Bord & Policies / Instructions to Authors

Latest update: 2025/1/1

Contributors’ form → 📄Download (Latest update: 2025/12/8)

1. The Taiwanese Journal of Psychiatry is published quarterly by the Taiwanese Society of Psychiatry. The editors welcome the submission of articles from all disciplines of psychiatry. Articles must not have been published or submitted for publication elsewhere.
2. The Journal has columns of editorials (by invitation only), and reviews (by invitation only), original articles, brief reports, case reports, and letters-to-the editor. All of the articles should be written in English in American usage.
   • Editorials: Editorials are invited by the editors only. Manuscripts submitted as editorials should be concise and contain powerful message specifically to the readership of the TJP. They should not exceed 2,500 words, without any abstract. The number of references should not exceed 25. Appropriate re-printed tables or figures with proper credit for sources are permitted and encouraged. One or two tables/figures can be presented, and 200 words are counted for each added table or figure. Excessive words in the legend for the figure are counted as text words. Duplication of messages in the legend and the text should be minimalized. Four TJP printed pages are allowed for an editorial.
   • Reviews: Reviews are invited by the editors only. Usually the contributors are free to choose materials because the contents of the reviews are for educational purposes. They are usually used for reading materials for earning two credit hour points in continuing medical education (CME) toward re-certification for subspecialty in psychiatry every six years for the subscribers of the members of the Taiwanese Society of Psychiatry. For this purpose, the authors of the reviews are also asked to prepare six multiple choose questions (MCQs) with keys. The manuscript length should not d 8,000 words, including an abstract of a maximum of 250 words and a maximum of 80 references. Appropriate re-printed tables or figures with proper credit for sources are permitted and encouraged. Two hundred words are counted for each added table or figure. Excessive words in the legend for the figure are included as text words. Duplication of words in the legend and the text should be minimalized. Twelve TJP printed pages are allowed for a review.
   • Original articles are reports of original work. The manuscript length should not exceed 5,500 words, including an English abstract of a maximum of 250 words. In addition, there are no more than 50 references. Appropriate tables or figures can be presented, and 200 words are counted for each added table or figure. Excessive words in the legend for the figure are included as text words. Duplication of words in the legend and the text should be minimalized. Eight TJP printed pages are allowed for an original article.
   • Brief reports: Manuscripts submitted as brief reports should be concise and contain short clinical presentation with important messages or preliminary experimental results. They should not exceed 2,500 words, and need an abstract of a maximum of 150 words. The number of references should not exceed 25. One or two tables or figures can be presented, and 200 words are counted for each added table or figure. Excessive words in the legend for the figure are counted as text words. Duplication of words in the legend and the text should be minimalized. Four TJP printed pages are allowed for a brief report.
   • Case reports: Manuscripts submitted as case reports should be concise and contain short clinical case(s). They should not exceed 1,750 words and need an abstract of a maximum of 150 words. The number of references should not exceed 18. One or two tables/figures can be used, and 200 words are counted for each added table or figure. Duplication of words in the legend and the text should be minimalized. Three TJP printed pages are allowed for a case report.
   • Letters-to-the editor: Letters in response to currently published journal articles are encouraged and considered for publication. They can also describe clinical wisdom or make medical hypothesis. They should be no more than 1,000 words in length, and up to 10 references. One or two tables or figures can be used, and 200 words are counted for each added table or figure. Duplication of words in the legend and the text should be minimalized. Two TJP printed pages are allowed for a letter-to-the editor.

   Table 1. Specifications of the lengths of all columns in the Taiwanese Journal of Psychiatry revised December 2024

   Types of articles	Number of words in abstract	Number of words in the manuscripts	Number of reference
   Editorial	No	2,500	25
   Reviews	250	8,000	80
   Original articles	250	5,500	50
   Brief reports	150	2,500	25
   Case reports	150	1,750	18
   Letters-to-the editor	No	1,000	10

3. The manuscript form must comply with the fifth edition of Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors in Vancouver, Canada, which appeared in Annals of Internal Medicine 1997; 126: 36-47. This format has the following requirements:
   • Original articles, brief reports and case reports: Include title page, abstract, text, acknowledgement, artificial intelligence statement, data-sharing statement, financial support and sponsorship, conflicts of interest, references, tables, figures, and legends in sequence.
   • There is no fixed format for text of editorial (by invitation only). But references must be included. Reprinted tables or figures with credit for the source are permitted and encouraged.
   • There is no fixed format for text of reviews (by invitation only). But abstract of a maximum of 250 words and references must be included. Reprinted tables or figures with credit for the source are permitted and encouraged.
4. Title page. The first page should contain
   • title (abbreviations not allowed)
   • names, academic degrees (but not society menbership status, academic rank, or administrative title, etc.)
   • affiliations of the authors
   • the name and full street address of the corresponding author(s)
   • e-mail address of the corresponding author(s)
   • date of submission to the TJP
   • running title (not exceeding 40 characters and spaces, abbreviations allowed), and
   • word count. The number of words in the manuscript (including abstract and text), number of references, number of tables, and the number of figures should be noted in the upper left-hand corner of the title page.
5. Abstract. A review and an original article have an abstract of a maximum of 250 words. Each brief report or case report should have an abstract of a maximum of 150 words. Four key words should be used with the four title key words in the bottom of the abstract. Four key words should be able to have relevant nouns or noun phrase in the article It is advised that the key words are not duplicated with any nouns or noun phrases of the title of the manuscript to amplify the electronic searching power. All abstracts need to be structured with four sections of objective/background (either but not both), methods, results and discussion. Key points in the article should be included.
6. Text. The text should include four sections of Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. The TJP does not use any other section titles except the above-noted four words.
   • The Introduction section of the manuscript should address the subject of the paper, covering background issue of the topic, reviewing what has been studied in this topic, the reason why of doing this study, and the purposes of doing current study. Lengthy elaboration is not appropriate.
   • The Methods section should identify the study subjects, or used specimens, and explain the laboratory or study methods followed and statistical procedures used in the study. Message of approval by the institutional review board with the information of the IRB protocol number, date of approval, and status of signed informed consents should be included when human subjects are used in the study. The statistical software programs should be given with the names of the companies, cities, states, and countries.
   • The Results section should include only pertinent findings. The text should avoid repeated messages which are clearly shown in self-explanatory tables or figures. Proper uses of footnotes or legends to explain the meaning in tables or figures, respectively, are encouraged.
   • The Discussion section should contain the discussion based on the study findings, a review of the relevant literature, study limitations, and a summary with key messages from the study. The study limitations of the study findings using a heading “Study limitation” should be described item by item, preferably to use a bullet sign “．” to make each item of limitations clear. Indicating table or figure number in parenthesis is needed when the study result is mentioned in the text. The take-home message in summary using a heading “Summary” should be the same as that in the conclusion of the abstract.
   • Titles of headings under the sections of Methods (such as Study participants, Study tools, Statistical analysis, etc.) and Discussion (such as Study limitations, Summary, etc.) are used for clear presentation. But the headings under the section of Results are discouraged because the titles of tables and figures give better meaning in presentation.
7. References. The journal uses Vancouver (number citation) system. References should be placed consecutively appearing in the order in the text. Identify references in the text, tables and figures by Arabic numerals in brackets [ ]. Examples of correct forms of Vancouver style references are given below. Note that they should be followed in all details, including punctuation.
   • References with six or fewer authors should list all authors. References with more than six authors should list the first three authors followed by the notation “et al.”
   • Journals: References to journal articles should be presented in this sequence: names of authors, title of article, journal name, year, volume number, beginning page and ending page. Abbreviations of journal names should conform to the style used in Index Medicus (or download “List of Journals Indexed Index Medicus” from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/ pubs/libprog.html). Journals which are not indexed should not be abbreviated, and should indicate the name of the town where they are published. Examples are:
     • Yang AC, Tsai SJ: New targets for schizophrenia treatment beyond the dopamine hypothesis. Int J Mol Sci 2017; 318: 1689-702.
     • Ko CH, Yen JY, Yen CF Chen CS, Chen CC: The association between Internet addiction and psychiatric disorder: a review of the literature. Eur Psychiatry 2012; 27; 1-8.
     • Su KP, Huang SY, Chiu CC, Shen WW: Omega-3 fatty acids in major depressive disorder: a preliminary double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Eur Neuropsychopharmal 2003: 13: 267-71.
     • Jun JH, Lee JA, Choi TY, Yun KJ, Lim HJ, Lee MS: Herbal medicine (Gan Mai Da Zao decoction) for depression: a systematic review protocol. BMJ Open 2014; 4: e003690.
     • Allgulander C: Opportunities for transnational and translational research in Europe. African Journal of Psychiatry (Johannesberg) 2013; 16: 71-3.
     • Warren CR, Serrato JJ, Marguire GA: Off-label uses of second-generation antipsychotic drugs. Taiwan J Psychiatry 2012; 26: 162-76.
   • Books: They should be presented in the sequence of names of authors, title of article, names of editors, title of book, edition (volume), city of publication, publisher, year, beginning page and ending page, if available. Examples are:
     • Lin TY, Rin H, Yeh EK, Hsu CC, Chu HM: Mental disorders in Taiwan: fifteen years later: a preliminary report. In: Caudill W, Lin TY (eds): Mental Health Research in Asia and the Pacific. Honolulu, Hawaii, USA: University of Hawaii Press: 1969.
     • American Psychiatric Association: Depressive disorders (a chapter). Washington DC, USA: Diagnostic and Statistical Manuals of Mental Disorder, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). 2013: 155-233.
   • A manuscript submitted but not yet accepted, similar unpublished items, and Internet information should not appear in the reference entries of the references section. Such citations may be noted in text as “personal communication” in parentheses. It is the author’s responsibility to provide written permission to refer to another individual’s unpublished observations.
   • Website address is not a valid reference entry under the references section. But it can be cited in text in parentheses inside the text.
8. Data analysis. Adequate description of statistical analysis should be provided, including the names of the statistical tests and whether tests were one- or two-tailed. Standard deviations, rather than standard errors of the mean, are required. Statistical tests that are not well-known should be referenced. All significant and important non-significant results must include the test value, degree(s) of freedom, and probability. “N (%),” “mean  standard deviation,” and “odd ratio (95% confidence interval)” should be treated as number units. The significance levels of differences between groups should be rounded up and limited to four levels — non-significance, p < 0.05, p < 0.01, and p < 0.001. For example, a non-significant difference should use the word “nonsignificance” without showing any non-significant p-value. Reviewers will evaluate the appropriateness of the analyses.
9. Tables and figures
   • The first letter of the first words which appear in a table or a figure should be in an upper case letter.
   • Tables: Vertical lines should be avoided. Use footnote, symbols are †, ‡, §, etc. in superscript. The asterisk signs, such as “*,” “**,” and “***” are reserved for designations of significance levels of differences between the groups.
   • Two sets of those tables and figures which are not PC formats should be submitted. The figure number should be indicated underneath the photograph, along with the first author’s name and an arrow indicating the top of the figures. Colors in photographs should be true to the original specimen. Legend and figure should be pasted separately because figures are subjected to condensation or enlargement, but legends are not. Please also submit the drawing files such as PowerPoint for better quality in printing production.
10. Terminology. All abbreviations and acronyms are to be spelled out when appear for the first time in the text, e.g., Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Generic rather than trade names of drugs should be used.
11. Research ethics
    • If human subjects were involved in the study, authors should have the approval of the institutional review board with protocol number, date of approval, and status of signed informed consents. Do not use the vague cliché of Helsinki Declaration. The information should be stated in the text under the subtitle of study subjects in the methods section.
    • If vertebral animals other than human were involved in the study, the permission from the animal study committee of author’s institution is needed. This fact needs to be stated in the text.
    • All authors need to declare any financial support and sponsorship as well as conflicts of interest after the acknowledgement section of a review, an original article, a brief report, or a case report or in the last sentence of a letter-to-the editor.
12. Manuscripts must be typewritten in double-line spacing, on one side only of A4 paper, with margins of at least 3 cm. Manuscripts should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the title page.
13. A copy of the manuscript, an approval of manuscript submission by all authors, and an e-file containing the manuscript in the attached file through e-mail should be submitted to: Dr. Winston W. Shen, Editor-in-Chief, the Taiwanese Journal of Psychiatry, F9-3, No. 22, Song Jiang Road, Taipei 10455, Taiwan
14. All tables and figures should be pasted at the end of the manuscript. Use instruction “(Table 1 is to be inserted about here)” in the text. The editors prefer that all text lines have paragraph indentations and are justified to the left margin.
15. Papers that do not comply with the TJP style specifications or do not meet the requirements (including word count, the wrong style of reference entries under the references section, etc.) will be returned un-reviewed.
16. The authors of the submitted manuscripts should work cooperatively with the TJP office staff during the peer review process. The first revision of the manuscript after the first round of assessment should be made within two weeks. Any future revisions should be completed in two weeks. The manuscripts will be rejected if the authors do not keep up with the peer review schedules.
17. To speed up the peer review process and to avoid unneeded follow-up reviews, the contributing authors are required to write all new words in red-colored font for easy and quick tracing without the need to write a line-by-line reply letter to explain where the corrections are made in the new revision of the manuscript. Or the authors can simply send in a copy of a yellow-colored highlighted version of the old manuscript to show where the corrections are made.
18. Once a paper is accepted for publication, the copyright becomes the property of the Taiwanese Society of Psychiatry. No part of the article published before 2019 can be reproduced by any means without written permission. This does not apply to the open access articles (under the license CC BY-NC-SA) published in the Taiwanese Journal of Psychiatry since 2019.