Please follow the guidelines found in this document carefully before making a submission for publication. The editorial staff may decline to accept any submissions in significant discord with these guidelines. Editors will modify manuscripts in accordance with house style.

Article Types

Research papers. The Journal of Applied Companion Animal Behavior (JACAB) publishes original papers dealing with companion animal behavior describing research carried out by the author(s). Papers may represent qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods papers based on field (nonlaboratory) studies, laboratory studies, case studies or theoretical works. Research papers should aim for 4 - 20 pages single-spaced with an abstract of less than 250 words and full list of references cited.

Review articles. Preference will be given to articles that review research in a topic in such a way that new knowledge is developed or new questions answered as opposed to just presenting a description of literature. Interdisciplinary syntheses are particularly welcomed. This article type includes simple reviews of topics also. We are interested in publishing useful and interesting review articles on topics related to companion animal behavior. Review papers should aim for 6 - 20 pages single-spaced with full list of references cited.

Commentaries. These articles are on issues of general importance to the study of companion animal behavior or the profession of animal training and behavior consulting. Specifically it may include but is not limited to topics such as methodologies of research, ethics issues, new training plans, class set-ups, liability issues, sports, business practices, free-range behavior patterns. Articles that are not reviews or research papers should generally be shorter at about 4 - 14 pages single-spaced without an abstract. If you have something important to say to animal behavior professionals we want to help get that to them.

Critique articles. Critique articles offer the opportunity to critically evaluate published articles or books. The critique should be constructive and portray the arguments of the critiqued article accurately. The author should provide contact information for the critiqued author so that a rebuttal may be requested to appear with the critique. The Editor will judge whether the critique is fair and solely constructive and will only be accepted if it is so. The author should provide a copy of the critiqued article along with their submission. If a book is being critiqued the editor may request a loan of this book so that the Editor and reviewers assigned to the article can evaluate whether the article is constructive and acceptable. If an author of the critiqued material cannot be contacted the Editor will decide whether the article is to be accepted without opportunity for rebuttal. If they can be contacted then they will receive from the Editor a copy of the article and be given reasonable time to provide a response and that shall appear immediately following the critique paper. Critique articles should generally be less than 3 - 14 pages single-spaced without an abstract but with a full list of references cited.

Short Communications. Short communications are brief 1 to 6 page essays on some topic in dog training. They are generally not as in depth as other articles but should still be written well and sources cited appropriately.

These are general guidelines. If you have an essay idea that does not fit neatly into one of these categories that is not likely a problem. In that case just email us and ask for guidance.

Submissions

Articles must be submitted via email to the Managing Editor. The author should include separately a cover letter and the article as well as any letters of permission required for extensive quotes (500 words or more), borrowed tables, figures or illustrations etc. The cover letter should include the following information:

Title of article
Full name of author with appropriate credential letters after name
Institutional affiliation if any
Phone number with area code
Email address
Mailing address
Abstract (if research article)

The article itself should not contain the author’s identity.

The Editorial and Review Process

Upon submission, the Editor will confirm receipt of the article. The Editor will then review the article for basic acceptability. If it is unacceptable or needs revision, the Editor will inform the author of this and what needs to be modified for acceptability. If the article is found acceptable on the face of it, the Editor will assign the article (without author identity) to two (2) reviewers based on a match between the complimenting expertise of the reviewers and the topic of the article. The reviewers will have two (2) weeks in which to review the article. If the reviewer determines that that article is unacceptable they will write guidelines for making it acceptable or recommend declining. Reasons for declining an article may include but are not limited to unethical research methods, unethical statements, serious flaws of reasoning (including statistical flaws), significant departures from academic writing style or proper grammar, inappropriate topic. This will be delivered to the Editor who will review the comments and article. The Editor takes the reviewer’s comments into consideration and writes a formal response to the author informing them of changes they require for a revision, or of its rejection or acceptance. The author may appeal a rejection to the Editor who will take the counter-argument of the author into consideration, consult the reviewers and others in the editorial staff as needed to make a final determination. The Editor may uphold the rejection, overturn the rejection, and accept the article (with or without further revision requests) or assign it fresh to another reviewer or reviewers. Only one appeal may be made per article and the decision of the Editor is final. Resubmitted articles after a request for changes should be accompanied by a letter explaining how the reviewers’ and Editor’s comments have been addressed in the resubmitted version. Final, accepted versions will be emailed to the author in PDF. Authors should approve and discuss any necessary last minute changes with the Editor within 48 hours.

By submitting an article the author guarantees that the work is original, has not been published elsewhere (including on the internet), and is not plagiarized in any way. Exceptions can be made. Discuss this with the Editor.

Submitted and approved articles become the copyright property of JACAB

Articles should conform to American Psychological Association Style Guidelines. A copy of the Publications Manual can be purchased at <http://www.apastyle.org/>. See below for details.

File formats

Rich Text Format (.rtf), and Word (.doc) are appropriate format for submissions. Illustrations, figures, tables and photographs (in black and white) may be submitted in .jpg or .jpeg format and should be 300dpi resolution. Do not submit in .pdf format. Illustrations, figures, tables and photographs should be submitted inserted directly into the text in the appropriate places.

Copyright

Articles are accepted based on the understanding that they are only submitted to JACAB and not to other journals or to magazines, newsletters or other publications. Copyright of the article including the right to reproduce the article in any and all forms and media, shall be assigned exclusively to JACAB. The transfer of copyright is said to take place when the manuscript it accepted for publication. Authors will be emailed a PDF offprint of their article which they may print a maximum of 25 times. Further offprint permissions may be purchased at $4 per offprint. Offprints may be used for distribution to colleagues or potential employers or certifiers but may not be used for publications including but not limited to web sites, or newsletters and may not be sold. For other use of the material, authors require written permission from the Publisher.

Disclaimer

No responsibility is assumed by the Publisher, JACAB, Editors or Reviewers for any injury and or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in JACAB.

Ethical Treatment of Animals in Research

This is the stance of The Journal of Applied Companion Animal Behavior on the use of animals in research

Animals should not be harmed in the study of their behavior. The Journal of Applied Companion Animal Behavior recognizes a higher standard of ethical responsibility to the rights of animals under scientific investigation than is common. Full informed consent should also be secured from guardians of any animal used in any study. With regards to harm, broadly speaking, an animal is harmed if he is caused distress or physical harm. All reasonable precautions are to be taken to prevent the causing of harm to any animals. The Journal of Applied Companion Animal Behavior will not publish essays based on research carried out by the authors or those under their direction that caused harm to the subjects.

Submission Format Guidelines

• All manuscripts should be single spaced, left aligned.
• Use numbered lines where available (available in Word).
• Use Times or Times New Roman font at 12 point size.
• 1-inch margins on all sides.
• Page numbering should be included
• Indent each new paragraph
• Use only single spaces between sentences.
• First level headings should be capitals for first letter of each main word and centered
• Second level headings should be capitals for first letter of each main word, centered and italicized.
• Third level headings should be capitals for first letter of each main word, align left and italicized.
• Try to keep heading concise with as few levels as is required.
• List of references cited should be in accordance with APA style guidelines.
• Author’s names should be read first name, middle initial(s) and last name, followed by any credential letters as appropriate.
• Level of authorship should be reflected in the order of the names in the manuscript, ranked from primary to lesser authorships in descending order.
• Identify the corresponding author with address and email address below affiliations.
• Abstract should be less than 250 words and should outline the purpose, the major findings and a statement of the main conclusion.
• In “methods” section include information on how ethical considerations were taken into account and managed where there may be any question as to whether animals may have been put in harms way.
• Ensure legends to figures or tables include all necessary information to understand them.
• Avoid footnotes.

Managing Editor: James O’Heare, info@iiacab.com