Editorial Guidelines

The Journal publishes original contributions, in both Italian and English, in its sections:

  1. reviews;
  2. original articles;
  3. clinical cases;
  4. short communications.

a) Reviews. Reviews on specific topics are considered for publication as long as they are comprehensive, focus on current issues, and contribute new and original knowledge on the subject. They must not exceed 45,000 characters, including spaces.

b) Original articles. Clinical and/or experimental articles related to psychiatric topics are published. Studies that do not meet the methodological, clinical-experimental, and statistical requirements accepted by international journals in the field are not published. The presentation of the data in original articles must comply with the methodological standards accepted in internationally recognized psychiatric journals (e.g., Archives of General Psychiatry, American Journal of Psychiatry, British Journal of Psychiatry, and similar). Original articles must not exceed 40,000 characters, including spaces. Tables and figures should be kept to the essentials to ensure the text is clear.

c) Clinical cases. The Journal publishes articles in the form of individual cases (not exceeding 20,000 characters, including spaces) characterized by originality, clinical interest, and scientific novelty.

d) Short communications. This section hosts short articles, typically 10,000 to 12,000 characters, including spaces, and includes abstracts in both Italian and English (about 500 characters).

Bibliographic Guidelines

The list of bibliographic entries should be formatted in Vancouver Style: not in alphabetical order but in the order in which the references are cited in the text. In the article, citations should be in Arabic numerals, superscripted, and without parentheses.
Example: “Endogenous depression has been shown to involve modifications in the circadian rhythm of cortisol1-4 and failure to respond to the dexamethasone suppression test5,6.”

For articles published in journals, the bibliographic entry should be formatted as follows:

  1. Author's surname and initials (no period). If there are multiple authors, list up to six authors by their surnames and initials; from the seventh author onwards, list three authors followed by "et al.";
  2. Title of the article;
  3. Title of the journal, abbreviated according to Index Medicus style;
  4. Year of publication, volume number, first page and last page. Example: Ricci S, Fuso A, Ippoliti F, Businaro R. Stress-induced cytokines and neuronal dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease. J Alzheimers Dis 2012; 28: 11-24.

For citing books, the bibliographic entry should be as follows:

  1. Author's surname and initials. If there are multiple authors, list up to six authors by surname and initials; from the seventh author onwards, list three authors followed by "et al." If the book consists of multiple chapters by different authors, indicate (edited by) in parentheses;
  2. Title of the book;
  3. City, publisher, year. Example: Cloninger CR. Feeling good: the science of well-being. New York: Oxford University Press 2004.

For citing chapters in books, follow this order:

  1. Author's surname and initials of the chapter author(s);
  2. Title of the chapter;
  3. Author(s) of the book, followed by (edited by) in parentheses;
  4. Title of the book;
  5. City, publisher, year. Example: Searle J. The Self. In: Searle J (ed). Mind: a brief introduction. New York: Oxford University Press 2004.

Figures, Graphs, and Tables

Figures, graphs, and tables should be numbered in consecutive order using Arabic numerals, with their location indicated in the text in parentheses.

Abstracts

For each article, the author must attach an abstract in Italian, not exceeding 2,000 characters, including spaces, divided into 4 sections for original articles: aim, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion, along with the English translation, including the translation of the title and keywords in both Italian and English. Authors are required to verify the correctness of the English language parts.

Materials to Submit

Works submitted for publication should be sent to the journal's editorial office through the PACE portal (Pensiero Author Center), after creating an account and logging in, then uploading the files for submission.

A separate file should contain the title, full name, surname of the authors, and their affiliated institutions. A second file should include the abstract in Italian, keywords, summary (including the title), key words, followed by the article text. Figures and tables should be in separate files.

Publisher's Contact Information:
Il Pensiero Scientifico Editore, via San Giovanni Valdarno, 8 - 00138, Rome
Email: ml.rossi@pensiero.it
Tel. 06.86282335;
Fax: 06.86282250

Along with the submission, a letter is required ensuring that the article is unpublished in all its parts, confirming the transfer of literary rights to the publisher, and declaring any conflicts of interest, specifying collaborations in the last three years with industry companies.

Peer Review

Publication is subject to the judgment of the Editorial Board, external evaluation by referees identified based on the relevant area of the work, and that of the Publisher regarding the formal appropriateness of the writing. It must adhere to the journal’s guidelines as specified in the recommendations above.

The Editorial Board reserves the right to make necessary changes to the text of the works and their abstracts, as well as reduce the number of figures and tables if needed.

For invited articles, the review is generally limited to formal aspects and is carried out internally within the journal's editorial staff.

Conflicts of Interest, Copyright, Authorship, Ethical Aspects

In general, the journal refers to the document from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
It is a constantly updated position statement. A letter is required to ensure that the article is unpublished, declares no conflicts of interest, and suggests the section of the journal for the article. In the case of multiple authors, a declaration is needed to disclose the individual contribution to the article. All authors must have contributed to the creation of the content and the final revision.

Conflicts of interest. Special attention should be given to declaring the existence of potential economic conflicts of interest. If explicit, these do not constitute grounds for penalizing the evaluation. However, verification by the editorial team or reviewers of unreported potential conflicts (e.g., participation in satellite symposia or research projects) may result in rejection of the submission.
The journal does not consider possible “cultural or intellectual” conflicts of interest as a reason for prejudice in content evaluation.

Copyright and conflict of interest form (PDF: 200 Kb): complete and submit along with the other materials.

Plagiarism. While obvious, it’s essential to avoid using content from sources that are not cited in the bibliography. Publishers today use software or techniques that detect nearly all attempts at plagiarism during the editorial review process.

Peer review. All articles are critically reviewed to evaluate their formal and content aspects. Articles can be accepted without revisions, accepted with minor revisions, accepted only after a “major” revision, or rejected. For commissioned articles (e.g., editorials or reviews), the review generally focuses on formal aspects and is done internally by the editorial team.

Authorship. Only those who have actively contributed to the preparation of the content should be listed as authors. The conditions for authorship are outlined in the editorial by Phil Fontanarosa et al. published in JAMA in December 2017: Fontanarosa P, Bauchner H, Flanagin A. Authorship and team science. JAMA 2017; 318(24): 2433-7.

Publication Fees

The publisher requires authors to contribute to the costs of: scientific and peer review, editorial work, printing and distribution, online publication on the website www.rivistadipsichiatria.it (free full-text), Medline/PubMed relations for file normalization and click-through tracking. The “Author Fee” (€700 for up to 8 pages of print + 22% VAT; €900 for 9-16 pages of print + 22% VAT) is payable upon acceptance of the article, when the first draft is sent to the author, before publication.

Conflicts of interest, copyright, authorship, ethical aspects (ENG)

In general, the magazine refers to the document of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). It is a constantly updated position statement. A letter is required to ensure that the writing is unpublished, which declares the absence of conflicts of interest and which suggests the section of the magazine to which the author would like to assign the work. In the case of articles signed by several authors, a declaration is required to disclose the contribution individually made to the preparation of the contribution. All authors must have contributed to the creation of the content and to the latest revision.

Conflicts of interest. Particular attention must be paid to the declaration about the possible existence of economic conflicts of interest. In fact, the latter, if explicit, do not constitute grounds for penalizing the evaluation of the work. On the contrary, the verification by the editorial staff or the auditors of the existence of potentially conflicting interests (participation in satellite symposia or involvement in research projects) not declared by one or more authors may represent a reason for refusing the publication proposal. The magazine's management does not consider such possible "cultural or intellectual" conflicts of interest. In other words, having expressed positively or negatively regarding classes of medicines, specific approaches to clinical practice or health policy strategies does not represent a reason for prejudice in the evaluation of a proposed content.

Copyright and conflict of interest form (PDF: 200 Kb) : complete and send together with the rest of the materials.

Plagiarism. It may seem obvious, but the importance of not drawing content from sources that are not mentioned in the bibliography is underlined. The publishing houses are now equipped with software or control techniques that manage to discover almost all the attempts at plagiarism already in the editorial revision phase of the contributions.

Peer review. All the articles received undergo a critical review to evaluate their formal and content aspects. Articles can be accepted without revisions, accepted with minor revisions, accepted only after "major" revision, rejected. For commissioned articles - for example, editorials or reviews - the review is generally limited to the formal aspects and is carried out only internally to the editorial staff of the magazine.

Authorship (authorship of the content). It is important that only those who actually contributed to the preparation of the content are reported as authors / authors. The conditions for signing a job are those described in the editorial by Phil Fontanarosa et al. published on JAMA in December 2017: Fontanarosa P, Bauchner H, Flanagin A. Authorship and team science. JAMA 2017; 318 (24): 2433-7.

Author fee

The publisher requires authors a contribution to the costs of: scientific review and peer review, editing, printing and distribution, online publication of the article on the site www.rivistadipsichiatria.it (free full-text), relations with Medline/PubMed for normalization files and tracking of clickthroughs. This Author Fee (€700 within 8 pp print + 22% VAT, €900 between 9 and 16 pp print + 22% VAT) is payable only upon acceptance of the article.