Open Access Pub · Aims and Scope

Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

The journal considers research on mental health in childhood and adolescence wherever it is studied — in development and mechanism, in assessment, in the clinic, and in the services and settings that carry care to a young person.

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ISSN: 2643-6655
Access: Open access
License: CC BY 4.0, authors retain copyright
Publisher: Open Access Pub

Aims

What the journal sets out to do

Scope follows the journal’s title: child and adolescent psychiatry, in full.

The journal exists so that work on the mental health of children and adolescents can be read together rather than in separate literatures. A mechanism, a measure, a treatment and a service question are usually the same problem approached from different positions, and the evidence for each is stronger when the others are visible.

Submissions are read against development. The age at which an observation was made, the stage the participants had reached, and the instruments used to reach them are part of what the finding means, and the journal expects them to be reported as such.

The journal publishes work that is answerable on its own terms. A theoretical paper is assessed as theory, a measurement study as measurement, and a trial as a trial; none is asked to meet the standard of evidence belonging to another kind of work.

Scope

The research the journal considers

These areas overlap by design. A single manuscript often belongs to more than one, and the journal reads them as parts of one subject rather than as separate sections of the archive.

Development and developmental psychopathology

Trajectories of emotional, behavioral and cognitive development; risk and protective factors; the emergence, persistence and resolution of difficulty across childhood and adolescence; longitudinal and cohort designs.

Biological and psychological mechanisms

Developmental neuroscience, neuroimaging and neuropsychological correlates, genetic and epigenetic contributions, cognition, emotion regulation, attachment, and the family and peer processes through which they operate.

Assessment, measurement and epidemiology

Psychometric validation and cross-cultural adaptation of instruments for young people, diagnostic and screening methods, measurement that holds its meaning across ages, and population studies of prevalence, incidence and social determinants.

Clinical research, treatment and care

Psychotherapeutic, psychosocial and pharmacological interventions and the questions that follow them — for whom, at what age, with what monitoring, and on what evidence of benefit and of harm — together with clinical description, case reports and studies of diagnostic practice.

Services, prevention, ethics and policy

How care is organized and who is able to reach it; school, family and community settings; prevention and early identification; and the ethical and policy questions particular to research and practice with minors.

Formats

The formats the journal considers

The routine submission categories are listed below. They describe the form a contribution takes; the range of questions the journal considers is set out above.

Research Article
Empirical studies presenting novel findings.
Review Article
A scholarly review of a topic, setting out what is established and where the open questions lie.
Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Evidence synthesis conducted to a pre-specified protocol.
Methods Article
A study design, measure, instrument or analytical approach presented so that others can apply it.
Data/Resource Article
A dataset, cohort or research resource described so that others can use it.
Short Communication
Preliminary findings or focused studies.
Case Report
Instructive clinical case presentations.

Editorial and Perspective/Commentary are published by invitation from the editors.

Word limits and preparation requirements for each format are set out on the Instructions for Author page.

Fit

How fit is judged

A manuscript fits when its question bears on the mental health, development or care of children or adolescents. Research on 18- and 19-year-olds and transition to adult care is included when the adolescent or developmental question remains central. The work must be reported fully enough for a reader in a neighboring discipline to judge it.

Work without a child-, adolescent-, or transition-related mental-health question — adult samples with no developmental question, or general methodology with no bearing on young people — is better served by another journal, and the editors will say so early.

Scope and evidence are judged separately. Eligibility follows the subject; the strength of a causal, predictive or clinical claim is assessed against the design that supports it.

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

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

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

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

Editorial decisions are independent of fees, services, membership, and editorial or reviewer roles.

Where to go next

Read further

About the JournalWhy the journal exists and who its readers are.
Instructions for AuthorsArticle types, limits and preparation requirements.
Editorial PoliciesEthics, authorship, peer review and corrections.
Submit PaperThe approved routes for sending a manuscript.