Brief reports

Brief reports present original research or preliminary findings in a more succinct and less detailed manner than full manuscripts.

Brief reports must not exceed 15,000 characters (approx. 2,200 words), including spaces and references.

Original Article

Original articles report original quantitative or qualitative data.

Evidence-based psychological practice

Evidence-based psychological practice (EBPP) articles should provide the reader with an academic, psychological reasoning that demonstrates the use of research in the application of psychology.

Manuscripts should feature psychological practice in addressing a specific challenge in light of the principles of evidence-based psychological practice (best available research / clinical expertise / patient context).

Manuscripts must be based on issues that arise in practice, which in most cases will include a clinical population. For other fields of practice, such as community psychology or organisational or clinical health psychology, other starting points may be appropriate. Examples may include implementation of prevention work in a municipality (community psychology) or balancing role challenges in consulting work in an organisation (organisational psychology).

The first author must be a psychologist.

A presentation must be provided of the research and/or the literature on which the work is based. The introduction section will often include a literature review.

In principle, a systematic literature search is not necessary, but you must account for the research literature on which your approach is based. The reader must be given a clear and compelling rationale for your selected references and search strategy.

A clear description must be given of the limitations and knowledge gaps in the research.

Depending on the problem, you may need to explain the model or theoretical foundation on which your approach is based. Be precise, but avoid making the presentation too basic. The reader would prefer learning about how you interpreted and applied the theoretical model to reading about the original model. Keep in mind that the reader is a psychologist and that there is therefore no need to explain basic theory.

Test study

Articles dealing with psychological testing can take various forms, from a validation study of a Norwegian translation of a test tool to a review of test administration of a psychometric tool or administration practices. The structure for articles that are quantitative in nature should be the same as that applied for other quantitative studies.

EFPA has published guidelines for test development which you may want to familiarise yourself with if you are writing a quantitative test article: https://mlp.fi/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/4.-DISC-EFPA_TestReviewModel2020_Report.pdf

Case study

Case studies report on analyses or observations obtained through working closely with an individual, an environment or an organisation. Case studies are intended to illustrate complex issues or different ways of solving problems or to form the basis for hypotheses. Manuscripts can be structured thematically or chronologically and are often written in a reflective style in the first person.

Reviews

Reviews comprise literature reviews and meta-analyses. Meta-analyses can be quantitative or qualitative (meta-synthesis, meta-ethnography, meta-method, critical interpretive synthesis). Literature review articles can take the form of systematic, narrative (see, for example. https://researchintegrityjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s41073-019-0064-8 ) or scoping reviews. If you are writing a meta-analysis, studies that are included in the analysis itself should be marked in the reference list with an asterisk (*) in line with APA 7. This is to distinguish the analyses that are included in the meta-analysis from other references in the article. Systematic literature reviews and meta-analyses should be conducted according to the PRISMA guidelines.

Theoretical paper

A theoretical paper shed new light on existing knowledge by discussing or analysing theories, models, existing empirical evidence or conceptual understandings. An analysis can be used as a basis for developing new hypotheses or theories within the field in question. Originality of the analysis, balance of argumentation, verifiability of claims, logical structure of the argumentation and precision in the use of concepts are central to the quality assessment of this type of article.