Table of contents
1. How to submit papers
Papers should be saved in .docx format and submitted online here. As papers are subject to a peer-review process, they must be anonymous, this means not include any reference to the author (see section 2.1).
Please read the information contained in sections 2 and 3 before submitting your paper.
Submission of a paper implies acceptance of the terms and conditions set out in this guide. In the case of e-mail submissions, all forms filled in and duly signed should be attached, as well as your CV.
2. General and editorial criteria
2.1 General criteria
Papers may be submitted in Italian or English.
When submitting a manuscript, authors, by compiling the online form, state that:
1. the content of the paper does not violate copyright laws in any way;
2. the paper does not contain any defamatory topic or content;
3. they agree, in case of acceptance of the paper, to sign a copyright transfer agreement;
4. parts or the main subject of the paper have never been published before, and that they are not under consideration for publication anywhere else (see below for further information);
5. the privacy of patients is protected by proven security measures;
6. they have obtained consent to submit and provide statements on behalf of any other authors of the paper;
7. they have read and agree to the conditions of the “Information on the processing of personal data” available at this link.
Metapsychologica is pleased to accept original contributions related to Freudian psychoanalysis, offering a scientific, multidisciplinary and rationalistic approach. Experts from non-psychoanalytic disciplines are therefore welcome to submit their contributions, as long as psychoanalysis is an essential element in the argument.
Any paper previously published in reviews, reports, bulletins or other publications, or presented at conferences by companies, associations or other entities – intended exclusively for internal use -should not be considered as already published. Therefore, such papers may only be accepted for publication in Metapsychologica if the copyright belongs to the author or the author obtains permission from the owner. Papers previously published in other languages will only be considered if a proper translation in English or Italian is provided.
Papers submitted anonymously will go through a review process. Once the paper is accepted, authors might be asked to make certain changes. The modified version will be checked and might be proposed for publication. In case the paper is rejected, the journal will waive rights to the paper and to its publication.
To ensure anonymity throughout the review process, the author’s identity should not be recognizable in the text. Authors are therefore requested to pay attention to any personal details that might reveal the author’s identity. You may write, for example, “author x” and a numerical code (e.g. date of printing) when it is necessary to refer to the author. The same attention should be paid when drafting the bibliography. Should the paper be accepted, the necessary changes will be made to include the author’s details in the bibliography.
2.2 Content of papers
Papers must be understandable and written in a style consistent with the topics covered.
The number of words must be mentioned in the presentation of the paper. The maximum length is 13,000 words for manuscripts in Italian and 12,000 words for papers written in English (not including abstract and bibliography).
Authors are not required to include, in the bibliography, all psychoanalytic concepts used and studied, unless they are necessary for the drafting of a critical review paper. The works cited should only be those essential for understanding the paper.
The objective of the paper should be clearly stated in the introduction. Authors are required to clearly place the paper in context within the scientific framework, and to explain how they intend to develop their arguments.
In the event of papers about clinical cases, as well as in the event of occasional reference to clinical cases, authors should protect the anonymity of the subjects, specifying the measures taken to protect privacy. Such information may be included in a cover letter accompanying the paper and will not be part of the final work. Informed consent, obtained from patients, should also be sent to the editorial board in the same way.
Interdisciplinary papers should provide a strong argumentative basis with respect to all disciplines covered.
If authors make use of previously published material (photographs, quotations, aphorisms, etc.), they are responsible for obtaining permission from the owner of the rights and provide proof of the permission to the editorial board.
3. General editorial information
3.1 Text formatting
Use Times New Roman font, size 12, for the text, including headings. Use size 11 for longer quotations. Use size 10 for footnotes.
Use double line spacing for footnotes and quotations too. Do not use indentation for paragraphs.
Do not use page breaks.
Do not use different styles within the document, not even for section headings. Do not use colours in fonts.
No hyphenation in the text, footnotes or bibliography.
Never underline text or use bold.
Add emphasis to a word or short phrase by putting it in italics. Use of italics should be kept to a minimum. Italics should also be used for titles of books and works of all kinds, essays and encyclopedia or dictionary entries. Use Roman type, in inverted commas («») for parts or sections of books.
When indicating page or verse numbers, write all the numbers, not just those that change: 122-123 and not 122-3 or 122-23.
Section headings should be numbered in decimal form, according to the ISO standard, as follows:
1. First-level heading
1.1 Second-level heading
1.1.1 Third-level heading
Subsections beyond third level are not recommended. Do not use styles for headings. Do not use full stops after headings.
Use double spacing before and single spacing after headings.
Place page numbers at the bottom right of the page.
Footnotes are placed at the bottom of the page and in sequential Arabic numerals. Set footnote font size at 10. Place footnote numbers immediately after punctuation or closing brackets.
Tables, figures, photographs and diagrams should be kept to the minimum required by the subject matter of the paper. This material should be submitted in separate files, and their position indicated in the text, with the relevant caption.
You should provide your graphic files in vector format at a resolution suitable for printing.
Papers in English may be submitted provided that vocabulary, spelling and punctuation are consistent within the paper and in accordance with the major English language dictionaries (e.g. Oxford English Dictionary).
3.2 Quotations
Quotations should be carefully checked for accuracy and the page number of the original source should be provided. For quotations longer than three/four lines use a smaller font size (Times New Roman 11), separated from the text by a blank line before the beginning of the quote and a blank line after (the body of the text and the opening paragraph should not be indented). Short quotations, inserted into the text (i.e. three lines or less), should be placed in French quotation marks, also known as “guillemets” («»). Use double quotation marks (“ ”) when you have a quotation within a quotation, and single quotation marks when you have sub-quotations. Quotations must identical to the original. Omissions from the quoted material must be marked by three dots within square brackets (i.e. […]), and any modification of the original text – additions, change to upper or lower case, etc. – should be inserted in square brackets.
The bibliography of quotations should be placed in the footnotes in a simplified form, indicating the author’s name, (year), work, and page number (see the relevant section). The first time the work is cited, indicate the author’s name, the year (in round brackets), the title and the page cited. For subsequent quotations, use only the author’s name, year and page. If reference is made to the same work cited in the immediately preceding footnote, you can use the word ibid. followed by the page number. Use the word ibid. when the quotation refers to the same page as well.
For Freud’s quotations, you must use the Standard Edition for the works of Freud in English, and Boringhieri for the works of Freud in Italian, according to the following criteria.
3.3 Abstract
Papers must be preceded by an abstract in Italian and English, no longer than 200 words.
Abstracts should be printed on a separate page at the beginning of the paper and must contain the central thesis and your main supporting arguments. Abstracts are extremely important and authors are required to prepare them with the utmost care, since they will be used in the pre-evaluation process of their work. Therefore, it is essential that abstracts are faithful to the paper and illustrate its main ideas. It is also necessary to provide a high quality translation. Keywords should be provided in Italian and English. The editorial staff reserve the right to make any change, if deemed necessary.
3.4 Citations in footnotes
Bibliography entries of cited excerpts or works referred to, should be included in the footnotes, they are specific to the Journal and therefore deviate from the APA standard. They must appear as follows:
– Author’s last name followed by a comma, initials of first name in Roman type. If there is more than one author, use commas to separate the names;
– Date of publication in round brackets, followed by a comma;
– Title of the work in italics;
– Reference to the page (p.) or pages (pp.).
Bibliographic citations must be preceded by:
1) no introductory abbreviations when quoting excerpts or portions from the work referred to;
2) cf. (compare) when, instead of quoting, you broadly paraphrase or reconstruct meanings or intentions;
3) see, for general references.
Examples:
Author, A. (Date), Title, pp. 1-3.
Author, A., Author, B. (Date), Title, pp. 1-3.
The second time the work is cited, simply mention the Author, year and page, without repeating the title. If you refer to the same work in two or more footnotes that immediately follow, use ibid. followed by the page number or ibid. (in Roman type) from the second citation on. Please note that ibid. is used to refer to the same place or page within a work cited in the immediately preceding footnote, and ibid. followed by the page number is used to refer to the same place with a different page:
1. Freud, S. (1913), p. 23.
2. Ibid., p. 17.
3. Ibid.
Follow the same method when citing papers, in footnotes the citation of the source is always simplified.
3.5 General bibliography
The bibliography must be placed at the end of the essay and should provide full reference to the works cited in the text. It should not include reference to sources not cited in the text. Presence in the bibliography must be justified according to the criteria set out above. When drafting your bibliography, use APA format, except for the works of Freud.
List authors in alphabetical order, with their works in chronological order of publication.
Each contributor must carefully draft their bibliography according to APA criteria.
Example of citations:
– Monographs
Airoldi, G., Brunetti, G., & Coda, V. (2007). Corso di economia aziendale. il Mulino.
– Published volumes
Hinchliffe, L. J. (2008). Future of information literacy. In C. N. Cox & L. E. Blakesley (Cur.), Information literacy instruction handbook (pp. 230-235). ACRL.
– Journals
McCauley, S. M., & Christiansen, M. H. (2019). Language learning as language use: A cross-linguistic model of child language development. Psychological Review, 126(1), 1–51. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000126
Use abbreviations in Italian for papers written in Italian, and abbreviations in English for papers written in English.
3.6 Citing works by Sigmund Freud
Citations of Sigmund Freud’s works in the bibliography must always refer to the “The Standard Edition” (SE) in English and to the Bollati Boringhieri edition (OSF) in Italian.
Citations should be in the following format, for English and Italian respectively:
Freud, S. (date). Title of work, SE volume number in arabic numeral.
Freud, S. (date). Title of work, OSF volume number in roman numeral.
Freud, S. (1926). Psycho-analysis, SE 20.
Freud, S. (1926). Psicoanalisi, OSF X.
However, use the simplified version for citations of Freud’s works in the footnotes – Author, date, Title, page – as shown below:
Freud, S. (1926), Psycho-analysis, p. 33.
Freud, S. (1926), Psicoanalisi, p. 33.
Works of Freud not included in these editions, or his correspondence, should be listed in the bibliography according to the APA standard, like other authors.
3.7 More general information
For any further information not included in the above list, please visit the journal’s website: www.metapsychologica.it.
As a rule, the texts cited should correspond to the versions consulted and used by the contributors.
Files should be sent in docx format.
Complex characters that may not allow printing, should be removed. Any mathematical formulas should be provided as image files that can easily be inserted in the text.
4. The peer-review process
4.1 Revision process of the papers
The editorial staff of Metapsychologica reserve the right to reject any essay deemed unsuitable for publication in the journal.
When the editorial staff receive a paper, they make an initial assessment regarding compliance with the editorial rules (footnotes, bibliography, composition, presence of an abstract in two languages, general subject matter, anonymity of the author, etc.). All papers that do not meet such standards may be rejected or the author may be asked to make the formal changes required to meet the standards of the Journal.
Once the papers have been accepted, they are subject to a peer-review process.
At the end of this process, the paper may be accepted, conditionally accepted or rejected. The author may be required to review the content or format of the paper. The final version of the paper will then be further assessed.
4.2 Duty of confidentiality to authors
No information regarding the essays will be disclosed without the author’s consent. The editorial staff of Metapsychologica will treat all papers received as confidential and with the utmost discretion.
During the assessment process, the following persons have access to the paper:
1. editors and editorial staff;
2. external evaluators and reviewers;
3. third parties (details relating to a paper may only be disclosed to third parties without the author’s permission if there is a serious and well-founded ethical concern about the accuracy of the research).
4.3 Appealing Editorial staff decisions
The management team has final say on acceptance of papers. The decisions of the editorial staff may be discussed with the management team, but should be considered final in the first place.
5. After paper acceptance
5.1 Proofreading
Once accepted, the final version of the paper must be submitted. Authors must provide a work as correct as possible from the point of view of format, content, compliance with editorial rules and consistency with the standards used for the bibliography. Once their work has been formatted, authors are required to correct the proofs in PDF format. When proofreading, authors should use annotations standardized for this process.
Failure to comply with the editorial criteria may result in the exclusion of the paper.
The deadline for proofreading is agreed between the author and the editorial office.
Major changes to the text are not allowed during the proofreading stage. The revision should mainly concern typos or layout issues. Authors must pay special attention to ensure that their papers are as error-free as possible.
Major changes must be approved in writing by the editorial staff. Any changes to the structure of papers, requested by authors, will not be possible once papers enter the publication process.
All authors are fully responsible for the content of their papers. Therefore, papers can only be published with the author’s explicit consent provided during the final proofreading process. Therefore, authors must inform the editorial staff of any dates during which they are unable to participate in the content review and proofreading process.
5.2 Copyright assignment form
Authors are required to sign a Copyright Assignment Form (CAF) for all papers accepted for publication. Copyright assignment is an essential prerequisite, papers will not be sent to the publisher unless the author has signed and sent the CAF to the editorial staff. The form can be downloaded here.
5.3 Publication offprints
Authors will be supplied with three hard copies of the journal, and a pdf file of their paper.
Last revision July 30th 2021, © Scuola di Psicanalisi Freudiana