Information for Contributors
Manuscript submission
The Journal of Psychopharmacology has a fully web-based system for the submission and review of manuscripts. All submissions should be made online at the Journal of Psychopharmacology SAGETRACK website SAGETRACK website
Note: Online submission and review of manuscripts is now mandatory for all types of papers.
New User Account
Please log onto the website. If you are a new user, you will first need to create an account. Follow the instructions and please ensure to enter a current and correct email address. Creating your account is a three-step process that takes a matter of minutes to set up. When you have finished, your User ID and password is sent via email immediately. Please edit your user ID and password to something more memorable by selecting 'edit account' at the top of the screen. If you have already created an account but have forgotten your details type your email address in the 'Password Help' to receive an emailed reminder. Full instructions for uploading the manuscript are provided on the website.
New Submission
Submissions should be made by logging in and selecting the Author Center and the 'Click here to Submit a New Manuscript' option. Follow the instructions on each page, clicking the 'Next' button on each screen to save your work and advance to the next screen. If at any stage you have any questions or require the user guide, please use the 'Get Help Now' button at the top right of every screen. Further help is available through ScholarOne's® Manuscript CentralTM customer support at +1 434 817 2040 x 167.
To upload your files, click on the 'Browse' button and locate the file on your computer. Select the designation of each file (i.e. main document, submission form, figure) in the drop down next to the browse button. When you have selected all files you wish to upload, click the 'Upload Files' button
Review your submission (in both PDF and HTML formats) and then click the Submit button
You may suspend a submission at any point before clicking the Submit button and save it to submit later. After submission, you will receive a confirmation e-mail. You can also log back into your author centre at any time to check the status of your manuscript.
Please ensure that you submit editable/source files only (Microsoft Word or RTF) and that your document does not include page numbers; the Journal of Psychopharmacology SAGETRACK system will generate them for you, and then automatically convert your manuscript to PDF for peer review. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revisions, will be by email.
If you would like to discuss your paper prior to submission, or seek advice on the submission process please contact the Editorial Manager, Pallab Seth, at the following email address: p.seth@imperial.ac.uk
Submitting a Revised Submission
Authors submitting revised manuscripts should follow the instructions above to submit through the SAGETRACK system. To create a revision, go to the 'Manuscripts with Decisions' option in your Author Dashboard and select 'create a revision in the 'Action' column. Authors of all revised submissions should, when prompted, provide information explaining the changes in your manuscript as this will be provided to reviewers.
Publication statement
Papers submitted to this Journal for publication are considered on condition that they have been neither submitted elsewhere, nor published elsewhere other than in abstract form. The Editors do not enter into correspondence about papers considered unsuitable for publication; their decision is final.
Conflict of Interest Statement
As most, if not all responsible adults in professional positions have potential conflicts of interest, the Journal has decided to instigate the following policy. By conflicts of interest we mean relationships, allegiances or hostilities to particular groups, organisations or interests, which may influence excessively one's judgements or actions. The issue is particularly sensitive when such interests are private and/or may result in personal gain.
Our expectation is that authors will always endeavour to recognise such interests and to act independently when giving their opinions or presenting data. However, it is also now essential that they are seen to acknowledge potential risks, especially where these might be interpreted to their discredit and to the discredit of the Journal of Psychopharmacology.
To this end, we encourage authors to disclose what potential conflicts of interest they have. However, the Journal of Psychopharmacology can accept no responsibility for omissions or lack of clarity - this must rest with the author.
As guidance, the risks that should be addressed lie in particular areas:
1. Where individuals have patents or inventions from which they may derive personal benefit in the area of psychopharmacology.
2. Where there is ownership or part ownership of a company with interests in the area of psychopharmacology. This would include holding the shares of major companies in one's own name, or those of dependent family members.
3. Accepting a personal retainer from any company with an interest in psychopharmacology.
4. Acting as a consultant to any company with an interest in psychopharmacology.
5. Acting as an expert witness, either friendly or hostile to any company with an interest in psychopharmacology.
6. Holding a research grant from any company with an interest in psychopharmacology.
7. Membership of the speakers' bureau for any company.
8. The acceptance of paid speaking engagements in industry supported symposia.
9. The acceptance of travel or hospitality not related to a speaking engagement.
Related concerns are appropriate if the relationships implied under any of items 3-9 also exist in respect of a relationship to a voluntary organisation, a charity, a law firm, a department of government, an investment company or any other formally constituted body with interests in the field of psychopharmacology.
It is not expected that the details of financial arrangements should be disclosed.
Publication categories
The Journal considers the following kinds of article for publication:
1. Research Reports, describing new experimental findings;
(a) Full papers
(b) Short reports requiring rapid dissemination
2. Review Articles. The Editors wish to encourage the following types of review, but request that authors contact them in advance:
(a) general reviews that provide a synthesis of an area of psychopharmacology;
(b) perspectives - brief overviews, which are 4-6 printed pages in length including references, that address important new areas of general interest;
(c) critiques - focused and provocative reviews that are followed by a number of invited commentaries, with a concluding reply from the main author;
3. Letters to the Editors. Readers' letters should address issues raised by published articles or should report significant new findings that merit rapid dissemination. The decision to publish is made by the Editors, in order to ensure a timely appearance in print.
4. Book Reviews. A list of up-to-date books for review is available from the Journal's Editorial Manager.
Manuscript presentation
Journal of Psychopharmacology subscribes predominantly to the editorial preferences expressed in the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals issued by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.
Articles submitted for publication in Journal of Psychopharmacology should be typed and in double spacing throughout (this includes notes and references) and with generous margins all round. Each page should be identified with a shortened version of the title.
Elements within the Manuscript
Cover sheet. Preface your paper with a cover sheet that carries the title, authors' names, addresses and affiliations; plus email address, telephone number and fax number for the corresponding author. On this or the next following page list sources of support in the form of grants, equipment, drugs or all of these, and any disclaimers.
Key words, or key word phrases, to accompany the abstract should not exceed 10. They should, if possible, be drawn from the MeSH list of Index Medicus and be chosen with a view to useful cross-indexing of the article.
Text. Subdivide your article with appropriate headings. Use no more than three levels of subdivision. For observational and experimental articles the first level will usually consist of the standard heads: Introduction, Methods and Materials, Results and Discussion. Other types of articles will benefit from less formulaic formats.
Acknowledgements. Between the end of the text and the start of the References section, please acknowledge sources of financial and material support, and those who have contributed intellectually, with their consent.
References. Authors should be cited using the name and date convention, in date order: (Prewett and Green, 1989; Becker, 1992; Marlowe et al., 1994, Table 2). List authors up to two; for three or more use the name of the first author plus et al. References should have been checked against the original documents, and must be carefully cross-checked to ensure the text citation matches that in the reference list.
Style of presentation in the reference list should follow the general pattern given below (standard Harvard style, for further examples see the Journal texts). Journal abbreviations should conform with the style adopted in the Cumulated Index Medicus.
Journal references:
Rickels K, Schweizer E, Clary C, Fox I, Weise C (1994) Nefazdone and imipramine in major depression: a placebo-controlled trial. Br J Psychiat 164: 802-805
Book references:
Eysenck M W (1992) The nature of anxiety. In Gale A, Eysenck M W (eds), Handbook of individual differences: biological perspectives. John Wiley, Chichester
Maxwell S, Delaney H (1990) Designing experiments and analysing data: a model comparison perspective. Wadsworth, Belmont, CA
Tables should be typed on separate sheets. They must all be cited in the text, carry brief but complete titles, and be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals. Keep rules (horizontal only) to a minimum.
Figures should be used with discretion to clarify (not duplicate) the text. They should be cited in the text, using arabic numerals, and their approximate location in the paper clearly indicated [Figure 1 near here]. They should, for preference, be supplied at reproduction size (single- or double-column width), and lettering should be no smaller than 8pt type. Computer-generated artwork must be submitted as laser printed output at a resolution of 600 dots per inch. Avoid the use of computer-generated tints; substitute hatching in their place. Photographs should be supplied as sharp black and white glossy prints, not laser output photos.
Figures (both photographs and artwork) should be identified lightly on a label attached to the back of the original, and clearly on a set of accompanying photocopies, with an arrow to indicate the top edge of the figure. Do not write directly on the back of any photograph or figure, do not attach paper clips or in any other way distort or scratch the image area. Photomicrographs should have internal scale markers; any symbols, arrows or letters used should be clearly visible against the background.
Legends should be explanatory but succinct. They should carry the arabic numerals applicable to the figures, and be provided as a separate typed (double-spaced) list at the end of the paper, along with the figures themselves.
Artwork can be printed in colour at the cost of £300 per page.
Elements of Overall Manuscript Style
Units of measurement. Express these in SI and metric units; older conventional units may be added in parentheses. Nomenclature. Use the generic or chemical name of any drug, in lower case; the specific trade name (capitalized) may be given in parentheses after the first text reference.
Abbreviations and symbols. Use standard abbreviations, and define them in full in the first instance unless they are standard units of measurement. Avoid any use of abbreviations in the article title and abstract.
Ethics. When reporting experiments on human subjects, indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) or with the Declaration of Helsinki 1975, revised Hong Kong 1989. Do not use patients' names, initials or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material. When reporting experiments on animals, indicate whether the institution's or the National Research Council's guide for, or any national law on, the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.
Permissions. Authors must obtain written permission from the copyright holder (original author or publisher) to include in their paper any previously published material. Credit should follow the style and location requested by the copyright holder.
On Publication
Access to 25 free e-prints will be provided; the corresponding author will receive one complimentary copy of the journal for each contributor.
OnlineFirst Instructions
OnlineFirst articles are the definitive final version, and are fully searchable and citable using their DOI. When you cite an Online first article, give the paper's DOI at the end of the citation. For example,
Author(s) J Psychopharmacol OnlineFirst, day month year (doi:10.1177/0269881106066333).
After print publication, you should give the DOI as well as the print citation, to enable readers to find the paper in print as well as online.
SAGE Open. If you wish your article to be freely available online immediately upon publication (as some funding bodies now require), you can opt for it to be included in SAGE Open subject to payment of a publication fee. Manuscript submission and refereeing procedure is unchanged. On acceptance of your article, you will be asked to let SAGE know directly if you are choosing SAGE Open. For furhter information, please visit
< http://www.sagepub.co.uk/sageopen
English Language Editing Services: Please click here for information on professional English language editing services recommended by SAGE.
