Aims and Scope
What the Journal of Human Psychology publishes, where its boundaries lie, and how to tell whether a manuscript belongs here.
JHP ISSN 2644-1101 Crossref DOI prefix 10.14302 Open access · CC BY 4.0 Published by Open Access Pub
What the journal publishes
The Journal of Human Psychology (JHP) publishes research on human psychological processes and behavior, with an applied emphasis in care, communities, schools, workplaces and everyday life. Clinical, health and applied research are part of this remit alongside basic and experimental psychology, including cognition, emotion, motivation and personality. A practical application is not required for every submission. The central requirement is a substantive psychological contribution supported by evidence and methods, or a rigorous scholarly argument, appropriate to its claims.
What makes a manuscript appropriate. A submission should state a clear psychological question and explain how its findings, methods or reasoning advance understanding. Empirical studies should describe their participants or data, setting, measures, design and analysis. Applied studies should explain the relevance of their outcomes; basic and experimental studies may contribute by explaining a psychological process or phenomenon without an immediate practical application.
How interdisciplinary submissions are assessed. Research from adjacent disciplines fits when its objectives, methods and interpretation address a substantive question about human psychological processes or behavior. A psychological construct, mechanism, experience or behavioral outcome must be central to the contribution. Human participation, a medical dataset or a questionnaire alone does not establish scope fit.
The domains below are grouped to help authors find relevant examples. The grouping and listing order are not a ranking of scientific value or a restriction on eligibility. All areas are assessed using the same standards of psychological relevance, research quality and ethical conduct.
- Clinical psychology and mental health
- Community psychology and public health behavior
- Health psychology and behavioral medicine
- Industrial-organizational and workplace psychology
- Developmental and family psychology
- Social and cultural psychology
- Educational and school psychology
- Psychological assessment and measurement
- Cognition, personality, motivation and emotion
About the journal Instructions for authors Editorial policies
Applied research domains
Each domain below names the questions it covers and gives a worked example of a manuscript that fits it. The examples are illustrative, not exhaustive: a manuscript does not have to resemble one in order to be in scope.
Clinical psychology and mental health
Evidence that improves assessment, treatment and outcomes for mental health conditions across the lifespan.
- Psychotherapy outcomes and comparative effectiveness
- Trauma-informed care and recovery pathways
- Diagnostic assessment and clinical decision making
- Suicide prevention and crisis intervention
- Patient-reported outcomes and quality of life
- Integrated care and collaborative treatment models
A manuscript that fitsOutcomes of a brief cognitive behavioral intervention for anxiety in primary care clinics
Community psychology and public health behavior
Research that advances prevention, health promotion and community wellbeing through behavioral science.
- Community interventions and participatory research
- Behavior-change programs and prevention strategies
- Health equity, access and social determinants
- Public health behavior in crisis and recovery
- Program evaluation and implementation research
- Stigma reduction and community resilience
A manuscript that fitsCommunity based mental health outreach and its impact on service utilization
Health psychology and behavioral medicine
Studies linking psychological factors to health outcomes, treatment adherence and chronic disease management.
- Behavioral adherence and lifestyle change
- Stress, coping and mind-body outcomes
- Behavioral interventions for chronic disease
- Pain management and health-related quality of life
- Health communication and patient engagement
- Prevention and wellness programs
A manuscript that fitsBehavioral adherence strategies for diabetes self management in adults
Industrial-organizational and workplace psychology
Evidence that improves wellbeing, leadership and psychological safety in organizational settings.
- Workplace wellbeing and burnout prevention
- Leadership, culture and organizational climate
- Work stress, engagement and performance
- Occupational mental health interventions
- Inclusion at work
- Hybrid working and employee resilience
A manuscript that fitsEvaluating a workplace resilience program for healthcare teams
Further areas the journal reads
These areas are welcome in their own right. The contribution may be basic, applied, methodological or conceptual, provided it addresses a substantive psychological question with an appropriate evidential or scholarly basis.
- Developmental and family psychology
- Cognitive, emotional and social development across the lifespan; child and adolescent psychology, family relationships, parenting, adult development and aging. Basic developmental processes and applied questions about risk, resilience and wellbeing are included.
- Social and cultural psychology
- Social cognition, attitudes, identity, interpersonal relationships, group processes and social influence; cultural and cross-cultural differences in psychological processes. Stigma, migration, adaptation, community cohesion and social support are included where the psychological contribution is central.
- Educational and school psychology
- Learning, motivation, self-efficacy and psychological development in educational settings; student wellbeing, classroom behavior, teacher psychology, school climate and assessment. Both explanatory research and educational interventions fit when their central contribution is psychological.
- Psychological assessment and measurement
- Psychometrics, scale development, validation, reliability, measurement invariance and assessment equity. Instrument and measurement research is considered in its own right, as well as in clinical, educational, community and research settings.
- Cognition, personality, motivation and emotion
- Basic and experimental research on perception, attention, memory, learning, reasoning, language, executive function, personality and individual differences, emotion, motivation and self-regulation. A clear contribution to understanding human psychological processes is sufficient for scope; immediate practical application is not required.
Examples of current research questions
These examples illustrate current applications. They do not restrict the broader scope or confer priority over other eligible psychological research.
- Digital mental health and telepsychology delivery models
- Community resilience and disaster recovery interventions
- Behavioral health strategies in public health emergencies
- Workplace mental health and hybrid work wellbeing
- Integrated care models linking psychology and primary care
Populations and settings
The journal values research that addresses disparities in access to care and in outcomes. Manuscripts should describe participant demographics clearly and consider how cultural, socioeconomic and structural factors shape the psychological processes under study. Community-engaged research, trauma-informed practice, and work in rural, low-resource or underserved settings are welcome, and so is research that reports where its findings do not generalize.
Where the boundary falls
These examples show how interdisciplinary fit is assessed. The deciding question is whether psychology is central to the contribution, not which adjacent field supplies the setting or method.
neuroscience
A study that relates a neural or physiological measure to a psychological process or a behavioral outcome, and interprets the finding in psychological terms.
A study that reports neural measures alone, where the psychological process is named in the introduction and not measured anywhere in the design.
and technology
A study whose primary contribution is psychological or behavioral: how people use a tool, what changes in their behavior, and what that means for the outcome.
An evaluation of a platform’s technical performance, uptake or cost, with no psychological construct measured and no behavioral outcome reported.
A study that answers a substantive psychological question in an educational setting — motivation, wellbeing, self-efficacy, behavior in class, teacher burnout.
A curriculum or attainment evaluation that reports test scores without a psychological construct, measure or mechanism.
biomedical
A study in which the psychological variable is part of the research question: adherence, coping, distress, quality of life, or a psychological intervention and its outcome.
A biomedical study in which participants also completed a questionnaire. Administering an instrument alongside a medical outcome does not make the contribution psychological.
and politics
A study whose central question concerns a psychological process or construct, such as persuasion, judgment, social identity or intergroup attitudes.
Legal, political or policy commentary that uses psychological terms rhetorically but makes no substantive psychological contribution.
A manuscript that sits close to the boundary is welcome to reach the editorial office at [email protected] with a short summary before it is prepared in full.
Generally outside scope
The list below describes what the journal does not publish. It follows from the test stated at the top of this page rather than from a view about the value of the work: a study can be sound and still belong in a different journal.
- Biomedical, clinical or epidemiological research whose contribution is medical rather than psychological, including work in which a psychological instrument is administered but no psychological question is asked of it.
- Neuroscience that reports neural or physiological measures without connecting them to a psychological process or a behavioral outcome.
- Education, management or policy research that reports outcomes without a psychological construct, measure or mechanism.
- Sociological or population analysis conducted entirely at the level of aggregates, with no individual or group psychological data.
- Theoretical or conceptual work without a clear psychological contribution, coherent reasoning or engagement with relevant evidence and scholarship. Practical application is not required, but unsupported speculation is not a substitute for scholarly argument.
- Self-help, motivational or practice-promotional writing, and commercial material presented as research.
- Opinion presented as empirical research, and individual anecdote offered as evidence of an effect.
- Claims of a psychological mechanism, or therapeutic claims, that the study’s own data and design do not support.
- Unfalsifiable metaphysical or paranormal explanations presented as established empirical psychology. Research on consciousness, spirituality, beliefs and related experiences can fit when it investigates psychological questions using transparent, appropriate methods; describing an experience or belief does not by itself establish a metaphysical explanation as scientific fact.
A manuscript under consideration at another journal is also returned at initial editorial screening.
Research designs the journal reads
Methods and reporting should be appropriate to the psychological question and claims. Empirical studies should justify their design, describe measures and analysis, and report limitations. Theoretical and conceptual contributions should make their reasoning and engagement with relevant scholarship explicit. A particular method, positive result or immediate application is not by itself a condition of scope.
- Experimental and intervention studies
- Randomized trials should follow CONSORT. Other experimental and non-randomized studies should use reporting guidance appropriate to their design, with procedures and analysis described transparently.
- Observational and cohort research
- Cross-sectional, cohort and longitudinal designs, reported against STROBE.
- Evidence syntheses
- Systematic reviews and meta-analyses, reported against PRISMA.
- Qualitative and mixed methods
- COREQ applies to qualitative interviews and focus groups. Other qualitative designs should use appropriate reporting guidance. Describe the analytic approach and researcher role; mixed-methods studies should explain the design of each strand and how the findings are integrated.
- Program evaluation
- Evaluations of services, community programs and workplace interventions, with the implementation context described.
- Psychometric and instrument research
- Instrument development, item analysis, factor structure, reliability and measurement invariance, which the journal reads as research in its own right.
- Replication and null findings
- Direct and conceptual replications and well-conducted studies with null or inconclusive results can contribute through the existing research and short-communication formats. Conclusions should reflect the study’s precision, limitations and evidence, not statistical significance alone.
Measurement
Because most of what the journal publishes rests on a measure, manuscripts should identify the instruments used, give the version and, where relevant, the psychometric evidence supporting their use in the population studied. Where an instrument has been translated or adapted, the manuscript should say so and describe how. The full reporting and ethics requirements are on the editorial policies page.
Editorial policies Data archiving and permissions Instructions for authors
Article types
Manuscript length, abstract and keyword requirements, and the preparation checklist, are on the instructions for authors.
- Original research
- Empirical studies, basic or applied, with a clear psychological question. Replication and well-supported null findings are eligible. Design, sampling and analysis should be described well enough for a specialist reader to assess the inference.
- Review articles and evidence syntheses
- Systematic and narrative reviews that advance psychological theory or inform practice, policy or program design, reported according to the method used. Conceptual contributions should engage critically with relevant evidence and scholarship.
- Program evaluations
- Evaluations of community, school or workplace interventions that address psychological questions, with their outcomes, limitations and implementation context reported. A positive intervention effect is not a condition of scope.
- Qualitative and mixed-methods studies
- Work that captures lived experience and context, with the coding structure and analytic procedure reported in full, and, for mixed methods, a statement of how the strands were integrated.
- Short communications
- Focused reports of a single finding, method or instrument where the contribution does not require a full research article.
- Editorial and commentary material
- Commissioned and editorial contributions on questions within the journal’s remit.
Instructions for authors Article processing charges Call for papers Special issues
Related pages
Read the instructions before preparing the manuscript
The instructions for authors carry the requirements for each article type, the reporting expectations, and the checklist to work through before submitting. Authors who are unsure whether a manuscript sits inside the remit are welcome to write to the editorial office at [email protected] with a short summary first.
Journal of Human Psychology (JHP)
ISSN 2644-1101 · Crossref DOI prefix 10.14302
· Published by Open Access Pub ·
Content licensed CC BY 4.0, authors retain copyright