International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice (IJPCP) is a high quality quarterly journal targeted primarily at clinical psychiatrists working in hospital environments. Particular emphasis is placed on the interface between important new findings stemming from advanced scientific research and their clinical applications. The journal aims to reflect all the issues at the forefront of current debate in psychiatry, through the following types of articles: 

• Original research reports
• Short reports
• Reviews of treatment studies
• Analyses of pharmacoeconomic issues
• Commentaries
• Interviews and debates

Original Reports and Review Articles can be up to 7,500 words in length. Short Reports should be approximately 1,500 words with 2-3 tables or figures. Commentaries or other material falling outside the usual categories, can be up to 2,500 words. All the papers will be peer-reviewed and slightly edited to ensure clarity and accuracy of English. 

Articles are considered for publication on the understanding that neither the article nor its essential substance has been, or will be, published elsewhere before appearing in IJPCP. Abstracts and press reports published in connection with scientific meetings are not considered to be publications. 

SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS

IJPCP's Manuscript Central, web-based manuscript submission and handling system, is now available. Please submit all manuscripts online via the Manuscript Central site at the following link: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ijpcp

Click on "online submission" which directs you to Manuscript Central's log in page. Here either create an account or enter an existing account to log in your "author center" to upload manuscript files.

The receipt of the manuscript will be acknowledged by an e-mail which includes a manuscript ID number. The manuscript ID number should be quoted in all correspondence with the Editors and the Editorial Offices.

If you have difficulties in submitting your manuscript electronically, contact site administrators via "Get Help Now" on upper right corner of any screen. You can also contact editorial office via e-mail: ijpcp@informa.com

MANUSCRIPT SPECIFICATIONS

Manuscripts should be arranged according to rules stated in the “Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals”; see also: Ann Intern Med 1997;126:36-47, or JAMA 1997;277:927-34. The full document is available at www.icmje.org. The journal specific requirements are detailed below.

Language

Manuscripts should be written in clear and concise scientific English. British spelling is recommended to be used throughout.

It is the responsibility of authors to ensure the quality of the language for submitted articles. Colloquial English may not be sufficient and is not necessarily the same as scientific English, for which professional services may be needed (see for example www.internationalscienceediting.com and www.writescienceright.com). A brief language overview will be carried out for articles accepted for publication, but no major changes are accepted at that stage (see also note about author proofs below).

Measurements should be given in SI units, although older conventional units can also be included in parentheses Abbreviations and symbols used must be standard and SI units used throughout. Acronyms should be used sparingly and must be fully explained when first used. Whenever possible drugs should be given their approved generic name. When a proprietary (brand) name must be used, it should begin with a capital letter. Statistical analyses must explain the methods used.

Manuscript files should be structured as follows:

1) Title page, 2) Abstract, 3) Keywords, 4) Main text, including; a) Introduction, b) Material and Methods, c) Results and Discussion; 5) Key points 6) Acknowledgments 7) Disclosure of Interest; 8) References, 9) Legends of Figures and Tables, 10) Tables and/or 11) Figures.

1. Title page - should include: a) Full title (avoid abbreviations or proprietary names in the title) b) Running title (for page heading, max 49 characters), c) All contributing authors with full name, title and affiliation, d) Corresponding author details (to whom all decision letters and page proofs will be communicated, and to be noted in the printed manuscript).

2. Abstract - A structured abstract of no more than 200 words is required for main research articles, subdivided into the following sequential sections: Objective, Methods, Results and Conclusions. Short Reports, Reviews and Commentaries require only a maximum 150-word “block” style, non-structured abstract.

3. Keywords - Include in the manuscript file 3-5 keywords representative of your article. These may be used for indexing services and other search facilities for published material.

6. Acknowledgements - Include only those who have made a valuable contribution to the work presented but who do not qualify as authors, with their contribution described. This may include a patient population and funding bodies. Use plain language and avoid adjectives. If appropriate, funding for help with writing or editorial assistance may be added.

7. Disclosure of interests (see details below).

8. References - in Vancouver style (see details below).

9. Figure and Table legends - Clearly marked with the heading of each table/figure.

10. Tables - Can be included in the main document if created with the table tool in the word processing software. The number of tables and figures should be kept to a minimum. There should preferably not be repetition/overlap of information given in tables/figures/text.

11. Figures - should be submitted as separate files in the best possible quality. Read more about accepted formats and quality requirements below.

A Cover Letter should be provided either as a separate text file or typed into the online system, where authors vouch for the accuracy of the manuscript according to the guidelines given here. This is also the place where authors may inform the Editors of any special circumstances or details regarding the submitted material, including prior publication of the material/parts of the material in a minority language.

FIGURES

Graphic elements and illustrations are accepted if providing unique data that can not be described in the text, and should be clearly marked with Arabic numbers as they appear in the text. To ensure correct placement in the journal layout, note the figure reference (abbreviated) within brackets when referring to the figure in text, e.g. (Fig. 1).

Figure files should be uploaded to the online system as separate files, in TIF, EPS, PDF or JPG format. Providing these formats will guarantee that the quality of the graphics is good throughout the publishing process, if provided with sufficient resolution. Photographic illustrations should be rendered with at least 300 DPI; please use CMYK color conversion if possible. Graphs made with Office software such as Microsoft Excel, can be provided in their original format to facilitate conversion into printable format with preserved quality. Any other line graphs/illustrations should preferably be provided in EPS format with a resolution of at least 600 DPI to prevent ragged lines when printed.

REFERENCES

Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references. Articles 'in press' may be included, but must state the journal that has accepted them. Personal communications should be avoided. References should follow the Vancouver system: in the text each reference is cited by a number in square brackets, starting at [1]. At the end of the paper they should be listed (double-spaced) in numerical order in square brackets, corresponding to the order of citation in the text. List all authors for each reference when there are 6 names or fewer, but when there are 7 or more, list the first 6 and add 'et al'. Journal titles should be abbreviated according to the current edition of Index Medicus (available at: www.icmje.org). 

Examples:

Journal articles: Magos AL, Brincat M, Studd JWW. Treatment of the premenstrual syndrome by subcutaneous oestradiol implants and cyclical oral norethisterone: Placebo-controlled study. Br Med J 1986;292:1629-33.

Chapter in book: Friedman MJ, Southwick SM. Towards a pharmacotherapy of PTSD. In: Friedman MJ, Charney DS, Deutch AY, editors. Neurobiological and clinical consequences of stress: From normal adaptation to post-traumatic stress disorder. New York: Lippincott-Raven; 1995, p 469.

Complete book: Judd FK, Burrows GD, Lipsitt DR, editors. Handbook of studies on general hospital psychiatry. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 1991. 

For more detailed guidelines, please turn to the NLM/NIH uniform requirements website: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html

CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT

Authors are required to disclose any commercial or other associations that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article. All funding sources supporting the work, and institutional and corporate affiliations of the authors must be acknowledged after the discussion section. If you do not have any conflict of interest please also state it after the discussion sectionof the main manuscript file. All authors are also prompted to confirm this during the submission process in the online system.

AUTHOR PROOFS - FINAL APPROVAL

Authors will be notified via e-mail when a manuscript is ready for final approval before publication. This e-mail provides instructions on how to log on to the online author service, where the final version of the manuscript can be downloaded as a printer ready PDF file.

To avoid delays of publication, proofs should be checked immediately and returned electronically through the online service, following the instructions given. Corrections submitted via the telephone are not accepted. Authors are advised that they are responsible for proof-reading of the text, references, tables and figures for absolute accuracy. Additional material or major corrections cannot be accepted at this stage, nor is substantial rewriting of paragraphs permitted. Such extensive changes may result in a delay or withdrawal of the article from publication. Any costs arising from major additional changes may also be charged to the authors.

COPYRIGHT

It is a condition of publication that authors assign copyright or license the publication rights of the contents of their articles, including abstracts, to Informa Healthcare. This enables full copyright protection and dissemination of the article and the Journal, to the widest possible readership in electronic and print formats. A document to verify this will be sent upon acceptance for publication. This document should be signed by the corresponding author and returned to the publisher for archiving. To read more about Informa Healthcare's policy and guidelines regarding copyright, consult the online author service pages: ./authors_journals_copyright

ETHICS AND CONSENT

When reporting experiments on human subjects, indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible local or national committee on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration (1975, revised 1983) (World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki: http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm). Standards for the editorial process are in accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines (www.publicationethics.org.uk/guidelines/code)

Updated 2008-04-16