About the RTP
The Research Training Program is a specialized training program designed to develop research competencies in the students for the purpose of advancing the role of science in the understanding of human behavior and the society. The RTP is designed to provide training experiences for students, stimulate faculty involvement in research, develop data banks for present and future research projects, and provide specialized services to the academic community and the community at large. The RTP is committed to multidisciplinary studies and to collaborative efforts with Puerto Rican, United States and International research centers.

The main goals of the Research Training Program are:

1. To develop in the students those skills and competencies necessary to design and implement research projects.

2. To offer research services to students and the community.

3. To foster the design and implementation of research projects by the Faculty.

4. To promote the dissemination of scientific knowledge within the community through the “Ciencias de la Conducta” journal (Behavioral Sciences Journal).

According to these goals the Research Training Program manages the Research Practicum of all Ph.D. Programs students, the dissertation process, the publication of the “Ciencias de la Conducta” journal (Behavioral Sciences Journal) and manages the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of CAU.

Institutional Review Board

An Institutional Review Board (IRB) is a committee that performs ethical review of proposed research.  This review body is established to protect the welfare of human subjects recruited to participate in biomedical or behavioral research. The University Carlos Albizu (UCA) has formally assured the United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) that it will follow procedures which will assure the protection of any human being exposed to risk in sponsored projects, dissertations or any research projects conducted by faculty, students, researchers, or others under UCA. The regulations protecting human research subjects are based on the ethical principles described in the Belmont Report (respect for persons, beneficence, and justice) and regulated by the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)-Title 45-Public Welfare of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Part 46-Protection of Human Subjects.

“Ciencias de la Conducta” journal (Behavioral Sciences JournalThe “Ciencias de la Conducta” journal (Behavioral Sciences Journal)  is an interdisciplinary journal in which psychologists and other professionals discuss their investigations, theories or ideas in order to obtain significant advances in the knowledge of psychology in Puerto Rico and in the rest of the professional community of Latin American and the United States.  The journal publishes material that covers diverse areas of psychology, including: clinical, social, academic, industrial and community psychology.  The articles published in this journal, also cover an ample range of subjects and methodological approaches (literature reviews, theoretical elaborations, experimental study of cases, experimental studies, ethnographical studies, among others).  The published material represents the opinion of the authors and not necessarily, constitutes and endorsement on the part of the University Carlos Albizu.

Instructions for Authors
The manuscript must be directed to the Editor, Alfonso Martínez-Taboas, Ph.D., Carlos Albizu University, Programa de Adiestramiento en Investigación, P.O. Box 9023711 San Juan, PR, 00902-3711. 

When submitting the manuscripts, the author must send four copies to the above address.  Also, the manuscript must be send in Microsoft Office Word format to the following electronic address: amartinez@albizu.edu

When the author delivers the article, the magazine editor will distribute the piece of writing for anonymous review between pairs. The reviewers are chosen based in their proficiency of the article’s subject, and they represent several academic institutions of the country. Once the reviewers delivered the article, the editor will make the final decision on whether it is acceptable or not to publish the essay in the Behavioral Sciences Journal.  The review process usually takes three to four months.

1. All manuscripts must be double-spaced following the established publication guides in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (Sixth Edition).  The summary (abstract) and the title must be presented in Spanish and English and the summary cannot contain more than 150 words.

2. When submitting a manuscript, the author has to make a compromise that the manuscript has not been published previously and that neither it is being considered for publication in another journal or professional book.

3. Generally, no manuscript must contain more of double-spaced 35 pages. In case that the manuscript exceeds this amount, the Editor will evaluate the request of the author in each individual case.

4. To appear as an author, one must have made a substantial contribution to the work, including fulfilling at least one of these three requirement:

    a. Concept and design of the study or analysis and interpretation of the data

    b. write a section of the article or make an important intellectual contribution to the manuscript

    c. to be part of the final approval of the manuscript.

5.  References should follow the guidelines of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (Sixth Edition). To cite books, magazines of books, chapters follow the following guiding principles:

Cave, S. (2002). Classification and diagnosis of psychological abnormality. Nueva York: Wiley.

Harden, K. P., & Lahay, B.B. (2009). Population density and youth antisocial behavior. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 50, 999-1008.

Sternberg, R. J. (2007).  Intelligence and culture. En S. Kitmaya & D. Cohen (Eds.), Handbook of cultural psychology (pp.547-568).  Nueva York: Guilford

The responsibility of a work cannot be based exclusively on having obtained funds for an investigation, to recruit subjects or collecting data.  A general supervision in not sufficient to be considered an author.  It is required that each author has participated actively in the work in the order to take responsibility for the publication of its content.

Read our Behavioral Sciences Journal