Submissions

Author Guidelines

Download the Author Guidelines (PDF)

Article Preparation

Length of papers

The journal limits the total character count (including spaces) of articles: no more than 70,000 including the body of the article as well as metadata, bibliography and references that should not exceed 30,000 characters in total, between 10,000 and 20,000 for brief empirical research articles and up to 10,000 for reviews, conference reports, etc. Please note that the total length of the article includes the text of the article and the notes (footnotes), as well as the figures, references and bibliography.

Formatting requirements

When preparing their articles, authors are advised to use the dedicated document templates that are available for download on our website. If you prefer not to use the templates, please consider the journal requirements when preparing your text. After your article is accepted for publication, it will be subjected to scholarly and literary editing and formatted in accordance with the layout of the journal.

Download the empirical research article template

Download the theoretical or methodological article template

Download the template for an article describing a new toolkit

Completeness and presentation of papers

1. Papers are presented as a single file in the .doc, .docx or .rtf format that includes the following parts in the following order:

• information about the author in English (see “Information about the author” section);
• type of submission: research article; discussion article; researcher profile; review; brief reports; expert commentary;
• universal decimal classification (UDC);
• title of the article, abstract and keywords in English (see “Title”, “Abstract” and “Keywords” sections);
• text of the article;
• additional information (mandatory sections are marked with an asterisk):
  (a)* Conflict of interest;
  (b)* Ethics approval;
  (c)* "Author contributions" section (compulsory for articles prepared by more than one author);
  (d) Acknowledgements;
  (e)* Funding;

• abbreviations, if any abbreviations are used in the article;
• References (see “Reference list” and “Transliteration of references” sections).

The editors will provide all translations into Russian for non-Russian speaking authors.

2. To name the article file, use the author’s last name in Latin characters.

3. If the article text requires the use of non-standard fonts, formulas, complex formatting, etc., a .pdf file of the article text should be provided in addition to the .docx file. Authors are asked to provide the font files as well.

4. If the article contains illustrations, each should be provided as a separate .jpg, .jpeg or .png file (see Tables, Figures, Charts). To name the file, use the author's last name in Latin characters, space, Fig, sequence number, e.g. Avtor_Fig1. Any illustrations prepared in MS Word and containing text should be kept in the main file of the article.

Format, font, paragraphs. The article should use Times New Roman, 14 pt; full justification; paragraph indent 1.0 cm. Automatic hyphenation should be deactivated.

Style. The article should follow the rules of English academic style.

Information about the author

1. In order to preserve the blind nature of peer review, please refrain from stating your authorship of papers you reference or using phrases like “As we discussed in our previous publications…”, etc.

2. All information about the author should be stated on the first page of the article file sent to the editorial team.

3. The information must include the following:

• the name of the author in full (if the name is natively written in non-Latin alphabet, the transliteration should match that used in other publications); 
• the academic degree;
• the position, the name of the organization (place of work);
• the legal address of the organization (not of its subdivision!);
• the email and/or phone number (with country and city code) of the author;
• the author's personal identification codes (SPIN-CODE RSCI, Scopus AuthorID, ResearcherID, ORCID). The authors with no ORCID iDs are required to register and get an ORCID identifier.

If there are several authors, all of the above information is provided for each of them.

UDC index. The Universal Decimal Classification code should be specified on the left-hand side of the first page of the main text. The code should accurately reflect the subject of the article.

Title. The title should be given in bold; capital letters are only used at the beginning of the title and for proper names.

Abstract. The abstract should precede the main text of the article and be separated from it graphically. Abstract length should be between 250 and 300 words. Please follow this mandatory structure:

• Introduction: describe the question that the article focuses on and set the goal of the article;
• Materials and Methods: state research subject and outline research programme;
• Results: provide a brief description of the results obtained by the author(s) of the article;
• Conclusion: outline the potential for the use of the results in further research or their application in practice.

Readers should be able to assess the subject, the course of the study and the conclusions reached by the author. Verbatim repetitions from the main body of the article, background information, general and insignificant statements, superfluous introductory words, etc., should be avoided.

The abstract should follow the rules of the English language and academic style.

Keywords. Keywords must follow the abstract and precede the body of the article. Please start the list of keywords with “Keywords:”. The list should comprise between 5 and 10 keywords and must include at least two words that are also present in the article title. The abstract should include all the keywords from the list.

The purpose of keywords is to make it easier for potential readers to locate your article, so refrain from using either too general or too specific terms. Not recommended: “psychology”, “children” or “interactions of tendencies towards preservation and change”. Recommended: “child speech”, “social intelligence” and “cognitive emotion theories”. The most general keywords come at the begging of the list while more specific terms are mentioned last. 

Structure. The article structure depends on the type of the article.

Empirical research articles, theoretical or methodological articles. The journal limits the total character count (including spaces) of articles: no more than 70,000 including the body of the article as well as metadata, bibliography and references that should not exceed 30,000 characters in total. The article structure should include the following sections and relevant section titles: introduction, research structure and methods, results, discussion, and conclusions. The article sections should be consistent. Introduction should occupy about 25% of the total length of the article. It should set the research focus (a particular issue in psychology), provide a thematically relevant literature review (publications of the last five years), describe the objective and relevance of the reported study and explain why the study is in line with the Journal’s scope. The Materials and Methods section provides more details on the objective of the reported study, states its aims (issues under study) and the hypothesis. It also describes the sample, explains the relevance of the chosen research methods and statistical tools. For the convenience of the reader, the authors are recommended to provide references or links to the data analysed in the study, e.g., a link to the data repository. The Results section should occupy about 25% of the total length of the article and describe the data obtained by the author/authors personally in the course of the theoretical or empirical study. The layout of the Results section is based on the sequence of research aims (issues under study). The Discussion section should occupy about 25% of the total length of the article. It is based on the hypotheses set in the article and compares the results of the reported study with prior research. It also explains the novelty of the reported study, its practical and theoretical value and possible limitations. Conclusions summarises the results and sets out the prospects for follow-up research. Conclusions should be consistent with the research aims and hypotheses. The authors may structure such sections as the Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion at their own discretion using the second and third level titles.

Articles focusing on a new toolkit should contain an Annex with a comprehensive description of the new toolkit.

Brief empirical research articles. The total character count of a brief article should not be over 20,000. Article and content structure should match that of a regular empirical research article, but with fewer hypotheses. Such articles normally focus on the author’s original results. The results of a pilot study cannot be presented as a brief article.

Reviews, historical notes, jubilee announcement, conference, congress or assembly reports, etc. The total character count such note should not be over 10,000. No abstract is required. Jubilee announcements should be submitted no later than six months before the birthday date and should include the list of the person’s major works. Conference, congress or assembly reports should be submitted no later than a month after the event.

Section titles

Please use a consistent style for different level titles:
(1) for first level titles (e.g. Introduction, Conclusion, etc.), use bold type on a separate line;
(2) for second level titles, use italic bold type on a separate line;
(3) for third level titles, use italic type on a separate line;
(4) for fourth level titles, use italic bold type at the beginning of the paragraph, so that the first sentence of the paragraph directly follows the title punctuation mark;
(4) for fifth level titles, use italic type at the beginning of the paragraph, so that the first sentence of the paragraph directly follows the title punctuation mark.

Capital letters are only used at the beginning of the section title and for proper names.

Tables, figures, charts

1. If a figure or table contains text in Russian, please provide versions in both languages. If a figure or table contains letter designations or symbols, please provide those in Latin script.

2. Tables should be found at the end of your article, following the reference list. Any figures or charts should be provided as separate files for easier layout.

3. Immediately after the paragraph in which a table, figure or chart is first mentioned, [Table X should be here] should be inserted on a separate line, with the relevant number.

4. The content of the table, figure or chart should be clear without referring to the main text of the article and should not be duplicated in it.

5. Each table, figure or chart must have a title in the same format as the regular text. The title should be placed above the item and be separated from it graphically.

6. All tables, figures and charts are numbered continuously with Arabic numerals. If an article only contains a single table, figure or chart, it should not be numbered.

7. Pictures and diagrams should be provided as separate files in the JPG, JPEG or PNG format. Image quality should be high enough to ensure it remains clear after resizing. Resolution should be at least 300 dpi (dots per inch).

8. When using figures, photos or charts that have not been created by you, make sure that those images are published under an Open Access license and list all relevant information that is available:

• author’s name;
• year (if available);
• the name of the work (if available);
• a link to the page where the image is located;
• a note detailing your right to use the image (if available).

Spelling and punctuation

The article should follow the rules of the modern English language.

Quotations

1. All direct quotations must be given in quotation marks. Quoting word for word without quotation marks is not allowed.

2. Source should be stated in round brackets directly after the quote (see In-Text Citations). For literal quotations, page number must be stated, if present in the source.

3. Any quotations from the author’s own works should be treated similarly to others, properly cited and included into the references.

Examples and highlighting

1. Examples should be given in italic, their translation should be given in regular type in quotation marks. Examples from all languages except English and Russian should be translated.

2. To highlight a section of the text, you can use either bold italic or regular bold (depending on the surrounding text) type; text underlining is not allowed. Please use highlighting sparingly.

Page numbering. Numbers are placed at the bottom of the page (using footers).

Dates and numerals

1. Dates must be given in accordance with the following format: 5 August 1982.

2. Numbers one through ten are spelled out; numbers above ten are written as numerals.

3. Use Roman numerals for centuries and the following format for decades: the 1980s.

Names

1. In all mentions of a person use initials of the first name (and patronymic, if applicable) and their last name. Do not start a sentence with the author’s initials.

2. Non-breaking space should be used to separate initials from each other and from the last name (Ctrl + Shift + Space).

3. Initials are always placed before the author’s last name.

4. If you wish to specify a person’s years of birth and death, you can add them in the parenthesis after the name is first mentioned, separated by en-dash without spaces, e.g.: A. R. Luriya (1902–1977).

Titles of works. Quotation marks should be used for titles in all languages.

Abbreviations. Please, use abbreviations, such as “e.g.”, “i.e.”, “etc”.

If abbreviations are used in the article, the list of abbreviations should precede the references.

Lists

1. Microsoft Word List tool should be used exclusively to format all lists.

2. Top level lists are numbered, with an indent of 1.5 cm from the left margin.

3. Second level lists are bulleted, with an indent of 2.0 cm from the left margin.

Formatting of footnotes

It is recommended to use footnotes as rarely as possible. If a note is necessary, please use the Microsoft Word “Insert Footnote” note to create notes with continuous numbering at the bottom of the page.

“Conflict of interest” section

In this section, the authors declare that there is no conflict of interest in regards to their submission. Recommended language: “The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest, either existing or potential.”

If a conflict of interest exists and might influence the reported results, it must be declared in this section.

“Ethics approval” section

This section is obligatory for submissions reporting results of experiments on humans. For more information regarding the ethical standards for such experiments please see the Office for Human Research Protections website.

If the research protocol of the study that you are reporting in your paper has been assessed by an ethics committee, please state it in this section (e.g., “Research protocol has been approved by the Ethics Committee of [organisation name, ethics committee details], permit No. … of …”). If that is not the case, the authors are asked to declare compliance with ethical norms based on their own self-assessment (e.g., “The authors state that all ethical principles relevant to research that includes human or animal subjects have been duly followed.”).

The authors should obtain informed consent from all individuals who participated in the study.

“Author contributions” section

This section is compulsory for articles prepared by more than one author. The authors are required to describe the contribution made by each of them to the preparation of the article. It is recommended to avoid vague descriptions, e.g., “the authors provided an equal contribution to the preparation of the article”. Instead, the focus should be on the particular contribution of each author preceded by the author’s name. Possible wordings include: “developed the research concept and design”, “collected the data”, “prepared the manuscript”, etc. Please, refer to the materials for more detailed descriptions of author contributions (from CRediT).

“Acknowledgements” section

In this section, please list individuals who assisted the authors in their research and/or working on the submission, but did not directly participate in its preparation or writing. The authors should make sure that persons listed in the Acknowledgments section are not against being mentioned in the article.

“Funding” section

In this section, please state your sources of funding for the study or lack thereof. Recommended language in case of no funding: “The study did not receive any external funding.”

If your study received external funding, please follow the reporting guidelines of the funding body.

In-text citations

1. All in-text references to the sources listed in the Reference List consist of the authors last name (no initials given) and the year of the publication within round brackets. No comma is placed between the two elements: (Author 2019).

If a particular fragment is referenced, the year of the publication is followed by a comma and the page number: (Author 2019, 25).

If there are multiple works by the same author in the same year, they are ordered alphabetically by the title and are allocated a letter (a, b, c etc) after the date: (Author 2019a).

When citing a source with up to four authors, all authors’ names should be included. For more than four authors, only the first three names should be stated, followed by “et al.”: (Author1, Author2, Author3 et al.). If the authors are not stated, the document should be named instead (shortening of long titles is accepted): (The Decree of the Goverment of the Republic of Moldova No. 523… 2011).

When citing a source divided into several parts or volumes, state the relevant part or volume number: (Vygotskij 1982, vol. 1).

2. When citing multiple sources, they should be separated by a comma and arranged in alphabetical order: (Vygotskij 1982, vol. 1, 45; Il'in 2011). If citing multiple works by the same author or authors, do not repeat their name or names: (Il'in 2000a; 2011; 2017).

3. When citing a source, always provide a full reference. Ibid, op. cit., etc. are not allowed.

Reference list

1.Make sure to prepare the Reference List with the utmost attention. Any format inaccuracies may impede effective tracking of sources in databases and impact the authors’ citation rate. It is recommended to use credible, relevant and easily accessible sources indexed in major scientific databases or catalogues of national libraries. Articles should refer to no fewer than 20-30 sources, while brief reports are expected to cite no fewer than 10 sources. Make sure that at least half of your references have been published within the last ten years and indexed in international databases. The authors are requested to limit references to their own works to 15% of the total volume of the Reference List.

2. The reference list must include all sources cited in the article, whether directly or indirectly, and may not include any unmentioned works.

3. All references are given after the text of the article as an unnumbered list, arranged in alphabetical order by the author’s last name. All references should be given in Harvard referencing style. If there are multiple sources by the same author, then citations are listed in order by the date of publication. If referencing multiple works from one author released in the same year, the works are allocated a letter (2000a, 2000b, 2000c) after the year.

4. Please, divide the reference list in the following sections: “Sources”, “Dictionaries and reference literature” and “References”. Sources should include literary and any other texts that have been studied.

5. You can consult reference examples, as well as previous issues.

Journal titles should be provided in full. If present, always include DOI (as an active link). Journal, book and website titles are given in italics to visually distinguish them from article, chapter and section titles.

Transliteration of references

BSI standard is used for transliteration. In this section, please provide transliterated titles for Russian-language sources and original titles for sources in other languages. References are arranged in alphabetical order regardless of language. At the end of each reference, please state the language you accessed the source in.

For names of authors, please transliterate names that are originally in Cyrillic alphabet and provide the original spelling for names in the Latin alphabet (e.g. Genette G., Barthes R. (French), Köstlin K. R. von (German, etc.)

Please add “Publ.” to the titles of Russian publishing houses (e.g. “М.: Наука” = “Moscow: Nauka Publ.”). For organisations, only use official translations of the title.

For journals, only list the translation of the title into English if it is an official translation. If there is no translation provided by the journal, only use the original name. If the original is in non-Latin characters, please transliterate it.

If you reference any Russian-language sources, please use the Translit.ru website with the following settings:
ё — e;
ц — ts;
й — j;
щ — shch;
ий — ij;
ый — yj;
х — всегда kh (always kh).

Download the Citation Guide

Reference examples

Journal article

• Thornberg, R., Tenenbaum, L., Varjas, K. et al. (2012) Bystander motivation in bullying incidents: To intervene or not to intervene? The Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 247–252. PMID: 22900122. https://doi.org/10.5811/westjem.2012.3.11792 (In English)

Book

• Karvasarskij, B. D. (ed.). (2006) Psikhoterapevticheskaya entsiklopediya [The psychotherapeutic encyclopedia]. Saint Petersburg: Piter Publ., 943 p. (In Russian)
• Vygotskij, L. S. (1984) Sobranie sochinenij: v 6 t. T. 4. Detskaya psikhologiya [Collected works: In 6 vols. Vol. 4. Child psychology]. Moscow: Pedagogika Publ., 433 p. (In Russian)

Book chapter

• Posokhova, S. T., Didenko, E. Ya. (2017) Modeli integratsii roditel’skikh i detskikh otnoshenij v sem’yakh molodykh lyudej s raznymi sensornymi vozmozhnostyami [Models of integration of parental and children’s relationships in families of young people with different sensory capabilities]. In: E. Yu. Korzhova (ed.). Integrativnyj podkhod k poznaniyu psikhologii cheloveka [Integrative approach to the knowledge of human psychology]. Saint Petersburg: Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia Publ., pp. 248–267. (In Russian)

Conference, seminar or roundtable proceedings

• Vinogradov, P. N., Kirillov, P. N. (2003) Ekologicheskie orientatsii kak kategoriya ekologicheskoj psikhologii [Environmental orientation as a category of environmental psychology]. In: Ezhegodnik Rossijskogo psikhologicheskogo obshchestva. Materialy III Vserossijskogo s’ezda psikhologov 25–28 iyunya 2003 g. [Yearbook of the Russian Psychological Society. Proceedings of the 3^rd All-Russian congress of psychologists June 25–28, 2003]. Vol. 2. Saint Petersburg: Saint Petersburg State University Publ., pp. 113–117. (In Russian)

Online Source

• 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Field Interviewer Manual. (2018) [Online]. Available at: https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/cbhsq-reports/NSDUHmrbFIManual2019.pdf (accessed 14.03.2019). (In English)

Submission of Papers

Articles prepared in accordance with the rules are sent to the editorial board via the file uploading system on the official website of the journal (www.psychinedu.ru). Physical copies will not be accepted.

No submission or publication fees are charged.

After the article is received, its compliance with the formal requirements will be checked within 15 days, followed by a double-blind peer review (see Review Statement).

Articles in humanities, as well as social, economic and cultural studies only require an expert assessment certificate stating that such articles contain no classified information if it is deemed necessary by the editor during the initial review.

Both the issue in which your article is published and the order of the articles are determined by the number of articles that have been submitted to different sections of the journal.