Editorial policies

Peer-review model

Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request.

Screening

All submissions undergo initial editorial screening. Manuscripts that meet the journal's scope and minimum requirements proceed to independent peer review.

Reviewer count

Manuscripts that proceed to external peer review are normally evaluated by at least two independent subject-matter experts.

Decision criteria

Editorial decisions are based on scope, scientific quality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, reporting quality, and relevance to the journal.

Double-blind handling

When double-blind review is requested, editors must ensure that author-identifying information is not shared with reviewers. For double-blind manuscripts, reviewers must not attempt to identify the authors.

Confidentiality

A submitted manuscript is confidential. Editors and reviewers may not disclose it, discuss it outside the review process, or use its content before publication. After submitting the review, reviewers should securely delete downloaded manuscript files and must not retain or use unpublished material.

Editors recuse themselves from decisions on their own submissions, which are handled independently, and from any manuscript where a personal, professional or financial interest could reasonably be perceived to affect the decision. Reviewers are asked to decline where the same applies.

Ethical approval

Studies involving human participants must report the approving body and the approval reference, or state why approval was not required under the applicable framework.

Informed consent

Manuscripts must describe how consent was obtained, from whom, and how it was documented, including arrangements for participants who could not consent for themselves.

Consent to publish

Manuscripts reporting on identifiable participants must document consent to publish. Identifying detail is reduced to what the scientific question requires.

Trial registration

Interventional clinical trials must be registered in an accepted public trial registry at or before the first participant provides consent for enrollment. The registry name, registration number, and registration date must be reported in the manuscript.

Declaration of Helsinki

Research involving human participants is expected to have been conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.

The journal’s subject matter routinely involves depression, anxiety, trauma, substance use, self-harm and suicidality, severe mental illness, and participants who are unwell, detained, bereaved, under age or otherwise limited in how freely they can consent. Manuscripts on these subjects carry additional expectations.

• Risk-management and referral arrangements are reported where participants were screened for risk or distress
• Reporting on self-harm and suicide follows accepted conventions, and does not describe method or means
• Safeguarding arrangements for vulnerable participants are described rather than assumed
• Adverse events and unintended effects of an intervention are reported, not only its benefits
• Sensitive personal data is de-identified before sharing, and the de-identification method is stated
• Sensitive diagnoses are not used as attention devices in titles, abstracts or graphical material

Detailed preparation guidance for this work is in the Instructions for Authors.

Authorship criteria

Authorship requires a substantial contribution to the work, involvement in drafting or revising it, approval of the version submitted, and agreement to be accountable for it. Contributors who do not meet all four are acknowledged rather than listed as authors.

Contribution statement

Each author’s contribution is stated in the manuscript.

Changes to authorship

Any addition, removal or reordering after submission requires the written agreement of every author, submitted to the editorial office with the reason.

Corresponding author

The corresponding author is accountable for communication with the journal and confirms that all listed authors have approved the submission.

Funding and interests

Funding sources and competing interests, financial and non-financial, are declared at submission and published with the article.

Originality

Manuscripts must be original, not under consideration elsewhere, and not previously published other than as a preprint, thesis or conference abstract, which must be disclosed.

Similarity screening

Submissions are screened for text similarity. A similarity report is read in context by an editor; there is no fixed percentage at which a manuscript is accepted or rejected.

Plagiarism and redundancy

Plagiarism, self-plagiarism and duplicate or redundant publication are grounds for rejection or, after publication, for a correction or retraction.

Fabrication and falsification

Allegations of fabricated or falsified data, images or results are investigated with the authors and, where appropriate, their institution.

Editor and reviewer conduct

Concerns about an editor or a reviewer — breach of confidentiality, undisclosed interest, misuse of an unpublished manuscript — are investigated by the editorial office and may result in removal from the role.

Where concerns go

Write to the editorial office at [email protected]. Concerns are assessed on the evidence, and the person raising them is not required to have proof before doing so.

Data availability

Every empirical research manuscript must include a data-availability statement. Where data cannot be shared, the statement says why and describes the conditions under which it could be obtained.

Sensitive data

Mental health data is frequently identifiable in combination. Where a dataset cannot be shared openly for that reason, the statement should say so and describe the controlled route.

Materials and instruments

Intervention manuals, protocols and measurement instruments are shared where licensing allows, or their source is cited.

AI use by authors

Use of generative AI in preparing a manuscript must be disclosed, with the tool and the purpose. AI cannot be an author, because it cannot take responsibility for the work, and authors remain accountable for everything in the submission.

AI in the research itself

Where an AI or machine-learning method is part of the research, it is reported as a method: data provenance, validation, and performance across relevant subgroups.

AI use by reviewers

Reviewers must obtain journal permission before using AI to assist with a review. Any permitted use must be disclosed, and confidential manuscript content must not be uploaded where confidentiality cannot be assured.

The published record is corrected in public, not quietly. A correction, an expression of concern or a retraction is issued as a citable notice, linked bidirectionally to the article it concerns, so a reader arriving at either can see what changed and why.

Correction

For an error that affects the record but not the conclusions.

Expression of concern

Where a serious concern is raised and the investigation is not complete, so that readers are informed while it proceeds.

Retraction

Where findings are unreliable, whether through error or misconduct. The notice states the reason and who initiated it. The article remains available and marked.

Version of record

The published version is permanent. Articles are not removed, and text is not altered without a notice.

An author who believes a decision rests on a factual error or a misunderstanding of the work may appeal in writing to the editorial office, setting out the specific points. An appeal is considered by an editor who was not responsible for the original decision.

A complaint about the conduct of the process, rather than its outcome, is handled the same way. Disagreement with a reasoned editorial judgment is not by itself grounds to reopen a decision.

Publication is funded by an article processing charge of USD 2,100, payable after acceptance only. There is no submission fee and no charge for editorial handling or peer review. The full terms are on the Article Processing Charges page.

Withdrawal. Authors should contact the editorial office promptly and wait for written confirmation before submitting the work elsewhere.

• Manuscripts withdrawn within 3 days of submission are not subject to a withdrawal charge.
• Manuscripts withdrawn more than 3 days after submission incur a withdrawal charge equal to 30% of the journal's APC.
• Authors must receive official withdrawal confirmation before submitting the manuscript to another journal.