General
Policies 
The requirements stated below are in
accordance with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.
See “Uniform
Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals”
at icmje.org.
PRIOR PUBLICATION
Manuscripts are accepted for consideration by FOCUS: The Journal of
Lifelong Learning in Psychiatry with the understanding that they have
not been published previously and are not being considered for publication
elsewhere. Any form of publication other than an abstract of no more than
400 words constitutes prior publication.
AUTHORSHIP
All persons designated as authors take public responsibility for the content.
All authors warrant that they have reviewed and approved of the manuscript
prior to submission.
Only those with key responsibility for
the material in the article should be listed as authors; others contributing
to the work should be recognized in an Acknowledgment.
COPYRIGHT TRANSFER AND SUBMISSION
APPROVAL
FOCUS requires written transfer of copyright to the publisher.
In addition, authors must obtain letters of permission from publishers
for use of extensive quotations (more than 500 words) or figures that
have been previously published or submitted elsewhere.
PUBLIC ACCESS POLICY
Broad access to the research literature and the rights of our authors
are important to American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc., the publisher of FOCUS. Read our public
access policy for guidelines on deposit mandates for research funded
by NIH and others and institutional repositories.
DISCLOSURE OF COMPETING INTERESTS
AND FINANCIAL SUPPORT
All forms of support, including drug company support, must be acknowledged
in the author’s footnote (see Acknowledgments).
Also, authors must disclose any commercial or financial involvements that
might present an appearance of a conflict of interest in connection with
the submitted article, including but not limited to institutional or corporate
affiliations not already specified in the author’s footnote, paid
consultancies, stock ownership or other equity interests, and patent ownership.
As for all American Psychiatric Association CME activities, this information
will be printed in the journal as statement of disclosure.
PATIENT ANONYMITY
Ethical and legal considerations require careful attention to the protection
of a patient’s anonymity. Identifying information such as names,
initials, hospital numbers, and dates should be disguised.
PEER REVIEW
All papers are reviewed by impartial experts to determine the originality,
validity, and importance of content and conclusions.
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Submission
of Manuscripts
Manuscripts may be submitted via e-mail
attachment to kmoeller@psych.org.
Please indicate that the attachment is a manuscript intended for publication
in FOCUS. For manuscripts submitted by regular mail, three copies
of the manuscript and a computer disk containing the manuscript should
be submitted to Deborah J. Hales, M.D., Co-Editor, FOCUS: Journal of
Lifelong Learning in Psychiatry, 1000 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1825,
Arlington, Va. 22209-3901; (703) 907-7300. A notation on the disk should
specify the file name, word processing software, and the type of computer
used. Papers should be accompanied by a cover letter indicating that the
paper is intended for publication.
Types
of Articles
REVIEWS
Reviews are comprehensive, scholarly articles that bring together existing
knowledge on a clinical topic important to practicing general psychiatrists.
A key (but not exclusive) objective is to review developments from the
past 5 years and discuss how they integrate into the existing body of
knowledge. The following sections should be included in Clinical Review
articles: Abstract, Definition, Epidemiology and Natural History, Biopsychosocial
Underpinnings, Assessment and Differential Diagnosis, Treatment and Outcomes,
Future Directions, and four multiple-choice CME questions. Authors
are encouraged to employ tables, graphics, and pithy sidebars to emphasis
important points in their works. Reviews should be approximately 10,000
words.
CLINICAL SYNTHESIS
Clinical Synthesis articles attempt to merge expert opinion with evidence-based
review of current clinical practice, including diagnosis, treatment, and
new developments. The intention of this section is to learn how an acknowledged
expert thinks about diagnosis and treatment. Topics are based on the ABPN
recertification exam topic outline, which covers general psychiatry practice.
Clinical Synthesis articles should be approximately 2,500 words, including
an abstract of 150 words, and should include the following sections: Clinical
Context, Treatment Strategies and Evidence, Questions and Controversy,
and Recommendations from the Author(s). Authors must also submit four
multiple-choice CME questions based on the content of the article.
INFLUENTIAL PUBLICATIONS
The Guest Editor and senior authors contributing to each issue will be
asked to identify 4–7 recent and important evidence-based papers
published on that topic. These are to be scientific papers, practice guidelines,
or books and reviews that have influenced clinical practice. These articles,
reprinted in FOCUS, will serve as the basis of the annual self-assessment
exam which is mailed as a supplement with the fourth issue each year.
Manuscript
Organization and Format
All parts of the manuscript, including
quotations, references, and tables, must be double-spaced throughout.
A high-quality type font is preferred. All four margins must be 1.5 inches.
The manuscript should be arranged in the following order, with each item
beginning a new page: 1) title page, 2) abstract, 3) text, 4) references,
and 5) tables and/or figures. All pages must be numbered.
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Style
Specifications
TITLE PAGE
Word count. The number of words
in the manuscript (including abstract, text, references, tables, and
figures) and the number of tables and figures should be noted in the
upper right-hand corner of the title page. (To determine word equivalence
for tables and figures, see Tables
and Figures.)
Title. The title should be
informative, declarative, and as brief as possible.
Byline. See Authorship
instructions. Authors’ first names are preferred over initials.
Degrees should be included after each author’s name.
Previous presentation. If the
paper has been presented at a meeting, give the name of the meeting,
the location, and the inclusive dates.
Location of work and address for
reprints. Provide the department, institution, city, and state where
the work was done. Include a full address for the author who is to receive
reprint requests.
Acknowledgments. Grant support
should be acknowledged in a separate paragraph and should include the
full name of the granting agency and grant number. See Disclosure of Competing Interests and Financial Support. Acknowledgment
of individuals should not exceed four typed lines. Drug company support
of any kind must be acknowledged.
ABSTRACT
The abstract is a single paragraph of 250 words for Reviews and of 150
words for Clinical Synthesis.
TEXT
Use the active voice and third person; headings and subheadings should
be inserted at reasonable intervals. Footnotes to text may not be used,
and summaries are usually unnecessary.
Abbreviations. Spell out all
abbreviations (other than those for units of measure) the first time
they are used. Idiosyncratic abbreviations should not be used.
Drugs. Generic rather than trade
names of drugs should be used.
REFERENCES
References are numbered and listed by their order of appearance in text;
the text citation is followed by the appropriate reference number in parentheses.
Do not arrange the list alphabetically. References in tables and figures
are numbered as though the tables and figures were part of the text.
Accuracy of citation is the author’s
responsibility. References should conform exactly to the original spelling,
accents, punctuation, etc. Authors should be sure that all references
listed have been cited in text.
Type references in the Vancouver style
shown below, double-spaced throughout. List all authors; do not use “et
al.” Abbreviations of journal names should conform to the style
used in Index Medicus; journals not indexed there should not be abbreviated.
- Zinbarg RE, Barlow DH, Liebowitz
M, Street L, Broadhead E, Katon W, Roy-Byrne P, Lepine J-P, Teherani
M, Richards J, Brantley PJ, Kraemer H: The DSM-IV field trial for
mixed anxiety-depression. Am J Psychiatry 1994; 151:1153–1162
- Beahrs JO: The cultural impact
of psychiatry: the question of regressive effects, in American Psychiatry
After World War II: 1944–1994. Edited by Menninger RW, Nemiah
JC. Washington, DC, American Psychiatric Publishing, 2000, pp 321–342
- Burrows GD, Norman TR, Judd FK,
Marriott PF: Short-acting versus long-acting benzodiazepines: discontinuation
effects in panic disorders. J Psychiatr Res 1990; 24(suppl 2):65–72
TABLES
Authors are encouraged to supplement the article with tables. A double-spaced
table equals 100 words of text; one that fills one-half of a horizontal
page equals 150 words. A copy of each table must be attached to each copy
of the manuscript. Copies of tables should also be provided on the computer
disk submitted.
Tables should be double-spaced, no wider
than 120 typewriter characters (including spaces), and no longer than
70 lines. Values expressed in the same unit of measurement should read
down, not across; when percentages are presented, the appropriate numbers
must also be given.
FIGURES
FOCUS encourages the submission of high-quality figures. They should
be made as visually appealing as possible. Multiple figures for the same
article should be prepared as a set, consistent across all figures. The
cost of publishing all illustrations is borne by FOCUS.
A figure that fills one-half of a vertical
manuscript page equals 100 words of text; one that fills one-half of a
horizontal page equals 150 words. A copy of each figure, and an original
of each photograph, must be attached to each copy of the manuscript. If
possible, figures in accepted manuscripts should be sent as high-resolution
.eps or .tif files.
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Processing
of Accepted Manuscripts
Manuscripts are accepted with the understanding
that the Editors and the editorial staff have the right to make revisions
aimed at greater conciseness, clarity, and conformity with FOCUS
style. Papers will be edited and sent to the corresponding author for
corrections and answers to editorial queries. Authors who will be away
from their offices for a long period or who change address should inform
FOCUS staff.
Reprints
& Permissions
Contact
the Journal Editorial Office
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General Policies
