Psynopsis Editorial Guidelines

Submission Requirements

  • Submissions should be saved as MS Word documents and submitted to the Managing Editor at psynopsis@cpa.ca.
  • Articles must be 400-900 words in length (unless otherwise indicated) and should be written in language that is interesting, appropriate, and accessible to a broad audience.*
  • All articles must be original (reprints are not accepted).
  • Capitalization and spelling should follow Canadian Press standards.
  • References should be listed in numerical order as they appear in the text (in superscript). The full listing following the article should be in APA style.
  • Photos for which the author has rights may be submitted as JPEG or PNG files with captions to accompany articles.

*Psynopsis is not an academic journal. Articles written in an academic style will not be accepted. Note, however, that an article published in Psynopsis cannot typically be re-written in an academic style and then also submitted to a peer-reviewed journal since, the publication in Psynopsis, will likely be considered already published work. There may be value in reformatting a peer-reviewed article for publication in Psynopsis, one written to reach Psynopsis’ more lay audience. However, If the Psynopsis submission is a rewrite of an article already published in a peer reviewed journal, the author needs to be sure they have the journal’s permission to publish the material in a Psynopis-style format.

Editorial Decisions

The Editor in Chief is ultimately responsible for the content of each issue. The Editorial Team includes the Managing Editor, the Editor in Chief, and may include one or more Guest Editors. Solicited and unsolicited articles must meet the submission requirements of Psynopsis and are chosen for publication based on a number of factors including, but not limited to, the relevance of the article to the issue’s theme, the number of pages available in each issue, the number of articles on any given topic, the length of the article, the style of the article, and the quality of writing. The responsibility to ensure that all submitted articles comply with the submission requirements of Psynopsis rests with the Managing Editor.

The issues of Psynopsis are usually themed and, more often than not, are led by Guest Editors.  When an issue does have a Guest Editor, reviews, revisions, and decisions about the publication of articles relevant to an issue’s theme are made by the Guest Editor with input from the rest of the Editorial Team, as may be appropriate. Review, revision, and decisions about the publication of articles unrelated to an issue’s theme are always the responsibility of the Managing Editor and/or Editor in Chief. When an issue of Psynopsis does not have a Guest Editor, reviews, revisions, and decisions about the publication of all articles are made by the remaining members of the Editorial Team.

Both unsolicited submissions and submissions that have been solicited by a member of the Editorial Team may be accepted with revisions. The Editor in Chief, a Guest Editor and/or the Managing Editor reserve the right to reject any solicited or unsolicited submission. All authors will be notified once a publication decision has been reached and given the opportunity to review changes made, if any.

Authors of accepted articles will be required to sign a publication rights form, signing-over publication/copyrights to the CPA, which retains copyright of Psynopsis. The opinions expressed in any article published therein by anyone other than an officer, director, or employee of the CPA are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the CPA, its officers, directors, or employees.

Complaints and Appeals

Psynopsis is a publication of the CPA, and as such, it is responsible to the CPA membership through the Board of Directors. The Board has delegated authority for the publication of Psynopsis to the Editor in Chief who is responsible for each issue. The day-to-day operations of Psynopsis are the responsibility of the Managing Editor.

Anyone wishing to question a decision or to forward a complaint can do so in writing to the Editor in Chief. If the complaint is not resolved to the satisfaction of the complainant, an appeal can be made in writing to the President of the CPA.

Editorial Team

Editor in Chief Dr. Karen R. Cohen executiveoffice@cpa.ca
Managing Editor Ms. Christy Savage psynopsis@cpa.ca
Guest Editor(s) Varies with Issue psynopsis@cpa.ca