Original research
Full-length investigations presenting new psychotherapy findings. Maximum 5,000 words, a structured abstract of up to 250 words, and up to 50 references.
International Journal of Psychotherapy Practice and Research
Instructions for Authors
Use this guide to prepare a psychotherapy practice or research manuscript for IJPR. It focuses on fit, responsible handling of sensitive material, required declarations, and the next submission step.
Start with relevance
Confirm the work belongs in IJPR.
Read the journal’s scope before preparing a manuscript. IJPR accepts the following four manuscript categories, each with a defined format.
Reviews
Critical syntheses of psychotherapy literature. Maximum 7,000 words and up to 100 references. Systematic reviews should follow PRISMA or other appropriate reporting guidance.
Case reports
Clinically instructive cases with educational value for therapeutic practice. Maximum 2,500 words and up to 20 references. Use CARE guidance where applicable.
Clinical notes and practice innovations
Brief reports on therapeutic innovations or practice insights. Maximum 2,000 words and up to 15 references, with a clear practical contribution.
Participant protection
Protect privacy before files are prepared.
Psychotherapy manuscripts can contain highly sensitive material. Build ethical review, consent, confidentiality, and responsible description into the manuscript from the start.
Ethics and consent statements
State the applicable ethics approval, consent process, or justified waiver in the manuscript. Retain underlying consent records securely; do not include them in the manuscript or public supplementary files.
Clinical cases and therapeutic material
Do not submit therapy notes, session transcripts, recordings, intake forms, signed consent documents, or direct identifiers. Consider indirect identification through combinations of dates, locations, rare events, family details, occupations, quotations, or distinctive narrative facts.
Respectful reporting
Use precise, non-stigmatizing language and take particular care with trauma narratives, diagnosis, cultural context, and accounts involving children, vulnerable people, or a therapist–researcher relationship.
Data and AI tools
Explain data access or restriction where applicable. Confidential clinical material, identifiable data, and unpublished manuscripts must not be placed into unapproved generative-AI systems.
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Protect scientific meaning as well as identity.
If details are changed to protect identity, the changes must not alter the scientific meaning of the account. Where anonymity is uncertain, obtain the appropriate consent to publish before submission.
Prepare a complete record
Bring the manuscript and its declarations together.
Prepare a complete, readable manuscript and include the information editors and reviewers need to assess the work.
Manuscript structure and format
- Include a title page, abstract, keywords, introduction, methods, results, discussion, conclusions and references as appropriate to the study type.
- Use a Microsoft Word document with double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font and 2.5 cm margins.
- Number pages consecutively and use APA style for references; include DOIs where available.
Figures, tables and supplements
- Submit figures as separate high-resolution files (minimum 300 dpi; TIFF, JPEG or EPS) with descriptive legends.
- Provide tables in editable form with clear headings and explanatory footnotes.
- Obtain permission for third-party figures, tables, images, instruments or extended quotations, and provide only material suitable for public sharing.
Authorship and disclosure
- List contributors accurately and agree authorship before submission.
- Include funding and competing-interest statements where applicable.
- Disclose material use of AI-assisted tools; authors remain responsible for the submitted work.
Reporting and research integrity
- Use reporting guidance appropriate to the study design, such as CONSORT, STROBE, PRISMA, CARE or CHEERS where applicable.
- For interventional psychotherapy studies, include prospective trial registration information.
- Explain data access or restrictions where applicable.
Related author information
Check the policy that governs the decision.
These pages are the places to confirm scope, editorial standards, rights, data guidance, and current publication-charge information.
Public Access and Funder Compliance
Some authors are required by their funders to make their research publicly available. Under the 2024 NIH Public Access Policy, Author Accepted Manuscripts accepted for publication on or after July 1, 2025, must be submitted to PubMed Central upon acceptance and made publicly available without embargo on the official date of publication.
What IJPR provides: IJPR publishes the Version of Record under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. The journal also permits authors to deposit their Author Accepted Manuscript in funder-designated repositories. Upon acceptance, we confirm the accepted manuscript version and record the funder and grant information supplied by the authors.
Author responsibility: IJPR does not currently deposit manuscripts in PubMed Central on behalf of authors. Authors are responsible for determining which funder requirements apply, initiating the appropriate repository submission and completing any required NIHMS approval steps.
Eligibility and successful processing through PubMed Central or NIHMS are determined according to the relevant funder and NIH/NLM requirements.
Important: The deposit of an individual article in PubMed Central may result in that article appearing in PubMed. It does not mean that IJPR is indexed in MEDLINE, included in the PMC Journal List or that all IJPR articles are available through PubMed. The journal's current coverage is listed on the Indexing page.
When the manuscript is ready, start the IJPR submission.
Confirm fit and the applicable author requirements before starting. The IJPR submission page opens the IJPR submission form.
Start IJPR submissionEditorial assessment is independent of APC payment, waiver requests, and other commercial considerations.