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About

BJPsych Open is an international peer-reviewed journal owned by the Royal College of Psychiatrists. It publishes original work in all fields of psychiatry. Please see the journal’s Aims & Scope for further information about its focus and readership.

BJPsych Open is not responsible for statements made by contributors and material in BJPsych Open does not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor-in-Chief or the College.

Preparing your Submission

Checklist: What to Include

Authors will be asked to confirm the following elements are included during submission. Any omissions may cause delays.

Word Document:

1. Title – The title should be brief and relevant. Titles should not announce the results of articles and (apart from editorials) they should not be phrased as questions.
2. Author Names – The full names of the authors should appear on the title page in the form that is wished for publication. When submitting a manuscript authored by a group, please specify the name of the group and identify the group members on the title page who can take credit and responsibility for the work as authors. Other group members (non-author contributors) should be listed under Acknowledgements or in Supplementary Material.
3. Main Text – See relevant Article Type for individual specification.
4. Clinical Trials Registration – In accordance with ICMJE guidelines, BJPsych Open requires all clinical trials to be registered in a public trials registry at the beginning of the research process (prior to patient enrolment). Trial registration numbers should be included in the abstract, with full details of the trial in the Methods section.
5. Materials, equipment and software – The source of any compounds not yet available on general prescription should be indicated. The version number (or release date) and manufacturer of software used, and the platform on which it is operated (PC, Mac, UNIX etc.), should be stated. The manufacturer, manufacturer's location and product identification should be included when describing equipment central to a study (e.g. scanning equipment used in an imaging study).
6. Ethics Statement – All authors are required to follow the ICMJE guidelines on the protection of research participants. Reports on research involving human participants must include the following statement in the Methods section: The authors assert that all procedures contributing to this work comply with the ethical standards of the relevant national and institutional committees on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2013. All procedures involving human subjects/patients were approved by [name of the relevant local, regional or national review body and approval number].

   Ethical Oversight / Research with Humans or Animals. We expect any authors who submit content to BJPsych Open to have obtained the necessary ethical approvals and consents for their research and its publication, and to be able to produce evidence of this if requested. For more information on clinical trial requirements and consent statement requirements, see the 'Preparing your submission' section.

7. Consent Statement – Authors must include a statement in the Methods section detailing the procedure for obtaining consent from study participants. For example:
   - Written [or verbal] informed consent was obtained from all subjects/patients.
   - Verbal consent was obtained from all subjects/patients. Verbal consent as witnessed and formally recorded.
   - This confirms that any participant has consented to the inclusion of material pertaining to themselves, that they acknowledge that they cannot be identified via the manuscript; and that the participant has been fully anonymized by the author.
   - If consent was not obtained from all participants, please state the reasons for this and note whether this was approved by the ethics committee.
   - If research participants are identifiable, authors should complete a Consent Form and email it to the editorial team at [email protected]. Where someone is deceased, authors must obtain written consent from the family or estate.
8. Author Details – At the end of the manuscript list the affiliations and countries at the time the work described in the paper was carried out. Identify one corresponding author with an email address appropriate for publication. For further information please read CUP's Corresponding Author guidance.
9. References – References should be numbered in the order that they appear in the text and listed at the end of the manuscript using the Vancouver style. Unpublished doctoral theses may be cited but no other citation of unpublished work, including unpublished conference presentations, is permissible. Authors are responsible for checking all references for accuracy and relevance before submission. Read our guide to Vancouver referencing here.

Required Statements:

1. Declaration of Interest- Authors should include a Declaration of Interest statement in their manuscript, detailing all conflicts of interest. Conflicts of interest are situations that could be perceived to exert an undue influence on an author's presentation of their work. They may include, but are not limited to, financial, professional, contractual or personal relationships or situations. Conflicts of interest do not necessarily mean that an author's work has been compromised. Authors should declare any real or perceived conflicts of interest in order to be transparent about the context of their work. If the manuscript has multiple authors, the author submitting the manuscript must include a Declaration of Interest statement relevant to all contributing authors. Example wording for your declaration is as follows: "Declaration of Interest: Author A is employed at company B. Author C owns shares in company D, is on the Board of company E and is a member of organisation F. Author G has received grants from company H." If no conflicts of interest exist, your declaration should state "Declaration of Interest: None".
2. Funding – Authors must include a Funding Statement in their manuscript. Within this statement please provide details of the sources of financial support for all authors, including grant numbers; for example: "Funding Statement: This work was supported by the Medical Research Council (grant number XXXXXXX)". Grants held by different authors should be identified as belonging to individual authors by the authors' initials; for example: "Funding Statement: This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust (AB, grant numbers XXXX, YYYY), (CD, grant number ZZZZ); the Natural Environment Research Council (EF, grant number FFFF); and the National Institutes of Health (AB, grant number GGGG), (EF, grant number HHHH)." Where no specific funding has been provided for research, you should include the following statement: "Funding Statement: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors."
3. Acknowledgements – Authors may acknowledge individuals or organisations who provided non-financial advice and/or support. Names and descriptions of the contributions of all non-author contributors should be included (as identified in the ICMJE guidelines). We are aware that authors sometimes receive assistance from technical writers, language editors, artificial intelligence (AI) tools, and/or writing agencies in drafting manuscripts for publication. Such assistance must be noted in the Acknowledgements section. Failure to acknowledge assistance from technical writers, language editors, AI tools and/or writing agencies in drafting manuscripts for publication in the Acknowledgements section may lead to disqualification of the paper. If a professional medical writer has been employed in connection to the work, the writer must submit a completed ICMJE Conflicts of Interest form and be named in the Acknowledgements section with their contact information. Examples of how to acknowledge assistance in drafting manuscripts:    • “The author(s) thank [name and qualifications] of [company, city, country] for providing [medical/technical/language] writing support/editorial support [specify and/or expand as appropriate], which was funded by [sponsor, city, country]."  • “The author(s) made use of [AI system/tool] to assist with the drafting of this article. [AI version details] was accessed/obtained from [source details] and used with/without modification [specify and/or expand as appropriate] on [date(s)]."
4. Author Contribution – All authors should meet all four ICMJE criteria for authorship. Please provide a very brief description of the contribution of each author to the research including their roles in formulating the research question(s), designing the study, carrying it out, analysing the data and writing the article. The journal will follow COPE guidance to investigate if ghost, guest or gift authorship is suspected in a paper.
5. Transparency Declaration - The lead author and manuscript guarantor will be required to affirm that the manuscript is an honest, accurate, and transparent account of the study being reported; that no important aspects of the study have been omitted; and that any discrepancies from the study as planned (and, if relevant, registered) have been explained.
6. Data Availability – In the interests of research transparency, authors are required to maintain accurate records of data associated with their manuscript, and to supply or provide access to these data on reasonable request for purposes of reproducing results or replicating procedures. Authors are encouraged to deposit data in a recognized data repository that can mint a persistent digital identifier (e.g. DOI), provides timestamped entries and recognizes a long-term preservation plan. Please include a brief statement indicating whether the materials supporting the findings are available, and if so, where readers may access them. For example:

• The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in [repository name] at http://doi.org/[doi], reference number [reference number].
• The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, [initials]. The data are not publicly available due to [restrictions e.g. their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants].
• Data availability is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.
• The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [author initials], upon reasonable request. Please find more sample statements here. 

Thesis Citing

The journal welcomes research that has been completed as part of a thesis. All submissions are required to meet the standards of the journal and will be subject to the usual peer review process. 

In accordance with the journal’s Publishing Ethics Policy, it is mandatory for authors to disclose whether the research is part of a thesis by following the below points: 

• Authors are required to indicate in ScholarOne and disclose in their covering letter their work is part of or is a whole thesis.
• Authors are required to update the title page of the thesis with a link to the new version of record.
• Authors are required to cite and reference their thesis. 
• Authors should refer to the general rights detailed in the thesis and confirm they hold copyright/have permission to reuse this material in the new paper.
• Authors are reminded that final decisions are at the discretion of the Editor in Chief.

 

Failure to disclose this information will result in the submission being withdrawn and the University notified.

Other Documents:

1. Tables - Tables should be numbered (e.g. Table 1, Table 2…) and referenced in the text of the manuscript. Authors must indicate the desired position of the table in the manuscript. Authors must obtain permission from the original publisher if they intend to use tables from other sources, and due acknowledgement should be made in a footnote to the table as follows: Permission to replicate this table has been given to the authors by XXX. Please ensure that tables are a reasonable size. Tables over two typeset pages (around 1,400 words) will be moved to supplementary material.
2. Figures - Figures should be numbered (e.g. Fig 1, Fig 2, Fig 3…) and referenced in the text of the manuscript. Authors must indicate the desired position of the figure in the manuscript. Please consult the journal artwork guide for a detailed specification on accepted file formats. Authors must obtain permission from the original publisher if they intend to use figures from other sources, and due acknowledgement should be made in the legend as follows: Permission to replicate this figure has been given to the authors by XXX.
   Any figures supplied in colour will be published online in colour.
3. Supplementary Material – Material related to a paper but not essential to a general understanding of the paper will be published as an online data supplement. Supplementary material is peer reviewed but will not be copyedited or typeset and should be supplied as authors wish to appear online. Supplementary material should be uploaded as a separate file and referenced in the manuscript. This material includes, but is not restricted to:
   • Additional data presented as tables or figures
   • Details of a search strategy employed in a literature review
   • Details of the literature retrieved but not further discussed in the body of the manuscript
   • Technical details of specialist (but not novel) methodology, statistical analysis and supporting references
   • Authors who have contributed in some sense to the paper but don’t qualify for an authorship credit (e.g. group authorship) should be added to supplementary material rather than included in the footnote or acknowledgement section.
   • Long lists of contributors who don’t qualify for an authorship credit (e.g. group authorship) should be added to supplementary material. Shorter lists can be included in the acknowledgement section.
4. Publication Agreement - A signed author publication agreement must be submitted online when submitting a revised version of the manuscript, or immediately after acceptance if no revision is required.
5. CONSORT, PRISMA, or CHEERS Checklist/Flow Diagram – If relevant, see here for more information.

During Online Submission:

Papers may be submitted directly, or be cascaded to BJPsych Open following a decision by The British Journal of Psychiatry (BJPsych) or other BJPsych journals either before or after external peer review. To enable a swift peer review process, if a paper has been peer-reviewed in another BJPsych journal, it will be treated as a revised submission (subject to responses to the original peer review reports) and it is therefore expected that authors will respond to all reviewer comments before submitting to BJPsych Open.

Please check that data detailed within the manuscript corresponds to data detailed within figures and tables and check for any discrepancies or calculation errors.

1. Covering letter - Authors are required to provide a covering letter that explains the relevance of the research to practising psychiatrists.
2. Responding to reviewers - When submitting a revised manuscript, authors are expected to respond to reviewers' comments on the previous submission, point by point, where prompted on the online submission site. Please also highlight in yellow those sections of your manuscript that have been changed in response to reviewers' comments. Note that comments on the manuscript made using track changes will not be visible to the Editor.
   Please remember to check your files carefully prior to upload to ensure there are no calculation errors or discrepancies between versions that have not been highlighted and noted in your response to reviewer comments.
3. If submitting following transfer from another BJPsych journal - The response to reviewer comments should be detailed in the covering letter and amendments to the paper highlighted in yellow as above.
4. Fast-track assessment - Authors can request fast-track assessment in their cover letter if they believe their paper has the potential directly to improve clinical practice or influence public policy.
   Appropriate reasons for fast-track assessment:
   • Findings suggest an immediate change in practice for reasons of patient safety
   • Findings suggest that aspects of current practice are no longer ethical
   • Findings suggest that a change in current practice will lead to significantly improved patient outcomes
   • The first report of a novel and clinically useful therapy
   • The first report of good evidence for a novel aetiological mechanism.
   
   A decision regarding the fast-track route will be made within 10 days of submission. All manuscripts approved for the fast-track route will be assessed within 4 weeks of submission.
5. ORCID - The corresponding author is required to register for an ORCID profile during manuscript submission. We recommend that all authors register for an ORCID profile and link their ORCID to their ScholarOne account. Please find more information about registration here.

Article Types

Jump to: Paper | Review | Short Report | Editorial | Commentary | Correspondence & eLetters | Case Reports | Cost-of-illness and cost studies | Economic evaluations | Economic evaluations based on decision analysis | Protocol Submissions

Paper

• The word count should be between 3000 and 5000 words in length (excluding references, tables and figure legends) and may include up to 40 essential references beyond those describing statistical procedures, psychometric instruments and diagnostic guidelines used in the study.
• Structured abstract of up to 250 words with the headings: Background; Aims; Method; Results; Conclusions (Trial Registration Number and Data Set Information where appropriate). Please find further guidance on writing an effective abstract here.
  • Quantitative studies: abstracts should provide effect sizes with confidence intervals (not P-values alone).
  • Conclusions, in isolation, are likely to be used by others citing or promoting the work and must therefore be an accurate reflection of the study's main findings.
  
  
• Tables and Figures - there is no limit for tables and figures unless the number becomes cumbersome and detracts from the paper. We recommend that large tables and figures (exceeding one journal page) should be included as supplementary material.
• Main Text - The main text should include the following sections: Introduction, Method, Results and Discussion.
  • Introductions should normally be no more than one paragraph. Longer introductions may be permissible but should be split with subheadings if they exceed two paragraphs.
  • Discussion section should always include limitations of the paper to ensure balance, use of subheadings is encouraged in this section.
  • A Conclusions section is not required in the main text.

  
  

  Review

  • There is no word limit or maximum number of references, tables or figures.
  • The abstract and main text should be structured in the same way as Papers.
  • We require authors to register the protocol for systematic reviews before data extraction on an accessible, searchable site such as PROSPERO. Please include the registration number in the abstract. If the review has not been registered, we are unable to consider your submission.
    
  • Systematic reviews are preferred, narrative reviews will be published only under exceptional circumstances.
  • Previously published Reviews for groups such as the Cochrane Collaboration and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence should be submitted with the latest version of the parent review and its status, so an informed decision can be made about the added value of the submitted paper.

  
  

  Short Report

  • The word count should not exceed 1200 words (excluding references, tables and figure legends) and may include one figure or table and up to 15 essential references.
  • Short reports require an unstructured summary of one paragraph, not exceeding 150 words.
  • Short reports must not exceed three printed pages and may require further editing after acceptance.

  
  

  Editorial

  • The word count should not exceed 1500 words and may contain no more than one figure or table and no more than 15 essential references.
  • Editorials require an unstructured summary paragraph (brief abstract) of between 50–150 words.
  • Editorials may only exceed three printed pages at the Editor-in-Chief's discretion and may require further editing after acceptance.
  • A good-quality photograph (minimum resolution 300 dpi) of the lead author for publication must be submitted with the manuscript, along with brief biographical details (up to 25 words) for each author.

  
  

  Commentary

  • The word count should not exceed 1200 words and may include up to 20 essential references.
  • Commentaries require an unstructured summary paragraph not exceeding 50 words.
  • A good-quality photograph (minimum resolution 300 dpi) of the lead author for publication must be submitted with the manuscript, along with brief biographical details (up to 25 words) for each author.

  
  

  Correspondence & eLetters

  • Letters may be submitted online as responses to published articles by navigating to the eLetters tab when viewing an article online and selecting ‘Submit a response’.
  • Letters may be up to 500 words in length with a maximum of five references.
  • All letters must include a Declaration of Interest statement. All eLetters will be screened by the Editor-in-Chief prior to publication online.
  • More detailed instructions for writing eLetters, including the eLetter moderation policy, can be found here.

  
  

  Case Reports

  • We will accept an unstructured abstract for a Case Report not exceeding 175 words, but depending on the actual case, the Handling Editor may request a structured abstract.
  • Case reports should normally be 2000–3000 words, though if the case report is a case with literature review both the word and reference limitation can be exceeded at the discretion of the Handling Editor.
  • There is no limit for tables and figures unless the number becomes cumbersome and detracts from the paper. We recommend that large tables and figures (exceeding one journal page) should be included as supplementary material.
  • Case reports should be submitted under the article type "Paper" in Scholar One.

  
  

  Cost-of-illness and cost studies

  Cost-of-illness and cost studies will be treated as regular papers, short papers or reviews based on the data submitted and authors should adhere to the associated word count and reference limitations. These papers require a structured abstract.

  Economic evaluations

  BJPsych Open will consider all economic evaluations submitted for publication that meet appropriate methodological and reporting standards. Priority will be given to trial-based economic evaluations submitted to BJPsych Open that meet the following criteria (in order of importance):
  

  • Submitted with the main clinical trial outcome results in a single manuscript
  • Submitted alongside the main clinical trial manuscript, or subsequent to the main clinical trial manuscript being accepted for publication in BJPsych Open and demonstrating added value in the form of original and important results not reported in the clinical trial manuscript
  • Submitted in isolation from the main clinical trial manuscript, published elsewhere and demonstrating added value in the form of original and important results not reported in the clinical trial manuscript.

  
  

  Economic evaluations based on decision analysis

  Priority will be given to economic evaluations based on decision modelling that meet all the following criteria:
  

  • Original and important results, not reported elsewhere, that are likely to have an impact on real decisions in clinical practice or on mental health policy
  • Methods/results that are described and reported clearly enough to be accessible to a primarily clinical audience
  • Based on data from systematic literature reviews/meta-analyses, randomised controlled trials and/or routine data sources (such as hospital episode statistics or patient registries).

  
  

  Manuscripts must clearly meet the first two criteria in order to be considered.
  

  Protocol Submissions

  BJPsych Open will consider protocol submissions only if they are considered to be of special interest (e.g. indicating an innovative design or important topic). They should be submitted as a "Paper".

Transparent Reporting

BJPsych Open believes in the importance of transparent and reproducible research.

Where possible we encourage authors to make evidence, data, code, and other materials that underpin their findings available to readers.

We also encourage authors to cite materials and data they have used in their research, alongside literature citations, to recognise the importance of all kinds of research outputs.

We expect authors to follow best practices in reporting their methodology. Reporting guidelines for many study designs, including quantitative and qualitative scholarship across many disciplines, can be found in the EQUATOR Network.

Authors must abide by the following guidelines and documentation, if applicable:

• CONSORT guidelines: Randomised controlled trials (submit a completed checklist and flowchart)
• STROBE guidelines: Cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional observational studies in in epidemiology
• PRISMA guidelines: systematic reviews or meta-analyses of evaluations studies including randomised controlled trials (submit a completed checklist and flowchart)
• MOOSE guidelines.: meta-analyses of observational studies in epidemiology
• CHEERS guidelines: economic evaluations (submit a completed checklist)
• SAGER Guidelines: We encourage authors to consult the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) Guidelines for reporting sex and gender information in study design, data analyses, results and interpretation. Authors should use the terms sex and gender carefully in order to avoid confusing both terms and include separate reporting and interpretation of the data by sex and gender. If sex and/or gender information are not reported, this should be explained. 
• PPI Guidelines: The journal encourages active patient and public involvement (PPI) in research. If appropriate, please report PPI in your manuscript using GRIPP2-LF, a longer checklist for studies where PPI forms the primary focus of a study or GRIPP2-SF, a short checklist for studies where PPI is a secondary or tertiary focus.

Statistics

Attention should be paid to providing a clear description of study designs and objectives, and evidence that the statistical procedures used were both appropriate for the hypotheses tested and correctly interpreted. The statistical analyses should be planned before data are collected and full explanations given for any post hoc analyses carried out. The value of test statistics used (e.g. t, F-ratio) should be given as well as their significance levels so that their derivation can be understood. Standard deviations and errors should not be reported as ± but should be specified and referred to in parentheses.

Trends should not be reported unless they have been supported by appropriate statistical analyses for trends. The use of percentages to report results from small samples is discouraged, other than where this facilitates comparisons. The number of decimal places to which numbers are given should reflect the accuracy of the determination and estimates of error should be given for statistics. Use of confidence intervals is encouraged but not mandatory. Authors are encouraged to include estimates of statistical power where appropriate. To report a difference as being statistically significant is generally insufficient, and comment should be made about the magnitude and direction of change.

Qualitative research

BJPsych Open welcomes submissions of reports of qualitative research relevant to the scope of the journal. These manuscripts will be evaluated in terms of design, conduct and reporting of the study, which need to be of sufficient quality and merit to warrant inclusion in BJPsych Open.

The Editorial team recognises that the term 'qualitative research' encompasses diverse methods, manuscripts will be evaluated based on the appropriateness of the selected framework, the coherence of the report and its adherence to quality criteria consistent with the methodology and method as follows:

Epistemological and/or theoretical frameworks

• The epistemological underpinnings and/or theoretical framework are made explicit and applied consistently

Study design and method

• The research goal is clear, justified and in context regarding the literature
• The approach matches the purpose of research and is justified
• Methods of sampling, data collection, data management and analysis are made explicit and consistent with the methodology
• Analytical and interpretative processes are described in full

Findings, discussion and implications

• Findings represent the depth and breadth of data
• Findings and interpretations are supported by the data
• Direct quotations, exemplars or other data presentations are used judiciously to illustrate the findings
• Findings are presented in a way that is consistent with the methodology, method and study aims
• Authors are appropriately cautious about knowledge claims
• Findings are explored theoretically and applications discussed

Process issues

• The report provides an account of reflexive practice in keeping with the methodology