Editorial process

The manuscripts will be reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that they are being submitted to one journal at a time and have not been published, simultaneously submitted, or already accepted for publication elsewhere. The Editors review all submitted manuscripts initially. Manuscripts with insufficient originality, serious scientific flaws, or absence of importance of message are rejected. The journal will not return the unaccepted manuscripts. Other manuscripts are sent to two or more expert reviewers without revealing the identity of the contributors to the reviewers. Within a period of ten to twelve weeks, the contributors will be informed about the reviewers’ comments and acceptance/rejection of manuscript. Articles accepted would be copy edited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format.

Types of Manuscripts and word limits

1. Original Research Papers: These should only include original findings from high-quality planned research studies such as experimental designs, outcome studies, case–control series and surveys with high response rates, randomized controlled trials, intervention studies, studies of screening and diagnostic tests, and cost-effectiveness analyses. The word limit is 5000 excluding references and an abstract (structured format) of not more than 250 words.
2. Brief Research Communication: These manuscripts, with not more than 1 table/figure, should contain short reports of original studies or evaluations, service oriented research which may not be methodologically sound but points towards a potential area of scientific research or unique first-time reports. The word limit is 1500 words and up to 20 references, and an abstract (structured format) of not more than 150 words.
3. Case Reports: These should contain reports of new/interesting/rare cases of clinical significance or with implications for management. The word limit is 1500 words and up to 10 references, and an abstract of not more than 150 words.
4. Review Articles (invited): These are systemic and critical assessments of the literature which will be invited. Review articles should include an abstract of not more than 250 words describing the purpose of the review, collection and analysis of data, with the main conclusions. The word limit is 5000 words excluding references and abstract.
5. Letters to the Editor: These should be short, decisive observation with the notation ‘for publication’. The word limit is 500 words and up to 5 references. Letters critical to an article published in the Journal must be received within 8 weeks of publication of the article.
6. Grand Rounds in Psychiatry (Case Conference): This should highlight one or more of the following: diagnostic processes and discussion, therapeutic difficulties, learning process or content/technique of training. This may be authored by an individual or a team, and may be an actual case conference from an academic department or a simulated one. The word limit is 1500 words and up to 10 references.
7. Viewpoint: These should be experience-based views and opinions on debatable or controversial issues that affect the profession. The author should have sufficient, credible experience on the subject. The word limit is 3000 words.
8. Commentaries: These papers should address important topics, which may be either multiple or linked to a specific article. The word limit is 3000 words with 1 table/figure and up to 20 references.
9. Literary Psychiatry: Original Contributions are welcome which cover both literature as well as mental health. These can be in the field of poetry, drama, fiction, reviews or any other suitable material. The word limit is 2000 words.
10. My Voice: In this section multiple perspectives are provided by patients, caregivers and paraprofessionals.
    
    It should encompass how it feels to face a difficult diagnosis and what this does to relationships and the quality of life. Personal narratives, if used in this section, should have relevance to general applications or policies. Articles should underline the need to treat patients, rather than diseases, and to understand the impact such journeys may have on patients’ carers and families. The word limit is 1000 words.
11. Announcements: Information regarding conferences, meetings, courses, awards and other items likely to be of interest to readers should be submitted with the name and address of the person from whom additional information can be obtained (up to 100 words).
    
    Specific innovative/new ideas or newly emerging concepts for the sections are actively encouraged.

Sending the Manuscript to the Journal

Send three copies of the manuscript along with a covering letter, contributors’ form signed by all the contributors, checklist and floppy. Place the photographs in a separate envelope. The covering letter must include information on prior or duplicate publication or submission elsewhere of any part of the work/study; and a statement of financial or other relationships that might lead to a conflict of interest. Copies of any permission(s) to reproduce published material, and to use illustrations or report information about identifiable people must accompany the manuscript. The manuscript should be sent to

Dr. T. S. Sathyanarayana Rao,
Professor and Head, Department of Psychiatry,
J.S.S. Medical College and Hospital,
Ramanuja Road, Mysore - 570 004,
Karnataka, India.
E-mail: editor @ indianjpsychiatry . org

Online submission of articles

Articles can also be submitted online from www.journalonweb.com/psychiatry . New authors will have to register as author, which is a simple two step procedure. For online submission articles should be prepared in two files (first page file and article file). Images should be submitted separately.

First Page File: Prepare the title page, covering letter, acknowledgement, etc. using a word processor program. All information which can reveal your identity should be here. Use text/rtf/doc/pdf files. Do not zip the files.

Article file: The main text of the article, beginning from Abstract till References (including tables) should be in this file. Do not include any information (such as acknowledgement, your names in page headers, etc.) in this file. Use text/rtf/doc/pdf files. Do not zip the files. Limit the file size to 400 kb. Do not incorporate images in the file. If file size is large, graphs can be submitted as images separately without incorporating them in the article file to reduce the size of the file.

Images: Submit good quality colour images. Each image should be less than 400 kb in size. Size of the image can be reduced by decreasing the actual height and width of the images (keep up to 800 pixels or 4 inches). All image formats (jpeg, tiff, gif, bmp, png, eps, etc.) are acceptable; jpeg is most suitable. Do not zip the files.

Legends: Legends for the figures/images should be kept ready for copy-paste during the submission process.

If the manuscript is submitted online, the contributors’ form and copyright transfer form has to be submitted in original with the signatures of all the contributors within two weeks from submission. The scanned copyright form can also be uploaded from authors’ area from www.journalonweb.com  after submission of manuscript. Hard copies of the images (one set) or high resolution images (at least 1200 x 800 pixels) on a CD should be sent to the journal office at the time of submission of a revised manuscript.
 

Preparation of the Manuscript

Send laser printout, on white thick paper, of A4 size (212 × 297 mm), with margins of 1 inch from all the four sides. Type or print on only one side of the paper. Use double spacing throughout. Number pages consecutively, beginning with the title page. The language should be British English.

Title Page

1. Type of manuscript (Original/Review/Case)
2. The title of the article, which should be concise, but informative;
3. Running title or short title not more than 50 characters;
4. The name by which each contributor is known (Last name, First name and initials of middle name), with institutional affiliation;
5. The name of the department(s) and institution(s) to which the work should be attributed;
6. The name, address, phone numbers, facsimile numbers and e-mail address of the contributor responsible for correspondence;
7. The total number of pages, photographs and word counts separately for abstract and for the text (excluding the references and abstract).
8. Acknowledgement: Specify contributions that need acknowledging but do not justify authorship, such as general support by a departmental chair and acknowledgments of technical, financial and material support; and
9. If the manuscript was presented as part at a meeting, the organisation, place, and exact date on which it was read.

Abstract Page

The second page should carry the full title of the manuscript and an abstract (of no more than 150 words for case reports and 250 words for original articles). For original articles the abstract should be structured and state the Context (Background), Aims, Settings and Design, Methods and Material, Statistical analysis used, Results and Conclusions. Below the abstract should provide 3 to 6 key words.

Text of the article

State the purpose of the article and summarize the rationale for the study or observation in Introduction. For case reports give incidence of similar cases in past.

Describe the selection of the observational or experimental subjects clearly in Patients and Methods section. Identify the age, sex, and other important characteristics of the subjects. Identify the methods, apparatus (give the manufacturer’s name and address in parentheses), and procedures in sufficient detail. Give references to established methods, describe new or substantially modified methods, give reasons for using them, and evaluate their limitations. Identify precisely all drugs and chemicals used, including generic name(s), dose(s), and route(s) of administration. Reports of randomised clinical trials should be based on the CONSORT statement (http://www.consort-statement.org).

When reporting experiments on human subjects, procedures followed should be in accordance with the standards ethical committee on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (http://www.wma.net/e/policy/17-c_e.html). Do not use patients’ names, initials, or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material.

Present the results in logical sequence in the text, tables, and illustrations. Do not repeat in the text all the data in the tables or illustrations; emphasise or summarise only important observations. Use standard guidelines for statistics (See Ann Intern Med 1988;108:266-73).

Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them along with implications of the findings and their limitations in the Discussion section.


References
References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Identify references in text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals in superscript in square bracket ([]). References cited only in tables or figure legends should be numbered in accordance with the sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or figure. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus. Avoid using abstracts, unpublished observations, and personal communication as references. Please refer http://www.icmje.org for other types of references such as electronic media, newspaper items, etc.

1. Standard journal article: Seshadri L, George SS, Vasudevan B, Krishna S. Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and human papilloma virus infection in renal transplant recipients. Indian J Cancer 2001;38:92-5.
   
   List the first six contributors followed by et al.
    
2. Personal author(s): Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses. 2nd ed. Albany (NY): Delmar Publishers; 1996.
3. Chapter in a book: Phillips SJ, Whisnant JP. Hypertension and stroke. In: Laragh JH, Brenner BM, editors. Hypertension: pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management. 2nd ed. New York: Raven Press; 1995. pp465-78.

Tables

• Tables should be self-explanatory and should not duplicate textual material. Tables with more than 10 columns and 25 rows are not acceptable. Limit the number to minimum required.
• Number tables, in Arabic numerals, consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text and supply a brief title for each.
• Place explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading. Explain in footnotes all non-standard abbreviations that are used in each table. For footnotes use the following symbols, in this sequence: *, †, ‡, §, ||, ¶, **, ††, ‡‡
• Obtain permission for all fully borrowed, adapted, and modified tables and provide a credit line in the footnote.

Illustrations (Figures)

• Submit three sets of sharp, glossy, un-mounted, colour photographic prints, with height of 4 inches and width of 6 inches.
• Computerised colour printouts are not acceptable.
• Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been first cited in the text.
• Each figure should have a label pasted on its back indicating the number of the figure, the running title, top of the figure and the legends of the figure. Do not write on the back of figures, scratch, or mark them by using paper clips.
• Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background and should marked neatly with transfer type or by tissue overlay and not by pen.
• If a figure has been published, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material. A credit line should appear in the legend for figures for such figures.
• Type or print out legends (maximum 40 words, excluding the credit line) for illustrations with Arabic numerals corresponding to the illustrations. When symbols, arrows or letters are used to identify parts of the illustrations, identify and explain each one clearly in the legend. Explain the internal scale and identify the method of staining in photomicrographs.

Electronic Version

• The manuscript must be accompanied by a 3.5 inch (1.44 MB) floppy containing the manuscript.
• Do not use ‘oh’ (O) for ‘zero’ (0), ‘el’ (l) for one (1). Do not use space bar for indentation. Do not type headings or any other text in ALL CAPITALS. Do not break words at the end of lines. Do not use an extra hard return/enter between paragraphs. Do not insert a tab, indent, or extra spaces before beginning of a paragraph. Do not use software’s facility of automatic referencing, footnotes, headers, footers, etc.
• Use a hyphen only to hyphenate compound words. Use hard return/enter only at the end of paragraphs and display lines (e.g. titles, headings).

Sending a revised manuscript

While submitting a revised manuscript, contributors are requested to include, along with single copy of the final revised manuscript, a photocopy of the revised manuscript with the changes underlined in red and with the point to point clarification to each comment. The manuscript number should be written on each of these documents.
If the manuscript is submitted online, the contributors’ form and copyright transfer form has to be submitted in original with the signatures of all the contributors within two weeks from submission. Hard copies of the images, for articles submitted online, should be sent to the journal office at the time of submission of a revised manuscript.

Reprints

Journal does not provide any free printed reprints. Reprints can be purchased at the time of submitting the proofs

Checklist

(to be tick marked, as applicable and one copy attached with the manuscript)

Covering letter

 Signed by all contributors
 Previous publication / presentations mentioned
 Source of funding mentioned
 Conflicts of interest disclosed

Authors

 Middle name initials provided
 Author for correspondence, with e-mail address provided
 Identity not revealed in paper except title page (e.g. name of the institute in
   material and methods, citing previous study as ‘our study’, name of institute in
   photographs, etc.)

Presentation and format

 Double spacing, Margins 2.5 cm from all four sides
 Title page contains all the desired information (vide supra)
 Running title provided (not more than 50 characters)
 Abstract page contains the full title of the manuscript
 Abstract provided (150 words for case reports and 250 words for original articles)
 Structured abstract provided for an original article
 Key words provided (three or more)
 Introduction of 75-100 words
 Headings in title case (not ALL CAPITALS, not underlined)
 References cited in superscript in the text without brackets
 References according to the journal’s instructions.

Language and grammar

 Uniformly American English
 Abbreviations spelt out in full for the first time

Tables and figures

 No repetition of data in tables/graphs and in text
 Actual numbers from which graphs drawn, provided
 Figures necessary and of good quality (colour)
 Table and figure numbers in Arabic letters (not Roman)
 Labels pasted on back of the photographs (no names written)
 Figure legends provided (not more than 40 words)
 Patients’ privacy maintained (if not, written permission enclosed)
 Credit note for borrowed figures/tables provided

Manuscript provided on a floppy

Contributors’ form

(to be modified as applicable and one singed copy attached with the manuscript)

Manuscript Title:       _______________________________________

Manuscript number:  ________________________________

I/we certify that I/we have participated sufficiently in the intellectual content, conception and design of this work or the analysis and interpretation of the data (when applicable), as well as the writing of the manuscript, to take public responsibility for it and have agreed to have my/our name listed as a contributor. I/we believe the manuscript represents valid work. Neither this manuscript nor one with substantially similar content under my/our authorship has been published or is being considered for publication elsewhere, except as described in the covering letter. I/we certify that all the data collected during the study is presented in this manuscript and no data from the study has been or will be published separately. I/we attest that, if requested by the editors, I/we will provide the data/information or will cooperate fully in obtaining and providing the data/information on which the manuscript is based, for examination by the editors or their assignees. I/we also certify that we have taken all necessary permissions from our institution and/or department for conducting and publishing the present work. Financial interests, direct or indirect, that exist or may be perceived to exist for individual contributors in connection with the content of this paper have been disclosed in the cover letter. Sources of outside support of the project are named in the cover letter.

I/We hereby transfer(s), assign(s), or otherwise convey(s) all copyright ownership, including any and all rights incidental thereto, exclusively to the Journal, in the event that such work is published by the Journal. The Journal shall own the work, including 1) copyright; 2) the right to grant permission to republish the article in whole or in part, with or without fee; 3) the right to produce preprints or reprints and translate into languages other than English for sale or free distribution; and 4) the right to republish the work in a collection of articles in any other mechanical or electronic format. We give the rights to the corresponding author to make necessary changes as per the request of the journal, do the rest of the correspondence on our behalf and he/she will act as the guarantor for the manuscript on our behalf. All persons who have made substantial contributions to the work reported in the manuscript, but who are not contributors, are named in the Acknowledgment and have given me/us their written permission to be named. If I/we do not include an Acknowledgment that means I/we have not received substantial contributions from non-contributors and no contributor has been omitted.

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