Mindfulness, Mental Health and Psychological Wellbeing: Indexed Journal and Conference List with APC and No-APC Options

An eight-week mindfulness course for university students, thirty-two participants, measured before and after, with clear improvements on stress and anxiety scales. Sent to a leading clinical psychiatry journal and returned in eleven days: the journal considers only randomised or controlled designs, and a single-arm pre and post study is outside its scope.

Nothing was wrong with the study as a pilot. It went to the wrong kind of journal. In mental health research the aims and scope statement is often explicit about design, and clinical journals enforce it literally. A single-arm feasibility study belongs in a wellbeing, health psychology or pilot-friendly journal, several of which appear in the free table below, while the same team's later controlled trial could reasonably aim at the clinical titles.

How to read a quartile before you read the list

Two quartiles exist and they measure different things. The Scopus quartile comes from Scimago, inside a Scopus subject category. The JCR quartile comes from Clarivate, inside a Web of Science category, using the impact factor. Psychology journals often sit in both a science and a social science index, and Qualitative Psychology shows how far the two systems can drift: ESCI Q1 with an impact factor of 14.3, but Scopus Q3.

The index tier matters more than either. An ESCI journal shows an impact factor and a quartile that look exactly like an SSCI or SCIE one on screen, so an ESCI Q1 will not satisfy a rule asking for SSCI or SCIE. Where the tier is not recorded, the tables say so rather than guess. Settling this before the cover letter is the first step in Journal Submission Preparation.

Indexed conference routes in mental health research

There is no indexed mental health conference series in the data behind this page. Psychology and psychiatry congresses publish abstracts in journal supplements rather than indexed proceedings, so the journal is the route for the record. Two series matched on a keyword.

Scopus-indexed options, Q3, where a first paper usually lands

A thin band in this subject, all with no APC. Planning a sequence of papers is the Mentorship Program.

Swipe the table sideways to see every column.

Scopus-indexed options, Q1 and Q2

Several of these have no Web of Science tier recorded. The AI Journal Finder matches an abstract against them in seconds.

EI Compendex indexed journals

One match, and it is traffic psychology. Engineering indexing is not a meaningful route for mental health work.

Diamond open access: psychology journals with no APC

Seven titles that charge nothing, three of them SSCI listed. For a pilot or feasibility study with no budget, start here.

Not sure whether the journal you picked is still indexed? Run it through the Predatory Journal Checker at ai.researchramp.com, or send us the title on WhatsApp or WeChat for a same-day check. Two minutes to spare instead? Try the Smart Quiz.

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Gold open access: mental health journals with an APC

Charges from 975 to 3,680 US dollars. Collabra is the clear value choice, SSCI Q1 for under 1,000 dollars.

Web of Science options: SCIE, SSCI, AHCI and ESCI

The senior psychology journals. Many are review-only or invitation-only, which the notes say plainly, so you do not spend months on a title that never takes unsolicited empirical papers.

Preprints in mental health research: what is allowed

Psychology posts more preprints than almost any other social science, mostly on PsyArXiv, and the question comes up in nearly every project. The practical position is this.

1. Most publishers here allow a preprint before submission. The American Psychological Association, SAGE, Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor and Francis all have policies permitting a preprint of the submitted version. Confirm on the specific journal's policy page, because individual titles can differ.
2. Open science journals encourage it. Collabra and Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science expect open materials and welcome preprints and registered reports.
3. Clinical journals need more care. Some medical and psychiatry titles worry about preprinted treatment claims reaching patients before peer review. Label the preprint clearly as not peer reviewed and avoid treatment recommendations in it.
4. Declare it at submission. Give the server, identifier and date in the cover letter. Reviewers will find it, and an undeclared preprint looks like concealment.
5. Blind review makes it awkward, not forbidden. Do not cite your own preprint in a way that identifies you in the manuscript.
6. Update after acceptance. Link the preprint to the published article, and check which version the publisher allows you to post.

Getting the declaration right is part of Manuscript Preparation Support, and the revision round is Review & Response Support.

What gets accepted in this field, and what gets rejected

Which mental health journals accept a master's or PhD student as first author?

All of them. No journal in these tables sets a seniority rule for first authorship, and student-led papers appear regularly, including in SSCI and SCIE titles. Editors check that authorship reflects real contribution, not the author's career stage.

The one exception in practice is the invited-review journals, such as the Annual Reviews titles, which commission established authors. That is about invitation, not about students.

Do I need a supervisor as co-author to publish in mental health research?

Not as a rule, and adding one who did not contribute breaches authorship standards. Every author must meet the journal's contribution criteria, usually those set by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors or the APA's equivalent.

In clinical research there is a practical reason to involve a supervisor anyway: ethics committees usually require a qualified principal investigator, and a supervisor who designed or oversaw the study qualifies as an author.

Can I publish a mental health paper without an institutional affiliation?

Yes. Write "Independent Researcher" with your city and country in the affiliation field, never a blank and never a former employer without permission. Psychology journals see this and it does not affect review.

The harder part is ethics. Research with human participants needs approval from a recognised committee, which usually means partnering with a university, hospital or service before collecting data. Secondary analysis of open datasets and systematic reviews avoid that problem.

What is a hijacked journal, and how do I spot a cloned mental health journal site?

A hijacked journal is a fake website that copies a real journal's title, ISSN, cover and editorial board, then collects submissions and fees the genuine publisher never sees. The reliable test is the route you arrive by: open the journal from the publisher's own domain or the index record, never from an invitation email.

In this subject, check the access model too. Several strong psychology titles here charge no APC, so an invoice from one of them means the site is not the journal.

Is this mental health journal predatory?

Judge it on four checks: whether the ISSN is in the live Scopus source list or the Web of Science Master Journal List, whether the fee is published before submission, whether the editorial board are real people with verifiable affiliations, and whether the review process described is realistic. Failing two or more is enough to walk away.

For clinical mental health papers add a fifth check, PubMed and MEDLINE indexing, because many clinical committees weigh it heavily and it is a separate decision from Scopus.

Why does this mental health journal claim an impact factor that is not in JCR?

Because anyone can invent a metric and call it an impact factor. The Journal Impact Factor is a Clarivate product published once a year in Journal Citation Reports, so a number that is not in JCR is not a Journal Impact Factor, whatever the website calls it.

Look the ISSN up in JCR or the Master Journal List. Commercial metrics such as SJIF, Global Impact Factor or Cosmos Impact Factor are not accepted by promotion committees, and a prominent badge for one is a warning rather than a credential.

Which mental health journals charge no article processing fee and are still indexed?

As on October 2026 the no-APC indexed options here include Cyberpsychology, the Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology, the International Journal of Wellbeing, Europe's Journal of Psychology, the Journal of Social and Political Psychology, the Asian Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, and, for legal settings, the European Journal of Psychology Applied to Legal Context.

Beyond those, every subscription title in the tables charges no APC, including the senior APA and SAGE journals. Paying is optional in this field.

How do I check whether a mental health journal is still indexed today?

Take the ISSN from a published article and search it on the live Scopus source list and the Web of Science Master Journal List, including the discontinued and on-hold files. Do it on the day you submit, because last quarter's list is not evidence about today.

For clinical papers, add PubMed and MEDLINE. The three are separate decisions by separate bodies, and a journal can be in one without the others.

What editors screen before a reviewer sees your paper

The editorial office checks whether the English is clear enough to review, whether the structure matches the journal, and what the similarity report says. In mental health two further checks are routine: the reporting checklist, usually CONSORT for trials, and an ethics statement naming the committee and reference number. Run your own overlap check first with the Plagiarism & AI Similarity Checker, and settle language through Manuscript Editing.

Where Research Ramp comes in

We match a finished abstract against live indexing, tell you plainly when a design will not survive the first screen, and prepare the submission so the editorial office has no reason to bounce it on formatting. Subject-matched PhD editors, milestone payments, and the author stays the author throughout. Where a study needs a clinical partner or a second site, that is Collaboration Matching, and past work is on our Case Studies page.

Questions we are asked about index tiers

Send us the abstract, we will send back the shortlist

Send us your abstract and we will return a shortlist that separates SCIE, SSCI, AHCI, Scopus and EI options, with the access model marked against each. Tap the WhatsApp icon, or scan the WeChat code. To hand over the whole route from venue choice to acceptance, that is the Full Publication Package.

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Disclaimer. Every table on this page is correct as on October 2026 and no later. Article charges shown in US dollars are approximate conversions at October 2026 rates, and journals bill in their own currency. Indexing, quartile, access model and charges change through the year, and journals can be added to or removed from Scopus and Web of Science at any time. This page is general information only. Research Ramp Private Limited accepts no responsibility or liability for any decision made on the basis of it, including the choice of journal, any charge paid, or the outcome of any submission. Every detail must be independently verified by the author with the journal's own website and the live Scopus source list and Web of Science Master Journal List before submitting. If you would like an informal second check, send us the title and we will look at it for you.

本页所有列表数据截至 2026 年 10 月，仅供一般参考。Research Ramp 不对任何依据本页作出的选刊、付费或投稿结果承担责任。投稿前请务必通过期刊官网及 Scopus、Web of Science 实时数据自行核实收录情况与费用。