Instructions for Authors
Submit manuscripts via email: Using this template:
Our mission is to link the science and practice of forensic psychology by making research and applications directly available to all forensic psychologists.
Contributions should be of interest to forensic psychologists, and must survive peer review. Within those broad parameters, we welcome empirical research, case studies, review articles, theoretical papers, practical applications, policy recommendations, and articles relevant to the teaching of forensic psychology. When warranted, the editors will solicit other papers such as critical commentaries, debates, exchanges, and replies to published articles. We also invite reviews of books, psychological tests, or other materials that would be of professional interest or use for forensic psychologists (including practice, research, teaching of forensic psychology, etc.).
By submitting a manuscript, the authors attest that the article is not currently under review or published elsewhere (including journals, newspapers, blogs or web sites).
For all submissions, include an abstract of approximately 100 words that appears after the title page, but before the main text. Immediately following the abstract, please provide up to 8 key words.
Although one of the virtues of an on-line journal is that we are not subject to the same page limitations as print journals, we must be sensitive to our readers’ time and patience. Hence, contributors are strongly urged to be concise, using no more words or pages than necessary. A typical manuscript might be about 20-30 double-spaced pages. Shorter articles are fine, when that fits, and we expect that some important articles will run up to 50 pages. We can publish longer works, but we encourage this alternative: Submit a moderate-length manuscript for us to publish on our website, with a link to external content (perhaps in appendix form) on an external site, such as your own website.
Manuscripts should be submitted using Microsoft Word templates. See below for additional information. We recommend and request that you perform a spelling and grammar check with the writing style set to Technical (see Preferences - Spelling and Grammar - in Word). Alternatively, a clean manuscript saved in rich text format (rtf) is acceptable.
Author Guidelines
To decrease the delay between submission and publication of accepted manuscripts, we are asking authors to use a template for creating their manuscripts for submission. The template file is a downloadable .doc file that has fields for author modification. Use of these templates will make post-proof processing of manuscripts significantly faster, producing noticeable decreases in time between submission of final proof-edited manuscript and publication.
An author submitting an original article should download the Microsoft Word template and insert into this file the manuscript text, figures, tables, references, etc., and save the file with a unique identifying name (e.g., Johnson_OAJFP_final.doc).
Email manuscripts to OAJFPsubmissions@gmail.com. The body of the email should include name and contact information for the author(s) and the title of the manuscript.
Manuscripts should be prepared according to the latest edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, but with all materials and attachments single-spaced. **Note that APA Style now recommends two spaces at the end of a sentence (except in the reference section of the paper).
The authors are responsible for obtaining written permission (for nonexclusive world rights in all languages for current use, both electronic and in print, and in future editions) from copyright owners for quotations of greater than 500 words or reprinting tables or figures. Contributors should include a cover letter containing their email addresses, a statement that the findings are original, unreported except as noted in the document, and not submitted elsewhere. Contributors of original research should state that the work contained in the submitted manuscript conforms to the human and/or animal ethical legislation appropriate to the country in which the work was carried out, and should cite that legislation. The methods of informed consent should be specified, and the name of the approving Institutional Review Board reported. Instructions for submitting final electronic manuscript copy will be provided upon acceptance of the manuscript.
Please check APA style for citing legal cases. Graphs, tables, etc. should appear in the manuscript where they should appear in the final document. We also encourage the use of hyperlinks, both within the manuscript (e.g., from text to the reference page) and to external content on the Internet (e.g., author’s email or website, or the article you are citing).
In order to keep copy-editing costs down, we strongly encourage authors to submit manuscripts that are as error-free as possible. Ask a colleague to read the manuscript carefully before you submit the manuscript, and send us the manuscript in the best condition you can.
If you do not receive acknowledgement of your submission within 48 hours, re-contact the editor at OAJFPsubmissions@gmail.com. If you do not receive notification regarding acceptance or rejection within 48 days, re-contact the editor. If needed, contact an associate editor or a member of the editorial board.