Submission guidelines

Instructions for Authors

The journal receives manuscripts for evaluation and publication in the form of articles, according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), in its seventh edition in English and fourth edition in Spanish. The manuscript submission is made in two files:

  • Title Page: Includes the title of the work (in Spanish and English), author(s) full name, ORCID code, institutional affiliation, and contact email.
  • Manuscript Content:
    • Title: in Spanish and English (without including author details)
    • Summary and abstract: Brief and comprehensive synthesis of the article content (maximum 250 words), in Spanish and English. 3 to 5 keywords must be included (in Spanish and English)
    • Article body: Article text (without author details), organized into subsections according to the article type.
    • References: List of all works cited in the article body, alphabetically ordered, with hanging indent, according to citation and reference guidelines of the APA Publication Manual 7th ed. in English, 4th ed. in Spanish.
  1. Quantitative Studies. Original empirical quantitative research report, with different design types (experimental and non-experimental). Includes the following sections reflecting research process phases, according to APA standards for quantitative study reporting:
    • Introduction: Establishes the study objective, literature review, and research hypothesis formulation.
    • Method: Description of research design, participants (sociodemographic characteristics, sampling procedure, sample size justification), materials (description of data collection instruments and validity and reliability evidence for their use following AERA, APA, and NCME-2014 standards) as well as data collection procedure, detailing ethical aspects considered for treating participants in psychological research.
    • Results: Report and substantiate the analysis strategy employed and present results descriptively and in tables or figures. Report basic descriptive statistics and inferential analysis results (hypothesis testing). Statistical significance level (p-value) and relevant effect size indices must be included; reporting achieved statistical power is also suggested.
    • Discussion: Synthesis of study objective, hypothesis, and main results, including evaluation and interpretation of findings, as well as limitations and implications of obtained results.
  1. Qualitative and Mixed Studies. Original empirical qualitative studies, case studies, or mixed studies. Includes the same sections as quantitative studies, adapted to the characteristics of the research approach according to APA research reporting standards.
  1. Methodological Articles. Present new research methods (e.g., design, data collection techniques or instruments), modification of existing methods, or discussion of quantitative or qualitative data analysis techniques. Empirical data (quantitative, qualitative, or mixed) is used to illustrate the methodological proposal. In some cases, simulations are employed to demonstrate how techniques work under different conditions.
  1. Brief Reports. Report of original empirical quantitative and qualitative studies, case studies, or mixed studies in a condensed format. Includes the same sections as full empirical articles.
  1. Literature Review. Provides a narrative or systematic synthesis and evaluation of findings or theories based on scientific literature. In literature review articles, the author:
    • Delimits the problem
    • Summarizes and integrates previous research results (quantitative, qualitative, or mixed) to inform the reader about the current state of knowledge in the area
    • Identifies relationships, contradictions, or inconsistencies in the literature
    • Provides suggestions for future research
  1. Theoretical Articles and Essays. Works aimed at reviewing existing scientific literature and promoting its advancement. In a theoretical article, the author traces the development of a theory to expand and refine its constructs, present a new theory, or analyze an existing one to highlight its advantages or limitations compared to other proposals. In an essay, arguments are presented to support a stance on a particular topic.
  1. Meta-analysis. Refers to a set of techniques where researchers use findings from a group of related studies to extract general conclusions (synthesis). Individual participant data are not used; instead, results are analyzed at the study level. Since the study is the unit used in meta-analysis, included studies appear in the reference list with an indicator (an asterisk, in APA style) distinguishing them from other references.
  • Quantitative Meta-analysis: A technique where effect sizes reported in studies are the input for meta-analysis. Also used to determine factors related to the magnitude of results in quantitative studies, such as design, sociodemographic variables, etc. Meta-analysis article reporting corresponds to the basic quantitative study structure and contains the following sections: introduction, method, results, and discussion.
  • Qualitative Meta-analysis: Various approaches exist, including meta-synthesis, meta-ethnography, meta-method, and critical interpretive synthesis. Strategies from primary qualitative analyses are employed to synthesize findings in studies. Used to highlight methodological trends, identify common findings and gaps, develop new understanding, and propose future directions for a research area. The structure is similar to the qualitative report.

Tables and Figures

Tables and figures must be presented following APA Publication Manual guidelines. Tables and figures must be included and mentioned in the text. During layout, they will be placed as close as possible to the mention. Additionally, for figures, they must be sent in a separate file; for digital images, the file must be sent in JPG or TIFF format, with a resolution of 300 dpi.

Contribution Extension

Submitted manuscripts must have a maximum length of 8000 words, including tables and figures, citations, and references. For brief reports, the maximum extension will be 3500 words, including tables and figures, citations, and references.

Policies on authorship and contributorship

By submitting the article and the title page, the authors declare that they have read and approved the full content of the manuscript, and that there are no other individuals who meet the authorship criteria but have not been included. They also confirm that the order of authors listed has been agreed upon by all and accurately reflects their contributions to the work.

File Format

Manuscripts must be submitted in digital format (MS Word), in 12-point Times New Roman font, with 1.5 line spacing, with indent at the start of each paragraph, without space between paragraphs, and with justified text.

Open access policy

This journal is a non-profit project, does not require any payment for submission or processing of articles to its authors and offers open access to its content, based on the principle that offering the public free access to research helps to a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Persona publishes all its articles under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

Open Access: This journal provides open access to its content without an embargo period or prior registration of users, based on the principle that offering the public free access to research helps a greater global exchange of knowledge and meeting the criteria and definition of the Directory of Open Access Journals. This allows immediate and free access to published works and allows any user to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search or link to the full text of articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software or use them for any other lawful purpose.

Data Availability Policy

Persona is committed to promoting openness, transparency, and the reproducibility of research. Therefore, the journal adopts the following research data availability policy:

Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:

  • Deposit their research data in a suitable and accessible public data repository.

  • Include a data availability statement in the manuscript, providing a link to the corresponding repository. If it is not possible to share the data, the statement should clearly explain the reasons.

  • Properly cite the data used or generated during the research.

For further questions, authors may contact the editorial team of Persona.

Copyright Notice

Acceptance for publication implies the transfer of printing and reproduction rights, by any form and means, to the publisher, while the author retains the intellectual property of the article.