Human Systems
Therapy, Culture and AttachmentsCounselling Psychology
This Journal aims to extend the conceptual and theoretical underpinnings of human systems to organisations, culture and attachment as well as developments in clinical training and therapeutic practice. In order to meet this aim, the journal embraces systemic literature in the broadest sense, from casting a systemic lens on infant/carer interactions and attachments to exploring organisations and global crises. We welcome research findings, case studies, reflective accounts and theoretical standpoints from both practitioners and researchers. The journal also embraces integration with a range of approaches such as social constructionism, attachment, narrative theory and trauma theory. There are a number of journals, which focus on systemic theory and practice, predominantly related to the family and likewise attachment focused journals, which tend to be almost exclusively focused on individual and dyadic processes. Human Systems is unique in integrating systemic theory, practice and attachment, as well as seeking the broadest understanding by extending the scope of systemic and relational study.
| Rudi Dallos | University of Plymouth, UK |
| Becky Stancer | University of Plymouth, UK |
| Helga Hanks | University of Leeds, UK |
| Kyriaka Polychroni | |
| Dr. Jacqui Stedmon | University of Plymouth, UK |
| Peter Stratton | University of Leeds, UK |
| Arlene Vetere | University, Oslo, Norway |
| Craig Myhill | University of Plymouth, UK |
| Mario Borscha | Hochschule Nordhausen University of Applied Science, Germany |
| John Burnham | |
| Alan Carr | University College Dublin, Ireland |
| Chip Chimera | Institute of Family Therapy, UK |
| Pat Crittenden | |
| Ros Draper | Consultant, UK |
| Benedict Grey | Roehampton University, UK |
| Sophie Holmes | Williamsroad Family Therapy Centre Melbourne, Australia |
| Kasia Kozlowaska | |
| Glenn Larner | Australia and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, Sydney, Australia |
| Bob Marvin | |
| Marilyn Monteiro | Consultant, USA |
| Robert Neimeyer | |
| Michell O’Reilly | University of Leicester, UK |
| Harry Procter |
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Human Systems: Therapy, Culture and Attachments
This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.
This Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/HUS to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned. Remember you can log in to the submission site at any time to check on the progress of your paper through the peer review process.
Sage Publishing disseminates high-quality research and engaged scholarship globally, and we are committed to diversity and inclusion in publishing. We encourage submissions from a diverse range of authors from across all countries and backgrounds.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Human Systems: Therapy, Culture and Attachments will be reviewed. There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere.
If you have any questions about publishing with Sage, please visit the Sage Journal Solutions Portal.
- What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
2.6 Research ethics and patient consent
2.7 Clinical trials
2.8 Reporting guidelines
2.9 Data Policy Statement - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Supplemental material
4.4 Reference style
4.5 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
6.1 Sage Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article - Further information
Before submitting your manuscript to Human Systems: Therapy, Culture and Attachments please ensure you have read the following Aims & Scope:
This Journal aims to extend the conceptual and theoretical underpinnings of human systems to organisations, culture and attachment as well as developments in clinical training and therapeutic practice. In order to meet this aim, the journal embraces systemic literature in the broadest sense, from casting a systemic lens on infant/carer interactions and attachments to exploring organisations and global crises. We welcome research findings, case studies, reflective accounts and theoretical standpoints from both practitioners and researchers. The journal also embraces integration with a range of approaches such as social constructionism, attachment, narrative theory and trauma theory. There are a number of journals, which focus on systemic theory and practice, predominantly related to the family and likewise attachment focused journals, which tend to be almost exclusively focused on individual and dyadic processes. Human Systems is unique in integrating systemic theory, practice and attachment, as well as seeking the broadest understanding by extending the scope of systemic and relational study.
The Human Systems: Therapy, Culture and Attachments is committed to interdisciplinary inquiry that includes philosophy, science, religions, literature and the arts. We are happy to consider articles that pertain to work that explores current issues and debates including political developments and environmental and ecological studies and policies.
Below you can find the instructions for submitting and formatting an article and special guidelines for book reviews. Download our Complete Information for Authors PDF for article style sheets.
Submitting Articles
Manuscripts should be submitted by email attachment in a .doc or .docx format to: R.Dallos@Plymouth.ac.uk
- Submissions should be accompanied by:
- a precis between 100 and 150 words in length,
- a brief biographical statement,
- a current curriculum vitae, and
- five to seven keywords pertaining to the subject of the article.
- Manuscripts for the “Articles” section should be between 7,000 and 8,000 words in length (including footnotes).
The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
For information and guidance on how to make your article more discoverable, visit our Gateway page on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
Human Systems: Therapy, Culture and Attachments operates a strictly anonymous peer review process in which the reviewer’s name is withheld from the author and, the author’s name from the reviewer. Each manuscript is reviewed by at least two referees. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible.
All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.
2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:
· Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
· Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
· Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.
Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
2.3.2 Writing assistance
Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.
Human Systems: Therapy, Culture and Attachments requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
Human Systems: Therapy, Culture and Attachments encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
2.6 Research ethics and patient consent
Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.
Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and all papers reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the methods section that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the approval number.
For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.
Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be included in the manuscript text. A statement is required regarding whether written informed consent for patient information and images to be published was provided by the patient(s) or a legally authorized representative.
Please also refer to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants.
Human Systems: Therapy, Culture and Attachments conforms to the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrolment as a condition of consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.
2.8.1 Transparent reporting of trials
The relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines should be followed depending on the type of study. For example, all randomized controlled trials submitted for publication should include a completed CONSORT flow chart as a cited figure and the completed CONSORT checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses should include the completed PRISMA flow chart as a cited figure and the completed PRISMA checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. The EQUATOR wizard can help you identify the appropriate guideline.
The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) guidelines should be followed when submitting in single-case design (SCD) and meet the standards outlined for internal validity of the SCD.
Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives.
2.8.2 Sample selection and demographic characteristics
Human Systems: Therapy, Culture and Attachments now requires authors to report the following information for all Research Reports (including systematic reviews):
i. procedures for sample selection and recruitment; and
ii. major demographic characteristics, including age, gender, race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status.
Including this information will provide greater clarity regarding sample characteristics and generalisability of the findings, even when such characteristics are not used in the analysis (although we encourage investigation of subgroup differences, where possible). It should also encourage researchers to consider the way in which context and culture contribute to their findings.
If authors are unable to report some or all of this information, its absence must be acknowledged with a clear statement of explanation (e.g., “specific data on socioeconomic status and educational attainment levels were not recorded”). Manuscripts that contain neither the required information nor an appropriate statement will be returned prior to consideration by the editors.
2.8.3 Community involvement
Where community involvement is relevant we recommend that authors follow the BMJ’s editorial guidelines in which authors clearly document how community stakeholders were involved in their research. We suggest that authors include a community involvement statement at the end of the Methods section for Research Reports, outlining whether, e.g. autistic people and/or family members, community providers, policy makers, agency leaders or other community stakeholders were involved in the development of the research question and outcome measures, the design of the study, its implementation, and/or the interpretation and dissemination of the findings. Community members should be duly acknowledged – as authors or in the acknowledgements section – depending on the extent and nature of their contribution.
If community members were not involved in the study, authors should state this.
Human Systems: Therapy, Culture and Attachments supports open research practices and FAIR principles. As such encourages authors to share their data wherever possible and submit their data (or a link to it) and where applicable, their syntax/command files for the analyses presented in the contribution. Authors can make data available through a third party data repository or on the journal website as a supplementary data file.
If cited data is restricted (e.g. classified, require confidentiality protections, were obtained under a non-disclosure agreement, or have inherent logistical constraints), authors should notify the editor at the time of submission. The editor shall have full discretion to follow their journal’s policy on restricted data, including declining to review the manuscript or granting an exemption with or without conditions. The editor shall inform the author of this decision prior to review.
Where data is sensitive and cannot be shared in an open forum, authors are encouraged to share metadata and provide a contact for requesting access if the raw data itself cannot be made available.
Authors can use a recognised third party data repository service to host their data such as Open Science framework. Authors may use their institution’s data sharing repository.
Human Systems: Therapy, Culture and Attachments also encourages authors to delineate clearly the analytic procedures upon which their published claims rely, and where possible provide access to all relevant analytic materials. If such materials are not published with the article, we encourage authors to share to the greatest extent possible through a digital repository (above).
Human Systems: Therapy, Culture and Attachments encourages authors to use data citation practices that identify a dataset’s author(s), title, date, version, and a persistent identifier. In sum, data should be referenced and cited, where possible, as an intellectual product of value.
Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.
3.1.1 Plagiarism
Human Systems: Therapy, Culture and Attachments and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the Journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
3.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway.
3.3 Open access and author archiving
Human Systems: Therapy, Culture and Attachments offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.
4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
Please see the full style guidelines for submissions to the Human Systems: Therapy, Culture and Attachments.
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word.
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.
This Journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc.) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplemental files.
4.4 Reference style
Human Systems: Therapy, Culture and Attachments adheres to the APA reference style. View the APA guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
4.5 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the Journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
Human Systems: Therapy, Culture and Attachments is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/HUS to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the Journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID IDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this Journal. If you already have an ORCID ID you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID ID will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID ID is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID ID please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.
6. On acceptance and publication
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit or by email, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.
6.3 Access to your published article
Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Human Systems: Therapy, Culture and Attachments is editorial office as follows: