SUBMISSION

Please read these instructions carefully and follow them strictly to ensure that the review and publication of your paper is as efficient and quick as possible. The Editors reserve the right to return manuscripts that are not prepared in accordance with these instructions.

All material to be considered for publication in Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences should be submitted in electronic form via the journal's online submission system. Once you have prepared your manuscript according to the instructions below, instructions on how to submit your manuscript online can be found by clicking here.

Ethics

Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences expects that authors will observe high standards with respect to publication ethics. For example, the following practices are unacceptable: (a) falsification or fabrication of data; (b) plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the authors' own work, in whole or in part, without proper citation; (c) misappropriation of the work of others such as omission of qualified authors or of information regarding financial support. Allegations of unethical conduct will be discussed initially with the corresponding author. In the event of continued dispute the matter will be referred to the author's institution and funding agencies for investigation and adjudication.

Oxford Journals, publisher of Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and the journal strives to adhere to the COPE code of conduct and guidelines. For further information, see http://www.publicationethics.org.uk.

CORRESPONDENCE (EDITORIAL)

The Editorial Office can be contacted as follows:
Rosemary Blieszner, PhD, Editor, Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences; Center for Gerontology (0426); Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Blacksburg, VA 24061. E-mail: jgps@vt.edu. If online submission is impossible, an alternative submission strategy can be arranged in advance with the editor.

REVIEW OF MANUSCRIPTS

Due to space restrictions and to the volume of high quality papers submitted, the Editors reserve the right to return immediately those papers that are unlikely to be competitive for space in the journal and/or those that do not conform to the general editorial philosophy and standards of Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences.

TYPES OF ARTICLES

All articles should use 12 point, Times New Roman font. A word count should appear on the last page of the manuscript before the references.

a. Original Research Reports. The text of manuscripts reporting empirical studies should not exceed 5,000 words; in unusual circumstances (multi-study reports, complex analyses), authors may submit up to 6,000 words of text. References, tables, figures, and illustrations should not exceed 10 pages.

b. Brief Reports. The text of manuscripts should not exceed 2,000 words, and references, tables, figures, or illustrations should not exceed 3 pages.

c. New Directions in Aging Research. These articles are usually invited by the Editor and undergo peer review. The goal is an integrative presentation of findings on a cutting-edge topic. The text of manuscripts should not exceed 4,000 words, and references, tables, figures, or illustrations should not exceed 6 pages.

d. Theoretical or Methodological Articles. Theoretical papers must include a novel integration and critical analysis of existing views in a specific area that has not been reviewed elsewhere, as well as proposed resolution(s) of controversial positions to advance the field. Methodological contributions should present innovative methods for the study of adult development and aging, which should be supported with examples based upon empirical data if possible. The text of manuscripts should not exceed 5,000 words, and references, tables, figures, or illustrations should not exceed 10 pages.

STYLE

Manuscripts should be prepared according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.), obtainable from APA, 750 First Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20002-4242, http://apastyle.apa.org/

MANUSCRIPT STRUCTURE

Please prepare your manuscript text using a word-processing package (save in .doc or .rtf format). Manuscripts should be double-spaced. Please number each page. We recommend that authors spell-check all files before submission.

Authors should submit a single file containing the complete manuscript (i.e., title page, abstract, text, figures and tables), as this makes the reviewing process easier for Editors and referees. Please include the tables and figures at the end of the manuscript, after references, and do not embed them within the text. This applies to the original version of the manuscript and any revised versions. Due to figure file sizes, you may have to submit separate files for figures. Please use short, simple filenames when saving all your documents, and avoid special characters, punctuation marks, symbols (such as &), and spaces. If you are a Macintosh user, you must also type the extension at the end of the file name you choose (.doc, .rtf, .jpg, .gif, .tif, .xls, .pdf, .eps, .ppt, .mov or .qt).

Other helpful hints are: (i) use the TAB key once for paragraph indents; (ii) where possible use Times New Roman for the text font and Symbol for any Greek and special characters; (iii) use the word processing formatting features to indicate Bold, Italic, Greek, Maths, Superscript and Subscript characters; (iv) please avoid using underline: for cases use italic; for emphasis use bold; (v) clearly identify unusual symbols and Greek letters; (vi) differentiate between the letter O and zero, and the letters I and l and the number 1.

TITLE PAGE

The title should be short, specific, and informative. The first name, initial(s), and surname of each author should be followed by his or her department, institution, city with postcode, and country. The fax, telephone number, and Email address of the corresponding author should also be provided. It is editorial policy to list only one author for correspondence. Any changes of address may be given in footnotes. Any deletions or additions to the author list after acceptance of the paper must be submitted in writing, signed by all authors, to the appropriate editorial office. New sequence accession numbers (DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank) should be listed on the title page.

A short running head not to exceed 50 letters and spaces should be placed at the top of the title page.

ABSTRACT

The second page of the manuscript should contain the Abstract, which should be one paragraph not exceeding 960 characters and spaces (approximately 120 words). The abstract should be typed and double spaced. The abstract should state the purpose of the study, basic procedures used (study participants and observational or analytical methods), principal findings, and conclusions. Please provide 3 to 6 key words.

TEXT

The text of research articles should be divided into major sections with the headings Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. Articles may require subheadings within sections to clarify their content. The discussion section may include conclusions derived from the study and supported by the data. While full explication of a study is desirable, conciseness of expression is imperative. Sexist or ageist language should be avoided.

Nonstandard abbreviations should be defined at the first occurrence and introduced only when used multiple times. Authors should not use abbreviations in headings. Ensure that the use of abbreviations is clear and that each one is defined in the text at its first mention only.

FUNDING

Details of all funding sources for the work in question should be given in a separate section entitled 'Funding'. This should appear before the 'Acknowledgements' section.

The following rules should be followed:

• The sentence should begin: ‘This work was supported by …’
• The full official funding agency name should be given, i.e. ‘the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health’ or simply 'National Institutes of Health' not ‘NCI' (one of the 27 subinstitutions) or 'NCI at NIH' (full RIN-approved list of UK funding agencies)
• Grant numbers should be complete and accurate and provided in parentheses as follows: ‘(grant number ABX CDXXXXXX)'
• Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma as follows: ‘(grant numbers ABX CDXXXXXX, EFX GHXXXXXX)’
• Agencies should be separated by a semi-colon (plus ‘and’ before the last funding agency)
• Where individuals need to be specified for certain sources of funding the following text should be added after the relevant agency or grant number 'to [author initials]'.

An example is given here: ‘This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (P50 CA098252 and CA118790 to R.B.S.R.); and the Alcohol & Education Research Council (HFY GR667789).’

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Acknowledgements and details of non-financial support must be included at the end of the text before references and not in footnotes. Personal acknowledgements should precede those of institutions or agencies. Please note that acknowledgement of funding bodies and declarations regarding conflict of interest should be given in separate Funding and Conflict of interest sections, respectively.

REFERENCES

In-text citations and references of journals, books, multi-author books and articles published online should conform to the 5th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2001). References in the text are shown by citing in parentheses the author’s surname and/or the year of publication [E.g., “A recent study (Jones, 2007) showed, or Jones (2007) has shown].

The reference list should be double spaced and arranged alphabetically by author’s surname; do not number. The list includes only references cited in the text and should generally not exceed 50 entries for original research and theoretical/methodological articles, 30 for brief reports, and 40 for New Directions in Aging Research articles. Do not include references to private communications.

FOOTNOTES

Footnotes, indicated by superscript figures in the text, should be used rarely and only for essential explanatory notes. Footnotes should be numbered consecutively, should be kept as brief as possible, and should be placed on a separate page before the Tables. Authors are responsible for checking the accuracy of all footnotes and references.

TABLES

Tables should be typed with double spacing, but minimizing redundant space, and each should be placed on a separate page. Each Table should be numbered in sequence using Arabic numerals. Tables should also have a title above and an explanatory footnote below, if needed. Units in which results are expressed should be given in parentheses at the top of each column and not repeated in each line of the table. Ditto signs are not used. Avoid overcrowding the tables and the excessive use of words. The format of tables should be in keeping with APA style; in particular, vertical lines, colored text and shading should not be used. Please be certain that the data given in tables are correct.

FIGURES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

Please upload your figures separately as images (.jpg, .tif, .gif or. eps) set at 1200 d.p.i. for line drawings and 300 d.p.i. for colour and half-tone artwork. Please note that all labels used in figures should be in upper case in the figure and the caption. Captions for figures should be typed double spaced on a separate page and include numbers corresponding to the proper figure. The journal reserves the right to reduce the size of illustrative material.
For useful information on preparing your figures for publication, go to http://cpc.cadmus.com/da.

Please contact the production editor for information about color.

Please note that all labels used in figures should be in upper case in both the figure and the caption. The journal reserves the right to reduce the size of illustrative material.

SUPPLEMENTARY DATA

Supporting material that is not essential for inclusion in the full text of the manuscript, but would nevertheless benefit the reader, can be made available by the publisher as online-only content, linked to the online manuscript. The material should not be essential to understanding the conclusions of the paper, but should contain data that are additional or complementary and directly relevant to the article content. Such information might include more detailed methods, extended data sets/data analysis, or additional figures.

It is standard practice for appendices to be made available online-only as supplementary data. All text and figures must be provided in suitable electronic formats. All material to be considered as supplementary data must be submitted at the same time as the main manuscript for peer review. Supplementary material cannot be altered or replaced after the paper has been accepted for publication, and will not be edited. Please indicate clearly all material intended as supplementary data upon submission. Also ensure that the supplementary data are referred to in the main manuscript where necessary, for example as '(see Supplementary data)' or '(see Supplementary Figure 1)'.

LANGUAGE EDITING

Particularly if English is not your first language, before submitting your manuscript you may wish to have it edited for correct usage of American English. This is not a mandatory step, but may help to ensure that the academic content of your paper is fully understood by journal editors and reviewers. Language editing does not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted for publication. If you would like information about one such service please click here. There are other specialist language editing companies that offer similar services and you can also use any of these. Authors are liable for all costs associated with such services.

ADVANCE ACCESS

Advance Access articles are published online soon after they have been accepted for publication, in advance of their appearance in a printed journal. Appearance in Advance Access constitutes official publication, and the Advance Access version can be cited by a unique DOI (Digital Object Identifier). When an article appears in an issue, it is removed from the Advance Access page.

Articles posted for Advance Access have been copyedited and typeset and any corrections included. This is before they are paginated for inclusion in a specific issue of the journal. Once an article appears in an issue, both versions of the paper continue to be accessible and citable.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

It is a condition of publication for all Oxford Journals that authors grant an exclusive license to Oxford University Press or the sponsoring Society. This ensures that requests from third parties to reproduce articles are handled efficiently and consistently and will also allow the article to be as widely disseminated as possible. No article will be published unless the signed license has been received at Oxford Journals. Faxing a copy of the form when requested will assist in the rapid publication of your article. As part of the license agreement, Authors may use their own material in other publications provided that the journal is acknowledged as the original place of publication and Oxford University Press as the Publisher. As the Author(s), copyright of the Article remains yours (or your employer’s if your employer claims copyright in your work). See here for full details of Oxford Journals' copyright policy.

Information about the Creative Commons license can be found at http://creativecommons.org/.

Author self-archiving/Public Access Policy

For information about this journal's policy, please visit our Author Self-Archiving policy page.

Oxford Journals will deposit all NIH-funded articles in PubMed Central. See http://www.oxfordjournals.org/for_authors/repositories.html for details. Authors must ensure that manuscripts are clearly indicated as NIH-funded using the guidelines above.

OFFPRINTS

Authors will receive electronic access to their paper free of charge. Printed offprints may be purchased in multiples of 50. Rates are indicated on the order form which must be returned with the proofs.

PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE FIGURES AND EXTRACTS

Permission to reproduce copyright material, for print and online publication in perpetuity, must be cleared and if necessary paid for by the author; this includes applications and payments to DACS, ARS and similar licensing agencies where appropriate. Evidence in writing that such permissions have been secured from the rights-holder must be made available to the editors. It is also the author's responsibility to include acknowledgements as stipulated by the particular institutions. Please note that obtaining copyright permission could take some time. Oxford Journals can offer information and documentation to assist authors in securing print and online permissions: please see the Guidelines for Authors section at http://www.oxfordjournals.org/access_purchase/rights_permissions.html. Should you require copies of this then please contact the editorial office of the journal in question or else the Oxford Journals Rights department. Permission to reproduce copyright material, for print and online publication in perpetuity, must be cleared and if necessary paid for by the author.

OPEN ACCESS

Authors have the option, at an additional charge, to make their paper freely available online immediately upon publication, under the Oxford Open initiative. After your manuscript is accepted, as part of the mandatory license form required of all corresponding authors, you will be asked to indicate whether or not you wish to pay to have your paper made freely available immediately. If you do not select the Open Access option, your paper will be published with standard subscription-based access and you will not be charged.

For those selecting the Open Access option, the charges for Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences vary depending on the institution at which the corresponding author is based: see http://www.oxfordjournals.org/oxfordopen/charges.html for details.

Open Access charges are in addition to any page charges and color charges that might apply.

If you choose the Open Access option you will also be asked to complete an Open Access charge form online. You will be automatically directed to the appropriate version of the form depending on whether you are based at an institution with an online subscription to Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences. Therefore, please make sure that you are using an institutional computer when accessing the form. To check whether you are based at a subscribing institution please use the Subscriber Test link for Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences.

UK VAT charges, if applicable

Orders from UK will be subject to a 15% VAT charge. For orders from the rest of the European Union, Oxford Journals will assume that the service is provided for business purposes. Please provide a VAT number for yourself or your institution and ensure you account for your own local VAT correctly.

PROOFS

Authors are sent page proofs by email. These should be checked immediately and corrections, as well as answers to any queries, returned to the publishers as an annotated PDF via email or fax within three working days (further details are supplied with the proof). It is the author's responsibility to check proofs thoroughly.