The Journal of Vocational Behavior publishes empirical, methodological, and theoretical articles that expand knowledge about vocational choice and vocational adjustment across the life span. Studies of vocational choice examine topics such as theories of career choice; occupational interests; the relation of abilities, needs, values, interests, and personality to occupational aspirations and the career decision-making process; vocational development tasks and stages; the effects of culture, demographic variables, and experiential factors on decision making and indecision; career maturity; occupational stereotyping; career exploration; and job search. Studies of vocational adjustment investigate topics such as job performance and success; job satisfaction; theories of work adjustment; occupational stress and strain; adult vocational development and career patterns; organizational commitment and job involvement; multiple role management; work-role salience; work-leisure relations; midlife career change; occupational reentry; and transition from work to retirement. The journal also publishes articles that deal with career theory and with career intervention. Psychometric research is also emphasized, particularly manuscripts that report the construction and initial validation of new instruments but also studies that evaluate the reliability and validity of instruments that measure central concepts in vocational choice and adjustment. Manuscripts that deal with validation of theoretical constructs, developments in instrumentation and research methodology, evaluation of programs and interventions, and methodological and measurement issues related to choice and adjustment are also published. Studies of organizational behavior and of variables more highly related to the welfare of organizations than to that of the individual ordinarily will not be considered.

There are no submission fees or page charges. Each manuscript should be accompanied by a letter outlining the basic findings of the paper and their significance. Submissions will be reviewed by the editor, Mark L. Savickas.

Journal Editorial Office contact information:

Journal of Vocational Behavior
Editorial Office
525 B Street, Suite 1900
San Diego, CA 92101-4495, USA
Telephone: (619) 699-6297; Fax: (619) 699-6855
E-mail: jvb@elsevier.com

Submission of Manuscripts

Manuscripts must be written in English and submitted electronically via EES, the Elsevier Editorial system for tracking manuscripts.

Authors are requested to submit their papers electronically by using online manuscript submission available at http://ees.elsevier.com/jvb. This site will guide authors stepwise through the submission process. Authors can upload their articles as Microsoft (MS) Word, LaTeX or WordPerfect files. It is also possible to submit an article in PostScript (.PS) or Adobe Acrobat PDF format, but if the article is accepted, the original source files will be needed. If you submit a word processing file, the system generates an Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the article, which is used for the reviewing process. Authors, reviewers, and editors send and receive all correspondence by e-mail and no paper correspondence is necessary.

Please note that JVB has a blind peer-review process, and thus a cover letter to the editor, title page (including complete author contact information), and blind manuscript are all required for review in JVB. Tables and figures should be uploaded as separate attachments (DOC, EPS, TIF, etc.) and also should not have any author-identifying matter, as they will be used for review.

Manuscripts of all lengths are published, from brief notes to monographs. Brief notes on methodology, instrumentation, or a replication study will be considered for publication. Authors are encouraged to integrate the results from a series of closely related studies into one longer manuscript rather than submit several shorter manuscripts reporting each study separately. Investigators may submit monographs to report results from a program of research. However, authors should obtain permission from the editor before submitting manuscripts longer than 30 double-spaced, typewritten pages.

Manuscripts are accepted for review with the understanding that no substantial portion of the study has been published or is under consideration for publication elsewhere and that its submission for publication has been approved by all of the authors and by the institution where the work was carried out; further, that any person cited as a source of personal communications has approved such citation. Written authorization may be required at the editor's discretion. Articles and any other materials published in the Journal of Vocational Behavior represent the opinions of the author(s) and should not be construed to reflect the opinions of the editor(s) or the publisher. Manuscripts that do not meet the general criteria or standards for publication in Journal of Vocational Behavior will be immediately returned to the authors, without detailed review.

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to transfer copyright (for more information on copyright, see http://www.elsevier.com/authors). This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. A letter will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript. A form facilitating transfer of copyright will be provided after acceptance. If material from the other copyrighted works is included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases: contact Elsevier Global Rights Department, P.O. Box 800, Oxford OX5 1DX, UK; phone: (+44) 1865 843830, fax: (+44) 1865 853333, e-mail: permissions@elsevier.com.

Preparation of Manuscript

Authors should follow the instructions given in the fifth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Manuscripts that do not adhere to these guidelines may be returned without benefit of editorial review. Manuscripts should be double-spaced throughout. Pages should be numbered consecutively and organized as follows:

The title page (p. 1) should contain the article title, authors' names and complete affiliations, footnotes to the title, and the address for manuscript correspondence (including e-mail address and telephone and fax numbers). Authors should not place their names on the manuscript itself.

The abstract (p. 2) must be a single paragraph that summarizes the main findings of the paper in less than 150 words. After the abstract a list of up to 10 keywords that will be useful for indexing or searching should be included.

References should be cited in the text by author's surname and the year of publication, e.g., Holland (1985); Super et al. (1963); Lofquist and Dawis (1984, p. 224; for references to a specific page). If a reference has more than two authors, the citation includes the surnames of all authors at the first mention, but later citations of the same reference include only the surname of the first author and the abbreviation "et al." Suffixes should be used following the date to distinguish two or more works by the same author(s) in the same year (e.g., Roe, 1979a, 1979b). Literature citations in the bibliography should be typed double-spaced and arranged alphabetically according to the surname of the author. Journal titles should be written out in full rather than abbreviated. Only articles that have been published or are in press should be included in the references. Unpublished results or personal communications should be cited as such in the text. Please note the following examples.

Hedges, L. V., & Olkin, J. (1985). Statistical methods for meta-analysis. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.

Highhouse, S. (2001). Judgment and decision making research: Relevance to industrial and organizational psychology. In N. Anderson, D. S. Ones, H. K. Sinangil, & C. Viswesvaran (Eds.), Handbook of industrial, work, and organizational psychology (pp. 253-286). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Vondracek, F. W., & Porfeli, E. (2002). Integrating person- and function-centered approaches in career development theory and research. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 61, 386-397.

Figures. Number figures consecutively with Arabic numerals. Please visit our Web site at http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions for detailed instructions on preparing electronic artwork.

Color Figures. Color illustrations can be accepted only if the authors defray the cost. However, if together with your accepted article, you submit usable color figures, then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in color on the Web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version. For color reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the cost from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions. Please note: Because of technical complications that can arise in converting color figures to "gray scale" (for the printed version should you not opt for color in print), please submit in addition usable black-and-white prints corresponding to all the color illustrations.

Tables should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals in order of their appearance in the text. Type each table double-spaced on a separate page with a short descriptive title typed directly above and with essential footnotes below.

Preparation of Supplementary Material

Elsevier now accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer additional possibilities for publishing supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound clips, and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect (http://www.sciencedirect.com). To ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please provide the data in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should submit the material in electronic format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. Please note, however, that supplementary material will not appear in the printed journal. For more detailed instructions, please refer to http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions, and then view the information on "Multimedia files."

PDF proofs will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author. To avoid delay in publication, only necessary changes should be made, and proofs should be returned promptly.

Reprints

Twenty-five (25) reprints of each article will be provided to the corresponding author free of charge. Additional reprints may be ordered.


NIH voluntary posting policy
US National Institutes of Health (NIH) voluntary posting (" Public Access") policy
Elsevier facilitates author response to the NIH voluntary posting request (referred to as the NIH "Public Access Policy", see http://www.nih.gov/about/publicaccess/index.htm) by posting the peer-reviewed author's manuscript directly to PubMed Central on request from the author, 12 months after formal publication. Upon notification from Elsevier of acceptance, we will ask you to confirm via e-mail (by e-mailing us at NIHauthorrequest@elsevier.com) that your work has received NIH funding and that you intend to respond to the NIH policy request, along with your NIH award number to facilitate processing. Upon such confirmation, Elsevier will submit to PubMed Central on your behalf a version of your manuscript that will include peer-review comments, for posting 12 months after formal publication. This will ensure that you will have responded fully to the NIH request policy. There will be no need for you to post your manuscript directly with PubMed Central, and any such posting is prohibited.