Author Guidelines

Mission

The journal Acta Colombiana de Psicología publishes original research findings in psychology and its dialogue with other disciplines, with the purpose of disseminating it to the university community and to all people interested in learning about new advances and applications to different fields and needs of contemporary society.

Scope

Acta Colombiana de Psicología is the open access serial scientific publication of the Psychology program of the Catholic University of Colombia. Its approach and coverage is both aimed to the discipline and to related areas, and its periodicity is six-monthly. Each of its issues is dedicated to problems of particular relevance to contemporary psychology. As a main purpose, the journal intends to reach universities, private or state entities, health centers, education centers and all those interested -nationally or internationally- in sharing academic experiences in psychology, identifying new advances in the area and making their applications to different fields and needs of contemporary society. Its articles are selected from a rigorous arbitration process by national and international arbitrators.

Please, keep in mind that restrictions apply to multiple applications during the same semester. It will not be received, for its application to the process of arbitration in the journal, more than one article in which the same author participates. The author whose article (alone or in co-authorship) has been accepted for publication may submit a second article after six months of acceptance of the first.

Indexing

Acta is indexed both nationally, in Publindex, and internationally, in the databases of Scopus, PsycINFO, SciELO Citation index web of Science, EBSCO, Redalyc, REDIB, Lilacs, Latindex, ERIHPLUS, BASE, Ulrich's web, among others.

Periodicity

The journal Acta Colombiana de Psicología is published twice a year with two issues per year. The first issue covers the semester between January and June, and the second corresponds to the semester between July and December.

Sources of funding

The journal Acta Colombiana de Psicología is funded by the Universidad Católica de Colombia in 100% of its processes.

Language

Acta publishes each article in Spanish and English.

Content responsibility

It is understood that the opinions expressed in the articles are the exclusive responsibility of the authors, that they do not compromise the opinion and scientific policy of the journal, and that the activities described in the published works must be in accordance with the generally accepted ethical criteria, both regarding animal or human experimentation, as in everything related to professional deontology.

Instructions for submitting articles

General information

Those interested in submitting articles should send the original online version of the document through the Open Journal System platform (OJS, http://editorial.ucatolica.edu.co/ojsucatolica/revistas_ucatolica/index.php/acta-colombiana-psicologia /), previous registration -as an author- and preparation of the cover letter of the article, signed by all its authors, in which it is indicated that the document is original and unpublished, and that it has not been simultaneously submitted to another journal for publication. Once the article has been received, the editor will inform the reception thereof and initiate the internal review process (pre-review) within a maximum period of two weeks, for subsequent assignment to the respective arbitration process.

Required standards

The writing of the article must follow the international norms for the presentation of articles of the Manual of Publications of the American Psychological Association (APA), in its sixth edition (2010). The document must not exceed 28 pages and must be submitted in Microsoft Word format, with Times New Roman font of 12 points, double spacing, letter size and margins of 2.5 cm on each side. Only original and unpublished articles that have not been presented simultaneously for publication in another national or international journal, that comply with the aforementioned standards and that belong to one of the categories of the types of articles received by the journal will be submitted to peer review and evaluation.

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  Original empirical articles: These are original research reports. Generally, they contain different sections that reflect the phases within the research process, and are presented with the structure: introduction, method, results and discussion.

  
  

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  Theoretical articles: These are documents in which the author relies on the existing research literature in order to make new conceptual contributions in any area of psychology. The author follows the development of knowledge in the subject to expand and refine theoretical constructs. Usually, the author presents a new theory, or, alternatively can also analyze the existing theory.

  
  


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  Reflection articles: Documents that present research results from an analytical, interpretative or critical perspective on a specific topic, using original sources.

  
  


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  Review articles: Documents resulting from research that analyze, systematize and integrate the findings of published or unpublished research on a field of science or technology in order to account for progress and development trends. It is characterized by presenting a careful bibliographic review that contains at least 50 references.

  
  

  In any case, the first page of the document must include the title of the article (in Spanish and English), the full names of the authors and the institutional link of each one, as well as the abstract and keywords of the article. It must also include, in a footnote, the postal address, the fixed telephone number (with international call sign) and the email address of the authors.

  
  

  Arbitration process

  
  

  All the manuscripts sent to Acta Colombiana de Psicología are evaluated by two national or international peers, external to the publishing institution, under the double blind modality. In case of disagreement in the concepts, a third evaluating peer will be assigned to settle disagreements, and this one will make observations and issue a concept in terms of: (a) Accepted for publication, (b) Pending publication or (c) It is not accepted for publication. In the same way, verification will be carried out from the journal, of the correspondence between citations and references, and of compliance with the required norm (https://editorial.ucatolica.edu.co/ojsucatolica/revistas_ucatolica/index.php/acta-colombiana-psicologia/about/editorialPolicies#peerReviewProcess).

  
  

  If the article is Accepted for publication, the authors must comply with the delivery of the following documents: (a) a letter informing that the suggestions made by the evaluators, if any, were included; (b) the final versions of the article in Spanish and English languages (attach translation certificate); (c) the authorization format established by the journal for the reproduction of the text with the signatures of the authors; and (d) the authors identification data for the respective database of the journal (ORCID code, full names, contact information, academic background, H index, among others).

  
  

  Time between reception and publication

  
  

  The time elapsing between the reception of the article and the first concept of the arbitration process is four months; and the time between the reception of the article and the concept of acceptance for publication is approximately five months.

  
  

  Submission and processing costs

  
  

  The journal Acta Colombiana de Psicología does not cause economic charges to the authors for sending their articles or processing them.

  
  

  Form of citation and bibliographical references

  
  

  The list of works cited in the article must be presented in alphabetical order at the end of the document, complying with the international standards of the American Psychological Association (APA) (http://apastyle.apa.org/) and it must include all the necessary information to allow any reader to locate the cited documents in a text. The information must be accurate, as it appears in the original document. Additionally, it is important that the authors include the doi (Digital Object Identifier) or the access link on the web (retrieved from http: // ...) in each of the articles and web pages consulted.

  
  

  Below are some examples of references of books and articles with one or several authors, among others. The general elements of a reference are: surname of the author, initial of the name, (year of publication), title of the work [in italics], (edition), city: editorial.

  
  

  1. Examples of book references:

  
  

  With a single author:

  
  

  Brannon, L. (2001). Psicología de la salud. Madrid: Paraninfo.

  
  

  With two authors:

  
  

  Tanagho, E. A., & Mcaninch, J. W. (1997). Urología general de Smith. México: Manual Moderno.

  
  

  With a new edition:

  
  

  Deutsch, M., & Cook, S. W. (2003). Métodos de investigación en las relaciones sociales (3^rd ed.). Madrid, España: Rialp.

  
  

  With a corporate author (state institutions, scientists or associations, etc.):

  
  

  American Psychological Association (APA). (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, D. C.: Author. [In this case, the author or editor is the same, the word Author is used for the publishing house]

  
  

  Chapter within a book:

  
  

  Massaro, D. (2001). Broadening the domain of the fuzzy logical model of perception. En H. L. Pick, Jr., P. van den Broek & D. C. Knill (Eds.). Cognition: Conceptual and methodological issues (pp. 23-34). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.

  
  

  Translation of a book into Spanish:

  
  

  Laplace, P. S. (1951). Un ensayo filosófico sobre las probabilidades. (F. W. Truscott & F. L. Emory, Transl.). Nueva York, N. Y.: Dover. [Original work published in1814].

  
  

   

  
  

  2. Examples of references of periodicals

  
  

  Article with a single author with continuous pagination:

  
  

  Flórez, A. (2003). La sociedad del conocimiento. Perspectivas en Filosofía, 4, 34-40.

  
  

  Article with two authors with separate pagination:

  
  

  Rodríguez, L., & Meneses P. (2004). Visibilidad del conocimiento científico. Revista Latinoamericana y del Caribe dePsicología, 34(2), 12-30.

  
  

  (In the previous case, both the volume and the issue number of the journal are included, since each publication lists its pages separately. The figure in parentheses"(2)" refers to the number of the publication and the figure in italics to the volume of the journal).

  
  

  Journal article in press:

  
  

  Zuckerman, M., &. Kieffer, S. C. (in press). Race differences in face-ism: Does facial prominence imply dominance? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

  
  

  Newspaper article:

  
  

  Pérez, J. (2005, febrero 12). Indexación y factor de impacto. Diario Alerta, p. 27.

  
  

   

  
  

  3. Examples of references of doctoral dissertations and master's thesis

  
  

  Unpublished doctoral dissertation:

  
  

  Wilfley, D. E. (1989). Interpersonal analysis of bulimia: Normal-weight and obese [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Missouri, Columbia, EE. UU.

  
  

  Unpublished master's thesis:

  
  

  Almeida, D. M. (1990). Fathers´ participation in family work: Consequences for fathers´ stress and father-child relations [Unpublished master?s thesis]. University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

  
  

   

  
  

  4. Examples of references to electronic media

  
  

  Electronic means refer to documents in electronic format, databases and computer programs. They are accessible both online and on computer media, such as discs, magnetic tapes, DVDs, CD-ROMs, among others.

  
  

  Summary on CD-ROM:

  
  

  Author, I. (date). Title of the article [CD-ROM]. Title of the journal, xx. xxx-xxx Summary source and retrieval number.

  
  

  Meyer, A. S., & Bock, K. (1992). The tip-of the-tongue phenomenon: Blocking or partial activation? [CD ROM]. Memory & Cognition, 20, 715-726. Summary from: Silver Platter File: PsycLIT Identifier: 80-16351.

  
  

  Computer program (software):

  
  

  Bower, F. (2004). The Observer 4.0 [Computer Software]. Baltimore, M. D.: Author.

  
  

  In these cases, italics are not used for the names of the programs.

  
  

   

  
  

  5. Examples of references of electronic periodicals

  
  

  A reference of a source by Internet contains, at least, the author of the page, the title or some information about the document, like the date of publication, the update and / or retrieval, and a uniform resource locator (Uniform Resource Locator [URL]).

  
  

  Article in an Internet journal:

  
  

  Fredrickson, B. L. (7 March, 2000). Cultivating positive emotions to optimize health and well-being. Prevention & Treatment, 3 Article 0001a. Retrieved from: http://journals.apa.org/prevention/volumen3/pre0030001a.html

  
  

  The examples of the different models of online resources can be consulted at the address indicated above.

  
  

   

  
  

  Quotations of references in the text

  
  

  A document quotation is the text taken from another source to give theoretical and conceptual support to the document or article prepared, and allows the reader to know the source from which the information comes -located in the list of references at the end of the article-. The most usual types of quotations are the textual and the contextual ones -or paraphrasing-.

  
  

  A quotation is textual when transcribing a literal text by another author or a previously published document. If it has less than 40 words, it is written in quotation marks in the paragraph that is being exposed. If the quote has 40 or more words, it is written in a new paragraph without quotes, as a new division. The entire paragraph is written with a five space indentation from the left margin and respecting the margin to the right, using the same line spacing used in the rest of the document. In the cases of textual quotation, the number or range of pages from which the quotation was taken must be included in the parenthetical reference, after the author's surname and the year of publication.

  
  

  A quotation is contextual when a specific part of a document or its content is summarized; also, when a writing is paraphrased or a reference is made to an idea contained in another work. Quotations can be written in three ways, according to the following emphases:

  
  


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  On the author: author's surname, the year in parentheses; the quoted text and the page in parentheses.

  
  


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  On the content of the text: the quoted text and, in parentheses, the author's surname, the year and the page.

  
  

  On the date of publication: begins with the year, then the author's surname, the quoted text and the page in parentheses.

  
  

  1. Examples to cite a work by an author in the text

  
  

  García (2004) developed a strategy for...

  
  

  In a recent study on problem-solving strategies (García, 2004)

  
  

  In 1999, García developed a strategy for...

  
  

  2. Examples to cite a work with several authors

  
  

  When a citation has two authors, both should be cited each time the reference is used in the text; and when an article has more than four or five authors, all are cited the first time it is used in the text, and if it is reused, the surname of the first author is mentioned followed by "et al." and the year of the publication.

  
  

  When a citation consists of six or more authors, the surname of the first author is cited followed by "et al." and the year of publication. This is done from the first moment in which the citation is referenced (the surnames of all the authors are indicated in the list of references)

  
  

  Withdrawal of articles

  
  

  Authors who wish to withdraw an article should send an email to the editor, requesting the withdrawal and describing the reasons for doing so. The editor will confirm receipt and acceptance of the request.

  
  

  Checklist for submission preparation

  
  

  As part of the submission process, authors are required to verify that their submission meets all the requirements shown below. Submissions that do not comply with these guidelines will be returned to the authors.

  
  

   

  
  
  
  
  1. A letter of presentation of the article addressed to the editor of the journal Acta Colombiana de Psicología, signed by all authors of the article must be enclosed, stating that the document is original, that it has not been published nor has it been simultaneously submitted to another journal for publication.
  
  
  
  

   

  
  
  
  
  2. The submission file must be in Open Office, Microsoft Word, RTF or WordPerfect format.
  
  
  
  

   

  
  
  
  
  3. Whenever possible, URLs should be provided for references.
  
  
  
  

   

  
  
  
  
  4. The text must have double line spacing; 12 points of font size; italics are used instead of underlining (except in URLs); and all the illustrations, figures and tables are placed in the appropriate places of the text (not at the end).
  
  
  
  

   

  
  
  
  
  5. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements summarized in the Author's Guidelines, which appear in the link "About the journal".
  
  
  
  

   

  
  
  
  
  6. In order to ensure an anonymous evaluation, the text of the article must not have the name of the authors, nor information that allows its identification.
  
  
  
  

   

  
  
  
  
  7. A presentation page with the names of the authors, their academic affiliation and the contact author's data must be attached in a different document.
  
  
  
  

   

  
  
  
  
  8. All the metadata of each of the authors of the article must be registered in the OJS system (full names, ORCID code, contact data, academic background and H index, among others).