The International Journal of Behavioral Development has a fully web-based system for the submission and review of manuscripts. All submissions should be made online at the IJBD SAGETRACK website SAGETRACK website

Note: Online submission and review of manuscripts is now mandatory for all types of papers.

New User Account

Please log onto the website. If you are a new user, you will first need to create an account. Follow the instructions and please ensure to enter a current and correct email address. Creating your account is a three-step process that takes a matter of minutes to set up. When you have finished, your User ID and password is sent via email immediately. Please edit your user ID and password to something more memorable by selecting 'edit account' at the top of the screen. If you have already created an account but have forgotten your details type your email address in the 'Password Help' to receive an emailed reminder. Full instructions for uploading the manuscript are provided on the website.

New Submission

Submissions should be made by logging in and selecting the Author Center and the 'Click here to Submit a New Manuscript' option. Follow the instructions on each page, clicking the 'Next' button on each screen to save your work and advance to the next screen. If at any stage you have any questions or require the user guide, please use the 'Get Help Now' button at the top right of every screen. Further help is available through ScholarOne's® Manuscript CentralTM customer support at +1 434 817 2040 x 167.

To upload your files, click on the 'Browse' button and locate the file on your computer. Select the designation of each file (i.e. main document, submission form, figure) in the drop down next to the browse button. When you have selected all files you wish to upload, click the 'Upload Files' button

Review your submission (in both PDF and HTML formats) and then click the Submit button

You may suspend a submission at any point before clicking the Submit button and save it to submit later. After submission, you will receive a confirmation e-mail. You can also log back into your author centre at any time to check the status of your manuscript.

Please ensure that you submit editable/source files only (Microsoft Word or RTF) and that your document does not include page numbers; the [journal name] SAGETRACK system will generate them for you, and then automatically convert your manuscript to PDF for peer review. Furthermore, it is imperative that authors remove from their submissions any information that will identify them or their affiliations to reviewers. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revisions, will be by email.

Submitting a Revised Submission

Authors submitting revised manuscripts should follow the instructions above to submit through the SAGETRACK system. To create a revision, go to the 'Manuscripts with Decisions' option in your Author Dashboard and select 'create a revision in the 'Action' column. Authors of all revised submissions should, when prompted, provide information explaining the changes in your manuscript. As this will be provided to reviewers, it is important that authors do not identify themselves in these responses.

If you would like to discuss your paper prior to submission, please contact the Managing Editor, Annemiek Karreman, at the following email address: IJBDeditor@gmail.com

Instructions for Authors

Manuscript Guidelines

The International Journal of Behavioral Development promotes the discovery, dissemination and application of knowledge about developmental processes at all stages of the life span - infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age. The Journal is already the leading international outlet devoted to reporting interdisciplinary research on behavioural development, and is now, in response to the rapidly developing fields of behavioural genetics, neuroscience and developmental psychopathology, seeking to expand its scope to these and other related new domains of scholarship. In this way, it is looking to provide a truly world-wide platform for researchers which can facilitate a greater integrated lifespan perspective. In addition to original empirical research, the Journal also publishes theoretical and review papers, methodological papers, and other work of scientific interest that represents a significant advance in the understanding of any aspect of behavioural development.

The Journal publishes papers on behaviour development research from a wide range of disciplines, covering all aspects of the lifespan. Articles on topics of eminent current interest, such as research on the later life phases, biological processes in behaviour development, cross-national, and cross-cultural issues, and interdisciplinary research in general, are particularly welcome.

Manuscripts should address aspects of human behavioural development. Longitudinal designs are recommended, or otherwise papers need to have a developmental focus. If your paper concerns a comparison between countries or (sub)cultures, theoretically and developmentally interesting aspects of such a comparison need to be addressed. Your paper should go beyond simply comparing two countries on a certain phenomenon. Papers discussing novel questions, using strong designs with multiple methods or informants are encouraged. Furthermore, papers should report a coherent message and use a variety of, or otherwise need to detail the choice of measures and statistical techniques.

Manuscripts should not be under consideration elsewhere. If the manuscript is one of several papers derived from the same dataset, authors should describe shortly what is new and unique about this study in the letter to the editor, accompanied to their submission.

Types of Manuscripts

Original manuscript. The original manuscript represents a regular manuscript, addressing aspects of behavioural development, as detailed above. Manuscripts should be around 6,000 words, all inclusive.

Review. Reviews should also meet the criteria of addressing aspects of behavioural development that are outlined above. Reviews discuss novel topics and provide integrative summaries of research conducted in the field. The Editor of the Review section is William M. Bukowski.

Methodological paper. A methodological paper has to focus on issues related to instrumentation, design, and statistical analysis in research on human development. Some papers will be brief primers on cutting edge developmental methodologies. Others will be archival descriptions of procedures and instruments. Still others will be empirical studies that illustrate unique advances in statistics or measurement. Primers on new techniques and procedures are welcome. Manuscripts should be written for an audience of developmental scholars. The editor of the Methods and Measures section is Brett Laursen.

Brief report. Brief reports of empirical studies (containing 3,000-6,000 words) are accepted. IJBD does not have a special section on brief reports, but these reports are processed and published as regular manuscripts. Brief reports give a concise, but complete and theoretically grounded reproduction of the study. Methods and analyses should be sufficiently detailed.

Special issues or sections. Authors also have the opportunity to organize a special issue or a special section on a defined topic in IJBD. Often, but not necessarily, these come out of symposia at a conference, or out of workshops. If you intend to arrange a special section or issue, please contact the Editor in Chief Marcel van Aken (m.a.g.vanaken@uu.nl) at an early stage to discuss the possibilities.

Preparation of Manuscripts

When submitting a paper please follow the style of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th edition). For example, manuscripts should be double-spaced, using typeface 12-pt Times New Roman, pages numbered consecutively. Please use margins of 1 inch on all sides of every page (top, bottom, and sides). Lines should be left-justified and words should not be divided at the end of a line. Manuscripts should be around 6,000 words, all inclusive.

Copyright

Copyright is retained by the authors who license rights exclusively to the journal. Authors are responsible for obtaining copyright permission for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere.

Format

Title page. The title page of an article should contain only: (1) the title of the article; (2) a short title not exceeding 40 letters and spaces, used for the running heads. No names of authors or institutional affiliations should be provided.

Abstract. The abstract, not exceeding 120 words, should follow the title page on a separate page.

Keywords. Between 3 and 9 keywords should be included.

Introduction. The introduction adequately introduces the questions of the study and provides an up-to-date, concise overview of research conducted in the field.

Method. Information about the sample, design and measures should be sufficiently detailed, in order to enable reproduction of the study.

Results. The results section clearly reports on the research findings.

Discussion. In the discussion, research findings should be summarized and discussed thoroughly.

Acknowledgements. These should be as brief as possible. Acknowledgements are written on a separate page and precede the reference list.

Reference list. A full list of references quoted in the text should be given at the end of the article in alphabetical order of authors' surnames (or chronologically for a group of references by the same authors), starting on a separate page and typed double spaced. Titles of journals and books should be given in full. Please consult the APA Manual.

Tables and figures. Tables and figures are presented at the end of the manuscript. Figure captions should announce all figures. Tables and figures should be numbered separately and have short descriptive titles. The position of the table or figure in the text should be indicated in the text e.g. 'Table 3 about here'. Tables and figures will only be presented if they are necessary for the presentation and clarity of results. Half-tone figures should be presented as camera-ready copy on glossy paper (b/w, unless to be reproduced - by arrangement - in colour, at the author's cost) and, if possible, on as EPS files (all fonts embedded) or TIFF files, 800 dpi - b/w only. For scanning, photographs should preferably be submitted as clear, glossy, unmounted b/w prints with a good range of contrast or on disk as TIFF files, 300 dpi.

Headings. Indicate headings and subheadings for different sections of the article clearly. Do not number headings.

Reference citations within the text. Use authors' last names, with the year of publication in parentheses after the last author's name, e.g. 'Jones and Smith (2000)', alternatively, '(Brown, 1996; Jones & Smith, 2000; White, Johnson, & Thomas, 2005)'. On first citation of references with three to five authors give all names, thereafter use first author 'et al.'. References with more than six authors should be cited first author 'et al.' from first citation. If more than one article by the same author(s) in the same year is cited, the letters a, b, c, etc. should follow the year.

Permission to quote. Any direct quotation, regardless of length, must be accompanied by a reference citation that includes a page number. Any quote over six manuscript lines should have formal written permission to quote from the copyright owner.

Footnotes. Should be avoided unless absolutely necessary. Essential footnotes should be indicated by superscript figures in the text and collected on a separate page at the end of the article.

Cover letter. A separate cover letter should accompany the submission. The cover letter should contain contact information, including institutional affiliation, of the corresponding author and all co-authors. If the manuscript is one of several papers derived from the same dataset, authors should describe shortly what is new and unique about this study. Manuscript Central, the online submission portal, requests additional necessary information, concerning the affirmation that the manuscript is not under consideration elsewhere, and that the study reported in the manuscript had been conducted in accordance with APA ethical guidelines.

Electronic offprints. On publication, the corresponding author will receive an email detailing access to a restricted quantity PDF file of their article, plus a maximum of five hard copies of the journal.

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