Submissions

Author Guidelines

We encourage both original papers that focus solely on Social Representations Theory and original papers that develop connections with related fields such as communication, social constructionism, discourse analysis and various forms of psychology (societal psychology, community psychology, cultural psychology, developmental psychology and political psychology). 

We also encourage commentaries on published papers as a means of developing discussion and constructive critique of the issues, concepts and methods central to Social Representations research. Please contact The Editors if you have an idea for a commentary. 

We also accept and encourage book reviews. Book reviews should include a summary of the book, of its main focus, arguments and structure, as well as a critical comment, with reference to main strengths and limitations, as appropriate. The main contact person for queries related with Book Reviews is Nikos Kalampalikis.

You can also propose a Special Issue - for more information see below the section on Special Issues. 

Papers will be considered for publication on the understanding that they are original work, have not been previously published elsewhere and are not currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. PSR is committed to upholding the integrity of the work we publish. Please see below the PSR’s Guidelines on Publication Ethics for more information. 

PROPOSING SPECIAL ISSUES

Want to propose a Special Issue?

If you would like to propose a special issue please contact the Editors (Sabine Caillaud and Susana Batel) with a one-to-two page synopsis of the theme of the Special issue, relevance for Social Representations, possible contributions and a timeframe. All proposals will be considered by the Editors.

We are happy to consider a broad range of issues, which may relate to:

• Theoretical concepts (e.g. Social identity; cognitive polyphasia);
• Methodological issues (e.g. Triangulation; the analysis of themes and representations);
• Fields of application (e.g. Health, Culture, Education) and social issues (e.g., racism, populism, climate crisis).
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Preparing your manuscript

General

All submissions must be in English, Portuguese or Spanish (submissions in Spanish should be accompanied by a version of the manuscript in English before publication). The page layout should have a top margin of 3 cm and 2.5 cm for bottom, left and right margins. All text should be in black but images in colour will be accepted. Please use Times New Roman font and line spacing of 1.5.

The manuscript should be submitted in two separate files: title page; main text file.

• Title page

You may use this template for the title page.

The title page should be uploaded as a separate document containing the following information:

• the title,
• Author names;
• Affiliations;
• Author contact information;
• Abstract
• Keywords (3 to 5)
• Acknowledgements;
• Data availability statement (if necessary)
• Ethical statement

The Title Page is NOT included in the materials sent out for Peer Review.

Title, sub-title and authors should all be left-aligned. Title (and sub-title) should be font size 18, bold and in Title Case, i.e. the first letter of every word should be uppercase. Authors should be font size 12, regular and in UPPER CASE. Author affiliation should be below the author, font size 12, regular and in Title Case.

Abstracts should not exceed 250 words. They should be indented both sides (left-1.25, right-15.5), justified and begin 3 line breaks after the last author line. The font should be size 11, regular.

2) Main text file

As papers are double-anonymous peer reviewed, the main text file should not include any information that might identify the authors.

 The main text file should include:

• the title
• the abstract
• the keywords (3-4)
• Main body
• References
• Tables
• Figures

The main text should be justified and start 3 line breaks after the last abstract line. The font should be size 12, regular. Italics should be used for in-text emphasis only.

It is not necessary to have an Introduction heading. If quotations are used to begin the main text, they should be italicised but not indented.

All headings should be left-aligned and font size 12. First level headings should be in bold and UPPER CASE. Second level headings should be in bold and Title Case. Third level headings should be in italics. The use of more than three levels for headings is discouraged. The first line of new paragraphs for every section should not be indented. Subsequent paragraphs should be indented without a line break.

Citations should follow APA guidelines. Long quotations (exceeding 40 words) should be separate from the main text and indented. Footnotes should appear at the bottom of the relevant page, indexed numerically in Arabic numbers (e.g. 1, 2, 3).

References, Figures, Images and Tables

References should be according to APA guidelines. They should be left-aligned, font size 12 and start 3 line breaks after the main text. The second and subsequent lines of each reference should be indented (0.5).

Any figures, images and tables should be included in the text. Figures should be saved and submitted as images (e.g. .tiff, .jpg, etc.) Figure and image headings should appear above the figure in font size 11. Table headings should appear above the table in font size 11. Table notes (e.g. significance level) should appear below the table in font size 10 and italics.

For Editors

• Publication decisions

The editor(s) is responsible for deciding which of the paper submitted to the journal will be published. The decision will only be based on the paper’s importance, originality and clarity, the study’s validity and its relevance to the journal’s scope.

The editor(s) is responsible to maintain and promote consistent ethical policies for his/her journal and to work with authors, reviewers and Editorial Board members as necessary to ensure that the journal’s ethics and publishing policies are applied.  In case of any concerns or if in doubt about whether a conflict exists, the editor should refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics.

• Confidentiality

The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the Publisher, as appropriate.

• Disclosure and conflicts of interest

The editor will recognise and plan for instances where he/she could have a competing interest or the appearance of a competing interest. Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted paper will not be used by the editor or the members of the editorial board for their own research purposes without the author’s explicit written consent.