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The Psychiatrist instructions for authors

From January 2010 the Psychiatric Bulletin will become The Psychiatrist.

The Psychiatrist publishes original and scientific papers, review articles and opinion pieces dealing with treatment of mental disorders, administration, audit and management of psychiatric services and training in psychiatry. The Psychiatrist focuses on matters relevant to everyday clinical practice and management in psychiatry, and will prioritise articles which are of practical clinical relevance, topical and accessible. Papers will only be considered if they are of scientific merit.

The Psychiatrist complies with the International Committee of Medical Editors’ Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts (http://www.icmje.org/), which it recommends to its contributors and assessors.

The journal accepts personal stories/accounts or case reports only in exceptional circumstances. There is a preference for studies that will generalise to other areas and countries rather than being simply of local interest. Preference will be given to full studies with appropriate statistics rather than preliminary enquiries. Surveys with a low response rate (less than 60%) will only be accepted for publication in exceptional circumstances and similar considerations apply to retrospective case note studies. Papers on audit must demonstrate a completed audit cycle.

Editorials may be controversial but must be backed up by appropriate references. Special Articles include reappraisal of existing knowledge, new theoretical interpretations or implications for practice, but rarely present original data. Review Articles may be narrative or systematic but there is a preference for the latter. It is also suggested that authors review previous issues of The Psychiatrist and place their work in the context of material previously published.

• All papers, including editorials and commissioned papers, are sent for peer review.

• Papers will normally be 2000 – 3000 words in length.

• An abstract of 100–150 words (structured under the headings: Aims and Method, Results, and Clinical Implications) should be included with all original scientific papers. A summary of approximately 100 words should precede all other articles, including editorials. The abstract or summary should be included in the article itself.

• Authors are encouraged to limit the number of tables/figures to a maximum of three.

• If the paper is a report of a clinical trial, that trial must be registered in a public trials registry and the trial registration number stated in the manuscript.

• Full details of all the authors should be included in the article itself: name(s); job title(s), affiliation(s) and email address for the corresponding author.

• Photographs and illustrations are welcome.

• A Declaration of Interest must be given and should list fees and grants from, employment by, consultancy for, shared ownership in, or any close relationship with, an organisation or individual whose interests, financial or otherwise, may be affected by the publication of your paper. This pertains to all the authors of the study.

References

Authors are responsible for checking all references for accuracy and relevance in advance of submission. Reference lists not in the correct style will be returned to the author for correction. All references should be numbered in the order in which they appear in the text and listed at the end of the article using the Vancouver style (see below), in which the names and initials of all authors are given after the appropriate reference number. If there are more than six authors, the first six should be named, followed by 'et al'.

The authors' names are followed by the full title of the article; the journal title abbreviated (in italics) according to the style of Index Medicus; the year of publication; the volume number (in bold type); and the first and last page numbers. References to book or book chapters should give the titles of the book (and the chapter if selected), names of any authors, name of publisher, names of any editors, and year. Examples are shown below.

Personal communications need written authorisation (email is acceptable); they should not be included in the reference list. Unpublished doctoral theses may be cited (please state department or faculty, university and degree). No other citation of unpublished work, including unpublished conference presentations, is permissible.

House style

For further guidance, authors may refer to the Royal College of Psychiatrists' house style guide.

Submitting a paper

Contributions should be submitted via the Internet-based manuscript tracking system Bench>Press. We cannot accept contributions sent by e-mail. To register with the system and submit a paper please go to the following website: http://submit-pb.rcpsych.org
and click on create a new account. A unique account will be created for each contributor using his or her email address as identification. (Note for contributors with more than one email account: please ensure you use the same email address whenever logging on to the manuscript submission website.) For assistance with online submission, or to enquire about the progress of a submission, please email pb@rcpsych.ac.uk or telephone +44 (0)20 7235 2351 extension 144.

All submissions that the Editor deems to be within the journal’s remit and presented appropriately will be sent for review by a minimum of two peers who declare that they have no conflict of interest in assessing the submitted manuscript. The assessments resulting from peer-review assist the Editor in deciding which manuscripts, perhaps after further revision, may be appropriate for publication. The Editor’s decision is final, and space restrictions mean that not all high-quality papers can be accepted for publication.

Correspondence

All letters should be submitted online as eLetters and will be considered by the Correspondence Editor. We cannot accept letters sent by e-mail or post. We are unable to provide individual feedback or inform authors of the outcome of submitted eLetters. We aim to publish accepted eLetters on The Psychiatrist website 7-10 days after submission. To submit and eLetter please go to The Psychiatrist website: http://pb.rcpsych.org

If your letter is in response to an article published in The Psychiatrist, find the article to which your letter refers and click ‘Full text’. Then click ‘Submit an eLetter’ (in the box at the top right of the screen). If your letter is a general one click ‘eLetters’ (link on The Psychiatrist homepage) and then ‘Submit a letter to the editor unrelated to a published article’. For further guidance please e-mail pb@rcpsych.ac.uk.

When an eLetter is published in response to a previously published article, the corresponding author of that article is notified and may choose to respond. The Correspondence Editor will screen all eLetters for libellous content, and has discretion to edit eLetters further before online publication. Some eLetters will be selected for later inclusion in the printed journal; these may be subject to substantive editing at the discretion of the Correspondence Editor.

Obituaries

Obituaries tend to be commissioned but unsolicited pieces will be considered by the Obituaries Editor. For further details and guidelines please email pb@rcpsych.ac.uk.

Patient Consent

If an individual patient is described, his or her consent should be obtained and submitted with the manuscript. Our consent form can be downloaded here - http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/pdf/TPconsentForm.pdf
The individual should read the report before submission. Where the individual is not able to give informed consent, it should be obtained from a legal representative or other authorised person. If it is not possible for informed consent to be obtained, the report can be published only if all details that would enable any potential reader (including the individual or anyone else) to identify the person are omitted. Merely altering some details, such as age and location, is not sufficient to ensure that a person's confidentiality is maintained. Contributors should be aware of the risk of complaint by individuals in respect of defamation and breach of confidentiality, and where concerned should seek advice.

General Information and Copyright

Manuscripts accepted for publication are copyedited to ensure readability and to ensure conformity with house style. Contributions are accepted for publication on the condition that their substance has not been published or submitted elsewhere. Published articles become the property of The Psychiatrist and can be published elsewhere, in full or in part, only with the written permission of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Open Access

There is no submission or publication fee for papers published in The Psychiatrist in the usual way. All papers published in The Psychiatrist become freely available online 12 months after publication. In a new initiative to maximise access to original research, authors now have the option to make their papers freely available from the time of publication, on payment of an open access charge. This charge is currently £750 (or US$1450) per article, plus VAT where applicable. If you wish to take up this option, send an email to pb@rcpsych.ac.uk once your paper has been accepted for publication. For such papers the requirement for a 12-month delay before release of the manuscript in a public archive is waived, and the final published version may be deposited.