Types of article
Full Length Papers
Full length research papers will not normally be more than 4000 words in length (Introduction through Discussion) and will preferably be shorter. Submission of a paper to the Journal of Psychosomatic Research will be held to imply that it represents original research not previously published (except in the form of an abstract or preliminary report), that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere, and that if accepted by the Journal of Psychosomatic Research it will not be published elsewhere in the same form in any language without the consent of the Publisher. Major papers of topical content will be given priority in publication. Please note that this journal does not publish animal studies.
Short Reports
The journal welcomes short reports, which may be either preliminary communications or brief accounts of original research. Short Reports must not exceed 1500 words and should include no more than 2 tables and 30 references. The journal does not publish case reports.
Editorials
The Editors welcome suggestions for editorials which give personal and topical views on subjects within the journal's area of interest. They should not normally exceed 1500 words, excluding references and should have no more than 20 references.
Review Articles
Review papers are normally 4000-5000 words (Introduction through Discussion). Authors are advised to consult one of the Editors with an outline before submitting a review.
Letters to the Editors
These normally refer to articles previously published in the journal. The Editors are also willing to consider letters on subjects of direct relevance to the journal's interest, including research letters. Letters should not exceed 1000 words, including references. Where appropriate, they should begin with a reference to the published article that is the subject of the letter. Research letters should be submitted as 'Letters to the Editors'
Book Reviews
These are normally submitted by the Book Review Editor. In addition we welcome suggestions of books for review.
Special Articles
These may be invited by an editor or submitted after discussion with an editor. Special articles are designed to provide an analysis of a topic of particular interest to readers of the journal and are more extensive in scope than an editorial. They should not primarily be a commentary on an article previously published in the journal, which would be better addressed in a letter or editorial.
Other Papers
The Editors welcome suggestions for other types of papers, such as conference reports, accounts of major research in progress and interviews with senior research workers. These should not be submitted without prior consultation with an editor.
European Association for Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry and Psychosomatics (EALCPP) Contributions
These should not exceed 1000 words, excluding references Contributions are not meant to publish results of specific disease-related research; topics covered should be of general interest, stem from countries participating in the EACLPP or refer to EACLPP activities. EACLPP contributors are not peer-reviewed but subject to editorial approval. In case of doubt about the suitability of a subject, please contact jpsychores@elsevier.com
Contact details for submission
Journal of Psychosomatic Research
Editorial Office
E-mail:jpsychores@elsevier.com
Page charges
This journal has no page charges.
Ethics in publishing
For information on Ethics in publishing and Ethical guidelines for journal publication see
http://www.elsevier.com/publishingethics and http://www.elsevier.com/ethicalguidelines.
Policy and ethics
The work described in your article must have been carried out in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans
http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/index.html; EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/lab_animals/legislation_en.htm; Uniform Requirements for manuscripts submitted to Biomedical journals http://www.icmje.org. This must be stated
at an appropriate point in the article.
Conflict of interest
All authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or organizations within three years of beginning the submitted work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. See also
http://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest.
Submission declaration
Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere including electronically in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the copyright-holder.
Changes to authorship
This policy concerns the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the authorship of accepted manuscripts:
Before the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Requests to add or remove an author, or to rearrange the author names, must be sent to the Journal Manager from the corresponding author of the accepted manuscript and must include: (a) the reason the name should be added or removed, or the author names rearranged and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, fax, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed. Requests that are not sent by the corresponding author will be forwarded by the Journal Manager to the corresponding author, who must follow the procedure as described above. Note that: (1) Journal Managers will inform the Journal Editors of any such requests and (2) publication of the accepted manuscript in an online issue is suspended until authorship has been agreed.
After the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Any requests to add, delete, or rearrange author names in an article published in an online issue will follow the same policies as noted above and result in a corrigendum.
Reporting clinical trials
All reports on clinical trials submitted for publication should include a completed Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) flow chart. Please refer to the CONSORT statement website at
http://www.consort-statement.org
for more information. This journal has adopted guidelines on clinical trial registration of the International Committee of Medical Journal
Editors (ICMJE) which require, as a condition of consideration for publication of clinical trials, registration in a public trials registry.
Trials must register at or before the onset of patient enrolment. The clinical trial registration number should be included at the end
of the abstract of the article. For this purpose, a clinical trial is defined as any research study that prospectively assigns human
participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects of health outcomes. Health-related
interventions include any intervention used to modify a biomedical or health-related outcome (for example drugs, surgical procedures,
devices, behavioural treatments, dietary interventions, and process-of-care changes). Health outcomes include any biomedical or health-related
measures obtained in patients or participants, including pharmacokinetic measures and adverse events. Further information can be found
at http://www.icmje.org.
Reporting on other types of research studies
It is also recommended that authors submitting other types of articles (non-trials) follow the appropriate reporting guidelines for the type of study being reported (
http://www.equator-network.org/resource-centre/library-of-health-research-reporting/reporting-guidelines/).
- Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomized trials and other evaluation studies: PRISMA
- Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of observational studies: MOOSE
- Studies of diagnostic accuracy: STARD
- Observational studies: STROBE
Copyright
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (for more information on this and copyright see
http://www.elsevier.com/copyright). Acceptance
of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming
receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form or a link to the online version of this agreement. Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles including abstracts for internal circulation within their institutions. Permission of the Publisher is required for resale or distribution outside the institution and for all other derivative works, including compilations and translations (please consult
http://www.elsevier.com/permissions). If excerpts from other copyrighted works
are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier
has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases: please consult http://www.elsevier.com/permissions.
Retained author rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) retain certain rights; for details you are referred to:
http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights.
Role of the funding source
You are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this should be stated. Please see
http://www.elsevier.com/funding.
Funding body agreements and policies
Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors whose articles appear in journals published by Elsevier, to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions of their grant awards. To learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit
http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies.
Language and language services
Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these). Authors who require information about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission please visit http://webshop.elsevier.com/languageservices or our customer support site at http://support.elsevier.com for more information.
Submissions
The Journal of Psychosomatic Research utilizes a web-based submission and peer review system. Authors should submit their manuscripts, with figures and tables, electronically at the journal Web site:
http://ees.elsevier.com/jpsychores. Complete instructions are available on the Web site.The journal reviews all material that it receives. Approximately 50% of manuscripts are rejected after pre-review by an editor, typically after consultation with another member of the editorial staff or an external peer reviewer. This is done so as to allow authors whose manuscripts would almost certainly be rejected after peer review to submit the work elsewhere with as little delay as possible. Common reasons for rejection at this stage are insufficient originality, low priority of interest to the journal and clear quality deficits. We attempt to reach an initial decision on all articles that go through full peer review within 90 days of submission. Approximately 25% of submitted manuscripts are ultimately accepted for publication.
Manuscripts should conform to the uniform requirements known as the 'Vancouver style' (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. N Engl J Med 1997; 336:309-315). The Editors and Referees attach considerable importance to a succinct and lucid prose style and well organized tables. Authors whose native language is not English are advised to seek help before submission. Statistical procedures should be clearly explained.Manuscripts should conform to the uniform requirements known as the 'Vancouver style' (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. N Engl J Med 1997; 336:309-315). The Editors and Referees attach considerable importance to a succinct and lucid prose style and well organized tables. Authors whose native language is not English are advised to seek help before submission. Statistical procedures should be clearly explained.
Use of wordprocessing software
It is important that the file be saved in the native format of the wordprocessor used. The text should be in single-column format. Keep the layout of the text as simple as possible. Most formatting codes will be removed and replaced on processing the article. In particular, do not use the wordprocessor's options to justify text or to hyphenate words. However, do use bold face, italics, subscripts, superscripts etc. When preparing tables, if you are using a table grid, use only one grid for each individual table and not a grid for each row. If no grid is used, use tabs, not spaces, to align columns. The electronic text should be prepared in a way very similar to that of conventional manuscripts (see also the Guide to Publishing with Elsevier:
http://www.elsevier.com/guidepublication). Note that source files of figures, tables
and text graphics will be required whether or not you embed your figures in the text. See also the section on Electronic artwork. To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the 'spell-check' and 'grammar-check' functions of your wordprocessor.
Cover letter
Each manuscript should be accompanied by a Cover Letter. In addition to a brief description of the article being submitted and its relevance to likely readers of the journal, the Cover Letter should include a statement that (1)authors of this article had access to all study data, are responsible for all contents of the article, and had authority over manuscript preparation and the decision to submit the manuscript for publication, (2) that all listed authors have approved of the submission of the manuscript to the journal, and (3) an explanation of the relationship of the submitted paper to any other published, submitted or proposed papers reporting the same or overlapping data. You may submit the completed letter online.
Title Page
This should contain (a) the title of the article; (b) a short running head; (c) name of department where the work was conducted; (d) names of the each author with highest academic degree; (e) name, address, phone and fax of author responsible for correspondence and to whom requests for reprints should be addressed.
Structured Abstract
This should be subdivided under the headings Objective, Methods, Results, and Conclusion and should not exceed 250 words.
Keywords
Up to six keywords should be listed in alphabetical order after the abstract. These terms should optimally characterize the paper to facilitate choice of peer reviewers.
Article Structure
The text should be divided into sections with main headings: Introduction, Method, Results and Discussion and, in total, these sections should not normally be greater than 4000 words in length.
Acknowledments
Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. Acknowledgements must include mention of any source of funding outside the basic funding of the host institution (see Role of the funding source above). List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proof reading the article, etc.).
Tables
Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Place footnotes to tables below the table body and indicate them with superscript lowercase letters. Avoid vertical rules. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in tables do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article.Each should be on a separate sheet, numbered consecutively in Roman numerals.
Figures
Each should be on a separate sheet, and numbered consecutively. Captions should be on a separate sheet. The number of illustrations should be kept to a minimum. Colour illustrations are not normally acceptable. Authors may be asked to support the costs of colour reproduction.
Competing Interest Statement
All manuscripts should include a competing interests declaration that should be in the following format:
'All authors have completed the Unified Competing Interest form at
http://www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf
and declare that(1)[authors] received support from [name of company or other competing interest] for the submitted work;(2)[authors]
have [specify relationships] with [name of companies or other competing interests] in the past three years that could be perceived to
constitute a conflict of interest;(3)spouses, partners, or children of [authors] have [specified] financial relationships that may be
relevant to the submitted work; and(4)[authors] have [specify type of relationship] non-financial interests that may be relevant to the
submitted work. 'If there are no competing interests to report, the authors should state, 'The authors have no competing interests to
report'.
Appendices
If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. Formulae and equations in appendices should be given separate numbering: Eq. (A.1), Eq. (A.2), etc.; in a subsequent appendix, Eq. (B.1) and so on. Similarly for tables and figures: Table A.1; Fig. A.1, etc.
Abbreviations
Keep abbreviations to a minimum and avoid their use in the abstract. Spell out each abbreviation in the text the first time that it is used. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article.
Footnotes
Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article, using superscript Arabic numbers. Many wordprocessors build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be used. Should this not be the case, indicate the position of footnotes in the text and present the footnotes themselves separately at the end of the article. Do not include footnotes in the Reference list.
Table footnotes
Indicate each footnote in a table with a superscript lowercase letter.
Electronic artwork
General points
• Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
• Save text in illustrations as 'graphics' or enclose the font.
• Only use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Times, Symbol.
• Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
• Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
• Provide captions to illustrations separately.
• Produce images near to the desired size of the printed version.
• Submit each figure as a separate file.
A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website:
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions You are urged to visit this site; some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.
Formats
Regardless of the application used, when your electronic artwork is finalised, please 'save as' or convert the images to one of the following formats (note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below):
EPS: Vector drawings. Embed the font or save the text as 'graphics'.
TIFF: Color or grayscale photographs (halftones): always use a minimum of 300 dpi.
TIFF: Bitmapped line drawings: use a minimum of 1000 dpi.
TIFF: Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (color or grayscale): a minimum of 500 dpi is required.
If your electronic artwork is created in a Microsoft Office application (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) then please supply 'as is'.
Please do not:
• Supply files that are optimised for screen use (e.g., GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); the resolution is too low;
• Supply files that are too low in resolution;
• Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.
Color artwork
Submit color illustrations as original photographs, high-quality computer prints or transparencies, close to the size expected in publication, or as 35 mm slides. Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF, EPS or MS Office files) and with the correct resolution. If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable color figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in color on the Web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version. For color reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. Please indicate your preference for color: in print or on the Web only. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions. Please note: Because of technical complications which can arise by converting color figures to 'gray scale'(for the printed version should you not opt for color in print) please submit in addition usable black and white versions of all the color illustrations.
Figure captions
Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached to the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.
References
These should be numbered consecutively in the text in the order in which they are first mentioned and be so denoted in the list. Their form should be that adopted by the US National Library of Medicine, as used in the Index Medicus and as recommended in Huth EJ, Medical Style and Format.
Web references
As a minimum, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.
Reference style
Text: Indicate references by number(s) in square brackets in line with the text. The actual authors can be referred to, but the reference number(s) must always be given.
List: Number the references (numbers in square brackets) in the list in the order in which they appear in the text.
Examples:
Reference to a journal publication:
[1] Van der Geer J, Hanraads JAJ, Lupton RA. The art of writing a scientific article. J Sci Commun 2010;163:51–9.
Reference to a book:
[2] Strunk Jr W, White EB. The elements of style. 4th ed. New York: Longman; 2000.
Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
[3] Mettam GR, Adams LB. How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In: Jones BS, Smith RZ, editors. Introduction to the electronic age, New York: E-Publishing Inc; 2009, p. 281–304.
Note shortened form for last page number. e.g., 51–9, and that for more than 6 authors the first 6 should be listed followed by 'et al.' For further details you are referred to 'Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals' (J Am Med Assoc 1997;277:927–34) (see also
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html).
Journal abbreviations source
Journal names should be abbreviated according to
Index Medicus journal abbreviations:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html; List of title word abbreviations:
http://www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php; CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service):
http://www.cas.org/sent.html.
Video data
Elsevier accepts video material and animation sequences to support and enhance your scientific research. Authors who have video or animation files that they wish to submit with their article are strongly encouraged to include these within the body of the article. This can be done in the same way as a figure or table by referring to the video or animation content and noting in the body text where it should be placed. All submitted files should be properly labeled so that they directly relate to the video file's content. In order to ensure that your video or animation material is directly usable, please provide the files in one of our recommended file formats with a preferred maximum size of 50 MB. Video and animation files supplied will be published online in the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect:
http://www.sciencedirect.com. Please supply 'stills' with your files: you can choose
any frame from the video or animation or make a separate image. These will be used instead of standard icons and will personalize the
link to your video data. For more detailed instructions please visit our video instruction pages at http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Note: since video and animation cannot be embedded in the print version of the journal, please provide text for both the electronic and
the print version for the portions of the article that refer to this content.
Supplementary data
Elsevier accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound clips and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect:
http://www.sciencedirect.com. In order to ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please provide the data
in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should submit the material in electronic format together with the article and supply
a concise and descriptive caption for each file. For more detailed instructions please visit our artwork instruction pages at http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Submission Checklist
The following list will be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending it to the journal for review. Please consult this Guide for Authors for further details of any item.
Ensure that the following items are present:
One Author designated as corresponding Author:
• E-mail address
• Full postal address
• Telephone and fax numbers
•All necessary files have been uploaded, including appropriate checklists for relevant reporting guidelines(e.g., CONSORT, PRISMA)
• Line spacing
• Please ensure to use double line spacing in your paper
• Keywords
• All figure captions
• All tables (including title, description, footnotes)
Further considerations
• Manuscript has been 'spellchecked' and 'grammar-checked'
• References are in the correct format for this journal
• All references mentioned in the Reference list are cited in the text, and vice versa
• Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Web)
• Color figures are clearly marked as being intended for color reproduction on the Web (free of charge) and in print or to be reproduced in color on the Web (free of charge) and in black-and-white in print
• If only color on the Web is required, black and white versions of the figures are also supplied for printing purposes
For any further information please visit our customer support site at http://support.elsevier.com.
Use of the Digital Object Identifier
The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic publication. The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a document, particularly 'Articles in press' because they have not yet received their full bibliographic information. The correct format for citing a DOI is shown as follows (example taken from a document in the journal Physics Letters B):
doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2010.09.059
When you use the DOI to create URL hyperlinks to documents on the web, the DOIs are guaranteed never to change.
Proofs
One set of page proofs (as PDF files) will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author (if we do not have an e-mail address then paper proofs will be sent by post) or, a link will be provided in the e-mail so that authors can download the files themselves. Elsevier now provides authors with PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader version 7 (or higher) available free from
http://get.adobe.com/reader. Instructions
on how to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs (also given online). The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe site:
http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/tech-specs.html. If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and return them to Elsevier in an e-mail. Please list your corrections quoting line number. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then mark the corrections and any other comments (including replies to the Query Form) on a printout of your proof and return by fax, or scan the pages and e-mail, or by post. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately – please let us have all your corrections within 48 hours. It is important to ensure that all corrections are sent back to us in one communication: please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. Note that Elsevier may proceed with the publication of your article if no response is received.
Offprints
The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail. For an extra charge, paper offprints can be ordered via the offprint order form which is sent once the article is accepted for publication. The PDF file is a watermarked version of the published article and includes a cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use.
Additional information
For inquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission) please visit this journal's homepage. Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, will be provided by the publisher. You can track accepted articles at
http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle. You can also
check our Author FAQs ( http://www.elsevier.com/authorFAQ) and/or contact Customer Support via http://support.elsevier.com.