About the Journal

Focus and Scope

The Journal of Stress, Trauma, Anxiety, and Resilience (J-STAR) is the official journal of the Stress, Trauma, Anxiety, and Resilience Society (STAR Society). J-STAR publishes high-quality original empirical articles, reviews and other forms of scholarly communications that lead to a greater understanding of the theoretical basis of stress, trauma, anxiety and resilience as well as empirical and field studies across a range of life domains related to these areas. The aim of the journal is to bring together work on stress, trauma, anxiety and resilience by researchers in health, clinical, educational, organizational, social, and developmental psychology, as well as psychophysiology, neuropsychology/neuroscience, and cognitive science that have theoretical or clinical relevance.

Primarily we aim to publish original research reports, meta-analyses, literature reviews and innovative theory driven papers and literature reviews as long as these offer a major contribution to our understanding of the interplay between the factors related to stress, trauma, anxiety and resilience. We will also consider brief reports, research letters, scholarly essays, and books reviews on topical areas.

Peer Review Process

All submissions are peer reviewed. Recommendations from the reviewers inform the editors’ manuscript selections. All reviewers have a terminal degree and publication experience with the exception of advanced graduate students, early career scholars, and practitioners who are provided an opportunity to serve as guest reviewers under the guidance of an advanced career scholar. Full-length articles are double anonymous peer-reviewed by at least 1 external reviewer. Brief reports, research letters, scholarly essays, and book reviews are peer-reviewed by a general editor, editorial board member and/or external reviewer. The review process typically takes between 12-16 weeks. For general questions and comments about the peer-review process, the journal or its editorial policies that are not addressed here, we encourage potential authors to contact the Editors directly at rglamber@charlotte.edu or cjmccarthy@austin.utexas.edu.

Publication Frequency

Our goal at J-STAR is to produce 4 issues per year.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Journal History

Kate Moore, of the Federation University of Australia, served as the founding editor of J-STAR form 2022-2025. Drs. Lambert and McCarthy became co-editors of J-STAR in 2025. The STAR Society expresses its gratitude to Chuck Olson, who created the logo of J-STAR and generously donated it to the STAR Society.