Psychology of Music
Psychology of Music publishes peer-reviewed papers directed at increasing the scientific understanding of any psychological aspect of music. These include studies on listening, performing, creating, memorising, analysing, describing, learning, and teaching, as well as applied social, developmental, attitudinal and therapeutic studies. Special emphasis is placed on studies, which address the interface between music psychology and music education.
"Without doubt, Psychology of Music is the pre-eminent journal in the field. Its reputation as the source of some of the most sophisticated and elegant research in music psychology has long been unparalleled." Professor Robert Walker
"... absorbing, well-researched and tidily presented, frequently thought-provoking and stimulating. The range of topics and educational levels covered is wide and varied. Journals like this serve an admirable purpose to make readily available reliable up-to-date research to support and encourage all musicians and teachers in their joint pursuits." Colin Touchin
"It is my considered opinion that Psychology of Music is now the premier journal of its kind in the world." Edward P. Asmus
Psychology of Music and SEMPRE provide an international forum for researchers working in the fields of psychology of music and music education, to encourage the exchange of ideas and to disseminate research findings.
View the institutional subscription rates: An institutional subscription to Psychology of Music includes a subscription to Research Studies in Music Education (two issues a year, also published by SAGE on behalf of SEMPRE). Subscriptions are available in the usual three ways: combined print and online, print only and e-access only. Please contact the customer services department to subscribe. Individual subscribers can purchase the journals separately in print only.
If you are interested in becoming a member of SEMPRE and receiving a subscription to Psychology of Music as part of your membership dues please contact the SEMPRE membership secretary at: membership@sempre.org.uk
This journal accepts supplementary materials, e.g. audio/video files, datasets, additional images etc. For more information please see our guidelines
All issues of Psychology of Music are available to browse online.
Psychology of Music provides collections of free to access articles from the archive, centred around key topics and themes. The collections are collated by individuals across the field, and include an introduction to the topic or theme. Read them here.
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
Psychology of Music publishes peer-reviewed papers directed at increasing the scientific understanding of any psychological aspect of music. These include studies on listening, performing, creating, memorising, analysing, describing, learning, and teaching, as well as applied social, developmental, attitudinal and therapeutic studies. Special emphasis is placed on studies, which address the interface between music psychology and music education.
Published by the Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research (SEMPRE), the journal aims to increase the scientific understanding of all psychological aspects of music and music education. This includes studies on listening, performing, creating, memorizing, analyzing, describing, learning and teaching as well as applied social, developmental, attitudinal and therapeutic studies.
Submissions may be: theoretical critical papers or original empirical investigations containing systematic qualitative or quantitative analyses of relevant data; short research reports and notes which substantailly confirm or extend existing knowledge but which do not justify a full-length paper; or reviews of books, DVDs, CD Roms or online materials. Special emphasis is placed on studies carried out in naturalistic settings, especially those which address the interface between music psychology and music education.
Psychology of Music provides collections of free to access articles from the archive, centred around key topics and themes. The collections are collated by individuals across the field, and include an introduction to the topic or theme. Read them here.
| Alexandra Lamont | Keele University, UK |
| Katerina Drakoulaki | National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece |
| Karen Wise | Guildhall School of Music & Drama, UK |
| Mayumi Adachi | Hokkaido University, Japan |
| Paolo Ammirante | Ryerson University, Canada |
| Richard Ashley | Northwestern University, USA |
| Arielle Bonneville-Roussy | Université de Québec à Montreal, Canada |
| Warren Brodsky | Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel |
| Dan Cameron | McMaster University, Canada |
| Kris Chesky | University of North Texas, USA |
| Stephen Clift | Canterbury Christ Church University, UK |
| Hugo Cogo-Moreira | Østfold University College, Norway |
| Annabel J. Cohen | University of Prince Edward Island, Canada |
| Jane Davidson | University of Melbourne, Australia |
| Genevieve Dingle | University of Queensland, Australia |
| Tuomas Eerola | University of Durham, UK |
| Karen Goodman | Monclair State University, USA |
| Alinka Greasley | University of Leeds, UK |
| Martin Hartmann | University of Jyväskylä, Finland |
| Allan Hewitt | University of Strathclyde, UK |
| Beatriz Ilari | University of Southern California, USA |
| Elaine King | University of Hull, UK |
| Amanda Krause | James Cook University, Australia |
| Gunter Kreutz | Carl von Ossietzky Universitat Oldenburg, Germany |
| Raymond MacDonald | University of Edinburgh, UK |
| Kathryn Marsh | University of Sydney, Australia |
| Gary McPherson | University of Melbourne, Australia |
| Nikki Moran | University of Edinburgh, UK |
| Adrian C. North | Curtin University, Australia |
| Susan O'Neill | Institute of Education, University College London, UK |
| Adam Ockelford | University of Roehampton, UK |
| Ioulia Papageorgi | University of Nicosia, Cyprus |
| Michelle Phillips | Royal Northern College of Music, UK |
| Dawn Rose | Lucerne University of Applied Arts and Sciences, Switzerland |
| E. Glenn Schellenberg | University of Toronto, Canada |
| Emery Schubert | The University of New South Wales, Australia |
| Neta Spiro | Royal College of Music, UK |
| Jonna Vuoskoski | University of Oslo, Norway |
| Graham Welch | University College London, UK |
| Clemens Wöllner | University of Music Freiburg |
| Margaret S. Barrett | Monash University, Australia |
| Pamela Burnard | University of Cambridge, UK |
| Eugenia Costa-Giomi | Ohio State University, USA |
| Ian Cross | University of Cambridge, UK |
| Jane Ginsborg | Royal Northern College of Music, UK |
| David J. Hargreaves | Roehampton University, UK |
| Patrik N. Juslin | Uppsala University, Sweden |
| Don Knox | Glasgow Caledonian University, UK |
| Mats Küssner | Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Germany |
| Siw Graabræk Nielsen | Norwegian Academy of Music, Norway |
| Mark Reybrouck | Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium |
| Renee Timmers | University of Sheffield, UK |
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Psychology of Music
This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.
Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/pom to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Psychology of Music will be reviewed.
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. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that Psychology of Music may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy.
If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.
- 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 participant consent
2.7 Redundant publication
2.8 Editor/Assistant Editor Submissions
2.9 Research Data - 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 Psychology of Music, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
Psychology of Music publishes research articles of typically 4,000-6,000 words and shorter research notes. Other types of format (e.g. theoretical critical papers, position papers, discussions, and reviews) are also welcomed providing they make a novel contribution to the field. The journal also publishes book reviews. Concise contributions are particularly welcome to facilitate timely publication. Space is reserved for short and timely research articles (max. 3,000 words) that are identified as meriting more rapid publication which will be fast-tracked through the review process; the editorial board will identify such articles at submission, or authors may wish to flag them in their cover letter.
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
When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
Sage does not permit the use of author-suggested (recommended) reviewers at any stage of the submission process, be that through the web-based submission system or other communication. Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if:
• The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors
• The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper
• The author has recommended the reviewer
• The reviewer has provided a personal (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution).
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.
2.4 Funding
Psychology of Music 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
Psychology of Music 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 participant consent
Psychology of Music requires that any manuscripts involving human subjects or participants must include the following statements:
Ethical approval statement
Upon submission, authors will be asked to state 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. Where exemption from ethics approval has been granted by an appropriate body, this should be specified and the reason for exemption should be provided. Manuscripts should include statements that provide a clear explanation as to why ethics approval and/or informed consent was not sought for a given study in a specific country or region.
Informed consent
Authors are required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent (for inclusion, collection/use of data or samples, and/or publication, as applicable) and whether the consent was written or verbal.
2.7 Redundant publication
The Editors of Psychology of Music ask authors to declare if any data reported in their submission have been published previously wholly or in part. For example: the reanalysis of a previously published dataset by a different set of authors would need to be declared. The publication of multiple articles using the same dataset with somewhat related outcomes could be considered inappropriate. Within the cover letter and methods section, authors should declare if datasets or participants reported in their submission overlap with any prior published work to help a thorough Editorial assessment of the study.
2.8 Editor/Assistant Editor Submissions
In the interest of transparency, the journal’s policy on submissions by journal board members or Editors or Assistant Editors with a role in administering the peer review process or their families or associates, is as follows:
- Board members and Editors take no part in the review process of their own submissions, those of their family member or their associates and have no access to Editorial information concerning such submissions.
- No preference or favour is given in the decision or peer review process dependent on the author’s relationship to the journal.
- Papers are processed consecutively irrespective of the author’s relationship to the journal. That is, the journal does not ‘expedite’ papers at the expense of others as journal resources are distributed evenly.
The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.
Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:
- share your research data in a relevant public data repository
- include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
- cite this data in your research
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
Psychology of Music 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 plagiarised 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
Psychology of Music 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
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. You do not need to follow a template, but please ensure your heading levels are clear, and the sections clearly defined.
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.
Psychology of Music 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.
Psychology of Music is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/pom 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 sent by PDF 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 Psychology of Music editorial office as follows:
Alexandra Lamont (a.m.lamont@keele.ac.uk)