Author Guidelines

Life Course Psychology (LCP), an electronic journal, provides a forum for publishing the original research articles, review articles from contributors, and the novel technology news related to islamic educational counseling. This journal is provided for writers, teachers, students, professors, and researchers, who will publish their research reports or their literature review articles (only for invited contributors) about islamic educational counseling. Start from June 2026, this journal publishes two times a year, in June and December. All papers submitted to the journal should be written in good English.

1. General Author Guidelines

All manuscripts must be submitted to LCP Editorial Office by Online Submission at E-Journal portal address: https://journal.scidacplus.com/index.php/lcp, where author register as Author and/or offered as Reviewer by online. If authors have any problems on the online submission, please contact Editorial Office at the following email: lifecoursepsychology@gmail.com

2. Policy on the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI)

LCP allows the limited and responsible use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools for language editing, grammar correction, translation assistance, formatting assistance, and readability improvement. However, GenAI tools must not be used to replace the author’s intellectual contribution, fabricate data, create false references, manipulate research findings, generate unsupported academic claims, or produce misleading scholarly content.

Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, validity, and integrity of the submitted manuscript. Any content assisted by GenAI must be carefully reviewed, edited, and verified by the authors before submission. Authors must ensure that all data, citations, references, quotations, interpretations, and conclusions are accurate and traceable to reliable scholarly sources.

GenAI tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors because they cannot take responsibility for the submitted work, approve the final version, or be accountable for research integrity. Authorship is limited to individuals who make substantial scholarly contributions and accept responsibility for the manuscript.

If GenAI tools are used in preparing the manuscript, authors must disclose this use in the manuscript under the heading “Declaration of Generative AI Use”. The disclosure must include the name of the tool, the purpose of use, and confirmation that the authors have reviewed and verified the final content.

Manuscripts involving undisclosed, unethical, or misleading use of GenAI, including fabricated references, false data, manipulated analysis, or AI-generated content presented as original scholarly contribution, may be rejected, returned for correction, or subjected to further editorial action in accordance with the journal’s publication ethics policy.

3. Manuscript Template

The manuscript should be prepared according to the following author guidelines in the MS Word article template: https://short-url.cc/1Byqo

4. Reviewing of Manuscripts

Every submitted paper is independently reviewed by at least two peer-reviewers. The decision for publication, amendment, or rejection is based upon their reports/recommendation. If two or more reviewers consider a manuscript unsuitable for publication in this journal, a statement explaining the basis for the decision will be sent to the authors within three months of the submission date.

5. Revision of Manuscripts

Manuscripts sent back to the authors for revision should be returned to the editor without delay. Revised manuscripts can be sent to the editorial office through the Online Submission Interface (https://journal.scidacplus.com/index.php/lcp). The Revised manuscripts returned later than three months will be considered as new submissions.

6. Editorial Office of Life Course Psychology

All correspondences should be sent to the following Editorial Office:

Bela Janare Putra (Editor in Chief)

Editorial Office of LCP

Scidac Plus

Email: lifecoursepsychology@gmail.com

7. Guideline for Online Submission

The author should first register as Author and/or is offered as a Reviewer through the following address: https://journal.scidacplus.com/index.php/lcp/user/register

The author should fulfill the form as detail as possible where the star marked form must be entered. After all form textbox was filled, Author clicks on the Register button to proceed the registration. Therefore, the Author is brought to the online author submission interface where Author should click on New Submission. In the Start, a New Submission section, click on Click Here: to go to step one of the five-step submission process. The following are five steps in the online submission process:

a. Step 1 - Starting the Submission: Select the appropriate section of the journal, i.e. Original Research Articles, Review Article, or Short Communication. Thus, the author must check-mark on the submission checklists.

b. Step 2 - Uploading the Submission: To upload a manuscript to this journal, click Browse on the Upload submission file item and choose the manuscript document file to be submitted, then click the Upload button.

c. Step 3 - Entering Submissions Metadata: In this step, detail authors metadata should be entered including the marked corresponding author. After that, the manuscript title and abstract must be uploaded by copying the text and paste in the textbox including keywords.

d. Step 4 - Uploading Supplementary Files: Supplementary file should be uploaded including Covering/Submission Letter, click on the Browse button, choose the files, and then click on the Upload button.

e. Step 5 - Confirming the Submission: Author should final check the uploaded manuscript documents in this step. To submit the manuscript to LCP, click Finish Submission button after the documents are true. The corresponding author or the principal contact will receive an acknowledgment by email and will be able to view the submission's progress through the editorial process by logging in to the journal web address site.

After this submission, Authors who submit the manuscript will get a confirmation email about the submission. Therefore, Authors are able to track their submission status at any time by logging in to the online submission interface. The submission tracking includes the status of the manuscript review and editorial process.

8. User Rights

All articles published Open Access will be immediately and permanently free for everyone to read and download.  We are continuously working with our author communities to select the best choice of license options, currently being defined for this journal as follows:

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (CC BY-SA)

9. Manuscript Preparation Guidelines

9.1. General Organization of Paper

The paper will be published in the LCP after the peer-reviewed process and decided Accepted by Editor. The final paper layout will be reproduced by the Editorial Office of LCP. The final paper layout in PDF type, known as Uncorrected Proof should be corrected by Author. The final corrected proof will be published first in Article in Press pre-issue.

Manuscript content should, in general, be organized in the following order: Title; Authors Name; Authors Affiliation; Abstract; Keywords; Methods; Results and Discussion; Conclusions; Acknowledgments; Authors' Contribution; Conflicts of Interest; Funding; and References. Manuscript document submitted to this journal (in one MS Word).

9.2. Headings and Sub-headings

Use uppercase letters for the title and capitalize every word in the subtitles. The title must be in 18-point Calibri font and bold, while subtitles must be in 14-point Calibri font and bold.

9.3. Body Text

The body of the text is a set of body text paragraphs defined as follows:

The body text consists of a series of paragraphs with the following specifications:

a. Calibri Light 12 pt font

b. 1.0-line spacing (equivalent to 12 pt)

9.4. Tables

Tables are sequentially numbered with the table title and number above the table. Tables should be centered in the column OR on the page. Tables should be followed by a line space (10pt). Elements of a table should be single-spaced, however, double spacing can be used to show groupings of data or to separate parts within the table. Table headings should be in 10pt. Tables are referred to the text by the table number. eg: Table 1. Do not show the vertical line in the table. There is only a horizontal line should be shown in the table.

9.5. Figures

Figures are sequentially numbered commencing at 1 with the figure title and number below the figure as shown in Figure 1. Detailed recommendations for figures are as follows:

a. Ensure that figures are clear and legible with typed letterings.

b. Black & white or colored figures are allowed.

c. If a figure spans two columns, it should be placed at the top or bottom of a page.

d. Hard copy illustrations should, preferably, be scanned and included in the electronic version of the submission in an appropriate format as follows: BMP - Microsoft bitmap file, WMF - Windows Metafile Format, EPS - Encapsulated Postscript

e. If figures cannot be scanned, the original should be placed in its location within the manuscript using wax or colorless glue.

f. The following files are permissible: Microsoft Graph, Microsoft Draw

Figure 1 shows an included Microsoft Draw object.

9.6. Manuscript Heading, Font, and Spacing

The manuscript should be typed using word processors (Microsoft Word or Open Office) software. The font used throughout the paper Calibri Light. The paper size is A4 (i.e., 210 x 297 mm), one-column format with a 3 cm margin at the top, a 3 cm margin at the bottom, 3 cm margin on the left, and 3 cm margin on the right. The manuscript preferably not more than 15 pages. Page numbers should be included in the text located in the footer section of each page. Use of pronouns such as I, we etc is to be avoided.

Manuscript submitted to this journal should follow the heading below, except for the review article: Title; Authors Name; Authors Affiliation; Abstract; Keywords; Introduction, Methods; Results and Discussion; Conclusions; Acknowledgments; Authors' Contribution; Conflicts of Interest; Funding; and  References.

9.7. Paper Title

This is your opportunity to attract the reader's attention. Remember that readers are the potential authors who will cite your article. Identify the main issue of the paper. Begin with the subject of the paper. The title should be accurate, unambiguous, specific, and complete. Do not contain infrequently-used abbreviations.

The title of the paper should be in 18 pt bold Calibri Light and be centered.

9.8. Authors Name and Affiliations

Write the author's name without professional titles or positions such as Prof., Dr., Production Manager, etc. Do not abbreviate the surname or family name; always provide the full first name and surname. State clear affiliations for all authors. Affiliations must include the university name and country. Please mark the Corresponding Author (and include their email address) by adding an asterisk (*) in superscript format after their name.

Author names must be written in 10 pt Calibri Light font; author affiliations must be written in 10 pt Calibri Light font.

9.9. Abstract and Keywords

The abstract should stand alone, meaning that there is no citation in the abstract. Consider it the advertisement for your article. The abstract should tell the prospective reader what you did and highlight the key findings. Avoid using technical jargon and uncommon abbreviations. You must be accurate, brief, clear and specific. Use words which reflect the precise meaning, Abstract should be precise and honest. Please follow word limitations (150-200 words).

Keywords are the labels of your manuscript and critical to correct indexing and searching. Therefore the keywords should represent the content and highlight of your article. Use only those abbreviations that are firmly established in the field. e.g. DNA. Each word/phrase in keyword should be separated by comma (,).

9.10. Introduction

In Introduction, Authors should state the objectives of the work at the end of the introduction section. Before the objective, Authors should provide an adequate background, and very short literature survey in order to record the existing solutions/method, to show which is the best of previous research, to show the main limitation of the previous research, to show what do you hope to achieve (to solve the limitation), and to show the scientific merit or novelties of the paper. Avoid a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.

9.11. Methods

Methods should make readers be able to reproduce the experiment. Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described. Do not repeat the details of established methods.

9.12. Results and Discussion

Results should be clear and concise. The results should summarize (scientific) findings rather than providing data in great detail. Please highlight differences between your results or findings and the previous publications by other researchers.

The discussion should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.

In the discussion, it is the most important section of your article. Here you get the chance to sell your data. Make the discussion corresponding to the results, but do not reiterate the results. Often should begin with a brief summary of the main scientific findings (not experimental results). The following components should be covered in the discussion: How do your results relate to the original question or objectives outlined in the Introduction section (what)? Do you provide interpretation scientifically for each of your results or findings presented (why)? Are your results consistent with what other investigators have reported (what else)? Or are there any differences?

9.13. Conclusions

Conclusions should answer the objectives of the research. Tells how your work advances the field from the present state of knowledge. Without clear Conclusions, reviewers and readers will find it difficult to judge the work, and whether or not it merits publication in the journal. Do not repeat the Abstract, or just list experimental results. Provide a clear scientific justification for your work, and indicate possible applications and extensions. You should also suggest future experiments and/or point out those that are underway.

9.14. Acknowledgment

You may wish to thank those who have supported you and your work.
Acknowledgments should be provided only for research funding, grants, scholarships, or educational sponsorships. Authors must clearly state the name of the funding institution and include the research grant number, scholarship number, or relevant funding reference number, if available. If the research was not funded by any institution or scholarship provider, the Acknowledgments section should be omitted.

9.15. Conflict of Interest Statement

Authors must disclose any financial, personal, professional, or institutional conflicts of interest that could have influenced the research or its publication. If no conflicts exist, please state accordingly. 

a. Example (No Conflict of Interest):

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this article.

b. Example (With Conflict of Interest):

The authors declare a potential conflict of interest due to their professional relationship with the funding organization. This relationship did not influence the research process or the reported findings.

9.16. References

Cite the main scientific publications on which your work is based. Cite only items that you have read. Do not inflate the manuscript with too many references. Avoid excessive self-citations. Avoid excessive citations of publications from the same region. Check each reference against the original source (authors name, volume, issue, year, DOI Number). Please use Reference Manager Applications like EndNote, Mendeley, Zotero, etc. Use other published articles in the same journal as models.

a. Reference Manager Applications

All publications cited in the text should be included as a list of references. References are sequentially numbered as they appear in the text. Reference numbers are indicated in square brackets. Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list but may be mentioned in the text. If these references are included in the reference list they should follow the standard reference style of the journal and should include a substitution of the publication date with either Unpublished results or Personal communication. Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication.

Write a reference list alphabetically and chronologically. A reference is a list of references/references, not a bibliography, thus it must contain all the sources referred to in the text; does not need to contain unassigned sources. The bibliography contains all references in the text that come from sources that are (a) relevant, (b) at least 80% are the latest research (last 10 years), and (c) at least 80% are primary research, especially from journals. article). Reference refers to the American Psychological Association (APA) 7th Year 2020 http://www.apastyle.org/pubmanual.html. It is recommended that writers who will submit manuscripts use the following reference tools: Mendeley, Grammarly, EndNote and Zootero.

b. Example:

Amylia, Y., & Surjaningrum, E. (2014). Hubungan antara Persepsi Dukungan Sosial dengan Tingkat Kecemasan pada Penderita Leukemia. Jurnal Psikologi Klinis dan Kesehatan Mental, 3(02). Google Scholar

Nevid, J. S., Rathus, S. A., & Greene, B. (2003). Abnormal psychology in a changing world. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall. Google Scholar

Anggi Jatmiko. (2022). Bimbingan Karier Sebagai Upaya Menumbuhkan Nilai-Nilai Kewirausahaan Islami Di Pondok Pesantren Enterpreneur Ad Dhuha Pajangan Bantul. Sociocouns: Journal of Islamic Guidance and Counseling, 2(1), 69–82. https://doi.org/10.35719/sjigc.v2i1.13