Group Dynamics:

Theory, Research, and Practice

Instructions to Contributors

Group Dynamics publishes original empirical articles, theoretical analyses, literature reviews, and brief reports dealing with basic and applied topics in the field of group processes and group psychotherapy. The journal seeks manuscripts that examine social psychological analyses of group processes and groups in organizational settings, as well as manuscripts dealing with the dynamics of therapeutic groups. Theoretically driven studies of hypotheses that have implications for understanding and improving groups in organizational, educational, and therapeutic settings are particularly encouraged. This site includes information pertaining to:

• Manuscript preparation
• Brief reports
• Masked reviews
• Ethical standards
• Manuscript review
• Manuscript submission (including Internet submissions)
• Return to Group Dynamics Home Page

Manuscript preparation

Authors are responsible for the content and style of their work, and they should follow the guidelines of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (4th ed.) when preparing manuscripts. Manuscripts must include an abstract of no more than 120 words (maximum of 960 characters, including spaces) that succinctly summarizes the key points. Manuscripts should not exceed 25 pages, including references (exceptions to the length restriction should be justified by the author when the work is submitted). Manuscripts should be double-spaced throughout, and all copies should be clear and on paper of good quality. Manuscripts printed with dot matrix printers or atypical fonts will be accepted only if easily readable; mimeographed, dittoed, or faxed manuscripts will not be accepted. Authors should avoid using abbreviations, symbols, and footnotes. Authors whose manuscripts are accepted will be asked to submit a copy of the manuscript on a computer disk in ASCII (text) format and in the format used by manuscript's word-processor. The text in the printed copy and disk must match exactly. Manuscripts that do not conform to the Publication Manual's standards (margins, sexist language, reference format, etc.) will be returned unreviewed to authors. Please make certain that any figures, charts, or tables conform to APA standards. Figures must be printed by laser printer, or on glossy photographic paper, without Figure captions.

Please note the following special requirements:

• The journal uses electronic mail to facilitate the review and production process, so authors must provide an electronic copy of the manuscript in the format used by their word processing software (preferable WordPerfect or Word);
• Tables must be prepared using the table-creating features of the word processor.

Brief reports

The Journal also publishes brief reports, such as single-experiment studies that do not require extensive theoretical introduction, case studies, reports of therapeutic innovations that do not include outcome data, and theoretical commentaries about specific issues. Brief reports must conform to the Publication Manual standards, but the manuscript itself cannot exceed 15 pages, including references, tables, and figures. Unsolicited book reviews will not be accepted.

Masked reviews

Masked reviews are optional, and authors who wish such reviews must request them when submitting their work. They must also prepare their manuscript so that they cannot be identified: a separate title page with authors' names and affiliations must be provided, and any identifying footnotes or self-citations should be removed.

Ethical standards

Authors are expected to have complied with the APA ethical standards pertaining to publication and research practices. By submitting the manuscript to the Journal authors are agreeing that the work is not under review elsewhere and that the findings presented have not been published elsewhere. Authors should make certain that their research methods conformed to the ethical principles of the APA and that, in the case of multiple authors, the authorship order and listing is consistent with the contributions of the group. Authors should make certain that their data will be available to other investigators for a least 5 years after the date of publication.

Manuscript review

The Editor and Associate Editors, in consultation with members of the Journal's Editorial Board and ad hoc reviewers, will determine which manuscripts are accepted for publication in the journal. The primary criterion for acceptance will be the work's impact on our understanding of group processes. The introduction should be theoretically coherent and compelling, and any relevant literatures should be reviewed. The methods and measures used should be appropriate, the findings should be interpretable and statistically meaningful, and conclusions drawn should be suitable ones given the results obtained. Authors of manuscripts examining basic theory and research should identify implications of their work for more applied areas, and authors of manuscripts dealing with more applied topics should draw conclusions that are relevant to basic research and theory. When possible, manuscripts dealing with applied topics will be critiqued by a basic researcher and basic research studies will be reviewed by a practitioner.

Manuscript submission

Email: Dr. Kivlighan

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