Journal of Social and Personal Relationships
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
The Journal of Social and Personal Relationships (JSPR) is an international and interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal that publishes the highest quality original research on social and personal relationships. JSPR is the leading journal in the field, publishing empirical and theoretical papers on social and personal relationships. It is multidisciplinary in scope, drawing material from the fields of social psychology, clinical psychology, communication, developmental psychology, and sociology.
"This is the outstanding journal in personal relationships, clearly the most highly cited journal for articles on relationships and the one you most naturally pick up when you are researching a relational topic" Clyde Hendrick Texas Tech University, Lubbock, USA
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
| Melissa Curran | University of Arizona, USA |
| Rachael Perez | Independent Scholar, USA |
| Sarah Stanton | University of Edinburgh, UK |
| Steve Duck | The University of Iowa, USA |
| Erin Basinger | University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA |
| Hongjian Cao | The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China |
| Ashley Ermer | Montclair State University, USA |
| Allison Farrell | Miami University, USA |
| Meara Faw | Colorado State University, USA |
| Traci Gillig | Washington State University, USA |
| Cheryl Harasymchuk | Carleton University, Canada |
| Andrew High | The Pennsylvania State University, USA |
| Elizabeth Hintz | University of Connecticut, USA |
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| Pam Lannutti | Widener University, USA |
| Nathan Leonhardt | Brigham Young University, USA |
| Xiaomin Li | Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong |
| Yachao Li | The College of New Jersey, USA |
| Cliff McKinney | Mississippi State University, USA |
| Brett Peters | Ohio University, USA |
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| Erin Ruppel | University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA |
| Ezgi Sakman | Bilkent University, Türkiye |
| Liesel Sharabi | Arizona State University, USA |
| Semira Tagliabue | Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy |
| David Warner | The University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA |
| Nan Zhou | University of Macau, China |
| Katarzyna Adamczyk | Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland |
| Tony E. Adams | Bradley University, USA |
| Aysegül Araci-Iyiaydin | TED University, Turkey |
| Arthur Aron | Stony Brook University, USA |
| Analisa Arroyo | University of Georgia, USA |
| Mary B. Eberly Lewis | Oakland University, USA |
| Allen Barton | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA |
| Funda Barutçu Yildirim | Middle East Technical University, Türkiye |
| Lindsey Beck | Emerson College, USA |
| Maggie Bennett-Brown | Texas Tech University & The Kinsey Institute, USA |
| Jennifer Bevan | Chapman University, USA |
| Susan Boon | University of Calgary, Canada |
| Geneviève Bouchard | Université de Moncton, Canada |
| Kellie Brisini | Louisiana State University, USA |
| Nicholas Brody | University of Puget Sound, USA |
| Tricia Burke | Texas State University, USA |
| Tomás Cabeza de Baca | National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; National Institutes of Health |
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| Rebecca Clarke | Brigham Young University, USA |
| Kathryn Coduto | Boston University, USA |
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| Anthony Coy | University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, USA |
| Rene Dailey | University of Texas at Austin, USA |
| Danielle DelPriore | Pennsylvania State University - Altoona, USA |
| Jayson Dibble | Hope College, USA |
| Jess Dominguez | University of Kentucky, USA |
| Keely Dugan | University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, USA |
| Wesley Durham | University of Southern Indiana, USA |
| Lydia Emery | University of Chicago, USA |
| Dan Erickson | Arizona State University, USA |
| Shichen Fang | Concordia University, Canada |
| Alexandra Fisher | The Australian National University, Australia |
| Kory Floyd | University of Arizona, USA |
| Craig Fowler | Massey University, New Zealand |
| Taranah Gazder | University of Edinburgh, UK |
| Judith Gere | Kent State University, USA |
| Patricia Gettings | University at Albany, SUNY, USA |
| Jeffrey Hall | University of Kansas, USA |
| Anna Hammersmith | Grand Valley State University, USA |
| KC Haydon | Mount Holyoke College, USA |
| Colin Hesse | Oregon State University, USA |
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| Alexander C. Jensen | Brigham Young University, USA |
| Michaeline Jensen | UNC Greensboro, USA |
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| Jeremy Kanter | The University of Tennessee, USA |
| Peter Kardos | Kean University, USA |
| Katie Kassler | University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA |
| Sarah Killoren | University of Missouri, USA |
| James Kim | Western University, Canada |
| Leanne Knobloch | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA |
| Olena Kopystynska | Utah State University, USA |
| Christine Kunkle | West Virginia University, USA |
| Mustafa Alperen Kursuncu | Ordu University, Türkiye |
| Ashley Larsen Gibby | Brigham Young University, USA |
| Justin Lavner | University of Georgia, USA |
| Yunying Le | University of Denver, USA |
| Ashley LeBaron-Black | Brigham Young University, USA |
| Mei-Chen Lin | Kent State University, USA |
| Heidi Lyons | Oakland University, USA |
| Geoff MacDonald | University of Toronto, Canada |
| Laura Machia | Syracuse University, USA |
| Jimmie Manning | University of Nevada, USA |
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| Melinda Markham | Kansas State University, USA |
| Bree McEwan | University of Toronto – Mississauga, Canada |
| Roselia Mendez Murillo | University of Texas at Austin, USA |
| Mackensie Minniear | University of Georgia, USA |
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| Zheng Mu | National University of Singapore, Singapore |
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| Brian Ogolsky | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA |
| Yoobin Park | University of California San Francisco, USA |
| Natalie Pennington | University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA |
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| Jeffrey E. Stokes | University of Massachusetts Boston, USA |
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| Casey Totenhagen | University of Alabama, USA |
| Corinna Tucker | University of New Hampshire, USA |
| Betul Urganci | University of Texas at Austin, USA |
| Heather Voorhees | University of Montana, USA |
| Laura Vowels | University of Lausanne, Switzerland |
| Ningxin Wang | National University of Singapore, Singapore |
| Rebekka Weidmann | Michigan State University, USA |
| Dana Weiser | Texas Tech University, USA |
| Hannah Williamson | University of Texas at Austin, USA |
| Timothy (Tim) Worley | University of North Alabama, USA |
| Qinglu Wu | Beijing Normal University, China |
| E. Helin Yaban | Fern University, Germany |
| Ahtisham Younas | Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada |
| Giulia Zoppolat | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands |
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Journal of Social and Personal Relationships
This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics
This Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
Thank you for your interest in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. Given the high volume of submissions to the journal, the Editor, the Associate Editors, and the Manuscript Coordinator are unable to pre-review manuscripts or to answer sample queries sent via email about the fit of manuscripts to the journal. Instead, please see the author instructions that are located in this section. We hope that you find this information helpful and welcome your submission if you decide that your submission is a fit to the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.
Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jspr to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Journal of Social and Personal Relationships will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.
- What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Declaration of conflicting interests
2.5 Equity and inclusion statement
2.6 Bias free language for all authors to use - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Supplementary material
4.4 Reference style
4.5 English language editing services
4.6 Word count
4.7 Open research statement
4.8 Language Guidelines - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
6.1 Sage Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article
Before submitting your manuscript to Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships (JSPR) is an international and interdisciplinary peer reviewed journal that publishes empirical and theoretical papers on social and personal relationships. It is multidisciplinary in scope, drawing materials from (among others) the fields of communication, family studies, gender and women’s studies, human development, psychology (e.g., clinical, counseling, developmental, social), sociology, and social work. The Journal considers the following kinds of article for publication:
1. Research Reports, describing new empirical findings.
• These consist of (a) Full papers and (b) Short reports
2. Review Articles.
Full papers are generally restricted to a maximum of 9,000 words including all elements (title page, abstract, notes, references, tables, figures, etc.). If your submission is qualitative, mixed-methods, three or more studies, a systematic review, or a meta-analysis, it is acceptable to slightly exceed the word count noted above.
Short reports are generally restricted to 3,000 words including all elements (title page, abstract, notes, references, tables, figures, etc.).
• Short reports will present the same high quality research on social and personal relationships as full papers.
• Short reports will be an appropriate format for a range of submissions, including (but not limited to) original studies, replication studies, and studies consisting of pilot data or smaller sample sizes specific to sample populations that are less commonly studied in the literature.
Review articles are generally restricted to a maximum of 9,000 words including all elements (title page, abstract, notes, references, tables, figures, etc.).
There are two types of review articles that will be considered:
(a) General reviews that provide a synthesis of an area of social and personal relationships
(b) Critiques that are focused and provocative reviews that are followed by a number of invited commentaries, with a concluding reply from the main author
We have these word counts as we are reluctant to burden our referees with very long manuscripts. Authors who suspect that their articles will have to be cut anyway should make the required deletions before submitting to meet these word counts.
The exception to this word count is the text stated previously under Full papers: If your submission is qualitative, mixed-methods, three or more studies, a systematic review, or a meta-analysis, it is acceptable to slightly exceed the word count noted under Full papers.
Additional non-English Abstracts
In collaboration with the International Association for Relationship Research, JSPR recognizes that geographical, linguistic, and cultural diversity are essential for understanding how interpersonal relationships are experienced across the globe. However, language barriers may discourage nonnative English-speaking scholars to disseminate their research as well as dampen the development of relationship research in all geographical contexts. JSPR is committed to ensure awareness and respect for the multilingualism of the relationship research community and to promote dissemination of research content also among scholars who do not speak English as their first language. As a sign of acknowledgement for the linguistic diversity of relationship research, accepted papers whose first author is a non-English speaking researcher can, if they wish, submit an additional abstract for publication in the first author’s mother tongue language.
Please note that these abstracts will not be copy-edited by the editorial office or Sage and authors who opt for adding a non-English abstract to their paper will be responsible for the accuracy and correctness of the translation.
We also ask that authors include the following text underneath any translated abstract: When multiple-language abstracts are provided, the authors confirm -- under their own responsibility -- that the translation of the abstract into their mother-tongue language corresponds to the English version and that the translation of the abstract is factually correct and linguistically accurate.
1.3 Writing your paper
The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.
JSPR takes an inclusive editorial approach and requests that all authors refer to APA’s Inclusive Language Guidelines in the writing of their articles and ensure that they follow the best practice laid out here. Peer reviewers will be asked to comment specifically on the inclusivity of language used and revisions to provisionally accepted articles will request authors revise their manuscripts to conform to these guidelines where they do not already do so.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
Sage does not permit the use of author-suggested (recommended) reviewers at any stage of the submission process, be that through the web-based submission system or other communication. Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if:
• The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors
• The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper
• The author has recommended the reviewer
• The reviewer has provided a personal (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution).
All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.
2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:
- Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
- Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
- Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.
Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
2.4 Declaration of conflicting interests
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
2.5 Equity and inclusion statement
JSPR and the International Association for Relationship Research (IARR) are committed to equity and inclusion in its broadest senses, and strive to value all individuals regardless of age, national origin, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, ability status, among other identities. We are committed to publishing scholarship that is representative of our collective disciplines and global communities.
IARR Diversity Statement
Positionality Statements
2.6 Bias free language for all authors to use
https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/bias-free-language
Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.
3.1.1 Plagiarism
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
3.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. JSPR does allow manuscripts that have been placed on pre-print services to be submitted for peer review. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway.
3.3 Open access and author archiving
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.
4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
Please format your manuscript according to the 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual outlined here. The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted.
For abbreviations and acronyms: Please use full terms the first time a term is used (e.g., Adult Attachment Interview). Then use the acronym in the rest of the article (e.g., AAI). Spell out terms in the title (e.g., Adult Attachment Interview). Do not use acronyms in the title.
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit the artwork guidelines section of Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
In tables please use symbols instead of colour to indicate the type of outcome followed by a note added below the table.
Figures supplied in colour will appear in greyscale in the print version but will be reproduced in colour online. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.
This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files.
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships adheres to the APA reference style. View the APA guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
4.5 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
Articles can be a maximum of 9,000 words (short reports - 3,000) including all elements such as title page, abstract, notes, references, tables, biographical statements etc.). If your submission is qualitative, mixed-methods, three or more studies, or a meta-analysis, it is acceptable to slightly exceed the word count noted above.
As part of IARR's encouragement of open research practices, authors will need to upload a completed disclosure statement, which will appear as a footnote in the published version of the manuscript.
We ask that a anonymized and non-anonymized version be uploaded with the submission. For these statements, please use these instructions and the wording provided in these two templates:
Authors will need to upload each statement as a separate word document with the other submission documents. The following links provide FAQs and instructions. When filling in this statement, please be mindful of copyright permission and ethical considerations related to sharing data and material. Authors will not be able to submit their manuscript until this statement has been uploaded.
Authors must follow the Guidelines to Reduce Bias in Language of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). These guidelines relate to level of specificity, labels, participation, gender, sexual orientation, "racial" and ethnic identity, disabilities and age. Authors should also be sensitive to issues of social class, religion and culture. The language used in your manuscript should be inclusive and language that might be deemed sexist, racist and/or discriminatory should not be used. All submissions should avoid the use of pejorative terms and insensitive or demeaning language and submissions that use unacceptable language will be returned by the editor.
We ask that authors review and adhere to the guidance below:
APA guidelines on Bias Free Language
Race Ethnicity and Culture APA reporting standards
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jspr to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.
6. On acceptance and publication
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.
6.3 Access to your published article
Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.