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Psychiatric Bulletin instructions for authors

The Psychiatric Bulletin publishes original and scientific papers, brief review articles and opinion pieces dealing with treatment of mental disorders, administration, audit and management of psychiatric services and training in psychiatry. The Psychiatric Bulletin focuses on matters relevant to everyday clinical practice and management in psychiatry. The Psychiatric Bulletin will prioritise articles which are of practical clinical relevance, topical and accessible. Papers will only be considered if they are of scientific merit and we cannot accept personal stories/accounts.

All original articles are peer reviewed. The length should be no more than 3000 words. Longer papers are likely to be returned to the authors for editing before being sent to the referees. A structured abstract of 100–120 words (headings to include aims and method, results and clinical implications) should be included with all original scientific papers. A summary of approximately 100 words should preceed review articles. Authors are encouraged to limit the number of tables/figures to a maximum of three. Photographs and illustrations are welcome. From 1 March 2008, 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. For more detailed advice on reference style, presentation of statistical information and the style of tables and figures, please go to The British Journal of Psychiatry.

Personal communications need written authorisation (email is acceptable); they should not be included in the reference list. No other citation of unpublished work, including unpublished conference presentations, is permissible.

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 whose interests, financial or otherwise, may be affected by the publication of your paper. This pertains to all the authors of the study.

Papers on audit must demonstrate a completed audit cycle. Correspondence is welcome; letters should be no longer than 250 words (please give word count) and include no more than three references, no tables or diagrams. Letters can be e-mailed in the first instance to pb{at}rcpsych.ac.uk but signed copies must follow by post or fax. The Correspondence Editor will use a standard letter to inform authors if their letter is to be published or not. Book reviews should be no longer than 500 words.

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. 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.

Contributions are accepted for publication on the condition that their substance has not been published or submitted elsewhere.

Contributions should be submitted online via http://submit-pb.rcpsych.org
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.) Contributors may track the progress of their submissions at any time via this website. For assistance with online submission, please email pb@rcpsych.ac.uk or telephone +44 (0)20 7235 2351 extension 144.

Open Access

There is no submission or publication fee for papers published in the Psychiatric Bulletin in the usual way. All papers published in the Bulletin 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, contact the Bulletin Coordinator 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.