Public Mental Health & NeuroscienceS

 Upon initial submission of the manuscript, the author will be acknowledged of the receipt via e-mail. Initially an article will be reviewed by one member of the Editorial team to judge the quality of the paper. Articles written in poor English language or not conforming to journal guidelines will either be rejected or returned to the authors to rectify the shortcomings. Manuscripts deemed proper would be forwarded to at least two subject experts to provide their unbiased input. Acceptable manuscripts will be checked for data analysis and verification of references before the author will be notified about the status of the paper with any suggestions for modifications. Finally accepted articles would be forwarded to the printer for typeset and formatting, etc. and the proof will send to the authors for proof reading, before publication. 

 Journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports for global exchange of knowledge. 

 Authorship provides credit for a researcher's contributions to a study and carries accountability. Authors are expected to fulfil the criteria as per McNutt et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Feb 2018, 201715374; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1715374115; licensed under CC BY 4.0.  

Each author is expected to have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; or the creation of new software used in the work; or have drafted the work or substantively revised it

AND to have approved the submitted version (and any substantially modified version that involves the author's contribution to the study);

AND to have agreed both to be personally accountable for the author's own contributions and to ensure that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work, even ones in which the author was not personally involved, are appropriately investigated, resolved, and the resolution documented in the literature.

 Journal encourages collaboration with colleagues in the locations where the research is conducted, and expect their inclusion as co-authors when they fulfil all authorship criteria described above. Contributors who do not meet all criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgements section. Journal reserves the right not to consider non-primary research manuscripts that have been authored by medical writers. Writing assistance should be acknowledged in all article types. Journal does not require all authors of a research paper to sign the letter of submission, nor do they impose an order on the list of authors. Submission is taken by the journal to mean that all the listed authors have agreed all of the contents, including the author list and author contribution statements. The corresponding author is responsible for having ensured that this agreement has been reached that all authors have agreed to be so listed, and have approved the manuscript submission to the journal, and for managing all communication between the journal and all co-authors, before and after publication. The corresponding author is also responsible for submitting a competing interests' statement on behalf of all authors of the paper. 

 It is expected that the corresponding author (and on multi-group collaborations, at least one member of each collaborating group, usually the most senior member of each submitting group or team, who accepts responsibility for the contributions to the manuscript from that team) will be responsible for the following with respect to data, code and materials: 

• ensuring that data, materials, and code comply with transparency and reproducibility standards of the field and journal;
• ensuring that original data/materials/code upon which the submission is based are preserved following best practices in the field so that they are retrievable for reanalysis;
• confirming that data/materials/code presentation accurately reflects the original;
• foreseeing and minimizing obstacles to the sharing of data/materials/code described in the work
• ensuring that all authors (or group leaders in multi-lab collaborations) have certified the author list and author contributions

 At submission, the corresponding author must include written permission from the authors of the work concerned for mention of any unpublished material cited in the manuscript (for example others' data, in press manuscripts, personal communications or work in preparation). The corresponding author also must clearly identify at submission any material within the manuscript (such as figures) that has been published previously elsewhere and provide written permission from authors of the prior work and/or publishers, as appropriate, for the re-use of such material. After acceptance, the corresponding author is responsible for the accuracy of all content in the proof, including the names of co-authors, addresses and affiliations. After publication, the corresponding author is the point of contact for queries about the published paper. It is their responsibility to inform all co-authors of any matters arising in relation to the published paper and to ensure such matters are dealt with promptly. Authors of published material have a responsibility to inform the journal immediately if they become aware of any aspects that requires correction.Any changes to the author list after submission, such as a change in the order of the authors or the deletion or addition of authors, must be approved by every author. 

 Editors are not in a position to investigate or adjudicate authorship disputes before or after publication. Such disagreements, if they cannot be resolved amongst authors, should be directed to the relevant institutional authority.The primary affiliation for each author should be the institution where the majority of their work was done. If an author has subsequently moved, the current address may also be stated. Journal remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.    

If you wish to ask the Editor or Editorial Board to reconsider a rejection of a manuscript, you should, in the first instance, contact the Editor through the instructions on the journal website. These are considered appeals, which, by policy, must take second place to the normal workload. In practice, this means that decisions on appeals often take several weeks. Only one appeal is permitted for each manuscript. Final decisions on appeals will be made by the Editorial Board Member handling the paper or the Editor.

 In general, an appeal against a rejection decision on a manuscript will only be considered if the authors can demonstrate that an error that determined the final decision has been made - by a referee or the Editors - during review or if important additional data can be provided or if a convincing case of bias in the process can be demonstrated. Authors who wish to appeal an editorial decision should submit a formal letter of appeal to the journal by contacting the journal editorial office.  If appeals are successful, then authors will be given instructions on how to proceed. If an appeal merits further consideration, the Editor may send the authors' response and the revised paper out for further peer review. 

 Complaints about our processes or about publication ethics will in the first instance be handled by the Editor responsible for the journal.  For complaints about processes, such as time taken for review, the Editor will review and respond to the complainant's concerns. This feedback will be provided to relevant stakeholders to guide improvements to processes and procedures.For complaints about publication ethics or scientific content, the Editor will follow guidelines published by the Committee on Publication Ethics. 

Every article published constitutes the Version of Record: the final, definitive, and citable version in the scholarly record.

The Version of Record includes:

1. The paper, revised and accepted peer review, in its final form, including the abstract, text, references, bibliography, and all accompanying tables, illustrations, data.
2. Any supplemental material.

Recognizing a published article as a finalized Version of Record establishes the expectation that it can be relied upon as accurate, complete, and citable. Wherever possible it is our policy to maintain the integrity of the Version of Record in accordance with STM Association guidelines.

Sometimes after an article has been published it may be necessary to make a change to the Version of Record. This will be done after careful consideration by the Editor to ensure any necessary changes are made in accordance with guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Any necessary changes will be accompanied with a post-publication notice which will be permanently linked to the original article so that readers will be fully informed of any necessary changes. This can be in the form of a correction notice, an expression of concern, a retraction and in rare circumstances a removal. The purpose of this mechanism of making changes which are permanent and transparent is to ensure the integrity of the scholarly record.

All correction, expressions of concern and retraction notices are free to access at the point of publication.