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Author Guidelines

Aims and Scope

The Sri Lanka Journal of Psychiatry is the official publication of the Sri Lanka College of Psychiatrists. The journal aims to educate and stimulate discussion regarding nature, causes and treatment of mental illness, development of psychiatric services, prevention of mental illness, promotion of mental health and health professional education. The journal will be of interest to psychiatrists, other clinicians with an interest in psychiatry, scholars and research scientists. It publishes original research and other scholarly articles in the area of psychiatry. The Sri Lanka Journal of Psychiatry (SLJP) is an open access, peer-reviewed journal, which is published biannually in June and December each year.

All authors must read the Ethical Responsibilities of this journal indicated below before submitting their articles.

All authors are also strongly encouraged to read the Editorial Policies. of the Journal.

Authors fees – The Sri Lanka Journal of Psychiatry does not charge any article processing or author fees for publication.

Declaration of interests
The Sri Lanka Journal of Psychiatry requires that all authors declare any relevant financial and non-financial conflicts of interest and the journal publishes those that might influence a reader’s perception of the paper alongside the paper.  The Journal requires that all funding sources of the research are declared and published and the role of the funding source in the conception, conduct, analysis and reporting of the research is stated and published.

Peer Review Process

Manuscripts submitted to the journal are initially reviewed by the editors/editorial board. Articles which are deemed suitable for consideration for publication will be assigned for review, from a list of specialists related to the field of interest. Certain manuscripts, if found to be clearly not suitable for publication, will be rejected by the editor/editorial board at this first stage of review.

The journal has a double blind peer review process. Two reviewers are allocated for original articles and brief reports; one each for case reports and invited reviews. Statistical review is obtained as required.

The reviewers comments will be considered by the editors and authors may be required to revise the manuscripts accordingly. Once contributions are accepted for publication the Editors and the Publisher reserve the right to modify the manuscripts to fit in with the style of the journal. If extensive alterations are required, the manuscript will be returned to the authors for revision.

Final acceptance or rejection rests with the Editorial Board, who reserves the right to refuse any material for publication.

Editorials
Editorials should not exceed 1500 words and may contain no more than one figure or table. Editorials should include an unstructured summary of 100 words.

Invited articles
The Editors may commission articles from experts in relevant areas which would be of interest to the general readership. These articles will not be sent for peer review.

Original Articles
Original articles report the results of original research, systematic reviews and meta-analyses. 
Observational studies (cohort, case-control, or cross-sectional designs) must be reported according to the STROBE statement (https://www.strobe-statement.org/index.php?id=available-checklists) 
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses must be reported according to PRISMA guidelines  (http://www.prisma-statement.org/).
Reports of randomised trials must conform to CONSORT 2010 guidelines (http://www.consort-statement.org/)
Original articles should have less than 2500 words, 5 tables / illustrations or less. A structured abstract not exceeding 250 words should be given at the beginning of the article, incorporating the following headings: Background; Aims; Methods; Results; Conclusions.

Brief Reports 
This category includes preliminary reports, novel patient management methods, case reports and reports of new techniques and devices. They should be limited to 1000 words, 3 tables/illustrations and 10 references, and should include an unstructured abstract of less than 100 words.

Case Reports 
Acceptance of case reports is based strictly on originality and whether there is an important new lesson to be learnt or a new message from the report. It should not contain more than 1000 words, one table / illustration and 5 references. Authorship should be limited to five. Case reports must be prepared according to the Consensus-based Clinical Case Reporting (CARE) guidelines.

Perspectives 
The Sri Lanka Journal of Psychiatry also welcomes essays expressing opinions, presenting hypotheses, broaching controversial issues, clarifying recent advances in the basic sciences, and essays pertaining to medical education, history of medicine, health politics and patients’ rights. They should not have more than 1000 words and 10 references.

Letters 
The Sri Lanka Journal of Psychiatry will also consider for publication letters (less than 400 words, maximum of 3 authors, and maximum of 5 references). These may be in response to a recently published article or a short freestanding piece expressing an opinion.

Ethical Responsibilities

Criteria for authorship 
Only persons who contributed to the intellectual content of the paper should be listed as authors. According to the ICMJE recommendations authorship should be based on the following 4 criteria:

• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
• Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
• Final approval of the version to be published; AND
• Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

In addition to being accountable for the parts of the work he or she has done, an author should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for specific other parts of the work. In addition, authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors.

All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. Contributors who meet fewer than all 4 of the above criteria for authorship should not be listed as authors, but they should be acknowledged.

Statement of contribution
The extent of contribution by authors and contributors should be stated at the end of each paper. The work carried out by all individuals in the project development, data collection, paper writing, etc. should be mentioned.

Funding 
All sources of funding should be declared in the covering letter under the heading “Funding”. Authors must describe the role of the study sponsor(s), if any, in the study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of the data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication. If the funder(s) had no such involvement, this should be stated.

Previous publication 
In the cover letter give full details on any possible previous publication of any content of the paper. (e.g.)

1. Reworked data already reported.
2. Patients in a study already described and published.
3. Content already published or to be published in another format.

Previous publication of some content of a paper does not necessarily preclude it being published in the Sri Lanka Journal of Psychiatry, but the editors need this information when deciding how to make efficient use of space in the journal, and regard failure of a full disclosure by authors of possible prior publication as a breach of scientific ethics.

Ethics Approval 
For studies involving human participants a statement detailing ethics approval and consent should be included in the methods section. Every research article should include a statement that the study obtained ethics approval (or a statement that it was not required and why), including the name of the ethics committee(s) or institutional review board(s), the number/ID of the approval(s), and a statement that participants gave informed consent before taking part. Proof of approval from an ethics committee should be provided if requested.

All clinical trials should be registered in the Sri Lanka Clinical Trials Registry or in another internationally recognized Clinical Trials Registry. Authors should submit the Trial Registration Number along with the manuscript.

Preparation of  manuscript
Articles submitted for publication in the Sri Lanka Journal of Psychiatry should be typed in double spacing and prepared using MS Word. Please number all pages consecutively.

Cover letter
A covering letter should accompany all submissions, and should state:

1. That the contents have not been published elsewhere;
2. That the paper is not being submitted elsewhere (or provide information on previous publication);
3. Declaration of interests, and ethical approval.
   The letter should acknowledge any potential conflict of interest (see Ethical Responsibilities above) and call the editors’ attention to any possible overlap with prior publications. Include the name, full mailing address, telephone number and e mail address of the corresponding author.

The Manuscript
The manuscript should be prepared in the following order: (i) title page, (ii) abstract, and key words, (iii) text, (iv) acknowledgements, (v) Statement of contribution, (vi) declarations of interest, (vii) references, (viii) figures, (vii) tables. Further details of each section are given below.

The Title Page 

The title page should contain the following:

1. Main title, running title (less than 50 characters) and a maximum of 5 index words(or phrases).
2. Authors listed in the order in which they are to appear in the published article. List author names with initials followed by surname.
3. Institutional affiliation for each author and email address. The institutions listed should reflect the affiliations of the authors at the time of the study, not their present affiliations, if they differ.
4. Name, address, e-mail, ORCID ID and telephone number of author responsible for correspondence.
5. Source(s) of support. These include grants, equipment, drugs, and/or other support that facilitated conduct of the work described in the article or the writing of the article itself.
6. The number of words in the manuscript text (exclusive of the abstract, acknowledgments, references, tables, figures, and figure legends)

Structured abstract should include background, aims, methods, results and conclusions. Editorials and brief reports should include an unstructured summary not exceeding 100 words.

Key words 
A maximum of 5 key words should be given after the abstract. They should, if possible, be drawn from the MeSH list of Index Medicus and be chosen with a view to useful cross-indexing of the article.

Main Text 
The text all original articles and brief reports should contain the following categories; Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Limitations, Conclusions, Acknowledgements, Statement of Contribution, Declaration of Interest, References, Figures and Tables (if any).

Under Declaration of interest, all authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organisations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. If there are no conflicts of interest, authors should state that “There are no conflicts of interest”

Under Acknowledgments, authors should acknowledge sources of financial and material support, and those who have contributed intellectually, with their consent.

Under Statement of Contribution, the extent of contribution by each listed author should be stated. The work carried out by all individuals in the project development, data collection, paper writing, etc. should be mentioned.

References
Authors are responsible for ensuring the accuracy and relevance of all references. Reference lists not in the correct style will be returned to the author for correction. The Vancouver system of referencing should be used. References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Indicate in the text with Arabic numbers inside brackets e.g. (1) or (2-5).

In the reference list, cite the names of all authors. If there are more than six authors, the first three should be named, followed by ‘et al’. Names of journals should be abbreviated in the style used in Index Medicus. Reference to unpublished data and personal communications should not appear in the list but should be cited in the text only (e.g. John S, 2009, unpublished data). Manuscripts accepted but not yet published should include the phrase “in press”. All citations mentioned in the text, tables or figures must be listed in the reference list.

Examples of referencing style:

Journal articles
1. Amsterdam JD, Shults J. Comparison of fluoxetine, olanzapine, and combined fluoxetine plus olanzapine initial therapy of bipolar type I and type II major depression--lack of manic induction. J Affect Disord 2005;87(1):121-30.

2. Calabrese JR, Huffman RF, White RL, Edwards S, Thompson TR, Ascher JA, et al. Lamotrigine in the acute treatment of bipolar depression: results of five double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials. Bipolar Disord 2008;10(2):323-33.

Books
1. Rachman SJ. Fear and courage. 2nd ed. ed. New York ; Oxford: W. H. Freeman, 1990.

Chapter in a book
2. Weinstein L, Swartz MN. Pathogenic properties of invading microorganisms. In: Sodeman WA Jr, Sodeman WA, eds. Pathologic physiology: mechanisms of disease. Philadelphia: WB Saunders, 1999:457-72.

Website
3. Cancer-Pain.org [homepage on the Internet]. Association of Cancer Online Resources, New York c2000-01. Available at: http://www.cancerpain.org/ (accessed May 2009).

Tables and figures
Tables should be numbered with Arabic numerals, in the order in which they are cited in the text. A table title should describe concisely the content of the table.

Figures should be cited in consecutive order in the text. If photographs of patients are used, either the subjects should not be identifiable or written permission to publish the photograph (for children, from both parents) must accompany the submission. All images must be saved as high-resolution eps or tiff files. Authors must obtain permission from the original publisher if they intend to use figures from other sources.

Tables and figures should be placed at the end of the manuscript (after the references).

Submission of manuscripts

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or if so, an explanation has been provided in comments to the Editor).

2. The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect document file format.

3. Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.

4. The text is double-spaced; uses a 12-point font; and all tables (and illustrations, and figures), are numbered consecutively and placed at the end of the article.

5. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the section on Preparation of a Manuscript

Copyright Notice

Sri Lanka Journal of Psychiatry (SLJPSYC) is published under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0.  Authors of articles published in  SLJPSYC retain the copyright of their articles. They are free to reproduce and disseminate their work. The source (SLJPSYC) should be cited when articles published in the SLJPSYC are reproduced or stored in a repository.

The material in the Sri Lanka Journal of Psychiatry does not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or the Sri Lanka College of Psychiatrists. The publishers are not responsible for any error of omission or fact.

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