The composition of The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry, with its diverse categories that allow communication of a great variety of information, ensures that it is of interest to a wide range of readers. It offers the opportunity to educate (through critical review papers), to publish original work and observations (original papers), and to express personal opinions (Letters to the Editors). The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry is thus an extremely important medium in the field of biological psychiatry all over the world.

The published articles may derive from research of the full spectrum of biological and psychological fields of inquiry, encompassing classical and novel techniques in biological psychiatry as well as strategies such as neuroimaging, genetics, neuropsychopharmacology, psychoneuroendocrinology and neuropsychology. Emphasis will be given to original research that is of wide interest and clearly advances the field.

Manuscripts must be written in good standard English and should present new results as well as be of significant scientific value.

Contributions will be considered for the following categories:

• Original investigations - this category is intended for full-scale basic or clinical studies including large controlled trials. Articles may contain up to 5,000 words (not including references, figures and tables) and include an abstract (not exceeding 200 words) and a minimum of five keywords. Both Abstract and Keywords should be noted both in the main manuscript file as well as in the online submission form.
• Brief reports - this category is intended for smaller, self-contained laboratory or clinical studies including series of cases illustrating a novel therapeutic approach or clinical observation, or alerting readers to important adverse drug effects. Please note that single cases and case reports will not be considered. Papers in this category may contain up to 2,500 words (not including references, figures and tables) and include an abstract (not exceeding 200 words) and a minimum of five keywords.
• Reviews - this category is for scholarly, comprehensive reviews that summarise and critically evaluate research in the field addressed and identify future implications. Potentially acceptable articles should have field-altering impact, reframing current hypotheses or causes and treatment of mental disorders. Papers of this category may contain up to of 5,000 words (not including references, figures and tables) and include an abstract (not exceeding 200 words) and a minimum of five keywords.
• Book reviews - this category is intended for reviews that critically report on recent book publications in the field addressed and identify future implications. Papers of this category may contain up to 500 words (not including references, figures and tables). Abstract is not needed (put N/A in the required box in the online submission system). Keywords are only used in the online system for internal categorising, please do not enter any keywords in the main text.
• Letters to the Editors - this category is intended for comments on articles published in the World Journal of Biological Psychiatry and for announcements of interest to the readers of the World Journal of Biological Psychiatry. Papers of this category may contain up to 500 words (not including references, figures and tables) and up to five keywords. An abstract is not required for this category (please note N/A in the required box while uploading the Letter online).
• Editorials - Editorials will be invited by the Editors but may also be submitted. Authors wishing to submit papers in this category are advised to contact the Editorial Office before doing so. Editorials may contain up to 1,000 words (not including references, figures and tables). Abstract is not needed (put N/A in the required box in the online submission system). Keywords are only used in the online system for internal categorising, please do not enter any keywords in the main text.

Online Submission

The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry's web-based manuscript submission and handling system ScholarOne Manuscripts™, is available at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/swbp. Please note that online submission is mandatory, manuscripts received via email are not accepted.

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 Centre" to upload manuscripts.

If you have difficulties in submitting your manuscript electronically, or if you require additional assistance, contact the World Journal of Biological Psychiatry's Editorial Office at: wfsbp@meduniwien.ac.at

The receipt of the manuscript will be acknowledged by an e-mail which includes a manuscript ID number. Each manuscript will be assigned to at least three reviewers. The manuscript ID number should be quoted in all correspondence with the Chief Editor and Editorial Office.

Submission Requirements

Submission of a manuscript implies: that the work described has not been published before (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, review or thesis); that it is not under consideration for publication anywhere else; that the author(s) are entirely responsible for the scientific content of the paper; that its publication has been approved by all co-authors, if any, as well as by responsible authorities - tacitly or explicitly - at the institute where the work has been carried out.It is very important that all authors, corresponding authors and co-authors alike are registered with the correct e-mail addresses upon submission, to be able to complete the authorship statement form (see further note below).

Manuscripts submitted for publication must contain a statement to the effect that all human studies have been approved by the appropriate ethics committee and have therefore been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki. It should also be stated clearly in the text that all persons gave their informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study. Details that might disclose the identity of the subjects under study should be omitted.

As a condition of consideration for publication, registration of clinical trials in a public trials registry is required. A clinical trial is defined by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (in accordance with the definition of the World Health Organisation) as any research project that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcome. For more information please visit http://clinicaltrials.gov/

Reports of animal experiments must state that the Principles of laboratory animal care (NIH publication No. 86-23, revised 1985) were followed, as well as specific national laws (e.g., the current version of the German Law on the Protection of Animals) where applicable.

The editors reserve the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above-mentioned requirements. The author will be held responsible for false statements or for failure to fulfil the above-mentioned requirements.

Manuscript file specifications

Submit the manuscript text as an editable Word file and Figures as separate TIF or EPS format files. Use the font Times New Roman in 12 point size and double line spacing throughout the manuscript. Use a clear system of headings to divide up and clarify the text, with not more than three grades of headings. The desired position of figures and tables should be indicated in the manuscript.

The manuscript text file shall contain a title page. On the title page the following shall be stated: The title of the article, which should be concise but informative. A short title not exceeding 40 letters and spaces. The full names, affiliations and addresses of all the contributors, and e-mail address, telephone number and fax number for the corresponding author. The title page should also include details of the number of words, figures, and tables.

Each article (except for Book Reviews, Letters to the Editors ad Editorials) must include a short Abstract of the essential results (not exceeding 200 words). This must be noted in both the manuscript submission system as well as in the manuscript file. The abstract should be structured in the sections 'Objectives', 'Methods', 'Results' and 'Conclusions'.

Key words - Five key words or more should be inserted below the abstract in the main manuscript file. Use terms from the Medical Subject Headings list from Index Medicus. The manuscript submission system also requires selection of at least 5 key words to be used for categorisation.

Acknowledgements - Authors may receive assistance from technical writers, language editors and/or writing agencies in preparing manuscripts for publication. Such assistance must be noted in the Acknowlegements. If there are no acknowledgements, please state so by putting “none” in the respective section. The Acknowledgements should be listed before the conflicts of interest and before the references in the manuscript file.

Conflict of interest statement - for further details see note below. If there are no conflicts of interest, do please include this heading in the manuscript file with the statement. “None to declare”.

References - The WJBP uses the CBE style of references with the name/year system. All references cited in the text are to be listed (double-spaced) at the end of the manuscript in alphabetical order under the last name of the first author. If there are more than six authors, list the first six authors and use 'et al.' Articles 'in press' may be included, but must state the journal that has accepted them. Personal communications should be avoided. Journal titles should be abbreviated according to Index Medicus.

References in the text should be noted with the author last name and publication year within parentheses. If there are two authors, both should be named (e.g., Agar and Douglas 1955); if an article with more than two authors is cited, only the first author's name plus 'et al.' need to be given (e.g., Komor et al. 1979); if there is more than one reference by the same author or team of authors in the same year, then a, b, c, etc., should be added to the year, both in the text and the list of references. When styling references, the following examples should be followed:

For further guidance, please consult the online guide on CBE style: http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/researchsources/documentation/cbe_name/bibliographyrules.cfm

Tables should be included in the main manuscript file but on separate pages and numbered consecutively with Arabic numbers. All tables should include a brief descriptive caption. Tables should be included with the “Create Table” tool in the word processing software. Tables inserted as images or tab delimited text are not accepted.

Figures - All illustrations, whether photographs, graphs or diagrams, should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals and submitted as separate files. Each illustration should be referred to in the text as 'Figure 1', 'Figures 1-4', etc. The figures should have a short title followed by a concise description. All abbreviations and symbols appearing in the figure must be explained in the legend. Remarks such as 'for explanation (or details) see text' should be avoided. Each figure should have a legend containing sufficient information to render the figure intelligible without reference to the text. The figure legends should be included in the manuscript. If a figure has been published previously, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce it. If photographs of persons are used, either the subjects must be unidentifiable or their written permission to use the photographs must accompany the manuscript. Figures with photographic images can be uploaded as separate files in TIFF or JPG format with an image resolution of at least 300 DPI. Graphs and other illustrations created with office software can be included as embedded files within the manuscript file OR as separate files in TIF format saved with an image resolution of at least 600 DPI to preserve the legibility of the details in the printed version of the journal.

Please note that all extra charges for figures to be printed in colour must be borne by the authors. The charge for this is normally 400/$800/€550 for the first printed page per article and 200/$400/€275 for the second and subsequent pages in the same article. Figures can however be reproduced in colour in the online version of the journal free of charge.

Additional material - For every accepted and published article there is the opportunity to make additonal material like tables, figures, images, videos etc available online to specifically interested readers. Files shall be submitted through the manuscript submission system. Please note that additional material will only be published online.

Language - Manuscripts shall be written in clear and concise scientific English. British spelling is recommended to be used throughout. It is the responsibility of the 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. Authors may contact the Editorial office for recommendations of contacts regarding professional services and copy editing. A brief language overview will be carried out for articles accepted for publication, but no major changes are accepted at that stage (see note about author proof below).

Abbreviations and symbols used shall be standard and SI units. Acronyms should be used sparingly and shall be fully explained when first used. Whenever possible, drugs shall be given their approved generic name. When a proprietary (brand) name is used, it shall begin with a capital letter and the manufacturer's address details should be given. Statistical analyses must explain the methods used.

Conflict of interest statement & Authorship Form

Authors are requested 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. Any conflict of interest should be noted with a separate heading, included in the main manuscript file after the main text and the acknowledgements but before the references. If you do not have any conflict of interest please put “Conflicts of interest: none to declare” in the respective section. Manuscripts that do not include this statement may be sent back to the author for completion.

All authors are also prompted to confirm this during the submission process in the online system with the 'Authorship Statement' form. All registered authors will be prompted after submission to download and fill out this form. Corresponding authors and co-authors alike. The signed form should be scanned and uploaded to the system in the designated area in the 'Author Center' when logged in. A signature from all authors is required for the manuscript to be considered for publication.

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: http://www.informahealthcare.com/page/resources/authors

Proofs and offprints

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 via e-mail. 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.

For further information about the journal contact the Editorial Office at the following address: Berenike Oppermann, Editorial Administrator, E-mail: wfsbp@meduniwien.ac.at