Author Guidelines

1. Main article file

Required file format and manuscript style:

• The manuscript must be submitted in PDF (initial submission) or MS Word (.docx) format.
• As CPE is part of the PsychOpen GOLD journal platform submissions must be formatted according to the PsychOpen GOLD house style, which is based on the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition (APA Style).
• Please include line numbers and page numbers.
• In general, all parts of the manuscript should be double-spaced (including the abstract; text; block quotations; table and figure numbers, titles, and notes; and reference list). Do not add extra space before or after paragraphs.

1.1 Title page

• Complete title of the manuscript
• Running head: short title (one line), no more than 50 characters including spaces
• Names and affiliations of all authors: Institution, City, Country
• Corresponding author's name and contact address: full postal and email address, telephone number
• ORCID identifier (formatted as https://orcid.org/0000-0001-2345-6789) for all authors, if available.
• Twitter handles, if available.
• Word count of manuscript (excl. references), number of tables and figures
• Competing interests: Financial and personal relationships of any author with other people or organisations that could inappropriately influence the work should be declared (see Disclosure Policies).
• Funding/financial disclosure: All sources of funding should be declared (see Disclosure Policies).
• Acknowledgements: Any significant, non-financial support from other persons or organisations should be acknowledged (see Disclosure Policies).
• Ethics statement (in case of human or animal participants): Confirming compliance with recognized ethical standards and local guidelines (see policy on Human and Animal Participants).
• Open Science statements: Statements whether (a) data, (b) code, (c) materials are available and, if so, where to access them (see Open Science policy).
• Preregistration: Statement whether pre-registration of study/of analysis plan exists, and, if so, where to access them (see Transparency and Reproducibility policy).
• Reporting guidelines used in writing the article (see Transparency and Reproducibility policy).
• The journal conducts a single-blind review process. Anonymization of manuscripts is not needed.
• Please note: The title page should be included in the main article file. 

1.2 Abstract, Keywords, Key messages, and 1-Sentence-Teaser

• Structured Abstract (headings as: Background, Method, Results, Conclusion): No more than 250 words
• Keywords: 5 – 7 keywords or brief phrases separated by commas
• Key messages/highlights from the paper (up to 4): These should be presented as bullet points of no more than 100 characters (incl. spaces) each and outline what the study adds.
• 1-Sentence-Teaser: Please write a statement of the conclusions of your study in one or two sentences, with a maximum of 25 words. Please avoid use of the first person and don't simply write "This study…" Please include interesting information about your paper and do not only rephrase the title.
• Abstract, Keywords, Key messages, and 1-Sentence-Teaser should be included in the main file.

1.3 Main article body including tables and figures

• Manuscript (including running head)
• All figures (including relevant captions)
• All tables (including titles, description, footnotes)
• References (APA style, 7th edition)

1.4 Appendices (if any)

• Appendix A, Appendix B, etc.

1.5 List of supplementary material (if any)

• Confirm that you and your co-authors agree to publish these materials in the PsychArchives repository under a CC BY 4.0 license (the same license as used for the article).
• List of all supplementary files with a short description (1-2 sentences) of each supplement (will be used for the "Supplements" section of the article linking to the repository).

2. Cover letter (mandatory; should be included as an "additional file" during submission)

• Main contribution of the current report
• Names and affiliations of all authors: Institution, City, Country
• Suggestions for at least 3 potential reviewers for peer review with, including email address and reason for suggesting them (e.g. area of expertise).

Although we may not make use of the suggested reviewers, we will certainly consider them. Suitable reviewer suggestions can speed up the peer review process considerably, as finding reviewers is often very time-consuming. We recommend the following when suggesting reviewers:

• Consider the likelihood of the reviewer accepting the review request. People at the post-doc / lecturer level are most likely to be realistic suggestions, and potentially PhD students towards the end of their PhD if they have specific expertise in the area of your submission. On the other hand, it is unlikely that people who are foremost leaders in your area of research or professors nearing retirement will accept an invitation to review. However, there may be people at the post-doc level in their research group who would be suitable reviewers and whom you could suggest.
• It might be helpful to consider who the target audience for your manuscript is, then ask yourself which researchers belong to this target audience and would therefore find your article interesting to read; one of the major reasons people accept a review request is because they are interested to read the article.
• It is important that the reviewers do not have a conflict of interest, so please do not suggest current or recent collaborators, or people from your own institution.

3. Supplementary Materials (should be included as "additional files" during submission)

CPE encourages authors to share data, data analysis scripts, and other materials needed for the reconstruction and replication of the results presented in the paper. Supplementary materials will be made available using the open repository PsychArchives (provided by the Leibniz Institute for Psychology). For more details see Supplementary Material Guidelines.

Final check before submission: Before submission, please carefully check the manuscript's adherence to CPE's submission guidelines.