Journal of College Counseling Submission Guidelines

Mission and Scope

The Journal of College Counseling (JCC) advances knowledge in college counseling and supports the work of counseling professionals at two- and four-year colleges and universities. Contributors include practitioners, researchers, and educators.

All manuscripts must be grounded in current scholarly literature, clearly communicate ideas in a well-organized format, and demonstrate implications for counseling practice in higher education. Research submissions must be based on sound, defensible qualitative or quantitative methodologies.

The Journal of College Counseling is a fully open access journal. All published articles are freely available online immediately upon publication through Counseling Nexus. Articles are published under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, which allows readers to access, share, and reuse content in accordance with the terms of the license while ensuring appropriate attribution to the original authors.

Authors retain copyright of their work and are not charged any fees in connection with the submission and publication of their work.

Manuscript Categories

The Journal of College Counseling publishes articles of varying types. The most common submissions are the following:

Research Articles
Research manuscripts may use quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods designs and must follow APA (7th ed.) guidelines. Submissions should address significant questions relevant to college counseling and student mental health, include a thorough review of relevant literature, and present implications for practice and future research.
Professional Issues and Innovative Practice
These manuscripts focus on current issues or emerging practices in higher education counseling. Submissions should provide an in-depth analysis of a current issue, include a critical review of relevant literature and offer implications for practice and future research.
College Counseling Case Studies
Case studies illustrate important aspects of clinical practice in college counseling and support professional development. Authors must take all necessary steps to protect the client’s confidentiality.

Manuscript Submission

Manuscripts must be submitted through the journal’s online submission and peer review system. Authors will be guided through the submission process, including uploading manuscript files and entering required metadata.

Questions regarding submissions may be directed to the editorial office at
journalofcollegecounseling@gmail.com.

Review Process

All submissions undergo double-anonymized (blind) peer review by at least two reviewers. The Associate Editor will make a recommendation based on the peer reviews, and the Editor-in-Chief will make the final publication decision. Most manuscripts require revision prior to acceptance.

Authors must prepare manuscripts for anonymized review by removing identifying information from the main document. The submission system (JAMS) provides guidance on ensuring anonymity, including removal of identifying metadata.
Author names, affiliations, and contact information should be entered into the submission system and not included in the deidentified manuscript file.
Authors should ensure that all elements (text, tables, figures, references) are complete and formatted consistently for peer review.

Originality

Manuscripts must not be under consideration elsewhere or previously published in substantially similar form.
Authors must disclose any use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the preparation of their manuscript (e.g., for drafting, editing, or data analysis). AI tools may not be listed as authors. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of their work.

Formatting and Submission Requirements

All manuscripts must follow the APA Publication Manual (7th ed.) and be concise yet sufficiently detailed for scholarly review.
Manuscripts must not exceed 25 double-spaced pages, excluding references, tables, and figures. Shorter submissions, especially Innovative Practice manuscripts, are welcome.
Manuscripts should include an abstract (approximately 75–150 words) summarizing the purpose, methods (if applicable), results, and key implications. Authors will also be asked to provide up to three keywords during submission to support indexing and discoverability.
All in-text citations must appear in the reference list and vice versa. References must follow APA style. It is the author’s responsibility to ensure accuracy and consistency of all citations.
Footnotes are not permitted.
Tables and figures should be used judiciously to enhance clarity. For review purposes, they may be included within the manuscript.
All visual materials intended for inclusion must comply with ACA’s visual material guidelines.

Language and Terminology

Please follow the APA and ACA guidelines for nondiscriminatory language.
Use the terms counseling, counselor, and client consistently.

Reuse of Previously Published or Copyrighted Material

Authors are responsible for ensuring that all content complies with applicable copyright law.
Brief quotations and limited use of copyrighted material may not require permission if they fall within fair use; authors are responsible for making this determination. When reuse exceeds fair use, such as reproduction of substantial text, tables, figures, or other copyrighted content, authors must obtain written permission from the copyright holder prior to publication.
Appropriate credit and attribution must be provided for all reused material.

Final Steps Prior to Publication

To facilitate article layout and production in Counseling Nexus, we would like authors to prepare accepted manuscripts as follows:

Include the article title at the beginning of the document and apply the built-in Microsoft Word Heading 1 style.
List the author names immediately following the title.
Format all headings within the manuscript using Microsoft Word’s built-in heading styles, beginning with Heading 2, rather than using APA heading formatting. These styles are available in the Styles panel on the Home tab.
Use title case for article titles and headings.
Include tables within the Word manuscript file.
Supply figures and other visual materials as separate files. These materials should also conform to ACA’s visual material guidelines, as noted in the submission guidelines.

Back To JCC

Journal of College Counseling Editorial Board

Editor in Chief

Associate Editors