About the Journal

Developmental psychology publishes in English, Bulgarian and Russian original papers, review papers, case reports and letters to the editor. Manuscripts must be original and previously unpublished. Manuscripts that do not meet the requirements specified in the Terms are returned to authors for redrafting before evaluating their contents. Only manuscripts written in correct English/Bulgarian/Russian will be accepted.

DP is published based on the open access model (OA).

Instructions for Authors

Terms of publishing papers in the “Developmental psychology”

The articles submitted to DP are screened for plagiarism and then reviewed.

SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

The Title Page

It should contain:

1) the title of the paper (concise but informative)
2) full names of the authors (the order of authors' names is the order to be published)
3) affiliations (institution name, city, country, department name and organizational unit)

4) corresponding author’s data (name and surname, institution name and address, e-mail address and telephone number)

5) funding source data: the number and title of the program/research/grant under which the study has been carried out and the funding sources used for the publication, the manager/chief investigator of the program/research/grant data (name and surname, degree)
6) acknowledgments: a) contributions that need acknowledging but do not justify authorship, such as support by a departmental chair; b) acknowledgments of technical help

7) information on a potential conflict of interest.

The publisher accepts works prepared in Microsoft Word, 12-point Times New Roman font, 1.5-spaced, A4 format, from 7 to 20 pages.

ABSTRACT: Up to 400 words:
The abstract should provide the context or background for the study and should state the study’s purpose, basic procedures (selection of study participants, settings, measurements, analytical methods), main findings (giving specific effect sizes and their statistical and clinical significance, if possible), and principal conclusions. It should emphasize new and important aspects of the study or observations, note important limitations, and not overinterpret findings.

  • Original papers: the abstract should have a structured form, i.e.: Background and objectives, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions.
  • Review papers: the abstract should be descriptive, i.e., containing most important information on the scope and type of review, methods of collection and selection of literature, as well as a short summary of the results of the review, with an indication for further research.

KEY WORDS: 6 key words


ORIGINAL PAPERS: These should present the methods and results of authors’ own research and thorough evaluation and the reference to other research on the topic. They should include:
Introduction: It should give a clear, concise account of the background of the problem and the rationale behind the investigation. Only references with a direct bearing on the work submitted should be cited.

  • Materials and Methods: This section should be detailed so as to give the reader a clear idea of what has been done.
  • Ethics: When reporting experiments on human subjects, indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of a responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) and with the Helsinki Declaration as revised in 2013. Do not use patients’ names, initials, or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material. When reporting experiments on animals, indicate whether the institution’s or a national research council’s guideline or any national law on the care and use of laboratory animals were followed.
  • Statistics: Describe statistical methods with enough detail to provide a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to verify the reported results. When possible, quantify the findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals).
  • Results: These should be presented in a logical sequence in the text, tables, and figures. Do not repeat in the text all data given in tables or figures; emphasize or summarize only important observations.
  • Discussion: Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and a comprehensive interpretation of the results obtained against the background of the existing knowledge. Quotations should be restricted to those with immediate relevance to the author’s findings. A review-like approach should be avoided.
  • Conclusion: Should refer to the established aims of the paper.

REVIEW PAPERS: They are intended to provide a condensed presentation of results of recently published works on a given topic (or their chronological presentation) and a thorough assessment of the current state of knowledge. They should include:

  • Introduction: A clear and concise description of the scope of the review, outline of the research problem and the current state of knowledge in a given field, and a clear presentation of the aims and reasons for undertaking the review.
  • Methods: Precise description of the criteria for selection and exclusion of reference works with an indication of their limitations and/or advantages, indication of methods used to search the literature (searching of electronic databases, browsing of magazines), key words used, time period covered by the review (year of publication of the analyzed articles), language of publications, etc.
  • Results and Discussion: Concise, clear, consistent and impartial description of new information, ideas, methods and prospective research in the discussed field.
  • Conclusion: They should indicate perspectives for further research and theoretical and/or practical implications of new findings or discoveries reported in the work.

Concise but clear intertitles should be used in the text to facilitate browsing of the paper by the readers. It is advisable to include most important data in tables and figures – the information contained there should not be repeated in the text.
REFERENCES: Up to 40 items in the original study and 60 items in the review paper – references should consider the full references of all of the publications (including legal acts, websites, etc.) as referred to by the author in the text. Avoiding citation of the author’s own publications is recommended to preserve the author’s anonymity in the process of paper evaluation by reviewers. Additionally, if the article/book has a DOI number, it should be included in the references.

Complete rules concerning literature are available in https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples


SOURCE OF DATA: The source of origin should be indicated for all data from other publications or unpublished sources quoted in the main text of the article, tables and figures. Following the publication of the journal issue, the publisher sends the link to the article in the PDF format to the e-mail address of the corresponding author. The addressee is obliged to make it available to the co-authors.