SHANGHAI ARCHIVES OF PSYCHIATRY INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

(February 2015)

SHANGHAI ARCHIVES OF PSYCHIATRY INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

(February 2015)

TheShanghai Archives of Psychiatryis a general psychiatry journal published bimonthly by the Shanghai Mental Health Center of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. Starng publicaon in 1959, it was China’s fi rst specialty psychiatry journal and is currently one of the core psychiatry journals published the country. Starng with the fi rst issue of 2012, all the content in the journal has been published in English, with Chinese-language translaons of the abstracts of original arcles. Starng with the last issue of 2013, a Chinese translaon of each English-language issue has been provided free of charge on the journal’s website one month aer publicaon of the English-language version. Papers can be submied in Chinese or English; Chinese papers will be translated by journal sta ff and line-edited by nave English speakers. TheShanghai Archives of Psychiatryconsiders manuscripts on the full range of topics relevant to mental health in China and elsewhere, including research in the basic neurosciences, clinical pracce, epidemiology, and health services. We welcome original papers on new research and secondary analyses that report on new aspects of high-quality studies that have been published previously. We also consider systemac reviews, meta-analyses, papers on biostascal and methodological issues relevant to psychiatry, commentaries, leers about previously published research, and forum pieces that discuss di ff erent viewpoints on controversial issues of interest to mental health professionals. TheShanghai Archives of Psychiatryis an open-access journal; digital versions of all arcles that are accepted are immediately placed on our website (www.shanghaiarchivesofpsychiatry.org) and can be downloaded free of charge. About three weeks after publicaon, arcles appear of Pubmed and other electronic databases where the full-text arcle can be viewed or downloaded. The Shanghai Archives of Psychiatry does not charge authors for translaon of their work and there are not page charges, charges for making arcles open access, or other charges. If authors have quesons about a potenal submission that are not covered in the following instrucons, they should contact the editorial sta ff at sharp_submission@163.com.

1. TYPES OF MANUSCRIPTS

1.1Original Research Articles.

1.2Systematic Reviews.

These are comprehensive reports on the current state of knowledge about a topic of current theorecal, clinical, or public health signi fi cance. We are parcularly interested in systemac reviews that summarize and interpret the research or clinical pracces in both the internaonal and Chinese contexts. Transparency about the material included in systematic reviews is essential, so all reviews should include a flowchart of the search strategy to idenfy included papers and a separate secon in the methods secon entled‘Search strategy and selection criteria’ stating the sources of the material covered, the search strategy used to idenfy potenal arcles, and the criteria used to include or exclude studies. Consideraon of both Chinese and English literature, league tables of the characteriscs of included studies, and a formal crical appraisal of the quality of each study is desirable but not required (they are required for meta-analysis). Authors who start out with the intention of conducting a meta-analysis but find that there are too few studies that meet criteria or that the heterogeneity of results in the studies is too great to jusfy combining results can convert the manuscript to a systemac review. Systemac reviews should be under 5000 words and have at least 50 references. They should include an unstructured summary of less than 250 words and 3 to 6 keywords that conform to MeSH requirements (hp://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/). Authors interested in preparing systemac reviews should contact the Systemac Reviews and Meta-analysis Editor, Professor Chunbo Li (chunbo_li@163.com). BEFORE wring the review to ensure that the topic will be of interest to our readership.

1.3Meta-analyses.

We are particularly interested in meta-analyses that pool data from studies published in both Chinese and English, as most meta-analyses in internaonal journals do not include studies published in Chinese. Meta-analyses papers need to include a flowchart of the search strategy used to identify included papers, a league table with a descripon of the characteriscs of the included studies (sorted by year of publicaon), forest plots of the main results and (if there are 10 or more included studies) a funnel plot of the distribution of results to identify potential publication bias. These papers also need to include a formal critical appraisal of the quality of the evidence in the included studies; we recommend authors use the GRADE approach (GuyaGH et al. GRADE: an emerging consensus on rang quality of evidence and strength of recommendations.BMJ2008; 336(7650): 924-926). It is also important to include an assessment of the heterogeneity of the reported results and a sensivity analysis to idenfy outlier results. Meta-analyses should be under 5000 words and have at least 50 references. They should include an unstructured summary of less than 250 words and 3 to 6 keywords that conform to MeSH requirements (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/). Individuals who have questions about writing a meta-analysis paper should contact the Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis Editor, Professor Chunbo LI (chunbo_li@163. com).

1.4Commentaries.

These are detailed discussions about research articles, systematic reviews, or meta-analyses published in theShanghai Archives of Psychiatryby Chinese and international experts who were not involved in the original research.They can consider the methodological issues raised by the original article, the implicaons of the report, or provide the details of other on-going research projects related to the original report. Commentaries should be under 2000 words in length, include no more than 2 tables or fi gures, and have less than 15 references.

1.5Forums.

1.6Case Reports.

These are single cases or case series that highlight an interesng or important clinical or theorecal issue. We are parcularly interested in case reports that highlight speci fi c characteriscs of paents in China or speci fi c aspects of the Chinese mental health care system. Case reports should be less than 1500 words in length, include no more than one table or fi gure, and have less than 10 references. Case reports should include an unstructured summary of less than 150 words and 3 to 6 keywords that conform to MeSH requirements (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/). Submissions for case reports must include a copy of a signed consent form from the patient(s) described in the report (or from the patient’s guardian) which indicates that they have seen and approved of the submied manuscript.

1.7Research Methods in Psychiatry.

1.8Biostatistical Methods in Psychiatry.

The journal has a regular Biostascs Methods in Psychiatry Secon coordinated by our three biostascs editors: He HUA (hua_he@urmc.rochester.edu), Ying LU (ying.lu@va.gov) and Xin TU (xin_tu@urmc. rochester.edu). The secon describes di ff erent stascal methods relevant to psychiatric research. Arcles for this section should be no longer than 2500 words, include practical examples of how to conduct the analytic methods being described, and be written for a general research audience (not solely for biostascians). Submissions should include an unstructured summary of less than 200 words and 3 to 6 keywords that conform to MeSH requirements (hp://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/). Individuals interested in contribung to this secon should contact one of the biostascal editors.

1.9Correspondence.

Readers are encouraged to write leers of less than 1500 words with no more than 5 references and no more than one table or figure. Letters will usually discuss some aspect of the research, commentaries, forums, or other content previously published in the journal, but they can also brie fl y present data from studies or raise other areas of interest to readers.

2. GENERAL INFORMATION FOR PREPARATION OF ALL TYPES OF MANUSCRIPTS

Writing in all manuscripts should be clear and concise with no unnecessary use of technical terms or abbreviaons, making the manuscripts accessible to all mental health professionals, not only to those who work in a parcular fi eld. This secon lists general issues relevant for all manuscripts; the next secon provides more detailed informaon about preparing original arcles.

2.1Language of submission.

Manuscripts can be submitted in either Chinese or English. All Chinese-language manuscripts will be translated by the Journal office and line-edited by nave English speakers. Once the fi nal English-version of each issue is approved, the entire issue is translated into Chinese by the Journal office. The Chineselanguage abstracts of original arcles and summaries of systemac reviews, meta-analyses, case reports, and arcles about biostascal or research methods are included in the English-language version of each issue. The complete Chinese-language translation of each issue is published in electronic form on the Journal’s website one month aer the English-language version is released.

2.2 Formating of the manuscript.

With some exceptions, theShanghai Archives of Psychiatryfollows the style recommendations of the Royal College of Psychiatrists House Style manual which can be freely downloaded at: (http://www. rcpsych.ac.uk/pdf/RCPsychHouseStyle-Sept14.pdf). Manuscripts should be submied in Word format (i.e.,‘manuscript.doc’ or ‘manuscript.docx’). Single spacing should be used in the text but main sections and subsecons within the text should be divided by empty lines to facilitate reading. The main text should use 10.5-point Calibri typeface, but smaller gauge Calibri typeface can be used in tables if necessary. Chineselanguage manuscripts should use standard simplified Chinese characters in number 5 ‘hua wen xi hei’ (‘華文細(xì)黑’) typeface. The typeface used to disnguish primary, secondary and terary levels within the manuscript should be di ff erent and used consistently throughout the text. The heading of a main secon or a subsecon (level 1 and level 2) should be in bold and wrien on a separate line; the heading for a subsub heading (i.e., level 3 heading) should be initalic, not using bold, and on a separate line. Thetle page, abstract, main text, and each fi gure and table should begin on a separate page in the manuscript. Whenever possible, fi gures and tables should be placed at the end of the main document (aer the references) rather than being submied as separate documents. All pages of the manuscript should be sequenally numbered starng 1, 2, 3, and so forth. If a manuscript is accepted, authors will be expected to submit high-de fi nion versions of figures and the original data for any graphs so that figures and graphs can be formatted to Journal style.

2.3 Title.

Many electronic searches are based ontles so thetle should clearly describe the main content of the paper. Avoid abbreviaons and empty words (e.g., “research study”, “discussion of”) in thetle.

2.4 Authors.

Only persons who made a substanal contribuon to the work should be listed. This should generally be six or fewer individuals. Do not list a ‘research group’ as the author, though a few named authors could be the representaves of a ‘research group’, the members of which are listed in the acknowledgment secon. Theorder of the authors and the person assigned as the corresponding author needs to be determined at theme of submission, they cannot be changed later. The journal can occasionally accept two ‘co- fi rst authors’or two ‘co-corresponding authors’ but the reason for this needs to be explained in the cover leer for the manuscript to the editor. We will not accept more than two fi rst authors or more than two corresponding authors.

2.5 Institutional affiliations.

The institution where the first author worked at the time of completing the work reported in the manuscript should be the primary institutional affiliation reported in the manuscript. If the first author currently works at a di ff erent instuon or if the fi rst author was a trainee from another instuon at theme of compleng the reported work, the current instuon or the home instuon can also be noted as secondary instuonal affi liaons of the fi rst author, but should not be idenfi ed as the primary instuon for the fi rst author of the manuscript.

2.6 Abstracts and summaries.

2.7 Key words. A list of 3 to 6 keywords should follow the abstract or summary of all original arcles, systemac reviews, meta-analyses, case reports, forums, commentaries, and papers on biostatistical or research methods. These words are what PubMed and other electronic databases use to classify each arcle, so authors need to select their keywords carefully from those available at the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) website which is maintained and regularly updated by the United States Naonal Library of Medicine (hp://www. nlm.nih.gov/mesh/). Authors can check if speci fi c words or terms they would like to use as keywords are included under MeSH by vising the ‘MeSH Browser’ website: hp://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser. html. Instructions on how to use the MeSH Browser are available at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/ authors.html

2.8 Acknowledgements, con fl ict of interest, funding, ethics approval, and informed consent sections.

These separate sections are placed in this order after the main text and before any references. The‘Acknowledgement’ secon is oponal. ALL manuscripts (including leers and commentaries) must have two separate seconstled ‘Con fl ict of interest’ and ‘Funding’. All original research must have a secon titled ‘Ethics approval’, and all case reports and original research involving humans must have a sectiontled ‘Informed consent’.

2.8.1 Acknowledgements

2.8.2 Con fl ict of interest

ALL manuscripts must contain a con fl ict of interest statement. The presence of any fi nancial or other con fl ict of interest by any of the named authors should be stated (and explained in the cover leer to the editors). If there is no con fl ict of interest of any of the authors this should be stated (e.g., ‘The

authors report no con fl ict of interest related to this manuscript.’)

2.8.3 Funding support

ALL manuscripts need to state whether or not any direct or indirect fi nancial support was provided to conduct the study described in the paper or to prepare the manuscript (if the manuscript is not about original research. If funding was provided, thetle and number of the grant(s) and the nameof the institution(s) that provided grants or financial support to the authors to conduct, analyze, or write-up the study should be specified. The role of the funder in the design, implementation, analysis, and write-up of the study needs to be indicated; if the funder had no such role, this must be clari fi ed. If there is no speci fi c funding agency for the study or no funds were provided to prepare the manuscript, this secon should sll be included in the manuscript and the statement ‘This study received no external funding.’ or (if the manuscript is not reporng on a speci fi c study) ‘No funding was provided to prepare this manuscript.’ should be placed under the secon heading.

2.8.4 Ethics approval

All original reports must include a statement about how the ethical review for the study was obtained. The name of the instuonal review board that approved the study and the month and year the approval was obtained needs to be stated. If animals are used in the study, the authors need to state that their handling of animals meet the ethical standards speci fi ed in theGuidelines for Ethical Conduct in Care and Use of Nonhuman Animals in Researchspecified by the American Psychological Associaon. If the report is a secondary data analysis of a previous study, the method of obtaining informed consent in the original study needs to be described. If the study uses publically available data sets of data that is not idenfi able to individuals (e.g., mortality data, emergency room stascs, naonal drug sales data, etc.) and, thus, did not require formal ethical review, this should be stated.

2.8.5 Informed consent

All studies that involve human subjects and all case reports need to include a statement about how informed consent was obtained. If no informed consent was obtained (e.g., chart review) the reason needs to be indicated. If the report is a secondary data analysis, the method of obtaining informed consent in the original study needs to be described. If the study uses publically available data sets of data that are not idenfi able to individuals (e.g., mortality data, emergency room stascs, etc.) and, thus, did not require informed consent of individuals, this should be stated. For case reports the informed consent section should indicate that the patient(s) described in the report (or the paent’s guardian) has seen the submied manuscript and provided wrien approval to publish the manuscript.

2.9 References.

Only references directly relevant to the content of the manuscript that the authors have read in FULL should be listed; copying references from other papers or referring to arcles only seen in abstract is not acceptable. Authors must carefully check the informaon in the reference against the original to ensure accuracy. Numbered references should appear sequenally in the text. In the text the number or numbers of the reference(s) cited should appear as superscripts in square brackets (for example;[2-3,6]) . If a reference only appears in a table or a figure the sequence number for the reference should be the number that would be appropriate for text that appears at the point the table or fi gure is fi rst menoned in the text. Unpublished materials should not appear in the reference list unless there is a doi number or other website at which readers can obtain the material.

Loo CK, Mitchell PB. A review of the effi cacy of transcranial magnec smulaon (TMS) treatment for depression, and current and future strategies to opmize effi cacy.J A ff ect Disord.2005; 88(3): 255-267. doi: hp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2005.08.001

in submied manuscripts should be provided in the original language of the cited work, NOT translated into English. Thus, for manuscripts submitted in English references to Chinese materials should be wrien in Chinese and references in other non-English languages should be wrien in the original language. Similarly, for manuscripts submied in Chinese, references to English-language materials should be wrien in English and references to Chinese-language materials should be wrien in Chinese.

References to Chinese materials should be wrien in the same format as English-language references with the excepon that the full Chinese name of authors is provided and the names of Chinese journals are wrien out in full in Chinese (NOT in English). For example:

付登禮,何梅. 關(guān)于性別重塑手術(shù)的倫理問題的研究綜述.中國(guó)醫(yī)學(xué)倫理學(xué). 2002; 16(3): 20-22. doi: hp://dx.doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1001-8565.2002.03.010

If a reference has more than six authors, the fi rst six are listed followed by ‘et al.’ for English-language materials and by ‘等’in Chinese-language materials. Authors should not simply copy references from other publicaons, because these oen employ di ff erent formats. Authors should be parcularly careful in wring the abbreviatedtles of English-language journals; the correct abbreviaons for journaltles are provided at the following website: hp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals.

Examples of references of English materials:

Phillips MR, Zhang JX, Shi QC, Song ZQ, Ding ZJ, Pang ST, et al. Prevalence, treatment, and associated disability of mental disorders in four provinces in China during 2001-05: an epidemiological survey.Lancet.2009; 373(9680): 2041-2053. doi: hp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(09)60660-7

Book:

American Psychiatric Association.Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4thed.Washington: American Psychiatric Associaon; 1994

Chapter in a book:

Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alteraons in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B,

Kinzler KW, editors.. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002. p: 93-113

Monograph(document) on the internet: Foley KM, Gelband H, editors. Improving palliave care for cancer [Internet]. Washington: Naonal Academy Press; 2001 [cited 2002 Jul 9]. Available from: hp://www.nap.edu/ books/0309074029/ html/

Part of a homepage/website: American Medical Associaon [Internet]. Chicago: The Associaon; c1995-2002 [updated 2001 Aug 23; cited 2002 Aug 12]. AMA Offi ce of Group Pracce Liaison. Available from: hp://www.ama-assn. org/ama/pub/category/1736.html

For types of materials that are not covered by the above examples, theShanghai Archives of Psychiatryemploys the standard method for referencing recommended by Internaonal Commiee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (http://www. nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html). Authors should check this website for examples of how to compose references in other types of situaons. If in doubt about how to compose a reference, authors could also check reference lists from arcles in recent issues of theShanghai Archives of Psychiatry.

2.10 Figures.

Figures should be self-explanatory and abbreviations used should be explained in footnotes. If at all possible, figures should be inserted in the Word document with the main manuscript rather than being supplied as a separate document in a di ff erent format. Figures are numbered sequenally as they appear in the text, if there is only one fi gure it is labeled ‘Figure 1’. Thetle for a fi gure should appear above the fi gure. All graphs and fi gures will be edited prior to publicaon so, if a manuscript is accepted, authors will subsequently be expected to submit high-resoluon versions of their fi gures and graphs that can be edited by the editorial sta ff (see Secon 3.15, below). In special circumstances color pictures can be printed in the journal, but if the same content can be equally well presented in black and white fi gures, then the fi gures should be provided in black and white.

2.11 Tables.

Tables should be composed using the ‘Tables’ funcon in WORD rather than being imported from Excel, SPSS or some other format. Thetle and footnotes should be part of the table, not separate from the table; they are the top and boom lines of the WORD table that have merged all cells across the width of the table, allowing thetle and footnote content to be moved as the table is moved or re-formaed. We preferto publish all tables on vercal pages; these tables can have a maximum of 90 characters (including spaces). If a table has many columns and cannot be conveniently broken down to separate vercal tables it can be presented on a horizontally oriented page, but it should never be wider than the maximum 150 characters (including spaces). All tables should be numbered sequenally as they appear in the text; if there is only one table, it is labeled ‘Table 1.’ Tables should be self-explanatory so that readers can understand the content of the table without reference to the text. All abbreviaons used in tables should be explained in footnotes. All tables should indicate the actual numbers of cases on which the results are based (i.e., do not present percents or means without specifying the denominator on which they are based in a parenthesis beside the stasc, in the columntle, or in a footnote). It is generally beer to present speci fi c P-values in separate columns of a table rather than categorizing P-values a ‘p＜0.05,p＜0.01,p＜0.001’. P-values smaller than 0.001 should be wrien as ‘＜0.001’ NOT as ‘0.000’. The number of signi fi cant digits for the fi gures within a column should be the same (that is, write ‘0.030, 0.300, 0.311’ NOT ‘0.03, 0.3, and 0.311’). For Tables that are reprints or adapted versions of previously published tables, the original publicaon of the table should be cited in the footnote (and in the reference list).

2.12 Picture and biosketch of fi rst author.

All manuscripts published in the journal include a head and shoulders picture of the fi rst author and a 100-200 word biosketch of the fi rst author. These materials should be submied with the manuscript, preferably on a separate page of the Word document of the entire manuscript (with the picture inserted into the manuscript) rather than as a separate document.

2.13 Units of measurement.

When preceded by a number, units ofme use the following symbols: ‘d’ (days), ‘h’ (hours), ‘min’ (minutes),‘s’ (seconds). There is no plural form for the symbols representing units of measurement; for example, write ‘23 min’ NOT ’23 mins’. A unit of measurement may combine physical and non-physical enes; for example, ‘mes/min’, ‘persons/year’, and so forth. If there are more than one dividing enty in a unit of measurement, it should be wrien using units to the power of -1; for example, ‘ng·kg-1·min-1’ NOT ‘ng/kg/ min’. The units for standard deviaons of a parameter do not need to be repeated if the standard deviaon is reported with the mean in the mean (sd) format; for example, ‘4.5 (1.2)mes/d’ NOT ‘4.5mes/d (1.2mes/d)’. The gap between a number and a unit should be a hard space (ctrl+shi+space).

2.14 Numerals.

Dates should always be based on the Gregorian calendar. Dates should be wrien as ’23 August 2013’ not‘August 23, 2013’. All numbers are written as Arabic numerals. For numbers with many digits, four-digit numbers are wrien without any addional eding (e.g., ‘5783’), but for numbers with fi ve or more digits every three digits before the decimal is separated by a hard comma (that is, a comma that cannot be at the end of a line of text); for example ‘5,678,430.01543’. Decimal numbers must always have a ‘0’ preceding the decimal; for example, ‘0.143’ NOT ‘.143’. When wring a range of numbers in the text the word ‘to’ is used between the numbers; for example, ’the range in scores was 23 to 45’ not ’23-45’. In tables the range of numbers (e.g., in a con fi dence interval) is separated by a hyphen (e.g., 95% CI = 0.45-0.79)unlesseither number is a negave value in which case alde is used (e.g., 95% CI=-7.2 ～ -5.4; CI=-4.2 ～ 2.5). When using the percent symbol in a sequence or range the symbol should not be repeated; for example, ’10 to 20%’NOT ’10% to 20%’. When the mean and standard deviaon of a percent value is presented the % symbol should follow the parenthesis; for example ‘54.2 (12.4)%’ NOT ’54.2% (12.4%)’. When mulplying units of length, the unit of measurement should be repeated with each number; for example, ‘4 cm X 3 cm X 5 cm’NOT ‘4X3X5 cm3’.

2.15 Statistics.

The symbols for the t-test (t), F-test (F), Chi Square test (χ2), correlaon coeffi cient (r), degrees of freedom (df), probability (p) and other stascal tests or measures should all be wrien in italics. Do NOT use the + symbol to idenfy standard deviaons as it implies symmetry around the mean that may not be the case. The standard deviaon of a mean should usually be expressed as a number in parenthesis following a mean value, for example, ‘75.2 (13.5)’, or in a separate column in a table beside a column with the corresponding means. Do not report p-values without indicang the value for the corresponding stascal test and (in most cases) the degrees of freedom. Degrees of freedom can be written in three ways: ‘t=1.98,df=32’,‘t(32)=1.98’ or ‘t32=1.98’. P-values should be preceded by a ‘0’ and wrien to three signi fi cant digits; for example, ‘p=0.120’, NOT ‘p=.120’, and NOT ‘p=0.12’. If the p-value is less than 0.001 it should be wrien‘p＜0.001’, NOT as ‘p=0.000’. For results that meet predetermined criteria of statistical significance, the statement in the text should be ‘…the result was stascally signi fi cant..’, NOT ‘..the result was signi fi cant’, and NOT ‘…the result was very signi fi cant’.

2.16 Abbreviations.

2.17 Drug names.

Only generic drug names should be used unless there is a speci fi c reason to use the proprietary name.

3. SPECIFIC INFORMATION ABOUT PREPARATION OF ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLES

All of the issues raised in the previous secon are relevant for the preparaon of manuscripts reporng original research results. The following points provide additional information specific to the preparation of original research arcles.

3.1 Information that should be included in original research articles.

The information readers need to know about the conduct of a research study in order to evaluate the internal and external validity of the study (and, thus, decide whether or not the results are important) varies depending on the type of study. There are, therefore, di ff erent internaonally accepted guidelines and checklists describing the information that should be included when reporting different types of studies, including guidelines for randomized controlled trials (CONSORT guidelines), observaonal studies (STROBE guidelines), genec associaon studies (STREGA guidelines), studies of diagnosc accuracy (STARD guidelines), systemac reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA guidelines), and meta-analyses of observaonal or epidemiological studies (MOOSE guidelines). The most recent versions of each guideline is available at the following website: hp://www.equator-network.org/. Researchers should consider these guidelines when designing their studies (to ensure that all the necessary informaon is collected) and when preparing their research reports. Reviewers forShanghai Archives of Psychiatrywill consider these guidelines when assessing a manuscript, so authors are strongly advised to be familiar with the guidelines related to the type of study they plan to conduct.

3.2 Overall structure of manuscripts for original research articles.

All authors of biomedical research reports should be familiar with the widely accepted requirements of reporng research. The most authoritave and detailed descripon of these requirements is theUniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals(www.ICMJE.org). Our journal abides by these requirements. Manuscripts for original research articles submitted to theShanghai Archives of Psychiatryshould be organized as shown on the next page.

All manuscripts of original arcles need to have the secons listed in the following diagram unless there are no acknowledgments, fi gures, tables, or appendices, in which case the corresponding secon is omied. If the study does not involve human subjects the ‘Informed consent’ secon can also be omied. The main text (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion) can be further divided into additional numbered level-two subsecons (e.g., 2.1, 2.2, 2.3...) or level-three sub-subsecons (such as 4.2.1, 4.2.2, 4.2.3…) if needed, but the subsecons and sub-subsecons in each major secon (Introducon, Methods, Results and Discussion) should be limited to 5 or 6 at most.

3.3 Title page.(if possible limit to a single page)

3.4 Abstract.(on a separate page)

We use structured abstracts for original arcles that include the following secons:

Background(current state of knowledge about subject and/or why the current study is important);Hypothesis/Aim (speci fi c queson that will be resolved by the study);Methods (sample selecon and procedures); Results (primary and secondary outcomes); Conclusions (implicaon of the fi ndings); Trial Registraon Number (if available for randomized controlled trials); Keywords (for informaon about selecng keywords go to: hp://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/).

Following international standards, we strongly recommend that researchers who plan to conduct randomized controlled clinical intervenon trials register the studies on an internaonal registry prior to starng paent enrollment for the study. The registraon number for the study provided by the trial registry should then be put in the abstract following the discussion section. One such registry is (http://prsinfo. clinicaltrials.gov/) but any registry that parcipates in the WHO Clinical Trial Registry Plaorm (hp://www. who.int/ictrp/en/) including the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (which is in Chinese) (hp://www.chictr.org/ cn/) is acceptable. Most important internaonal medical journals require registraon of RCTs as a condion of acceptance for publicaon.

English-language manuscripts of original arcles do not need to include a Chinese-language abstract and Chinese-language manuscripts do not need to include an English-language abstract. Chinese-language abstracts in Chinese manuscripts of original articles do, however, need to follow the structured format described above. Once the fi nal revised and edited version of the English-language abstract is prepared for each arcle, the Journal offi ce will prepare a fi nal Chinese-language abstract that will be included at the end of the arcle. Similarly, an English-language abstract will be included at the end of the Chinese-language version of the article that will be published in electronic form on the Journal website one month after release of the English-language version

Three to six key words that con fi rm to MeSH requirements should follow the structured abstract. (see secon 2.7).

3.5 Introduction.

The introduction must provide a clear overview of the current state of knowledge or research both in China and internaonally. This should not be an exhausve list of previous work but, rather, a summary of previous work emphasizing the theorecal, methodological, clinical, or other problems that remain to be clari fi ed or resolved. If there are exisng systemac reviews or meta-analyses about the subject, these need to be cited. The authors must then indicate how the current research project will add to the sum of knowledge about the subject. For all RCTs and case-control studies the presumed theorecal relaonship of the variables considered in the current project need to be speci fi ed and, based on this theorecal model, a main hypothesis should be presented that clearly speci fi es the main outcome variable and the methods that will be used to assess the outcome variable. Up to three secondary hypotheses can also be speci fi ed.

3.6 Methods.

Methods need to be described in sufficient detail such that a person knowledgeable in the field could replicate the study and such that readers can assess the reliability of the findings (i.e., internal validity) and the generalizability of the results (i.e., external validity). Research reports in China rarely provide this level of detail, so the methods secon of submied manuscripts will generally need to be longer than is typical for Chinese journals. The reporng guidelines menoned above (in secon 3.1) indicate the types of informaon needed for each type of study. Authors need to provide details about the source populaon for the study; about the procedures for selecng (sampling) individuals from the source populaon; about the randomizaon procedure (if there is one); about the diagnosc, evaluave and therapeuc procedures undertaken; and about the method used to assess the outcomes or other variables of interest in the study. In addion, the methods secon should include the following informaon:

?A brief statement about the sample size needed to address the primary hypothesis. (In most cases a detail computaon of the required sample size is not needed.)

?The numbers of individuals involved at each step of the project--selecon, follow-up and outcome—should be speci fi ed in a fl owchart (see ‘Figures’ below).

?The basic characteristics of the final sample should be described. (In some cases this information can be put in the beginning of the results secon.) If a substanal poron (10% or more) of potenal subjects do not enter the study, the basic characteriscs of those who are and are not included in the study should be compared. Similarly, if a substanal proporon of subjects enrolled in the study do not complete the study, the characteriscs of those who do and do not complete the study should be compared.

?The provenance (i.e., original source), source of the translated version, reliability, and validity of any quesonnaires or other evaluave instruments used in the study need to be speci fi ed. If the study was done in China but the reliability and validity parameters of the employed scales are not available for China (a common problem), this should be stated and the current report should provide values (based on data collected in the study) that help readers assess these parameters (e.g., alpha values for the total score and subscale scores of scales that are used to assess outcomes).

?The origin of numerical values employed in the analysis and the theorecal range of such variables need to be specified. For example, if the total score of a scale is employed as a primary outcome measure the text could read: “The total score was the primary outcome measure employed; this was the sum of the 17 items in the scale (which were each scored 1-3) so the potenal range of values of the total score was 17 to 51.” This informaon is needed so readers can understand the numerical values presented in the results and the relave importance of a reported change in mean scores.

?The methods of training persons who conduct the evaluaons and their inter-rater reliability should be reported.

?The details of any novel laboratory procedures should be speci fi ed.

?The process of obtaining informed consent from subjects should be described and the instuonal review board (or commiee) that provided ethical approval for the study should be idenfi ed.

?For all research papers a fi gure presenng the fl owchart for the enrollment and follow-up of subjects in the study needs to be prepared and placed after the references and before the tables in the manuscript. The figure should show the sampling frame from which the subjects were selected, reasons for non-inclusions, and the numbers and reasons subjects drop out during the course of the study. Two examples are as follows:

The methods for categorizing outcome variables and other variables used in the analyses should be specified. For example, if a scale is used to assess ‘clinical improvement’ the cut-off score (or % improvement from baseline) for determining ‘improvement’ should be specified. Similarly, if a connuous variable is dichotomized or divided into mulple categories in the analysis, the method for doing so should be speci fi ed; for example, “…in the logisc regression analysis family income level was divided into ‘high’ and ‘low’ using the median value for the total sample”.

3.7 Results.

The results of the primary analysis and any secondary analyses of interest should be presented, but secondary analyses should be clearly distinguished from those that are based ona priorihypotheses. Simple stascal results with only a few data points can be presented in the text but detailed data is oen best presented in tables or - if a figure provides a clearer presentation of the data — in a figure. Data provided in the tables or fi gures can be summarized in the text but they should NOT be duplicated in the text. Main outcomes (e.g., prevalence, rate of improvement, odds raos, etc.) should be presented with 95% con fi dence intervals. All p-values presented should be accompanied by the value for the corresponding stascal test and, in most cases, the degrees of freedom (e.g.,X2=0.95,df=2,p=0.301;t24=3.21,p=0.003). P-values should be presented with three signi fi cant fi gures (e.g.,p=0.172); if the p-value is less than 0.001 it should be wrien as “p＜0.001” not as “p=0.000”. The denominators for all percents and means presented should be speci fi ed unless it is clear from the text. Do not present new stascal methods in the results secon, these should be described in the stascal secon of the methods.

3.8 Discussion.

The discussion section for ALL original research papers should be subdivided into the following three

3.8.1 Main fi ndings

There should be a summary of the main fi ndings as it relates to the original hypotheses. This is NOT a simple repeon of the results and does not usually need to repeat the numerical fi ndings reported in the results. It is not appropriate to introduce new results that have not been reported in the results secon. Avoid arriving at conclusions that are not jusfi ed by the results, such as assuming that a correlation identified in a cross-sectional study is a causal relationship. The relationship between exisng evidence (prior studies) and the new fi ndings of the current study should be clari fi ed; but this should NOT be an exhausve lisng of all prior research, only prior work DIRECTLY relevant to the

current results should be discussed.

All factors that a ff ect the accuracy of the fi ndings should be menoned and their potenal a ff ect on the study results discussed. Similarly factors that a ff ect the representaveness of the fi ndings and the

generalizability of the results should be described and discussed.

3.8.3 Signi fi cance

The potential impact of the results on the theoretical understanding of the condition, on clinical practice, and on the organization of health services should be described and future research that needs to be conducted to confirm or extend the results should be outlined. Do not claim to have‘discovered’ something if the data is only preliminary or if researchers in other locaons have been conducting similar studies. Be conservative in making recommendations for changes in policy or pracce, parcularly if this study is the fi rst one with this speci fi c result or if the result is based on retrospective or cross-sectional data. Avoid overstating the importance of the results by making unfounded inferences and avoid making non-speci fi c (i.e., empty) recommendaons based on the results like ‘Clinicians should be aware of the identified risk factors’ or ‘It is important to develop prevenve programs for this problem’.

3.9 Acknowledgements.

3.10 Con fl ict of interest.

3.11 Funding.

3.12 Ethics approval.

3.13 Informed consent.

3.14 References.(starng on a separate page)

3.15 Figures. (each fi gure is on a separate page, not inserted in the text of the results secon)

3.16 Tables.(each table is on a separate page, not inserted in the text of the results secon) See secon 2.11. Tables are numbered sequenally as they appear in the text. If there is only one Table, it is sll labeled as ‘Table 1’. Authors should check recent issues of theShanghai Archives of Psychiatryfor examples of how to format their tables.

3.17 Appendices.(each appendix is put on a separate page)

In some circumstances appendices will be included in the print version of an arcle. Arcles that describe the reliability and validity of a new quesonnaire or scale should usually have a copy of the fi nal version of the scale in an appendix for the arcle. Details about laboratory methods or complex sampling strategies can also be placed in an appendix rather in the methods secon of the paper. The editors will decide if such material goes in an appendix or should be placed on the website as supplemental materials.

3.18 Picture and 100-200 word biosketch of the fi rst author.

4. SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS

The first author and corresponding author should read and comply with the ‘Shanghai Archives of Psychiatry Ethics Policy’ (http://www.shanghaiarchivesofpsychiatry.org/en/ethics-policy.html) prior to submission of any manuscript. As indicated in this policy, theShanghai Archives of Psychiatryis a member of the Commiee on Publicaon Ethics (COPE), ascribes to the ‘Code of Conduct and Best Pracce Guidelines for Journal Editors’ and expects authors who submit manuscripts to the journal to be familiar with and follow the ethical requirements speci fi ed in the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submied to Biomedical Journals.

?COVER LETTER TO THE EDITORS. This brief letter (in WORD format) to the editors provides a list of the documents submitted, the reason this manuscript is considered appropriate for theShanghai Archives of Psychiatry,full contact informaon (e-mail and cell phone) for the corresponding author, the fi rst author and, if di ff erent from the corresponding author, the individual who has access to the data set used to write the paper and who conducted the stascal analyses described in the paper. The cover leer can also include any addional informaon the authors wish to communicate about the submission. This leer should be signed by the fi rst author and the corresponding author (if di ff erent from the fi rst author).

?MANUSCRIPT.The full manuscript in WORD (.doc or docx) format. We strongly prefer to have all tables and fi gures inserted into a single document, not as separate documents.

?COPIES OF RELATED MANUSCRIPTS.If the authors (or other authors) have published or submied a manuscript elsewhere on a similar topic using the same data set as the current manuscript, pdf fi les of these published papers and manuscripts need to be included with the submission so the editors can determine the amount of overlap between the submied manuscript and previous publicaons.

?IRB APPROVAL[only for Original Research Arcles].A copy of the document cerfying Instuonal Review Board approval (or its equivalent) for the study reported in the manuscript. This approval needs to indicate that the commiee responsible agreed that the study met internaonally accepted standards for the protection of the rights and safety of human subjects. Preferably the approval document is scanned and submitted as a pdf file along with the manuscript, but it can also be separately submied to the editorial offi ce by fax (86(0)21-64685661). If no IRB approval was obtained for the reported study this needs to be explained in the cover leer to the editor. All original arcles need to include a statement about IRB review and acceptance of the study in a separate secon aer the main text of the arcle..

?AUTHOR’S DECLARATION REGARDING USE OF ANIMALS IN RESEARCH [only for Original Research Arcles that employ animals].If animals were used in the study, the fi rst author must cerfy that the study met all internaonal standards regarding the use of animals in research by subming the ‘Author’s Declaraon Regarding Use of Animals in Research’ form (hp://www.shanghaiarchivesofpsychiatry.org/ en/assets/animal.pdf).

?COPY OF CONSENT FORM FOR CASE REPORTS [only for Case Reports].All submissions for the Case

?SIGNED STATEMENT FROM INDIVIDUALS REFERRED TO IN THE ACKNOWLEDGMENT [if there are any].Inclusion of named individuals in an acknowledgment indirectly indicates that the named individuals approve of the manuscript. Persons named in an acknowledgment must agree that their name be used in this way. The fi rst author or corresponding author must submit a copy of a signed statementfrom each individual named in the acknowledgment stang that they are willing to be named in the acknowledgment for the paper. Preferably the signed approvals are scanned and submied as pdf fi les along with the manuscript but the documents can also be submied separately to the editorial offi ce by e-mail or by fax (86(0)21-64685661).

?INSTITUTIONAL APPROVAL [only for Original Research Arcles from mainland Chinese instuons]. A signed document (in Chinese) from the first author’s institution needs to be submitted with manuscripts submied from instuons in mainland China. In this document the authories responsible for research at the instuon cerfy that the manuscript has not been submied elsewhere, that there is no con fl ict about the content of the manuscript among the authors, that the manuscript does not contain con fi denal data, and that the content is not plagiarized, fabricated or falsi fi ed. Authors should obtain this document from the editorial office (sharp_submission@163.com). Preferably the signed document is scanned and submied as a pdf fi le along with the manuscript, but it can be separately submied to the editorial offi ce by fax (86(0)21-64685661)

?HEAD AND SHOULDER PICTURE OF FIRST AUTHOR AND 100-200 WORD BIOSKETCH.

?SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION. Any supplemental informaon the authors would like the editors and reviewers to consider in the assessment of the manuscript.

5. THE REVIEW PROCESS

5.1Based on the agreement signed by all authors at the time of submission, authors are not permitted to submit the manuscript to other journals while it is under consideration by theShanghai Archives of Psychiatry. This is a legal agreement that all medical journals take seriously; authors who submit arcles to multiple journals and their institutions are identified and entered on lists of delinquent authors and instuons. If, however, the corresponding author receives formal nofi caon from the editorial offi ce that the manuscript has been rejected, the authors are then permied to submit it elsewhere.

5.2Manuscripts are inially assessed by editorial sta ff and (for original arcles) a research methods reviewer and a biostatistical reviewer before being sent out for content review. Manuscripts that are clearly unsuitable for the Journal will be rejected without further review. If supplementary materials are not yet provided (e.g., con fl ict of interest statement by the authors) the authors will be asked to submit the required materials before the manuscript will be considered further. Within 10 working days of receipt of a manuscript authors will be informed about whether or not the manuscript will be considered for the Journal (this is NOT an acceptance of the paper).

5.3Authors of papers that will be considered will be informed of the formang, methodological, and stascal revisions needed before the manuscript will be sent out to our content reviewers. If authors have diffi culty making the revisions recommended, the editorial offi ce will do its best to assist the authors in making the necessary revisions. Authors who have not provided a revised version of the manuscript or corresponded with the editorial office about the manuscript for two weeks aer the editorial office has requested the revisions will be nofi ed by e-mail and telephone that the manuscript will be dropped from consideraon by the Journal if a revision is not received within the next 10 days.

5.4When a revised manuscript that sasfactorily addresses the issues raised by the editorial review is received

it will be sent to two content reviewers for a blinded evaluaon.

5.5If both reviewers recommend rejection the manuscript will be rejected. If both reviewers recommend acceptance, it will be conditionally accepted. If there is disagreement from the two reviewers the manuscript will be sent to a third reviewer for an independent assessment; if the third reviewer recommends rejection it will be rejected, if the third reviewer recommend acceptance it will be condionally accepted.

5.6Condionally accepted manuscripts will be reviewed by the editorial management group (including the chief editors and members of the editorial board) which makes the final decision on acceptance or rejecon of all manuscripts.

5.7Authors of papers that are ‘a(chǎn)pproved’ by the editorial management group will be asked to make addional revisions or additions to their manuscripts based on the comments of the reviewers and the editors. If necessary, editorial sta ff will assist authors make the requested revisions, which oen require new, more sophisticated analyses of the data. If the subsequently submitted revised version of the manuscript is considered by the editorial offi ce to adequately address the issues raised by reviewers, the authors will be formally nofi ed that the manuscript has been accepted for publicaon.

5.8If the revised manuscript does not resolve major problems identified by the reviewers and the authors are unable or unwilling to make the requested changes, the paper will be rejected. Authors who have not provided a revised version or corresponded with the editorial office about the manuscript for two weeks aer the editorial offi ce requests these revisions will be nofi ed by e-mail and telephone that the manuscript will be dropped from consideraon by the Journal if a revision is not received within the next 10 days.

5.9In most cases this review process is completed within three months of receipt of the revised manuscript (following the inial review by the editorial offi ce). If the review process takes longer than three months, the editorial offi ce will contact the corresponding author and tell him or her about the current status of the manuscript.

5.10Authors of papers that are rejected will be sent the reviews from the content experts.

5.11Revised manuscripts submitted in Chinese will be translated into English by editorial staff. The revised English-language manuscripts will then be line-edited by a native English-speaking editor. This detailed process of translaon and line-eding oen idenfi es addional problems with the manuscript. Mulple interacons (either by e-mail or phone) with the author and, if di ff erent, the individual responsible for the analysis, are usually needed to resolve these issues and arrive at a fi nal English-language version of the original Chinese-language manuscript.

5.12The fi nal English-language version of the manuscript will be typeset and a proof in pdf format is sent to the corresponding author for checking and approval prior to publicaon.

5.13Once the typeset proof has been corrected and approved by the corresponding author it will be converted into a doi version and placed on the website for the journal as an ‘in press’ manuscript so that it can be made freely available prior to publicaon in the paper version of the Journal. The typeset version of the manuscript will also be placed in the cue to be published in the paper version of the journal.

5.14The fi nal English-language version will be translated into Chinese, typeset, and released on the Journal’s Chinese-language website one month aer publicaon of the English-language version. Prior to placing the Chinese version on the website, a PDF of the arcle will be sent to the authors (if the author group includes Chinese-speaking members) for approval.

6. FAST-TRACK SUBMISSION

’S DECLARATION.The first author of all manuscripts submitted to the journal must complete theAuthor’s Declaration of Compliancewith the Journal’s Ethics Policy (http://www. shanghaiarchivesofpsychiatry.org/en/assets/declaration.pdf) and submit this signed form with the manuscript.

?AUTHORS’ STATEMENTS.Each named author must submit a separate ‘Statement of Authorship Form’ (http://www.shanghaiarchivesofpsychiatry.org/en/assets/authors_form.pdf) which certifies that the material in the manuscript has not been published elsewhere, that it is not currently being considered by another journal, and that it will not be submied for consideraon at another journal while under consideraon by theShanghai Archives of Psychiatry. All authors must also report on this form any fi nancial or other potenal con fl icts of interest and indicate their level of parcipaon in the preparaon of the manuscript. Preferably the signed documents are scanned and submied together as pdf files along with the manuscript, but if this is difficult to do because of the wide dispersal of authors or some other reason, these forms can also be submied separately to the editorial offi ce by e-mail or by fax (86(0)21-64685661).