International Journal of Stress Prevention and Wellbeing

Focus and scope

The International Journal of Stress Prevention and Wellbeing (IJSPW ) is a peer reviewed journal that publishes articles with a focus on theory, research and practice of stress, stress prevention and management. There is a particular focus on stress prevention interventions including incremental updates to previous work and research protocols. Case studies are welcome (individual, group, organisational or community).  Editorials are written by the editors on topics of general interest or journal policy.

Perspectives, leading articles and keynote speeches maybe commissioned from experts in the stress prevention and applied fields.

The International Journal of Stress Prevention and Wellbeing will publish proceedings of conferences, congresses and symposia, including both peer-reviewed articles and collections of meeting abstracts from the relevant stress-related fields.

The submission & review process

Submitted articles will be initially reviewed by an editor to verify its suitability for the journal and that it adheres to the IJSPW submission guidelines. If the article passes this initial stage, then it will then be subject to a masked reviewing process depending upon which section of the the journal it is being submitted to. Key items that they will be considering are: 1. Is the article relevant to stress prevention, stress management and wellbeing? 2. Does it address issues of interest to a broad readership? 3. If a research paper, then is the methodological rigour of sufficient standard? 4. Is it written clearly to understand? 5. Does it add to the existing knowledge-base?

Requirements Length

Papers should normally be no more than 6000 words including abstract, references and figures. The editors will consider an extended article if there is a clear rationale for its submission, for example, a mixed methodology paper. However, the Editors retain discretion to publish extended papers.

Original research

For articles containing original research, a structured abstract of up to 250 words should be included. The main headings should be: Background/Aims/Objectives Methods/Methodology Results Discussion Conclusions

Review articles

Review articles should use these headings: Purpose, Methods, Results/Findings, Discussion and/or Conclusions.

Brief reports

Brief reports are no longer than 1500 words in length. They could be a commentary, discussion, research paper or a previously presented conference poster extended to make it suitable for publication. Research protocols can also be submitted prior to the research having been undertaken. Research papers and research protocols will be subject to a masked review.

Techniques, interventions and strategies section

As an applied journal, we are interested in receiving articles about stress management and prevention techniques, interventions and strategies. Articles would normally be between 750-1500 words in length.

Invited papers & keynotes

Invited papers and conference keynotes will be reviewed by two editors.

Keywords

Five or six keywords are required for each paper/article.

Conference, congress and symposium reports

Reports on conferences, congresses and symposia are important in order to keep researchers and practitioners up-to-date with events they were unable to attend. All submissions should include the event title, organising body, location, date and URL to the event website. (Full conference abstracts can only be included with written permission from the conference organisers.) It is important to receive agreement for an event submission from the editor to confirm if the event falls within the remit of this journal.

Book reviews

Book reviews should include the book title, author(s) or editor(s), publisher, date of publication, number of pages, cost. We recommend that the journal editor is initially contacted to ascertain if the book is suitable for review in this journal.

Use of English

Articles should use consistent spelling, grammar and language ie. American or British English.

Reference style

In the reference section authors should use one of the following citation styles: APA style. It must be used consistently and authorship of cited works is adequately attributed, with all information necessary to locate cited material included. (The APA kindly provide a free short online tutorial designed for those who have no previous knowledge of APA Style®.)

Submission files and responsibilities

Articles, reviews etc should be submitted as email attachments in MS Word, double spaced. (Postal submissions will not be accepted for consideration.) The files must be saved under an abbreviated title of your submission eg StressManagement. Author names should not be in the file title, nor in the file properties. The main document(s) should be free of information identifying the author(s). A separate file should be submitted detailing the author(s)’s name, current professional affiliation and website URL, contact details including postal and email address. One author should be identified as the corresponding author. Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission to publish lengthy quotations, figures, tables, graphs, photographs etc., for which they do not own copyright. Authors are responsible for paying any copyright fees that may be payable to a copyright holder for the inclusion of their work. Please submit your ORCID identifier.

Figures, graphs & diagrams

All figures, graphs, tables or diagrams should be in an acceptable format for reproduction and must include titles.

New paper statement

A statement must be submitted confirming that the paper has not been published elsewhere and is not under consideration in any other publication. Publishing as an article or blog on a website still constitutes as previously published. The publisher will undertake checks on all submissions to verify if a paper has been previously published.

Plagiarism or self-plagiarism is not accepted.

Ethics If a manuscript constitutes primary publication of results from a study involving human subjects, authors must affirm that it was undertaken in accordance with the Code of Ethics of the American Psychological Association or national psychology body of the country where the research was being undertaken. The research should have been approved by a relevant ethics committee. NB. Journal editors will abide the CSE’s White Paper on Promoting Integrity in Scientific Journal Publications. (Scott-Lichter D and the Editorial Policy Committee, Council of Science Editors. CSE’s White Paper on Promoting Integrity in Scientific Journal Publications, 2012 Update. 3rd Revised Edition. Wheat Ridge, CO: 2012.)

Competing interests

Authors must declare any competing interests or state that no competing interests exist.

Funding

Authors must declare what, if any, financial support they received for the research.

Acknowledgments

Authors are only allowed to add an acknowledgment to the manuscript after it has been accepted for publication in order to ensure the masked peer-review process. Acknowledgments are placed before the references.

Publication

IJSPW has adopted a continuous online publication model. Therefore once a paper is accepted for publication, it will be uploaded to the website within 28 days. Articles published within a given year are allocated the same volume number. Although IJSPW is an e-journal, it may be published in a print format for professional bodies or subscribers on an annual basis if requested.

Publisher & Sponsor

The journal is published by the National Wellbeing Service Ltd (NWS ) and is sponsored by the International Stress Management Society (UK)