What does AJO Publish?  

PublishAJO publishes theoretical, policy-analytic, and empirical articles on topics related to the American Psychological Association's historic values and themes. Scholars interested in the topical domains that are within AJO's scope are encouraged to submit individual manuscripts for consideration.

Contemporary topics in AJO’s topical scope include, but are not limited to:

  • public behavioral health and prevention
  • institutional reform
  • causes and solutions to behavioral healthcare disparities
  • adaption of behavioral health methods to the needs of racial, ethnic, cultural and other minority groups
  • responses to natural and human-made disasters
  • immigrants and refugees
  • underserved behavioral health populations
  • protection of vulnerable people
  • sociocultural dimensions of behavioral health problems

Submissions are evaluated with respect to the importance and timeliness of the topic, scholarly and methodological rigor, interdisciplinary perspective, and clarity of implications for research, behavioral health practice and administration, and social policy.

Special Sections

AJO occasionally invites leading scholars to edit special sections or issues on topics of particular interest.  These issues usually contain articles solicited by the guest editor, who coordinates initial reviews of the manuscripts that are submitted in response to these invitations. If you have an idea for a Special Section or issue, contact Dr. Jill McLeigh, Symposia Editor.

Social Innovations

AJO includes a unique magazine-in-a-journal. This feature is called Social Innovations and is intended to promote conversation about strategies for establishing new social settings and changing social norms to create more auspicious circumstances for mental health promotion. Scholars are welcome to submit articles for Social Innovations.   

Interested in submitting a manuscript to AJO?

The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry is published by the American Psychological Association (effective with the 2014 volume). For more information about the scope of the journal, criteria and procedures for selection of manuscripts for publication, manuscript submission instructions, and editorial policies, please review the Instructions to Authors. We invite authors to visit the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry manuscript submission site to learn about current editorial policies for AJO and to submit manuscripts for publication.

If you have questions about a manuscript that has been submitted or that you are interested in submitting, please contact Dr. Jill McLeigh.