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JTSP Authors

Manuscript Topics

The Journal of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (JTSP) is published annually by the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs and publishes articles that address residential and wilderness/outdoor behavioral healthcare treatment for adolescents and young adults. The editors welcome manuscripts that are the original work of the author(s) and follow APA style as presented in the seventh edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Research studies must be conducted under the authority of an Institutional Review Board.

Manuscripts may include, but are not limited to case studies, literature reviews, qualitative research, and quantitative research. Topics of interest include therapy process, therapy outcomes, equity & inclusion, and clinical innovations. Articles may address interventions/issues for specific clinical populations such as clients with substance abuse disorders, dual diagnoses, behavioral disorders, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, or attachment issues.

Submitting the Manuscript

There is no fee to publish an article in the journal.

Electronic submission is required. Submit manuscripts HERE

Authors must submit an abstract, keywords, and author bio/s along with the manuscript.

Authors must de-identify their article prior to submission.

The Editorial team routinely screens papers for plagiarism.   We highly recommend that authors check their paper for plagiarism issues prior to submission using a website such as https://www.turnitin.com/

Authors are required to reveal any possible conflict of interest in the conduct and reporting of research (e.g., financial interests in a test procedure, funding provided by program) when their manuscript is submitted.

Permission to re-print any copyrighted content should be obtained by the author/s. (Megan:  while we are making another round of changes, please go ahead and remove this as it can be problematic for Open Access>)

All manuscripts should be submitted in a form that allows blind refereeing (see APA guidelines – 7th edition). The authors’ names and any identifying information must be visible only on a detachable front page. Manuscripts will be retained by the JTSP Editorial Board and will not be returned to the author(s).

Manuscript Formatting

  • Manuscripts should be formatted to 8 1/2” x 11” paper
  • Font to be used is “Times New Roman – Size 12”
  • Italics and Underline are accepted
  • Document must be in black text only
  • 1-inch margins are required on all sides
  • Double line spacing is required
  • Total manuscript length including abstract, tables, and references should ordinarily not exceed 25 pages.
  • The entire manuscript including footnotes, references, and quoted material and figures/illustrations should conform to the style specified in The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association – 7th Edition.
  • Submit manuscripts in the following order: 1) Title Page; 2) Abstract (no more than 100 words); 3) Text; 4) References; 5) Figures (Tables, Charts, Graphs).
  • Images depicting aspects of the contribution are strongly encouraged. Insertion notations for figures, tables, and images should be included in their intended place within the document though the actual figures, tables and images along with appropriate captions should be appended to the end of the submitted manuscript.
  • Please attach original camera-ready art or jpeg/gif files for figures and images.

Manuscript Evaluation

Submitted manuscripts will initially be reviewed and evaluated by the Editor in Chief or a Guest Editor. After the initial editorial evaluation, manuscripts will be sent to two blind reviewers who will forward their recommendations to the Editor in Chief or the Guest Editor.  Authors will not be told who served as reviewers (double-blind review).

The JTSP management team reserves the right to edit or to require editing of content, format, or style, or to make other revisions before accepting a manuscript for publication. The Editor in Chief will make final decisions regarding publication status.

Licensing Agreement

Authors of accepted papers will be required to sign a Publishing License Agreement for this paper to be published in an open access format. The publisher will apply the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY) to the Article. For further information, see http://www.elsevier.com/about/open-access/open-access-options. The CC BY license allows users to copy, to create extracts, abstracts and new works from the Article, to alter and revise the Article and to make commercial use of the Article (including reuse and/or resale of the Article by commercial entities), provided the user gives appropriate credit (with a link to the formal publication through the relevant DOI), provides a link to the license, indicates if changes were made and the licensor is not represented as endorsing the use made of the work. The full details of the license are available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Journal Management

The National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP) Board of Directors has engaged Ellen Behrens, Ph.D. for the editorial and managerial responsibilities for the Journal of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (JTSP). Contact Dr. Behrens at ebehrens@westminstercollege.edu with questions.

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

It is necessary to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior for all parties involved in the act of publishing: the author, the journal editor, the peer reviewer, and the publisher. Our ethic statements are based on COPE’s Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.

Publication decisions
The editor of the journal is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The editor may be guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.

Fair Play
An editor will at any time evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.

Confidentiality
The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest
Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's own research without the express written consent of the author.

Duties of Reviewers
Contribution to Editorial Decisions
Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper.

Promptness
Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.

Confidentiality
Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.

Standards of Objectivity
Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

Acknowledgement of Sources
Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Disclosure and Conflict of Interest
Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

Duties of Authors
Ethical Oversight
Authors are required to have full oversight and approval from a recognized Institutional Review Board (IRB) for any human subjects data collected as part of a research study, whether that study be qualitative or quantitative.

Reporting standards
Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Data Access and Retention
Authors are asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data (consistent with the ALPSP-STM Statement on Data and Databases), if practicable, and should in any event be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.

Originality and Plagiarism
The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted.

Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication
An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

Acknowledgement of Sources
Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.

Authorship of the Paper
Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest
All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

Fundamental Errors in Published Works
When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper