledge.
Online document
Abou-Allaban, Y., Dell, M. L., Greenberg, W., Lomax, J., Peteet, J. Torres, M. Cowell, V. (2006). Religious/spiritual commitments and psychiatric practice. Resource document. American Psychiatric Association. http://www.psych.org/edu/other_res/lib_archives/archives/200604.pdf. Accessed 25 June 2007.
Online database
German emigrants database (1998). Historisches Museum Bremerhaven. Retrieved from http://www.deutsche-auswanderer-datenbank.de.
Supplementary material/private homepage
Doe, J. (2006). Title of supplementary material. Retrieved from http://www.privatehomepage.com.
Preparing illustrations and figures
Illustrations should be provided as separate files, not embedded in the text file. Each figure should include a single illustration and should fit on a single page in portrait format. If a figure consists of separate parts, it is important that a single composite illustration file be submitted which contains all parts of the figure. There is no charge for the use of color figures.
Formats
The following file formats can be accepted:
Figure legends
The legends should be included in the main manuscript text file at the end of the document, rather than being a part of the figure file. For each figure, the following information should be provided: Figure number (in sequence, using Arabic numerals - i.e. Figure 1, 2, 3 etc); short title of figure (maximum 15 words); detailed legend, up to 300 words.
Please note that it is the responsibility of the author(s) to obtain permission from the copyright holder to reproduce figures or tables that have previously been published elsewhere.
Preparing tables
Each table should be numbered and cited in sequence using Arabic numerals (i.e. Table 1, 2, 3 etc.). Tables should also have a title (above the table) that summarizes the whole table; it should be no longer than 15 words. Detailed legends may then follow, but they should be concise. Tables should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.
Smaller tables considered to be integral to the manuscript can be pasted into the end of the document text file, in A4 portrait or landscape format. These will be typeset and displayed in the final published form of the article. Such tables should be formatted using the 'Table object' in a word processing program to ensure that columns of data are kept aligned when the file is sent electronically for review; this will not always be the case if columns are generated by simply using tabs to separate text. Columns and rows of data should be made visibly distinct by ensuring that the borders of each cell display as black lines. Commas should not be used to indicate numerical values. Color and shading may not be used; parts of the table can be highlighted using symbols or bold text, the meaning of which should be explained in a table legend. Tables should not be embedded as figures or spreadsheet files.
Style and language
General
Currently, Covenant International Journal of Psychology can only accept manuscripts written in English. Spelling should be US English or British English, but not a mixture. Manuscripts should be the appropriate length for the Articles submitted to the journal should be a maximum of 30 pages.
Covenant International Journal of Psychology will not edit submitted manuscripts for style or language; reviewers may advise rejection of a manuscript if it is compromised by grammatical errors. Authors are advised to write clearly and simply. Non-native speakers of English and others may choose to make use of a copyediting service.
Abbreviations
Abbreviations should be used as sparingly as possible. They should be defined when first used and a list of abbreviations can be provided following the main manuscript text.
Typography
Units
SI units should be used throughout (liter and molar are however permitted).
Authors of the articles published retains the copyright of their articles and are free to reproduce and disseminate their work. For further details see the Covenant Journals Copyright and license agreement.