About the Journal
Focus and Scope
Since April 10th, we will only accept submission of manuscripts in English language. Check out the new amount of the publication fee!
Original papers are published in the area of Psychological Processes/Experimental Psychology, Psychological Assessment, Developmental Psychology and Health Psychology in the following categories: research reports, theoretical or systematic reviews of articles, brief reports and reviews. To be considered for submission, authors should send a letter to the editor justifying your submission and highlighting the contributions and relevance of the work. Please note that a letter is required that explains why you think that your submission fits into the area you have selected. In the same letter, you should state whether or not you have fully complied with current ethics standards at your university and/or country.
Descriptions of areas for publication are below:
PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESSES/EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY: In this area, studies include the processes of psychology, such as sensation, attention, perception, learning, language, memory, motivation and emotion. In addition, this journal also considers studies investigating complex cognitive functions such as language, reasoning, problem solving, decision making, and executive functions. Generally, studies that employ experimental and quasi-experimental methods, and cross discipline studies that address the areas of neuroscience, neuropsychology, neurology, cognitive psychology, psychobiology, psychopharmacology, and experimental analysis of behavior are accepted. In addition, studies with clinical and nonclinical populations are accepted including experimental or natural settings, in formal and non-formal settings, and web and virtual reality environments.
PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT/ EVALUATION: This area includes studies that are focused on the advancement of psychological science such as practice and ethics of psychological assessment in its various contexts (including work on issues related to psychological measurement and psychometrics, adaptation, development, validation and standardization of instruments), the use of instruments for the purposes of psychological assessment, psychodiagnostic, evaluation of interventions or programs and case studies involving the use of instruments. Articles focused on the assessment of cognitive and neuropsychological functioning, personality and psychopathology, as well as empirical evaluation of clinically relevant phenomena, such as dysfunctional behaviors, characteristics and diagnoses of personality may also be submitted. Furthermore, they may be included in the section involving ethical or technical issues within psychological assessment.
DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY: To publish in this area, studies in this section must show clear evidence of an evolutionary approach to development. Merely because a study uses one or more samples consisting of children, adolescents, adults, or the elderly does not mean that it has the potential to be published in this section. The study of development in psychology is the study of changes over time in the phenomenon of interest. A developmental approach requires research over the period of time during which the changes of interest are occurring, whether relatively short (microgenetic changes) or relatively long (ontogenetic changes). In order to understand the processes involved in the changes of interest longitudinal research is essential; cross-sectional research has the ability to show whether or not predicted differences in outcomes (e.g., in feelings, values, cognition, or socialization) are found in samples that range across the ages relevant to the issue being researched; some types of retrospective methods may also allow assessment of age-related changes.
Microgenetic changes refer to changes over a relatively brief period of time, such as changes from other-regulation to self-regulation in children’s abilities to solve problem-solving tasks, or the learning of specific skills or tasks. Ontogenetic changes usually occur over longer periods of time, such as examining the ways in which adolescents’ thinking, social relationships, or emotional responses change as they move through puberty or attain formal operational thinking, or the effects on adults of the transition to parenthood, getting a new job, retiring, or losing a spouse.
The source of change may be psycho-biological (e.g. increasing myelination in the cerebral cortex, pubertal timing, variations in degrees of motivation or persistence, etc.), environmental (e.g., the effects of smoking on birth weight, being raised in extreme poverty, or being exposed to toxic air or water), social (needing to learn a new skill at home, school, or work, a stepfather entering the family, moving to a new school, getting divorced, one’s children leaving home, etc.), or cultural (e.g., moving to a new society or marrying into an ethnic group different from one’s own), or a combination of any or all of these.
HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY: This area includes studies focused on the empirical relationship between psychological factors in behavior and health. The Health Psychology section publishes original scholarly articles that address topics such as contextual and behavioral factors that may contribute to illness and disease prevention, review of approaches in the health field, protective and risk in health, promotion strategies and health education, psychology of pediatrics, psycho-oncology, healthy aging, and evaluation and dissemination of interventions in health psychology. Evidence should target the individual, family, group, or community, as well as the ethnicity, social class, gender and sexual orientation within these groups. In addition, applications of research findings on public policy related to health, and professional issues such as training and supervision related to health psychology will be considered.
Peer Review Process
Manuscripts submitted online to http://www.seer.ufrgs.br/index.php/PsicReflexaoCritica and which are in accordance with the standards of the journal and are considered potentially publishable by PRC will be forwarded by the Editor to Associated Editors or to Ad-Hoc reviewers. Associate Editors, in turn, will forward manuscripts to specialists in their field (Ad-Hoc reviewers or Councilors - members of the Editorial Board). Reviewers may recommend to Editors that the manuscripts be accepted without modifications, accepted conditioned by modifications, or rejected. The identity of reviewers is withheld from authors. Authors will have access to copies of the reviewer's judgment and their justifications. Manuscripts forwarded to reviewers will not have the author's identification. The modified version will be reviewed by a Councilor, who may request as many modifications as necessary for the final acceptance of the manuscript. The Editor will always give the final decision on publishing, or not, a manuscript. The author's identity, at this point, may be informed to the Councilor. The Councilor reserves the right to apply slight modifications to the author's text so to expedite the publication process. The Editorial Committee will settle specific cases. Authors can follow all the stages of the editorial process on the Internet (http://www.seer.ufrgs.br/index.php/PsicReflexaoCritica). The names of the reviewers that collaborated in selecting manuscripts will appear in the last edition of the year, without specifying which texts were individually analyzed. Before forwarding to the printer the accepted manuscripts, the Editor will send a proof to the author(s) for proofreading. The authors have five working days to proofread the manuscript and return it to the Editor. If the authors do not return the proof without any alterations, the manuscript will be published according to the proof. At this stage of the process, the author(s) whose manuscript has been accepted must send a letter assigning copyrights to the journal. And, when pertinent, the journal may request, from the author(s) of research reports, a copy of the project's approval by an ethic committee. The manuscripts that have been accepted and edited will be available online "in press", that is, before the printed edition is released. Regarding the printed version, the main author will receive 1 copy. Extra copies or reprints are not provided, but authors and co-authors can obtain online copies from the site of Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica/Psychology at SciELO.
Open Access Policy
Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica offers public access to all of its contents, following the principle that offering free access to research generates greater global exchange of knowledge. Such access is associated to the increase of reading and citation of author references. For more information on this, visit Public Knowledge Project, the project which developed this system in order to improve the quality of academic and public research, distributing the Open Journal System, other academic publishing mediums, as well as other supporting software for the public access publication system. Our journal encourages authors to make available in their personal and institutional sites PDF files with the final version of the articles, since they are already free of any commercial and profitable means.
Changes in editorial policy
Since April 10th, we will only accept submission of manuscripts in English language. Check out the new amount of the publication fee!
Sources of Support
Journal History
Please, visit the new website of the journal http://www.prc.springeropen.com/
