Submissions

Author Guidelines

Behavioral and Clinical Studies in Contemporary Psychology welcomes scholarly manuscripts in the fields of behavioral psychology, clinical psychology, psychotherapy, counseling, mental health, psychological assessment, psychological interventions, psychopathology, health psychology, family and couple studies, child and adolescent psychology, developmental psychology, and contemporary psychological research.

The journal publishes original, methodologically sound, ethically conducted, and scientifically valuable studies that contribute to the development of knowledge in behavioral and clinical psychology. Authors are expected to submit manuscripts that are original, unpublished, not under consideration elsewhere, and prepared according to the journal’s formatting, ethical, and referencing requirements.

The full text of the article must be written in Persian. However, each manuscript must include both Persian and English abstracts, and all accepted manuscripts must contain an extended abstract in English. The journal aims to support the dissemination of Persian-language psychological research while also increasing the international visibility of published articles through English-language abstracts and extended abstracts.

All manuscripts submitted to the journal are subject to initial editorial screening, plagiarism checking, double-blind peer review, revision if required, final editorial approval, copyediting, formatting, and publication. Authors are advised to read these guidelines carefully before submission. Manuscripts that do not comply with the journal’s technical, ethical, or structural requirements may be returned to authors before peer review.

Language of the Manuscript

The main body of the manuscript must be written in Persian. This includes the introduction, methods, findings, discussion, conclusion, limitations, suggestions, acknowledgments, and other main sections of the article.

Manuscripts must also include the following English-language components:

1. English title;
2. English abstract;
3. English keywords;
4. Extended abstract in English;
5. English bibliographic information where required;
6. English equivalents of tables or figures if requested by the journal.

The Persian text should be written in clear, formal, academic Persian. Authors should avoid colloquial expressions, ambiguous phrasing, unnecessary repetition, and unsupported claims. The English sections should be written in accurate academic English and should be carefully edited before submission. Authors are responsible for the linguistic quality of both Persian and English parts of the manuscript.

Manuscript Types

The journal accepts the following types of manuscripts:

Original research articles;
Clinical and quasi-experimental studies;
Randomized controlled trials;
Qualitative studies;
Mixed-method studies;
Psychometric and instrument validation studies;
Systematic reviews;
Meta-analyses;
Narrative reviews;
Theoretical and conceptual articles;
Clinical case studies;
Brief research reports;
Methodological articles;
Scholarly commentaries related to contemporary issues in psychology.

The journal gives priority to manuscripts that present clear research questions, strong theoretical foundations, appropriate methodology, ethical approval where required, transparent data analysis, meaningful findings, and practical implications for behavioral and clinical psychology.

Submission Requirements

Authors must submit their manuscripts through the journal’s official submission system or according to the instructions provided on the journal website. The submitted files should normally include:

1. Main manuscript file prepared for double-blind review;
2. Title page containing author information;
3. Persian abstract and keywords;
4. English abstract and keywords;
5. Extended abstract in English;
6. Tables and figures, if applicable;
7. Ethical approval document, if applicable;
8. Conflict of interest statement;
9. Funding statement;
10. Authors’ contribution statement, if requested;
11. Supplementary files, if applicable.

For double-blind peer review, the main manuscript file must not contain any information that reveals the identity of the authors. Author names, affiliations, acknowledgments, funding details, ethics approval codes that reveal institution identity, and self-identifying statements should be included in the title page or separate files, not in the anonymized manuscript file.

Manuscript Formatting

The manuscript should be prepared in Microsoft Word format. Authors must use standard page layout, consistent heading styles, clear paragraph structure, and accurate numbering of tables and figures.

The required font settings are as follows:

Persian text: B Mitra
English text: Times New Roman

Recommended formatting:

Persian main text: B Mitra, font size 12 or 13;
English text: Times New Roman, font size 12;
Line spacing: 1.15 or 1.5, according to the journal template;
Margins: standard margins, preferably 2.5 cm on all sides;
Page numbering: continuous page numbers throughout the manuscript;
Tables and figures: numbered consecutively and cited in the text;
Headings: clear, consistent, and hierarchical.

Authors should avoid unnecessary decorative formatting. Bold type may be used for headings. Italics may be used for English terms, statistical symbols, or special emphasis where appropriate. Excessive use of bold, underline, colors, or non-standard formatting should be avoided.

Structure of Original Research Articles

Original research articles should generally include the following sections:

Title;
Persian abstract;
Persian keywords;
English title;
English abstract;
English keywords;
Extended abstract in English;
Introduction;
Methods and Materials;
Findings or Results;
Discussion;
Conclusion;
Limitations;
Suggestions for Future Research;
Practical Suggestions or Implications;
Ethical Considerations;
Authors’ Contributions, if applicable;
Conflict of Interest;
Funding;
Acknowledgments, if applicable;
References;
Tables and figures.

The journal may allow variation in article structure depending on the manuscript type. For example, qualitative studies, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, theoretical articles, and case studies may require modified structures. However, all manuscripts must be organized clearly and scientifically.

Title

The title should be concise, informative, and reflective of the main content of the article. It should clearly indicate the main variables, population, phenomenon, intervention, or theoretical issue examined in the study.

The title should not be unnecessarily long. It should avoid vague expressions, unsupported claims, abbreviations, and overly general phrasing. If the study has a specific design, population, or context, this may be reflected in the title where appropriate.

The manuscript must include both a Persian title and an English title.

Author Information

Author information should be provided only in the title page file and should not appear in the anonymized manuscript file. The title page should include:

Full name of each author;
Academic degree or position;
Institutional affiliation;
Department, faculty, university, city, and country;
ORCID ID, if available;
Email address of all authors, if required;
Identification of the corresponding author;
Full contact details of the corresponding author.

The order of authors must be agreed upon by all authors before submission. Any change in authorship after submission requires written explanation and approval of all authors.

Persian Abstract

Each manuscript must include a Persian abstract. The Persian abstract should provide a concise and accurate summary of the study. It should be written in formal academic Persian and should normally include the following components:

Objective;
Methods and Materials;
Findings;
Conclusion;
Keywords.

The Persian abstract should clearly state the purpose of the study, research design, participants or data sources, instruments or procedures, main analytical methods, major findings, and conclusion. The abstract should not contain undefined abbreviations, citations, tables, figures, or unnecessary methodological details.

The recommended length of the Persian abstract is usually between 250 and 350 words, unless otherwise specified by the journal template.

English Abstract

Each manuscript must include an English abstract. The English abstract should be a clear and accurate translation or academic equivalent of the Persian abstract. It should be written in standard academic English and should normally include the following components:

Objective;
Methods and Materials;
Findings;
Conclusion;
Keywords.

The English abstract should be precise, coherent, and grammatically correct. Authors are strongly encouraged to have the English abstract reviewed by a competent academic editor or English-language specialist before submission.

The recommended length of the English abstract is usually between 250 and 350 words, unless otherwise specified by the journal template.

Keywords

Each manuscript must include Persian and English keywords. Keywords should reflect the main concepts, variables, population, method, intervention, or theoretical focus of the study.

Authors should provide 3 to 6 keywords in Persian and 3 to 6 keywords in English. Keywords should be separated by semicolons or commas according to the journal template.

Authors should avoid using very broad keywords that do not help indexing or retrieval. Terms used in the title may be repeated as keywords if they are central to the article.

Extended Abstract in English

All manuscripts must include an extended abstract in English. The extended abstract is required to increase the visibility, accessibility, and international readability of Persian-language articles.

The extended abstract must be between 1000 and 1500 words. It should provide a detailed and structured summary of the article and should allow international readers to understand the purpose, theoretical background, methodology, findings, and implications of the study even if the full text is in Persian.

The extended abstract should be written in fluent academic English and should normally include the following sections:

Introduction

This section should explain the background of the study, the research problem, the theoretical or empirical gap, and the importance of the topic. It should briefly review the most relevant literature and clearly state the purpose of the study.

Methods and Materials

This section should describe the research design, participants or data sources, sampling method, inclusion and exclusion criteria where applicable, instruments, procedures, ethical considerations, and methods of data analysis. For intervention studies, the intervention structure, number of sessions, duration, and control or comparison condition should be explained.

Findings

This section should present the main findings of the study. Quantitative studies should report key descriptive and inferential results. Qualitative studies should report main themes, categories, or conceptual findings. Review articles should summarize the major analytical or conceptual outcomes.

Discussion and Conclusion

This section should interpret the findings, explain their theoretical and practical significance, discuss implications for behavioral and clinical psychology, and provide the main conclusion of the study. Limitations and suggestions may be briefly mentioned if space allows.

The extended abstract should not be a simple repetition of the short English abstract. It must provide a more comprehensive explanation of the study. Authors should ensure that the extended abstract is consistent with the Persian full text and accurately reflects the article’s findings and conclusions.

Introduction

The introduction should present the research problem, theoretical background, empirical context, research gap, and rationale for the study. It should begin with a clear explanation of the topic and gradually narrow toward the specific research question or objective.

The introduction should include relevant and up-to-date literature. Authors should critically synthesize previous studies rather than merely listing them. The literature review should demonstrate why the study is necessary and how it contributes to existing knowledge.

The final paragraph of the introduction should clearly state the objective, research question, or hypothesis of the study. The objective should be specific, measurable, and aligned with the methodology and analysis.

Methods and Materials

The methods section should provide sufficient detail for readers and reviewers to evaluate the scientific rigor of the study. The content of this section depends on the type of manuscript.

For quantitative studies, the methods section should include:

Research design;
Statistical population;
Sample size;
Sampling method;
Participant characteristics;
Inclusion and exclusion criteria;
Research instruments;
Validity and reliability of instruments;
Data collection procedure;
Ethical considerations;
Statistical analysis methods.

For qualitative studies, the methods section should include:

Qualitative approach or tradition;
Participants or information sources;
Sampling strategy;
Data collection method;
Interview or observation procedure;
Data analysis method;
Trustworthiness criteria;
Researcher reflexivity where appropriate;
Ethical considerations.

For intervention studies, authors should additionally describe:

Type of intervention;
Number and duration of sessions;
Content of sessions;
Qualifications of therapist or intervention provider;
Control group or comparison condition;
Follow-up period, if applicable;
Treatment fidelity or supervision procedures, if applicable.

For review articles, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses, authors should describe:

Databases searched;
Search strategy;
Keywords;
Time period;
Inclusion and exclusion criteria;
Screening process;
Quality assessment method;
Data extraction method;
Synthesis or statistical analysis method.

Findings or Results

The findings section should present the results clearly, accurately, and objectively. Authors should avoid interpreting results in detail in this section; interpretation should be reserved for the discussion.

Quantitative findings should include relevant descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Authors should report statistical values accurately, including test statistics, degrees of freedom, p-values, effect sizes, confidence intervals, and other relevant indicators where appropriate.

Qualitative findings should present themes, categories, subcategories, patterns, or conceptual models. Direct quotations may be used when necessary, but they should be anonymized and ethically appropriate.

Tables and figures may be used to present findings more clearly. All tables and figures must be cited in the text and numbered consecutively.

Discussion

The discussion should interpret the findings in relation to the research questions, hypotheses, theoretical framework, and previous studies. Authors should explain how the findings support, extend, or challenge existing knowledge.

The discussion should not simply repeat the results. It should provide meaningful interpretation, possible explanations, theoretical implications, clinical or practical implications, and connections to the broader field of behavioral and clinical psychology.

Authors should avoid exaggerated claims. The interpretation must remain consistent with the study design, sample size, data quality, and limitations.

Conclusion

The conclusion should provide a concise summary of the main message of the study. It should state the most important scientific or practical contribution of the article.

The conclusion should not introduce new findings, new citations, or unsupported claims. It should be directly based on the results and discussion.

Limitations

Authors should include a clear limitations section. Limitations may relate to sample size, sampling method, study design, measurement tools, self-report bias, lack of follow-up, lack of randomization, cultural context, data access, or generalizability.

Limitations should be written honestly and constructively. They should help readers understand the scope of the findings without undermining the value of the study.

Suggestions and Practical Implications

Authors are encouraged to include suggestions for future research and practical implications. Suggestions for future research should be directly connected to the limitations and findings of the study.

Practical implications should explain how the findings may be useful for psychologists, counselors, therapists, educators, policymakers, mental health professionals, families, organizations, or other relevant audiences.

Ethical Considerations

All manuscripts involving human participants must include an ethical considerations statement. This statement should address ethical approval, informed consent, voluntary participation, confidentiality, anonymity, right to withdraw, and protection from harm.

Where applicable, the manuscript should include the name of the ethics committee or institutional review board and the ethics approval code.

For studies involving children, adolescents, clinical populations, vulnerable individuals, or sensitive psychological data, authors must describe additional ethical safeguards.

If the study did not require formal ethical approval, authors should explain why.

Conflict of Interest

Authors must disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest. Conflicts of interest may be financial, professional, institutional, personal, academic, or intellectual.

If there is no conflict of interest, authors should state:

“The authors declare no conflict of interest.”

Funding

Authors must disclose all sources of financial support, institutional support, grants, sponsorships, or funding related to the study.

If the study received no funding, authors should state:

“This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.”

Acknowledgments

Authors may acknowledge individuals or institutions that contributed to the study but do not meet the criteria for authorship. This may include technical support, administrative assistance, language editing, statistical consultation, or institutional cooperation.

All individuals named in the acknowledgments should have agreed to be acknowledged.

Authors’ Contributions

Where required by the journal, authors should provide a contribution statement describing the role of each author. Contributions may include conceptualization, methodology, investigation, data collection, data analysis, writing the original draft, reviewing and editing, supervision, project administration, or funding acquisition.

All authors must approve the final version of the manuscript before submission.

Referencing Style

The journal uses APA style for citations and references. Authors must prepare all in-text citations and reference list entries according to the latest applicable edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, preferably APA 7th edition unless otherwise specified by the journal.

In-Text Citations

In-text citations should include the author’s surname and year of publication. Examples:

One author: (Smith, 2022)
Two authors: (Smith & Brown, 2021)
Three or more authors: (Smith et al., 2020)
Narrative citation: Smith (2022) argued that...
Direct quotation: (Smith, 2022, p. 45)

For Persian-language references cited in the Persian text, authors should follow the journal’s Persian APA formatting rules while maintaining consistency with APA style.

Reference List

The reference list should include only sources cited in the manuscript. All cited sources must appear in the reference list, and all references listed must be cited in the text.

References should be arranged alphabetically by the surname of the first author. Authors must ensure that all bibliographic details are accurate, including author names, publication year, article title, journal title, volume, issue, page range, DOI, and publisher information where applicable.

Examples:

Journal article:
Smith, J. A., & Brown, L. M. (2022). Cognitive emotion regulation and psychological distress among adolescents. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 78(4), 455–470. https://doi.org/xx.xxxx/xxxxx

Book:
Beck, J. S. (2020). Cognitive behavior therapy: Basics and beyond (3rd ed.). Guilford Press.

Chapter in edited book:
Johnson, R. T. (2021). Behavioral interventions in clinical settings. In M. Green & P. White (Eds.), Contemporary clinical psychology (pp. 120–145). Academic Press.

Persian references may be transliterated or translated according to the journal’s technical requirements. Authors should maintain consistency throughout the reference list.

Tables

Tables should be numbered consecutively according to their order of appearance in the text. Each table should have a clear and concise title.

Tables should be editable and should not be inserted as images. Authors should ensure that table content is readable, accurately aligned, and consistent with the text.

Statistical tables should include all necessary information, such as means, standard deviations, test statistics, degrees of freedom, p-values, confidence intervals, and effect sizes where applicable.

Authors should avoid unnecessary tables. Tables should be used only when they present information more clearly than the text.

Figures

Figures, charts, diagrams, and images should be numbered consecutively and provided with clear captions. Figures must be of sufficient quality for publication.

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to use any copyrighted figures, images, scales, or visual materials. If a figure has been adapted from another source, the original source must be cited.

Figures should be cited in the text and placed near the relevant discussion or submitted separately according to the journal’s technical requirements.

Statistical Reporting

Authors should report statistical analyses clearly and accurately. Statistical tests must be appropriate for the research design, data type, assumptions, and research questions.

Authors should report exact p-values where possible, except when p-values are very small, in which case reporting p < .001 is acceptable. Effect sizes should be reported where appropriate. Confidence intervals are recommended for major estimates.

For intervention studies, authors should report baseline comparisons, within-group changes, between-group effects, interaction effects, post-hoc tests, and follow-up results where applicable.

For psychometric studies, authors should report appropriate indices such as Cronbach’s alpha, composite reliability, factor loadings, fit indices, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and measurement invariance where relevant.

Qualitative Reporting

Qualitative studies should clearly identify the qualitative approach used, such as phenomenology, grounded theory, thematic analysis, content analysis, narrative analysis, discourse analysis, or other recognized approaches.

Authors should explain how participants were selected, how data were collected, how coding was performed, how themes or categories were developed, and how trustworthiness was ensured.

Trustworthiness may include credibility, transferability, dependability, confirmability, member checking, peer debriefing, audit trail, triangulation, or researcher reflexivity.

Quotations from participants should be used carefully and anonymized. Authors should avoid including details that could reveal participant identity.

Review Articles, Systematic Reviews, and Meta-Analyses

Review articles should present a clear objective, rationale, search strategy, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and method of synthesis. Narrative reviews should be analytical and critical, not merely descriptive.

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses should follow recognized reporting standards where applicable, such as PRISMA. Authors should describe databases, search terms, screening process, eligibility criteria, quality assessment, data extraction, and synthesis methods.

Meta-analyses should report effect size calculations, heterogeneity, publication bias assessment, sensitivity analysis, and model type where applicable.

Plagiarism and Similarity Check

All submitted manuscripts are screened for similarity using iThenticate. The journal does not accept plagiarism, duplicate publication, inappropriate text recycling, or unattributed use of others’ work.

A similarity report is reviewed by the editorial team. The percentage of similarity alone does not determine plagiarism; the nature, source, and context of similarity are also considered. However, substantial overlap, copied text without citation, or improper reuse of previous work may result in rejection.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their manuscripts are original and properly referenced before submission.

Peer-Review Process

The journal follows a double-blind peer-review process. The identities of authors and reviewers are concealed from each other.

After submission, the manuscript first undergoes editorial screening. Manuscripts that are outside the journal’s scope, incomplete, poorly prepared, ethically problematic, or highly similar to published work may be rejected before peer review.

Manuscripts that pass the initial screening are sent to two or three expert reviewers. Reviewers evaluate the manuscript’s originality, methodology, theoretical contribution, ethical compliance, clarity, and relevance.

Based on reviewer comments and editorial assessment, the decision may be:

Accept;
Minor revision;
Major revision;
Resubmit after substantial revision;
Reject.

Authors receiving revision requests must submit a revised manuscript along with a detailed response letter explaining how each reviewer comment has been addressed.

Article Processing Charges

The journal is an open access journal. To support publication, editorial management, peer-review administration, plagiarism checking, online hosting, formatting, and archiving, the journal applies an Article Processing Charge.

The Article Processing Charge is:

3,000,000 Tomans

The APC is payable only after acceptance. Payment does not influence peer review or editorial decisions. Manuscripts are evaluated solely on academic quality, ethical compliance, and relevance to the journal.

Copyright and License

Authors retain full copyright of their published work. By publishing in the journal, authors grant the journal permission to publish, distribute, archive, and make the article available through the journal website.

Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). This license permits non-commercial use, distribution, and adaptation of the work, provided that proper credit is given to the authors and the original source.

Commercial use of published articles requires appropriate permission.

Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools

Authors may use language editing tools, grammar-checking software, reference managers, statistical software, or artificial intelligence-based tools to support manuscript preparation. However, authors remain fully responsible for the content, accuracy, originality, citations, data, and conclusions of the manuscript.

Artificial intelligence tools cannot be listed as authors. If AI tools are used substantially in writing, translation, analysis, coding, or organization of the manuscript, authors should disclose the nature and extent of such use where required by the journal.

Authors must not upload confidential participant data, identifiable clinical information, unpublished sensitive materials, or private research data into tools that do not ensure appropriate confidentiality and data protection.

Pre-Submission Checklist

Before submitting a manuscript, authors should ensure that:

The full text of the article is written in Persian;
The Persian text is prepared in B Mitra font;
The English sections are prepared in Times New Roman font;
The manuscript includes a Persian abstract and keywords;
The manuscript includes an English abstract and keywords;
The manuscript includes an English extended abstract of 1000–1500 words;
The manuscript follows APA style;
All in-text citations appear in the reference list;
All references in the reference list are cited in the text;
Tables and figures are numbered and cited in the text;
The manuscript is anonymized for double-blind review;
The title page includes complete author information;
Ethical approval information is included where applicable;
Conflict of interest and funding statements are included;
The manuscript has been checked for plagiarism and textual overlap;
All authors have approved the final version;
The manuscript is not under consideration by another journal.