Global Psychiatry Archives was founded in 2018 by Professor Reinhard Heun and colleagues (see editorial board) as a new online open-access journal with the aim to advance global mental health by making relevant scientific knowledge easily accessible to all.

We believe that all sub-specialities of psychiatry and mental healthcare have a global common ground and we can learn from each other. A journal with a global approach can benefit all readers who are mental health practitioners, professionals, carers and ultimately their patients.　　

Publishing a first paper is not easy, but being in touch with mental health research is a characteristic and necessity of good clinical practice. We therefore endeavour to help authors from across the world to publish their research, especially on neglected areas of mental health. We help them with careful and supportive reviews of their submitted papers and if need be, with personal mentoring.

We particularly want to enable new and young researchers and authors from developing economies, from communities that do not have a robust state-funded or private healthcare system or where medical funding for research and publication is unavailable.

Hence, publishing in psychiatry and mental health should be affordable to all potential authors independently of where they live or come from to allow research from all countries to reach the global readership and to contribute to the relevant development of psychiatry and mental health care. We keep the article processing charge low (currently £300 for published manuscripts, no other cost) and offer generous full or partial waivers for those in need. Publication will only depend on the quality of the manuscript, not the ability to pay.

The journal is a self-financed, open-access online journal. Article-processing charges are the only income of the journal to fund the editorial systems, hosting, manuscript handling, copyediting, language editing, proofreading, typesetting, plagiarism checks, indexing costs and other essential services. 

Global Psychiatry Archives is self-published which gives the editorial board the maximum of independence in publishing the best papers independent from the restrictions and bureaucracies of national and international organisations. Global Psychiatry Archives is owned by Reinickendorf Ltd, a company limited by shares, main shareholder Professor Reinhard Heun (registered office address is 780 Crow Road, Glasgow, UK). Reinickendorf Ltd has no influence on the governance of the journal which is self-published by the editorial board. This should allow the journal the maximum of editorial freedom.

The members of the editorial board not only have an immense amount of psychiatric and mental health knowledge necessary for the editing of psychiatric papers but also have a wide knowledge of managing and running psychiatric organisations including their journals.

Prevention of Plagiarism

Plagiarism by authors is not acceptable. All information and resources used by authors must be appropriately cited and referenced. Plagiarism checks will be performed on all papers before final acceptance using Crossref/ Turnitin using iThenticate software (https://crossref-29559.turnitin.com/home/new). If plagiarism is detected the paper will be automatically rejected on these grounds.

Endogeny 

Submissions from the editorial board are welcome. These papers must be externally reviewed and will be treated as any other submissions. To make sure there is no endogeny advantage the final decision on their acceptance will be made by the handling editor in collaboration with the editor-in-chief. 

Authors’ Warranties, Copyright and Right to Publish

All authors of accepted manuscripts warrant that the manuscript is original, has not been submitted for publication or was published elsewhere, and that they are the sole authors of the work.

All authors further warrant that they have received ethical approval and, where necessary, they have obtained necessary releases from companies or individuals involved in or with the manuscript.

The Author remains the sole owner of the published material as the entire copyrights are held with the author. They authorise Global Psychiatry Archives to publish the manuscript, in consideration of the publication of the manuscript, they agree to hold the Global Psychiatry Associations and its assigns, affiliates, subsidiaries, officers, employees, directors and agents harmless in any action for damages which might arise as a direct or indirect result of the publication of their manuscript.

On submission, authors need to provide a declaration to Global Psychiatry Archives by authorising them to publish their manuscript upon compliance with the reviewer’s suggestions.

In consideration of the publication of the manuscript, all authors expressly assign use of the copyright, the right to edit, clarify and shorten the manuscript, if necessary; and the right to republish, amend and summarize all or part of the manuscript in any compilation of manuscripts, and, the right to make the manuscript and the journal in which it is published available to databases, or distributors which might be involved in disseminating manuscripts or journals to various audiences.

Open Access Policy and Licensing

Global Psychiatry Archives is an open-access journal that publishes original scientific articles, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses. Being an Open access journal means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or their institution immediately after publication.

We support the Budapest Open Access Initiative and its statements. https://budapestopenaccessinitiative.org

Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful non-commercial purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access. We use the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Non Derivatives License

(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0).

Archiving

All articles and its related correspondence are currently archived by ejournalplus on the journal’s website www.globalpsychiatry.co.uk

Self-Archiving 

For all published papers, the authors retain the copyright and full publishing rights without restrictions.

Authors are free to store any version of their submitted manuscript or their final paper on their own devices, their institutions devices or other permanent storage facilities/ repository at their own discretion.

Advertising Policy

Decisions regarding advertising in a Journal are made by the Editorial Board. Advertising that may be suitable include, but are not limited to: Higher education institutions, research organizations, publishing companies, academic organizations, writing assistance and translation services, journal indexing companies, conference organizers, event coordinators and the like.

Types of advertising currently accepted may include image and text ads placed on the Journal website, as well as image and text ads included in the body of the Journal itself. However, to date we have not published any advertisements.

Data Sharing

Global Psychiatry Archives supports data sharing.  Data sharing should be timely and usually start at the time of the publication of the paper. Authors should indicate their data sharing intentions and proposed procedures including repository and access methods in the declarations section of their articles. 

Informed consent policy

All studies must confirm that the patients provided written informed consent. Patient consent must follow ethical principles as outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki and its consecutive amendments. Consent to participate in any research or study must be freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous. 

The discussion and documention confirming informed consent should clarify that the study involves research, the purpose of the research, the study procedures, the pros and cons of the participation,  possible risks or discomforts to the subject, the potential benefits of the research to the subject, relevant treatment alternatives, pay or costs of participation, the respect for the subject’s confidentiality. Elements for documentation of the informed consent discussion must include the nature of the procedure, the risks and benefits and the procedure, reasonable alternatives, risks and benefits of alternatives, and last but not least assessment of the patient's understanding of these issues. Consent must be given in writing. For children the patients and at least one of their parents must agree to the study procedures and sign their consent.

Further, international policies and guidance 

Further policies are indicated in the Research and Publication Ethics statements. To avoid repetition here please check the appropriate link on the journal website.

Global Psychiatry Archives endeavours to comply with guidelines and best practices published by professional organisations, including the Declaration of Helsinki and its following Amendments by the WHO, the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (joint statement by COPE, DOAJ, WAME, and OASPA). Global Psychiatry Archives aims to follow the recommendations of PIE-J: The Presentation & Identification of E-Journals (NISO RP-16-2013) for title presentation, accurate use of ISSN, and citation practices, and else.

The guidance and policies presented on our website are meant to be concise and cover the most essential issues. For further questions, new developments, e.g. artificial intelligence, and in case of ambiguities the above-mentioned international guidance and recommendations will be applied preferentially.  

PEER REVIEW PROCESS (also available under the reviewer menu)

We will generally practice a single-blind peer review system where the reviewers are anonymous to the authors. Those who prefer a double blind per review process for any reason are free to ask for this, and the editorial board will accommodate this wish.

All journal submissions are peer reviewed independently by at least two members of the Editorial Board and/or invited external reviewers who are experts in the field of psychiatry and the subject of interest of the manuscript.  

The reviewers should assess the accuracy of the authors affiliations, the justifications of the authorships in the declarations, the value of the research questions, the clarity of the methods, the originality of the results and their value for publication, the clarity and logic of the data presentation, the application of the scientific methods, the quality of the manuscript including its figures and tables, the relevance and consistency of the discussion.

After initial submission and receipt of the manuscript via the electronic editorial management system (provided by ejournalplus), the journal Editor-in-Chief initially reviews all papers for appropriateness, originality, basic scientific quality, and completeness of the manuscript in line with the authors’ instructions.  He will then allocate a managing editor from the Editorial Board with expertise in the subject of the manuscript for the handling of the submission. The latter will assess that the work is original and has not been plagiarized. The managing editor sends the manuscript out to two or more reviewers of his choice, without disclosing the identities of the other reviewers.

The managing editor will ask the reviewers to provide a numbered list of comments and recommendations which should be used as a guidance for corrections and improvements by the author. 

The reviews and reviewers’ comments are delivered to the Editors, who then assesses the reviewers’ feedback to ensure their comments are relevant and non-discriminatory before deciding on the fate of the manuscript, i.e., accept, reject, or request changes to the manuscript before publication.

The handling editor will send the reviewers’ comments back to the authors. If changes are required to improve the paper, authors are given a chance to revise their manuscripts based on the feedback they receive. They should amend the manuscript and respond to the reviewers’ comments, i.e., what changes have been made in the manuscript or not, and if so why.

Revised papers are sent back to the handling editor via the editorial manager who send the revised paper back to the original reviewers or additional ones, if necessary.

Feedback from the second round of reviews will be processed the same way. In rare cases, authors are given a second or third chance to revise and resubmit their papers should these not be found acceptable after the first revision. 

For more information on the review procedures, please check the reviewers' page.

 

PROCESS FOR HANDLING CORRECTIONS, RETRACTIONS, AND EDITORIAL EXPRESSIONS OF CONCERN

Should any paper need to be removed from a Journal that has already been published, that paper will be removed from the PDF version of the Journal in such a way that it does not change the page numbers of other papers published in that issue of the Journal. The authors of the removed manuscript may be subject to republication fees (if applicable). Corrected versions of the Journal will be made available on the Journal website, as well as all applicable indexes.

Corrections that need to be made to an already published Journal will be handled in such a way that it does not affect any of the other papers published in that issue. If the correction stems from author error, a republication fee may apply. Corrections due to publisher error will be handled without charge. Corrected versions of the Journal will be made available on the Journal website, as well as all applicable indexes.

Editorial concerns will be discussed within the editorial board and communicated with the authors of the paper of concern. In case the authors can address the concerns, the paper can be published. If not the editorial board (at least three members) will agree on a joint decision that will be communicated by the editor in chief.

Further details of procedures relevant to author’s and reviewers can be found in the respective instructions available on our website.