Language

The journal accepts only manuscripts written in English. While minor language issues may be addressed during the review process and corrected by our copyeditor, Psihologija will not accept manuscripts that are poorly written or contain a high number of spelling, grammatical, or stylistic errors. Authors are responsible for ensuring the clarity and quality of their writing prior to submission. Manuscripts that do not meet acceptable language standards will be returned without review.

In addition, after positive peer reviews and before final acceptance, authors may be required to provide a professionally edited version of the manuscript if the language quality is insufficient. If the authors fail to provide such a version within the specified deadline, the manuscript will not proceed to acceptance.

The Editor-in-Chief also reserves the right to reject a manuscript on the basis of language quality alone, without sending it to external review, if the writing is clearly below the journal’s standards.

To assist authors in preparing high-quality submissions, the editorial board recommends the following professional proofreader: Sara Major, sara.mejdzor@ff.uns.ac.rs.

Formatting

Manuscripts must be formatted in accordance with the APA 7th Edition guidelines.

• Authors should prepare their submission in Microsoft Word (.docx) format, using Times New Roman, 12-point font, double spacing, margins of at least 2.5 cm (1 inch) on all sides, and page numbers in the bottom right corner.
• Text should be left-aligned with no hyphenation, APA-style heading levels should be used, italics (not bold or underlining) should be applied for emphasis, and the first line of each paragraph must be indented by 1.27 cm (0.5 inch).
• References and in-text citations must follow APA 7th Edition rules.

Failure to follow these formatting requirements may result in delays in the review process.

Submission files

• The title page must contain the full title of the manuscript, the full names and institutional affiliations of all authors, their email addresses, year of birth, and ORCID iD if available. Contact details of the corresponding author, including full postal address, must be provided. Author contributions according to the CRediT taxonomy should be listed (for example, Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition). The title page must also include acknowledgements (if applicable), a declaration of funding, a conflict of interest statement, a declaration on the use of generative AI or similar artificial systems, and the total word count.
  • All sources of financial support must be disclosed in the declaration of funding. The statement should clearly indicate which author or authors and which part or parts of the research were supported, including grant numbers, funding agencies, and other relevant details. If funding was received, authors should use the following standard phrase: “This research was supported by the [Name of Funding Agency] under grant number [Grant Number]. The funder had no role in the design of the study, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.” If no funding was received, the following statement should be included: “The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.”
  • The conflict of interest statement must explicitly state whether any author has a financial, professional, or personal interest that could influence, or appear to influence, the work presented. If such a conflict exists, authors should write: “The author(s) declare the following potential conflicts of interest: [brief description of the conflict].” If no conflict exists, authors must write: “The author(s) declare no conflicts of interest.” This information will be published with the article.
  • Authors must also disclose the use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies in the preparation of their manuscript by including a statement on the title page entitled “Declaration of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies in the Writing Process.” If applicable, the following standard formulation should be used: “During the preparation of this work, the author(s) used [NAME OF TOOL/SERVICE] in order to [SPECIFY PURPOSE]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the publication.” This declaration does not apply to the use of basic tools such as grammar checkers, spell checkers, reference managers, or similar utilities. If there is nothing to disclose, no statement is required.
  • Any individual who contributed to the study but does not meet the criteria for authorship, for example by providing technical assistance, language editing, or data collection, must be properly acknowledged in the acknowledgements section.
• Authors are required to submit a blinded version of the manuscript as the main text file. This version must not contain author names, institutional affiliations, or any self-identifying information in the text, footnotes, or metadata. Self-citations must be anonymized (e.g., Author(s), 2024). Information such as names of funding agencies, institutions granting ethical approval, or acknowledgements must be removed or anonymized.
• Authors may also submit supplementary materials that will be published online with the article. Supplementary materials may include datasets, instruments, or other files that support the findings but are not essential to the main text. They must comply with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Supplementary files are permanent records, published as received, and may not be altered after publication. Authors bear full responsibility for the legality, accuracy, and functionality of supplementary materials.

Manuscript structure

Manuscripts should be structured as follows:

• • title,
  • abstract,
  • keywords,
  • highlights,
  • introduction,
  • method,
  • results,
  • discussion and conclusion,
  • references.

• The title should accurately reflect the content of the manuscript and, when relevant, include methodological descriptors such as randomized controlled trial, meta-analysis, systematic review, cross-sectional study, longitudinal study, or qualitative study.
• The abstract must be structured, self-contained, and not exceed 250 words, including objectives, methods, results, and conclusions, without undefined abbreviations or references.
• Authors must provide three to five keywords suitable for indexing.
• In addition, highlights are mandatory and should include three to five bullet points summarizing the key findings, each no longer than 100 characters including spaces, without abbreviations.
• The introduction should define the research problem, review relevant prior work, and clearly lead to the central research question, indicating which findings or theoretical perspectives are being challenged or extended. Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter.
• The method section must include sufficient detail for replication, describing the research design, sampling procedures, data collection, instruments, analytical strategy, and ethical considerations. New or uncommon methods must be described in detail. At the end of the method section, authors must include a Data Availability Statement. This statement is mandatory and must specify whether the data are publicly available or restricted for ethical or legal reasons, or if no new data were created. Failure to include a Data Availability Statement will result in the manuscript being returned prior to review.
• The results section must present findings in a clear and logical order, supported by relevant statistical outputs such as test statistics, p-values, and confidence intervals. Authors must provide effect sizes for all relevant analyses. Alongside statistical outcomes, authors must include plain-language explanations to aid reader understanding, while leaving interpretation for the discussion. Datasets and research materials that support the findings must be made available, either as supplementary files or through repositories indicated in the Data Availability Statement.
• Figures and tables should be embedded in the text with descriptive captions, and only those essential to understanding the findings should be included. Color illustrations are accepted for the online edition, but the print version is black and white. Images must be high resolution, and authors are responsible for securing copyright permissions for non-original materials.
• The discussion and conclusion should interpret findings in the context of the literature and theoretical frameworks presented in the introduction. Conclusions must logically follow from the data and clearly indicate the contribution of the study to scientific knowledge. A separate conclusion section may be included to highlight implications more explicitly.
• Finally, the reference list must include all sources cited in the manuscript and conform strictly to APA 7th Edition style. References should be current and relevant, demonstrating the contribution of the manuscript to contemporary scientific discourse.