Primary Care Mental Health is now known as Mental Health in Family Medicine.  

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Contributing

The journal is indexed in EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, SwetsWise, EBSCOhost Electronic Journals Service, ProQuest, and Ulrich’s International Periodicals Directory.  

The instructions below give some information about how contributions should be presented. If any of these need clarification please contact the editor.

Guidance for authors

Journal scope

Primary Care Mental Health welcomes original papers and correspondence from all those involved in research, education, development and delivery of mental health in primary care. Articles should contain material of generalisable relevance to UK health and social care and be written for the non-specialist reader.

Originality and copyright

It will be assumed that all material submitted for publication in Primary Care Mental Health is offered on the understanding that it has not been accepted for publication elsewhere and, on acceptance, it becomes the copyright of the journal. Permission to reproduce previously published material must be obtained in writing from the copyright holder (usually the publisher) and the original source should be acknowledged in the manuscript.  

Types of articles accepted

Original articles and research papers should be between 1000 and 5000 words. The journal welcomes letters on articles in the journal or on any other topic related to mental health in primary care. Letters should be addressed to the Editor and must be signed to be considered for publication.

Refereeing

Submissions are subject to peer review, a process which is undertaken with a minimum of delay so that those papers accepted for publication can be included in the first available issue. The journal aims to return peer-review comments to authors within eight weeks. Authors are invited to recommend two appropriate reviewers for their paper whom the Editor might approach. Before final acceptance authors may be asked to revise submissions in the light of referees’ comments.

Preparation of papers

Three copies of each manuscript are required and, in addition, authors will be asked to submit the final version on disk in Microsoft Word. The manuscript should be typed on one side only of double-line spaced A4 paper. Margins should be not less than 3 cm. Pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the title page.  

Title page
The title of the paper should be as brief and informative as possible. A short title of not more than 50 characters should be supplied for a running head. The initials and last name of all authors, and their full addresses (including telephone, fax, and email details, where available) should be given. The name of the author responsible for correspondence should be indicated. The sources of support for any work, such as grants, equipment or drugs, should be stated.
 

Abstract and keywords
A summary in not more than 250 words, indicating concisely the scope and main conclusions of the paper, as well as three keywords or phrases, should be given.
 

Structure of the text
Subheadings are encouraged, when suitable, to break up the text as well as to improve readability; these normally consist of: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions.
 

Acknowledgements
These should be kept to a minimum; only those persons who have made a substantial contribution to the paper should be acknowledged. Authors should obtain written permission from all those acknowledged by name, as readers may infer their endorsement of details given in the paper.

Tables and figures
When submitting the paper electronically, each figure and table should be placed in a separate file. Each should be self-explanatory, on a separate sheet, and have a caption. Do not use vertical rules in tables. Figures should be suitable for direct reproduction; they may be line drawings in black ink, or black and white photographs. Authors wishing to submit colour illustrations are requested to contact the Editor before sending any material.

References
This journal uses the Vancouver style for references. In the text, references should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they first appear. They should be assigned superscript numbers, outside punctuation at the end of sentences.

References should be presented as a separate list at the end of the paper, and not as footnotes. For references with up to three authors, all names should be given; for more than three authors, the first three names then et al. should be given. The format of references is as follows.

Example 1: journal article
1    Perrin JM, Horner C, Berwick D et al. (1989) Variations in rates of hospitalisation of
      children in three urban communities. New England Journal of Medicine 320: 1183–7.

Example 2: chapter in a book
2    Miller DK and Goodman GN (1989) Gastric bypass procedures. In: Dietel M (ed)
      Surgery for the Morbidly Obese Patient. Lea & Febiger: Philadelphia, pp. 113–33.

Example 3: author of whole book or other publication
3    Fentem PH (1992) Allied Dunbar National Fitness Survey: main findings. Belmont
      Press: Northampton.

Example 4: editors of a whole book or other publication
4    Law J, Parkinson A and Tamhne R (eds) (1999) Communication Difficulties in

     
Childhood
. Radcliffe Medical Press: Oxford.

Proofs
Proofs will be sent to the author submitting the paper and must be returned promptly. This will allow correction of printers’ and similar errors. Major changes will not be entertained and authors may be charged for excessive amendments at this stage.  

Correspondence and enquiries

Queries concerning the production of the journal should be directed to the Journals Manager at Radcliffe Publishing.

Any queries concerning the content, suitability and acceptance of papers should be directed to the editors. All other correspondence should be addressed to: Professor André Tylee, Primary Care Mental Health,
Health Services Research Department, King’s College London, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK. Tel: +44 (0)20 7848 0150; fax: +44 (0)20 7848 0333; email: julie.smith@iop.kcl.ac.uk.