Manuscript Submission Guidelines
for Authors

Previously published ToP examples:

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 Writing Your Paper

The SAGE Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources.

Make 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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Editorial policies

Peer review policy

Teaching of Psychology adheres to a double-blind reviewing policy in which the identity of both the reviewers and author(s) are always concealed from both parties.

Peer Review Process: Each manuscript is reviewed by at least two referees. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, and an editorial decision is generally reached within 90 days of submission.

All manuscripts are reviewed initially by the Editors, and only those papers that meet the scientific and editorial standards of the journal and fit within the aims and scope of the journal will be sent for outside review.

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. See APA Guidelines for Authorship. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.

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.

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.

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.

Declaration of conflicting interests

Teaching of Psychology encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway.

Preregistration, Transparency, and Open Science

Teaching of Psychology is committed to promoting transparent, open, rigorous research. The following procedures are part of the submission process:

Disclosures. As part of the submission procedures, authors will be asked to confirm the following (even though not all apply to all types of research designs):

1. You included a clear statement of how the sample size was determined
2. You included a statement of a priori statistical power based on a reasonable effect size (quantitative studies) or how you ensured saturation of depth and breadth of themes (qualitative studies)
3. You included a description of all data exclusions (e.g., outliers), how the decisions about exclusions were made, and have conducted all analyses with and without the exclusions
4. You included a description of all data transformations, how the decisions about transformations were made, and have conducted all analyses with both the transformed and raw data
5. You included a rationale for including covariates and tested all models with and without covariates included
6. All measures and questions relevant to the research question contained in the project were included in the manuscript
7. You included a clear statement of the amount, type, and method of handling missing data
8. You included effect sizes for all statistical tests
9. All research questions and hypotheses are clearly and accurately labeled as either exploratory or confirmatory
10. You included rationale for any deviations from standard scoring procedures of measures
11. You included, as appendix or supplement, a detailed description of the interview questions asked
12. You included detailed description of your qualitative coding/analysis process
13. You included an assessment of coding trustworthiness, either quantitative or qualitative

These items are presented as a checklist in the submission portal, with authors actively confirming adherence to each practice. A separate statement for disclosures is not required but authors can choose to include one in the manuscript if they wish (e.g., the 21-word solution; Simmons, Nelson, & Simonsohn, 2012).

Transparency and Open Science Statement. As part of the submission process authors must include a Transparency and Open Science Statement. This statement will be included as part of the peer review process and will ultimately appear in the Author Note section of accepted manuscripts. The Transparency and Openness Statement must indicate the following:

1. Are the raw data contained in this manuscript openly available for download?
   1. If yes, did you include a DOI or other persistent identifier in the manuscript?
2. For quantitative analyses, is the analysis code/syntax used for the analyses openly available for download?
   1. If yes, did you include a DOI or other persistent identifier in the manuscript?
3. For qualitative analyses, are the list of questions and coding manuals openly available for download?
   1. If yes, did you include a DOI or other persistent identifier in the manuscript?
4. Are all materials used in the study openly available for download?
   1. If yes, did you include a DOI or other persistent identifier in the manuscript?
5. Did this study include a pre-registration plan for data collection and/or analysis?
   1. If yes, did you include a link to the pre-registration plan in the manuscript?
   2. If yes, were deviations from the pre-registration plan clearly indicated in the manuscript?

The statement should appear on a separate page, and all links should direct to active and anonymized web sites. All of the aforementioned questions must be addressed in the statement (1, 2 and/or 3, 4, and 5), whether the answers are yes or no. Additional information may also be provided to explain specific conditions or circumstances. Example statements are as follows:

The analysis code (doi.xxxx) and materials (doi.xxxx) used in this manuscript are openly available. The raw data contained in this manuscript are not openly available due to privacy restrictions set forth by the institutional ethics board, but can be obtained from the corresponding author following the completion of a privacy and fair use agreement. No aspects of the study were pre-registered.

The raw data, analysis code, and materials used in this study are not openly available but are available upon request to the corresponding author. The data collection and analysis were pre-registered (link to URL of pre-registration plan), and all deviations from the pre-registration plan were clearly indicated in the manuscript.

These are just examples, and authors are free to tailor the statements to their particular situation so long as they addressed criteria 1-5 listed above.

The content of the Transparency and Open Science Statement will not be used as a basis for acceptance or rejection of your manuscript.

Open Science Badges. Accepted manuscripts that answer in affirmative to #1, #4, or #5 above will be eligible to receive a corresponding Open Science Badge (see https://osf.io/tvyxz/). Open Science Badges will be affixed to the to the final version of the accepted article to signify the use of open and transparent practices. The following badges will be available:

 Open Data – The raw data used in the manuscript are freely available via a DOI or other persistent identifier.

 Open Materials – All study materials used in the manuscript are freely available via a DOI or other persistent identifier.

 Pre-registered + analysis – The study design and target analyses were pre-registered and the manuscript contains a link to a permanent, time-stamped, and uneditable pre-registration plan housed on an open science repository. The Open Science Framework (https://osf.io) is the preferred site for housing pre-registration plans, but authors are free to use similar alternatives. Importantly, use of pre-registered analysis plans does not preclude the inclusion of exploratory analyses, but rather formalizes the distinction between confirmatory and exploratory analyses. Emerging Adulthood only issues pre-registration badges for manuscripts that contain pre-registered analyses.

Authors will complete an Open Practices Disclosure Form upon acceptance of their manuscript for publication. Eligible badges will then be affixed to the final type-set version of the article.

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Publishing Policies

Publication ethics

SAGE is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Publication Ethics page on the SAGE Author Gateway.

Plagiarism

Teaching of Psychology 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.

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.

Contributor's publishing agreement

Before publication, SAGE requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. SAGE’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive license agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants SAGE the sole and exclusive right and license to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than SAGE. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the SAGE Author Gateway.

Open access and author archiving

Teaching of Psychology offers optional open access publishing via the SAGE Choice program. For more information please visit the SAGE Choice website. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit SAGE Publishing Policies on our Journal Author Gateway.

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Preparing your Manuscript for Submission

Formatting

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

Structured Abstracts

At Teaching of Psychology, we ask authors to create a structured abstract when submitting to the journal. Structured abstracts benefit our readers in several ways. For instance, structured abstracts will standardize the way abstracts are written for ToP and will provide a guide for ToP authors in how to summarize the content of their manuscripts in a clear and concise manner. They will also be easier to read and access by others. Structured abstracts will enhance and streamline the search process for researchers to cite ToP articles.

There are two formats for a structured abstract, depending on the nature of the submission: Data driven papers and position papers. For position articles there is a maximum of 175 words and for data driven articles there is a maximum of 200 words per abstract. Below you will find the general format, explanation for each section (as described in brackets and different font color) for each type of abstract and two examples.

Data Driven Article Structured Abstract

                For these types of article submissions, please include (in this order) a section on the background, objective(s), method, results, conclusion, and teaching implications.

An Annotated Example of a Structured Abstract for Data Driven Papers

Richmond, A. S., Morgan, R. K., Slattery, J., Mitchell, N. G., & Cooper, A. G., (2019). Project Syllabus: An exploratory study of learner-centered syllabi. Teaching of Psychology, 46, 6-15. doi:10.1177/0098628318816129

Abstract

Background: [A rationale for conducting the study. Possibly include the problem to be solved or the need to conduct the study.] Recent research suggests that designing a syllabus using learner-centered principles may increase students’ perceptions of their instructor on the characteristics of rapport, caring, helpfulness, willingness to seek help from the instructor, and student motivation.

Objective: [The purpose, research question, hypothesis or the main goal of the study.] The purpose of this study was to establish the extent to which peer-reviewed publish syllabi were designed using learner-centered principles.

Method: [A brief but detailed description of the procedures of the study. Include sample, measure, and how the study was executed.] Two raters coded 109 syllabi from Project Syllabus on the learner-center factors of community, power and control, and evaluation and assessment and measured the length of the syllabus in words and pages, year published, and number of images.

Results: [A brief description of what was found in the study. Possibly include whether the research question and/or hypotheses were confirmed or disconfirmed.] The syllabi were disproportionately learner-centered on most of the factors assessed. There were moderate to strong associations among learner-centered factors, syllabus length, and use of images in syllabi. Finally, syllabi have become increasingly more learner-centered over a 19-year period.

Conclusion: [Accounts for results, suggests explanations, points out things that may have been overlooked, and suggests areas for further research.] As demonstrated in this study, well designed and peer reviewed syllabi tend to be learner-centered, contain more detail, and use images.

Teaching Implications: [A suggestion on how to use the results of this study in any facet of teaching of psychology. May include practical applications or general suggestions.] To improve the rapport with students, teachers should consider revising their syllabi to incorporate more learner-centered principles, be more detailed, and use images where appropriate.

An Example of a Structured Abstract for Data Driven Papers

Blessing, S. B., Blessing, J. S., & Fleck, B. K. B. (2012). Using Twitter to reinforce classroom concepts. Teaching of Psychology, 39, 268–271. https://doi.org/10.1177/0098628312461484

Abstract

Background: Social networking sites like Twitter enable people to be in constant contact and communication but their value in meeting educational objectives is less clear.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether using social media such as Twitter to deliver course content improved student’s test scores. 

Method: In a randomized between-subject design 63 students received an informative tweet containing course content or a humorous tweet about once per day. Students were then measured on their content knowledge using a cued-recall and recognition task at four separate times during the semester.

Results: On the cued-recall task, there were no differences between the two conditions. However, when comparing the recognition task (e.g., multiple choice test questions), students in the psychology content condition significantly outperformed students in the humor tweet condition.

Conclusion: The Twitter intervention appears to be an effective way to increase memory for important class concepts regardless of whether humor is used.

Teaching Implications: With the seeming ubiquity of social networking site usage among college students, integrating a means of learning within that information stream may be effective and beneficial method of delivering small amounts of content.

Position Article Structured Abstract

                For these types of article submissions, please include (in this order) a section on the introduction, statement of the problem, literature review, teaching implications, and conclusion.

An Annotated Example of a Structured Abstract for Position Papers

Dunn, D. S. (2008). Another view: In defense of vigor over rigor in classroom demonstrations. Teaching of Psychology, 35, 349-352. doi:10.1080/00986280802374039

Abstract

Introduction: [Provides insights into one or more themes in the state of the field of the scholarship of teaching and learning.] As the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) continues to gain respect as a formal type of research, more emphasize is understandably placed on empirical validation of our work, including classroom demonstrations.

Statement of the Problem: [Provides a specific issue that has arisen as the field has developed.] I worry that SoTL researchers will overlook activities and demonstrations that engages students and promotes a positive learning atmosphere, such as increased willingness to participate in classroom discussions.

Literature Review: [Contains an integrative review of the literature pertinent to the problem identified.] I review a number of published articles containing demonstrations without empirical validation of student learning outcomes, but that I have used in my own classes.

Teaching Implications: [Details how teachers can use the literature review to improve desirable student outcomes or otherwise improve their teaching and mentoring.] I point out and discuss reasons why some activities and demonstrations do not receive empirical validation. Furthermore, I consider the arguments against my suggestion for “vigor over rigor.”

Conclusion: [Explicates how the literature review and teaching implications advance the state of the scholarship of teaching and learning.] SoTL outlets can publish particularly novel and seemingly engaging activities and demonstrations without student learning outcomes. I discuss how vigor can be incorporated into the increasing “rigor” of SoTL work without blemishing the respect SoTL has been earning in recent years.

An Example of a Structured Abstract for a Position Paper

Bartsch, R. A., Bittner, W. M. E., & Moreno, J. E., Jr. (2008). A design to improve internal validity of assessments of teaching demonstrations. Teaching of Psychology, 35, 357-359. doi:10.1080/00986280802373809

Abstract

Introduction: Throughout higher education, there is an increasing need to assess student learning outcomes. Furthermore, there is an increasing need to conduct such assessments in a scientifically rigorous manner.

Statement of the Problem: It is often difficult to carry out internally valid assessments of student learning for a variety of reasons, such as difficulty obtaining an appropriate control group and using random assignment in a classroom setting.

Literature Review: Much published research assessing the effects of demonstrations on student learning has suffered from testing and measurement confounds. We introduce a potential design to ameliorate these problems: a one–group pretest–posttest design with alternative forms.

Teaching Implications: Using a one-group pretest-posttest design with alternative forms allows teachers to increase the internal validity of their assessments of learning demonstration, within the constraint of having a single class section.

Conclusion: Using the basic 2x2 between-subjects analysis-of-variance, teachers can assess the effectiveness of their classroom demonstrations and show external constituencies that their classroom demonstrations promote learning.

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.

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. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files.

Reference style

Teaching of Psychology adheres to the APA reference style (i.e., 7^th edition). View the APA guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style. All papers should be prepared in American English.

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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Submitting your Manuscript

Teaching of Psychology is hosted on SAGE Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ToP 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.

If a paper is not suitable for publication in Teaching of Psychology, we will inform the authors as soon as possible (usually within about 1 week after their submission). If the paper is generally suitable for Teaching of Psychology, we aim to provide an editor’s report based on at least two sets of reviewers’ comments within 12 weeks after their submission. Teaching of Psychology is published four times per year, and authors should not expect their paper to appear in the forthcoming issue subsequent to their submission being received.

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 persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher 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 Teaching of Psychology forms. 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.

Information required for completing your submission

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.

Permissions

Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary 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 see the Copyright and Permissions page on the SAGE Author Gateway.

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Acceptance and Publication

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. Please note that if there are any changes to the author list at this stage all authors will be required to complete and sign a form authorizing the change.

Online First publication

Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the SAGE Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.

Access to your published article

SAGE provides authors with online access to their final article.

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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