Editorial Policies and Peer Review System
Ethics and Scientific Responsibility
Conflict of Interest, Human & Animal Rihgts, Informed Consent
 

Description

Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology has been publishing peer-reviewed articles in English in four issues per year since 1990. The articles reflecting contemporary interests of clinical, experimental, and basic scientists and authors in the following and related fields are published: psychopharmacology, psychiatry (pediatric and adulthood), and behavioral sciences. Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology is a scientific publication aiming free access by medical institutions and professionals from all over the world. Target audience of the Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology includes specialistsand students in psychiatry, psychology, neurology, pharmacology, molecular biology, genetics, physiology, neurochemistry, and related sciences.
 

EDITORIAL POLICIES AND PEER REVIEW SYSTEM

 

Publication Policies

The Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology will consider publication of papers in the following categories:

- Original Research
- Brief Reports
- Case Reports
- Reviews
- Letters to Editors
 

General Principles

Papers that have not been published before or under evaluation by other journals are accepted for evaluation by Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology, if approved by the editor.

Publication board may amend manuscripts upon informed consent of authors. Editors and redactors are fully empowered to correct mistakes related to orthography, citation as given in PubMed and relevant issues.

For quoted texts, talulated data and graphics from published papers, author has to obtain permission from the authors or the owner of the publishing rights of the source article and indicate the allowance in the paper. Authors are responsible to obtain such permissions.

Short presentations that took place in scientific meetings can be referred if mentıoned in the article. The editor hands over the formally acceptible papers to at least two referees for evaluation and gives green light for publication upon modification by the authors in accordance to the referees' claims. Changing the name of an author (omission, addition or order) in papers submitted to Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology requires permission of all declared authors. Rejected papers and graphics are not returned to the author.
 

Peer Review System

This guide for reviewers contains information about basic considerations that should be applied when reviewing a manuscript that has been submitted to the PCP, and about the editorial policies and standards of the journal.

Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology (PCP) uses a double-blind peer review system, where both the identities of reviewers and authors are anonymous. Manuscripts are submitted via online submission system of the journal http://www.editorialmanager.com/bcp/Default.aspx. Submitted manuscripts should not be published before or under evaluation by other journals and it should be approved by each of the contributing authors. Consideration for publication is initially assessed by the editor-in-chief, the editorial staff, and the appropriate subspecialty editors. Publication of research articles is dependent primarily on their validity and coherence, as judged by peer reviewers and editors. Submitted manuscripts are sent to appropriate peer reviewers and they are asked to provide detailed, constructive comments that will help the editors make a decision on publication and the authors improve their manuscript. The requested changes are made by the authors using the online system. The editorial board again reviews the manuscript and printed proofs are sent to the author for final corrections. The articles are published online followed by the print copies.
 

Editorship And The Relationship with Authors and Reviewers

The editor of the journal is the person responsible for its entire content. The editor does not share information about manuscripts (submission, contents, reviewing process, reviewers' suggestions or publishing decisions) with anyone other than the authors or reviewers.

The editor informs the reviewers that the manuscripts are confidential information and that this is a privileged interaction. The reviewers and editorial board cannot discuss the manuscripts with other persons. The reviewers are not allowed to have copies of the manuscripts for personal use and they can not share manuscripts with others. Unless the authors and editor permit, the reviews of referees cannot be published or disclosed. The anonymity of the referees is important. In particular situations, the editor may share the review of one reviewer with other reviewers to clarify a particular point.
 

ETHICS AND SCIENTIFIC RESPONSIBILITY

 

Ethics

Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology-Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology comply with international standards of research and publication ethics. Editors follow the rules of publication ethics as explained by WAME http://www.wame.org/policies-and-resources and ICMJE http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/about-the-recommendations/ and recommend the guidelines of COPE.
 

Scientific Responsibility

It is the author's responsibility to ensure the scientific and ethical compliance of papers. Every author should have a direct scientific and academic contribution in the submitted article; In this context, an "author" is regarded as the one who has a remarkable role/part in conceptualization and design of the study, data collection, analysis and interpretation as well as the writing and critical review of the paper. Designing, revising and implementation the study are the other requirements for being an author. Taking a role in funding, data collection or general supervision of the research team cannot qualify a person as "author". Each individual who was denoted as an author has to fulfill the above given criteria in full. Any person who fulfills the given criteria can be qualified as an author. All investigators of a multi-center study have to fulfill the criateria for being qualified as an author. The name order of authors' should be the common decision of all authors. Authors have to make the name order of authors evident with duly signed copyright assignment form. Names and institutions of authors as well as the name, address, e-mail, phone numbers and other Access information of the correspondent author should be given in the section beneath the title. Individuals other than authors, who contributed to the study (technical, writing or a general support) should be given in the section titled "acknowledgements". Such supporting persons who cannot be qualified as an author should be mentioned under sections such as "clinical/assistant investigators" and/or their contributions (scientific consultant, reviewer, caregiver, observer" should be indicated. Announcement of a name in the section "acknowledgements" requires informed consent by the said individuals.
 

CONFLICT OF INTEREST, HUMAN & ANIMAL RIHGTS, INFORMED CONSENT

Conflict of Interest

Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology – Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology adopts WAME's definition http://www.wame.org/about/wame-editorial-on-coi which states that conflict of interest exists when a participant in the publication process (author, peer reviewer or editor) has a competing interest that could unduly influence (or be reasonably seen to do so) his or her responsibilities in the publication process (submission of manuscripts, peer review, editorial decisions, and communication between authors, reviewers and editors). The types of competing interests that should be declared include financial ties, academic commitments, personal relationships, political or religious beleifs, and institutional affiliations. The conflict of interest is to be acknowledged in the manuscrip in the section of declaration of interest. The editor and the publisher do not guarantee or accept responsibility for the published features or definitions of commercial products. If there is direct or indirect grant support, it should be acknowledged in the section titled "declaration of interest" and should include the full name of the sponsor and grant number. Existence or lack of sponsorship of any kind as well as the type of sponsorship (consulting etc.) has to be acknowledged, as well.

Human and Animal Rights

As made by Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology a rule, when reporting experiments on human subjects, authors has to indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration (revised version in 2000 - (http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/index.html)). In relevance to the type of research, approvals issued by local or national ethical commitees have to be uploaded together with the paper in our web site.

Manuscripts that report the results of experimental investigation with human subjects must include a statement that informed consent was obtained after the procedure(s) had been fully explained. In the case of children and those under wardship or with confirmed insanity, authors are asked to include information about whether the legal custodian's assent was obtained and a letter of affirmation signed by all authors, confirming the collection of informed consents has to be sent to Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology.

Authors have to confirm in the section "Materials and Methods" that study has been conducted in compliance to above mentioned principles, approvals have been obtained from related institutional ethical commitees and informed consents were collected.

When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether the institutional and national guides for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed as in "Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals" (www.nap.edu/catalog/5140.html).

Collection of informed consent from the legal custodians of cases with confirmed insanity is compulsory for case reports. The Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology only publishes papers with the highest ethical and scientific standards and is not influenced by commercial interests. It is authors' responsibility to ensure compliance to ethical rules.

Secrecy and Confidentiality of Patients And Participants, Informed Consent

Ethical as well as legal considerations require careful attention to the protection of a patient's anonymity in manuscripts of any kind. Identifying information such as names, initials, hospital numbers, dates, photographs, and family pedigree must be avoided, unless disclosure is allowed by written consent of patient or the legal custodian of the patient. Informed consent for this purpose requires that an identifiable patient be shown in the manuscript to be published. Patient consent should be written and archived either with the journal, the authors, or both, as dictated by local regulations or laws. It must be mentioned in the text that informed consent was obtained from the participants.

Especially for case report, identifying information should be avoided as much as possible. Eye masking on photos is not sufficient to conceal the identity of the patient. Authors have to stipulate lack of impact on scientific significance in case of changing the identifying information.