Author Guidelines

To read the journal's position on open science practices, please find the full statement here


Sections

  1. Submission and Peer Review Process
  2. Article Types
  3. After Acceptance

1. Submission and Peer Review Process

Once the submission materials have been prepared in accordance with the Author Guidelines, manuscripts should be submitted online at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jots.


For questions about the journal (i.e., submission fit), please contact Editor Denise Sloan (dsloan@bu.edu). For help with submissions, please contact jotseditorialoffice@wiley.com


This journal does not charge submission fees.

 

Article Preparation Support

Wiley Editing Services offers expert help with English Language Editing, as well as translation, manuscript formatting, figure illustration, figure formatting, and graphical abstract design – so you can submit your manuscript with confidence.


Also, check out our resources for Preparing Your Article for general guidance about writing and preparing your manuscript.

 

Free format submission

Journal of Traumatic Stress now offers Free Format submission for a simplified and streamlined submission process.


Before you submit, you will need:

  • Your manuscript: this should be an editable file including text, figures, and tables, or separate files—whichever you prefer. All required sections should be contained in your manuscript, including abstract, introduction, methods, results, and conclusions. Figures and tables should have legends. Figures should be uploaded in the highest resolution possible. References may be submitted in any style or format, as long as it is consistent throughout the manuscript. Supporting information should be submitted in separate files. If the manuscript, figures or tables are difficult for you to read, they will also be difficult for the editors and reviewers, and the editorial office will send it back to you for revision.
  • An ORCID ID, freely available at https://orcid.org. (Why is this important? Your article, if accepted and published, will be attached to your ORCID profile. Institutions and funders are increasingly requiring authors to have ORCID IDs.)
  • The title page of the manuscript, including:
    • Your co-author details, including affiliation and email address. (Why is this important? We need to keep all co-authors informed of the outcome of the peer review process.)
    • Statements relating to our ethics and integrity policies, which may include any of the following (Why are these important? We need to uphold rigorous ethical standards for the research we consider for publication):
      • data availability statement
      • funding statement
      • conflict of interest disclosure
      • ethical standards statement
      • patient consent statement
      • permission to reproduce material from other sources
      • clinical trial registration

Important: the journal operates a double-blind peer review policy. Please anonymize your manuscript and supply a separate title page file.


To submit, login at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jots and create a new submission. Follow the submission steps as required and submit the manuscript.

 

Open Access
This journal is a subscription journal that offers an open access option. You’ll have the option to choose to make your article open access after acceptance, which will be subject to an APC, unless a waiver applies. Read more about APCs here.

 

Preprint policy:

Please find the Wiley preprint policy here.


This journal accepts articles previously published on preprint servers.


Journal of Traumatic Stress
will consider for review articles previously available as preprints. You may also post the submitted version of a manuscript to a preprint server at any time. You are requested to update any pre-publication versions with a link to the final published article.


JTS
operates a double-blind peer review process. Authors are responsible for anonymizing their manuscript in order to remain anonymous to the reviewers throughout the peer review process (see “Main Text File” above for more details). Since the journal also encourages posting of preprints, however, please note that if authors share their manuscript in preprint form this may compromise their anonymity during peer review.

 

Data Sharing and Data Availability

This journal expects data sharing. Review Wiley’s Data Sharing policy where you will be able to see and select the data availability statement that is right for your submission.

 

Data Citation

Please review Wiley’s Data Citation policy.

 

Data Protection

By submitting a manuscript to or reviewing for this publication, your name, email address, and affiliation, and other contact details the publication might require, will be used for the regular operations of the publication. Please review Wiley’s Data Protection Policy to learn more.

 

Funding

You should list all funding sources in the Acknowledgments section. You are responsible for the accuracy of their funder designation. If in doubt, please check the Open Funder Registry for the correct nomenclature.

 

Authorship

All listed authors should have contributed to the manuscript substantially and have agreed to the final submitted version. Review editorial standards and scroll down for a description of authorship criteria.

 

ORCID

This journal requires ORCID. Please refer to Wiley’s resources on ORCID.

 

Reproduction of Copyright Material

If excerpts from copyrighted works owned by third parties are included, credit must be shown in the contribution. It is your responsibility to also obtain written permission for reproduction from the copyright owners. For more information visit Wiley’s Copyright Terms & Conditions FAQ.


The corresponding author is responsible for obtaining written permission to reproduce the material "in print and other media" from the publisher of the original source, and for supplying Wiley with that permission upon submission.

 

Title Page 

The title page should contain: 

  1. A brief informative title containing the major key words. The title should not contain abbreviations (see Wiley's best practice SEO tips);
  2. A short running title of less than 40 characters;
  3. The full names of the authors;
  4. The author's institutional affiliations where the work was conducted, with a footnote for the author’s present address if different from where the work was conducted;
  5. Acknowledgments.

 

Important: the journal operates a double-blind peer review policy. Please anonymize your manuscript and prepare a separate title page containing author details.

 

Main Text File

Please ensure that all identifying information such as author names and affiliations, acknowledgements or explicit mentions of author institution in the text are on a separate page.

The main text file should be in Word format and include:

  • A short informative title containing the major key words (the title should not contain abbreviations).
  • Abstract
  • Up to seven keywords
  • Main body, formatted as:
    • Introduction
    •  Method
      • Participants
      • Procedure
      • Measures
      • Data Analysis
    • Results
    • Discussion
  • References
  • Tables (each table complete with title and footnotes)
  • Figure legends: Legends should be supplied as a complete list in the text. Figures should be uploaded as separate files (see below).

 

Reference Style

Journal of Traumatic Stress uses APA reference style. However, because JTS offers Free Format submission, you do not need to format the references in your article until the revision stage when your article is more likely to be accepted.

 

Figures and Supporting Information

Figures, supporting information, and appendices should be supplied as separate files, preferably in Word. You should review the basic figure requirements for manuscripts for peer review, as well as the more detailed post-acceptance figure requirements. View Wiley’s FAQs on supporting information.

 

Peer Review

This journal operates under a double-blind peer review model. Papers will only be sent to review if the Editor-in-Chief determines that the paper meets the appropriate quality and relevance requirements.


In-house submissions, i.e. papers authored by Editors or Editorial Board members of the title, will be sent to Editors unaffiliated with the author or institution and monitored carefully to ensure there is no peer review bias.


Wiley's policy on the confidentiality of the review process is available here.


Refer & Transfer Program

Wiley believes that no valuable research should go unshared. This journal participates in Wiley’s Refer & Transfer program. If your manuscript is not accepted, you may receive a recommendation to transfer your manuscript to another suitable Wiley journal, either through a referral from the journal’s editor or through our Transfer Desk Assistant.

 

Guidelines on Publishing and Research Ethics in Journal Articles

The journal requires that you include in the manuscript details IRB approvals, ethical treatment of human and animal research participants, and gathering of informed consent, as appropriate. You will be expected to declare all conflicts of interest, or none, on submission. Please review Wiley’s policies surrounding human studies, clinical trial registration, and research reporting guidelines.


This journal follows the core practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and handles cases of research and publication misconduct accordingly (https://publicationethics.org/core-practices).


This journal uses iThenticate’s CrossCheck software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. Read Wiley’s Top 10 Publishing Ethics Tips for Authors and Wiley’s Publication Ethics Guidelines.

 

2. Article Types


Article Type

 

Description

Word Limit

Abstract

Other Requirements

Research Article

 

Report of new research findings or conceptual analyses that make a significant contribution to knowledge

7,500 words, including abstract, references, tables, and figures

Yes

Data Availability Statement

IRB Statement

Brief Report

 

Preliminary findings of research in progress or a case report of particular interest

4,500 words, including abstract, references, tables, and figures

Yes

Data Availability Statement

IRB Statement

Review Article

 

Overview of developments in the field or current lines of thought; synthesizes multiple sources of information and has long list of references

7,500 words, including abstract, references, tables, and figures

Yes

Data Availability Statement

IRB Statement

Commentary

 

Evidence-based opinion piece on a recently published JTS article

1,000 words, including references, tables, and figures

No

N/A

 

 

3. After Acceptance


First Look

After your paper is accepted, your files will be assessed by the editorial office to ensure they are ready for production. You may be contacted if any updates or final files are required. Otherwise, your paper will be sent to the production team.

 

Wiley Author Services

When an accepted article is received by Wiley’s production team, the corresponding author will receive an email asking them to login or register with Wiley Author Services. You will be asked to sign a publication license at this point as well as pay for any applicable APCs.

 

Copyright & Licensing

You may choose to publish under the terms of the journal’s standard copyright agreement, or Open Access under the terms of a Creative Commons License.


Standard re-use and licensing rights vary by journal. Note that certain funders mandate a particular type of CC license be used. This journal uses the CC-BY/CC-BY-NC/CC-BY-NC-ND Creative Commons License.


Self-Archiving Definitions and Policies
: Note that the journal’s standard copyright agreement allows for self-archiving of different versions of the article under specific conditions.

 

Proofs

Authors will receive an e-mail notification with a link and instructions for accessing HTML page proofs online. Authors should also make sure that any renumbered tables, figures, or references match text citations and that figure legends correspond with text citations and actual figures. Proofs must be returned within 48 hours of receipt of the email.

 

Article Promotion Support

Wiley Editing Services offers professional video, design, and writing services to create shareable video abstracts, infographics, conference posters, lay summaries, and research news stories for your research – so you can help your research get the attention it deserves.

 

Author Name Change Policy

In cases where authors wish to change their name following publication, Wiley will update and republish the paper and redeliver the updated metadata to indexing services. Our editorial and production teams will use discretion in recognizing that name changes may be of a sensitive and private nature for various reasons including (but not limited to) alignment with gender identity, or as a result of marriage, divorce, or religious conversion. Accordingly, to protect the author’s privacy, we will not publish a correction notice to the paper, and we will not notify co-authors of the change. Authors should contact the journal’s Editorial Office with their name change request.

 

Correction to authorship

In accordance with Wiley’s Best Practice Guidelines on Research Integrity and Publishing Ethics and the Committee on Publication Ethics’ guidance, the Journal of Traumatic Stress will allow authors to correct authorship on a submitted, accepted, or published article if a valid reason exists to do so. All authors – including those to be added or removed – must agree to any proposed change. To request a change to the author list, please complete the Request for Changes to a Journal Article Author List Form and contact either the journal’s editorial or production office, depending on the status of the article. Authorship changes will not be considered without a fully completed Author Change form. [Correcting the authorship is different from changing an author’s name; the relevant policy for that can be found in Wiley’s Best Practice Guidelines under “Author name changes after publication.”]

 

Open Research Badges

This journal is part of Wiley’s Open Research Badges program.