Psychology Learning & Teaching
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Psychology Learning and Teaching (PLAT) is an international peer-reviewed journal devoted to enhancing knowledge of how to improve learning and teaching of psychology. To this purpose, PLAT publishes research articles, reviews, target articles and corresponding comments as well as reports on good and innovative learning, teaching and assessment practices. Through PLAT, it is hoped to establish a culture of scholarship in relation to teaching and learning in psychology and related areas.
Please note that submissions which are considered for publication must either target teaching and learning in psychology education or the teaching and learning of psychological knowledge and competencies in other contexts.
| Birgit Spinath | Heidelberg University, Germany |
| Zoe Sander | Heidelberg University, Germany |
| Richard Harris | University of Leeds, UK |
| Hannah Hausman | University of California, USA |
| Veit Kubik | University of Würzburg, Germany |
| Maria Tulis-Oswald | Paris Lodron University of Salzburg, Austria |
| Susanne Narciss | University of Dresden, Germany |
| Suzanne C. Baker | James Madison University, USA |
| Douglas A. Bernstein | University of South Florida, USA |
| Jenel Cavazos | University of Oklahoma, USA |
| Steve Charlton | Douglas College, Canada |
| Jacquelyn Cranney | University of New South Wales, Australia |
| Stephan Dutke | University of Münster, Germany |
| Alexander Eitel | University of Giessen, Germany |
| Robert Gaschler | Fern Universität Hagen, Germany |
| Michael Gruber | Umeå University, Sweden |
| Regan Gurung | Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA |
| Jane S. Halonen | University of West Florida, USA |
| Martin Hänze | University of Kassel, Germany |
| Silke Hertel | Heidelberg University, Germany |
| Andrew Holliman | Open University, UK |
| Nigel Holt | Aberystwyth University, UK |
| Fanli Jia | Seton Hall University, USA |
| Ingo Kollar | University of Augsburg, Germany |
| Matthias Nückles | University of Freiburg, Germany |
| Manuela Pächter | University of Graz, Austria |
| Stephanie Pieschl | TU Darmstadt, Germany |
| Steve Provost | Southern Cross University, Australia |
| Bryan K. Saville | James Madison University, USA |
| Sally Wiggins | Linköping University, Sweden |
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Psychology Learning & Teaching
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).
Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/platjournal 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 Psychology Learning & Teaching 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.
Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that Psychology Learning & Teaching may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy.
If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.
- 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 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
2.6 Research ethics and patient consent
2.7 Clinical trials
2.8 Reporting guidelines
2.9 Data - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Check Manuscript's Fit to this Journal
4.2 Formatting
4.3 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.4 Supplementary material
4.5 Reference style
4.6 English language editing services - 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 - Further information
Before submitting your manuscript to Psychology Learning & Teaching, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
Psychology Learning and Teaching (PLAT) is an international peer-reviewed journal devoted to enhancing knowledge of how to improve learning and teaching of psychology. To this purpose, PLAT publishes research articles, reviews, target articles and corresponding comments as well as reports on good and innovative learning, teaching and assessment practices. Through PLAT, it is hoped to establish a culture of scholarship in relation to teaching and learning in psychology and related areas. Please note that submissions which are considered for publication must either target teaching and learning in psychology education or the teaching and learning of psychological knowledge and competencies in other contexts.
Of particular interest are topics such as teaching and learning methods, student and teacher characteristics and their relation to educational outcomes, prediction of student academic performance, assessment and evaluation, competence-based teaching and assessment, quality management for teaching in higher education, teaching psychology in different contexts and to different professions, teacher education, recruitment and admission, retention, attrition and transfer, educational policy, political and social developments affecting psychology teaching and learning.
PLAT accepts submissions of the following kinds:
- Articles report empirical studies that are grounded in a sound conceptual or theoretical rationale and use adequate methods that ensure robust findings (no longer than 5,000 words excluding tables, references and appendices).
- Reviews cover the literature on a topic of special relevance to the learning and teaching of psychology. A review assembles and systemizes literature in the field and points out future directions (no longer than 5,000 words excluding tables, references and appendices).
- Target Articles represent topics of high relevance that can be viewed from different perspectives and, thus, are debatable. Target articles should be written in a way that inspires comments from different peers (no longer than 5,000 words excluding tables, references and appendices). The peer commentaries might be followed by a response from the target author.
- Reports are shorter pieces that report on innovative or especially effective current practice, developments and techniques. A report should inspire readers and give them new ideas for their teaching practice. Empirical evidence should be provided where appropriate. A fairly typical example of a report might be the description of a novel teaching method with a relatively small-scale evaluation (generally limited to 3,000 words excluding tables, references and appendices).
PLAT welcomes Special Issues. You can find some information about hosting a Special Issue here.
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.
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
Psychology Learning & Teaching encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
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
Psychology Learning & Teaching 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. 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
Psychology Learning & Teaching 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
4.1 Check Manuscript's Fit to this Journal
Make sure that your manuscript has a focus on psychology education or the teaching and learning of psychological knowledge and competencies. As a simple test of whether your manuscript fits this journal, check if the word "psychology" appears. If this is not the case, you should send your manuscript to another journal.
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
4.3 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
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.
Psychology Learning & Teaching adheres to the APA reference style. View the APA guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style. All papers should be prepared in American English.
4.6 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.
Psychology Learning & Teaching is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/platjournal 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.
If a paper is not suitable for publication in PLAT, we will inform the authors as soon as possible (usually within about 1 week after their submission). If the paper is generally suitable for PLAT, we aim to provide an editor’s report based on two sets of reviewers’ comments within 12 weeks after their submission. PLAT is published three times per year and authors should not expect their paper to appear in the forthcoming issue subsequent to their submission being received.
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 persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher 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 recognised.
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.
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Psychology Learning & Teaching editorial office as follows: