Where do I get information and addresses about publishing in peer-reviewed journals?

You are lucky in Psychology. Both the American Psychological Association and the British Psychological Society providde guidance: look up their websites. Almost all psychology journals use APA guidelines, e.g. concerning how to cite references - even those not published by the APA (the BPS has similar guidelines). They used to be published as a book, presumably now they are on the web. The APA also had a book, called something like "The Psychologist's Companion" which lists major journals with information about their interests.

Journals almost invariably print details, often on the back inside cover, detailing their requirements, e.g. which topics they will publish on and (very importantly) how long the article should be. The details will include exact details of who to send the article to, how many copies, and what format to email in. An important issue is whether they look for theoretical or experimental work: the Journal of Experimental Psychology, for example, will obviously expect you to report empirical results, and moreover ones from the laboratory rather than field observation.

There is nothing to stop you from making an informal enquiry, by phone or email, to the Editor, or in the case of a major journal one of the Associate Editors, before submitting a paper. Obviously the amount of attention you get will depend on the journal. A smaller journal may be looking for articles and preepared to discuss quite a bit. Something like JExP is not going to give you more than an email reply. The sort of things people typically ask about include whether the proposed topic os of interest and what the current publication lag is, including the time it takes to get a decision of acceptance or otherwise.

Remember you cannot submit an article, or articles containing the same material, to two journals at once. If you do your name will be mud with editors - end of career. If you are preparing two related papers - for instance one theoretical and one experimental - this is something you may wish to discuss with the editors so they know the situation and what is acceptable to them. You can submit a rejected article to a another journal - but if you start with one of the big names this may cause some delay.

You need to think who reads the Journal to which you submit, and how many of them. The APA etc. publish circulation figures. In the case of a small journal, you can ask the editor as part of your informal enquiries (but the editor will expect you to have some awareness of his important publication!). As a first guide, if you don't read or see the publication, who else will who is interested in the article.

You need to think of some tactics, not least in relation to your research career interests. Do you want one big paper or several little ones? Do you want to go for a big name Journal with a high rejection rate or a less prestigeous one where you will get published. When do you need to get published by (this is a big issue in the United Kingdom because of the research Assessment Exercise, and it may affect things like tenure)? As a general guide, don't start too small, but on the other hand your chances of getting your first paper published by "Psychological Review" are virtually zero.

Most of the questions in the last paragraph affect the interests of your University (or whatever) as well as you, albeit they may not always coincide. It is vanishingly unlikely that if you are doing research you even consider aiming at the JExP that you are not part of a team whose advice you can seek here. Which perhaps brings us to the most fraught question of all, where you are on your own. Who are the authors, and in which order should their name appear? In particular, if you are a research student or assistant, beware your boss taking all the credit. On the other hand, if you are working with a "big name" appearing as a collaborator in print can be good for you. How much help will your boss give you if you are to be the author (remember to acknowledge help in a footnote). Many top researchers help their juniors to publish, because it builds their prestige to get team members jobs. Unfortunately, not all research leaders see this benefit.

It is a good idea to present your work before submitting to a Journal to an internal seminar, and then to submit a paper to a Conference where it will be refereed. The lead times for Conferences are shorter than Journals, and you will get feedback from the questions. Particularly if the Conference proceedings are published, you may not be able to use exactly the same material for a Journal paper, but there is scope to reuse material with acknowledgement. Look at what other people have done in your target Journal. Also, there will be people at a Conference who can tell you about relevant Journals, and possibly even their own experiences of submitting. If you are lucky there may even be an editor who likes your paper (have an informal chat, which means know before you go who is likely to be there who is an editor!) (There may be anonymous refereeing but editors know what is going on in psychology). If it is a big conference, e.g. an APA or BPS one, there will be stalls handing out complimentary copies of journals, and with publishers' representatives. If you have not yet been to a Conference run by the APA or your similar national organisation, get booking now!

Don't neglect non-academic publications such as business journals relevant to your research topic. You may not get academic scoring points for these, but in my experience more people read them and acually use the results! Or even an interview on your local radio station. Mainstream TV is the jackpot.

Also, you are asking about peer-reviewed journals to publish your results. You should not really need internet advice by then as you should be part of a reseach netwrork or institution. The real nightmare is writing research grant applications, when you are really on your own!

There is no general information for all journals. Each journal has its own set of guidelines for authors. This is often printed at the back of journals or you can probably download it from the publisher's website. In general, you will submit several copies of the manuscript to the editorial office, which is often based at the university of the academic editor. You do not normally submit to the publisher directly, although many journals now offer online submission, NeuroImage is a good example (see below).