ISSN 2237-6089 printed version
ISSN 2238-0019 versión online

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

• Scope and Policy
• Form and preparation of manuscripts
• Send of the manuscripts

Trends Psychiatry Psychother. aims to publish current and original research covering the broad spectrum of clinical psychiatry and basic science, produced by expert national and international bodies.
These instructions were written based on the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication, edited by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). The original document is available at http://www.icmje.org/.
Trends supports the clinical trial registration policies of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the ICMJE, recognizing the importance of such initiatives for the registration and disclosure of trial results to the international community through open access. According to this recommendation and to the BIREME/OPAS/OMS guidelines for journals indexed in the LILACS and SciELO databases, Trends will only accept for publication clinical trials that have been registered in Clinical Trials Registries that meet the WHO and ICMJE requirements (URLs available at http://www.icmje.org/faq.pdf). The clinical trial registration number should be informed at the end of the abstract.

Language
Preference will be given to manuscripts written in English. Manuscripts written in Portuguese may also be submitted but will be translated into English upon acceptance for publication. Translation costs will be the responsibility of the authors. Only manuscripts written in clear and understandable language will be sent to peer review.

Peer review process
Manuscripts submitted to Trends are initially evaluated by the editors with regard to conformity between the manuscript content and the journal's editorial line. If the paper is in accordance with the editorial policies of the journal and with the present Instructions to Authors, it will be referred to analysis by at least two reviewers selected by the editors; the reviewers remain anonymous throughout the review process. Within 60 days, the authors are informed of either acceptance, rejection, or need for revisions in the article, as requested by the Editorial Board. A decision letter and the reviewers' comments are e-mailed to the authors. Manuscripts requiring revision are returned to the authors for correction. Authors are requested to return a revised version of the manuscript within 30 days and to provide a letter with detailed responses to each of the reviewers' comments. Failure to re-submit the article within 30 days will cause the paper to be withdrawn from the submission system. Revised manuscripts are sent back to reviewers for reassessment. At this time, a new decision is made, for either the acceptance, rejection, or need for additional revision. Based on the reviewers' comments, the editors make the final decision.

General guidelines

1. Articles that are not in accordance with the following guidelines will be returned to the authors for correction before being sent to peer review.
2. Manuscripts submitted to Trends should not have been published elsewhere in whole or in part and should not have been or be submitted simultaneously for publication in any other journal(s). Previous presentation of the manuscript as abstract or poster at scientific meetings (conferences, workshops, etc.) is allowed, but should be informed on the title page.
3. All authors must have actively participated in the study conception and design, analysis and interpretation of data, and drafting or critical revision of the manuscript. In addition, all authors must have read and approved the final version of the text.
4. Copyright of all published material becomes the property of Trends, and reproduction of the text in whole or in part is forbidden without written permission from the editors. The opinions and statements contained in the papers are entirely the responsibility of the authors.
5. The journal is published both in print and online at Scielo.
6. One author should be identified as the corresponding author, and his/her full postal address (including ZIP code), phone and fax numbers, and e-mail address should be informed.
7. The cover letter and the title page should disclose any potential conflicts of interest associated with the publication of the article (e.g., professional or financial conflicts and/or direct or indirect benefits).
8. Anonymity should be preserved in clinical trials, and the authors should clearly describe, in the methodology section, the existence and use of a consent form, as well as approval of the study protocol by the ethics committee of the institution where the study was carried out. A statement informing that the trial was registered in one of the Clinical Trials Registries recommended by the WHO and the ICMJE (addresses are available at http://www.icmje.org/faq.pdf) should also be included. This information should appear on the cover letter and title page.
9. Articles should be typed using a PC-compatible word processor (Word or similar) on A4 paper, size 12 Arial font, double-spaced (including tables and references), with 3-cm margins on all sides. All pages should be numbered.

Conflicts of interest

All authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest concerning the publication of the article, including any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work (see detailed examples below). In the absence of conflicts of interest, the following statement should be included in the title page: “The authors declare that they have no competing interests.” If you are unsure, please discuss it with the editorial office.
                   
Examples of financial competing interests

• Reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary received from an organization that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of this manuscript, either now or in the future.
• Stock or share holding in an organization that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of this manuscript, either now or in the future.
• Reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organization that holds or has applied for patents relating to the content of the manuscript..

Examples of non-financial competing interests

Types of articles published

1) Editorials: Critical and thorough comments, written by the editors and/or invited authors with renowned experience in the topic being addressed.
2) Original Articles: These articles present original research data and should contain all the necessary relevant information so as to enable the reader to repeat the experiment and evaluate results and conclusions. Original articles should include the following sections: Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, and other subtitles, when necessary. These articles should be up to 6,000 words long and should contain no more than six tables or figures. These manuscripts should include a structured abstract with no more than 250 words and subtitles that reflect the text structure.
3) Brief Communications: Original but shorter manuscripts, with preliminary results or results of immediate relevance. These communications should be up to 2,000 words long and should include only one table or figure. The text should be divided into the following sections: Introduction, Method, Results, and Discussion. These articles should contain a structured abstract with no more than 200 words and subtitles that reflect the text structure.
4) Review Articles: Systematic and updated reviews about issues considered to be relevant for the journal's editorial line. These articles are aimed at reviewing and critically assessing the knowledge available on a specific topic, including comments on other authors' studies. They should be up to 7,000 words long, and the number of tables and figures should not exceed a total of six. There is not a fixed text structure for these articles, but they should be accompanied by an unstructured abstract with no more than 250 words.
5) Case Reports: These articles report on professional experience, involving a unique case or a set of peculiar cases, including brief but relevant comments considering the activity of other professionals in the field. Case reports should be up to 1,500 words long. The author should make all possible efforts to protect the patient's anonymity, without distorting relevant scientific data. Explicit reference should be made to the existence of an informed consent form signed by the patient agreeing with the publication (both in print and electronically), or else the reason for its absence should be clarified. Case reports should include a structured abstract with no more than 200 words and the subtitles Objective, Case description and Comments.
6) Letters to the Editors: Opinions and comments on material published in the journal, its editorial line, topics of scientific relevance, clinical observations or new data. The texts should be brief, with no more than 500 words. Only one table and one figure are allowed.
7)Book Reviews: Critical review of recently published books, including a commented synopsis and opinions so as to provide an overview of the publication and guide the reader regarding its characteristics and potential uses. These texts should be brief and written by experts in the field. Complete bibliographic information on the book should be provided before the text, and the name, academic degree and affiliation of the author submitting the book review should be included following the text.

Title page
The following information should appear on the title page:
1) title of the article, which should be concise and complete, with the corresponding translation into Brazilian Portuguese, if possible;
2) short title;
3) names of the authors (typed exactly as they should appear in print), profession and main affiliation;
4) full address information for every author;
5) name of the department and institution with which the work is associated;
6) identification of the corresponding author, providing full postal address (including ZIP code), phone and fax numbers, and e-mail address;
7) financial support disclosure, if applicable;
8) conflict of interest statement;
9) information on the use of informed consent and on the approval of the study protocol by the institution's ethics committee;
10) copyright transfer statement;
11) articles based on academic theses or dissertations should provide the title of the original work, year and name of the institution where the work has been presented;
12) papers previously presented at scientific meetings should provide the name, location and date of the event;
13) word count of main text (not including title page, abstract, references, and tables/figures);
14) type of article being submitted (original article, review article, case report, letter, etc.);
15) date of the last literature review performed by the author(s) on the manuscript topic.

Abstract and keywords
After the title page, an abstract should be provided following the word limits and structure defined for each type of article (see above). Three to six keywords should be provided following the abstract. Keywords should be compliant with the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html), published by the National Library of Medicine. If possible, a Brazilian Portuguese translation of the abstract (resumo) and keywords (palavras-chave) should also be provided; in this case, the palavras-chave should be compliant with the DeCS database (DeCS - Descritores em Ciências da Saúde) published by BIREME.

Statistical analysis
Authors should demonstrate that the statistical procedures employed in the study were not only appropriate to test the hypotheses of the study but also correctly interpreted. Levels of statistical significance (e.g., p < 0.05, p < 0.01, p < 0.001) should be provided.

Abbreviations
Abbreviations should be spelled out in the text at first mention. Thereafter, only the abbreviation should be used.

Drugs
Drugs should be referred to by their generic name only.

Acknowledgments
This section should disclose any sources of financial support received by the study. In addition, this section should acknowledge people, groups or institutions which have made important contributions to the study but do not meet the criteria for authorship (e.g., technical assistance, statistical analysis, writing, etc.).

References
References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text, using superscript Arabic numerals, avoiding the use of author names. References cited only in tables or figure legends should be numbered consecutively respecting their first mention in the text. References should be listed at the end of the article according to their order of citation in the text and should comply with the ICMJE norms. The accuracy of references is the responsibility of the authors, both in the sense of making sure that all works cited in the text appear in the list and vice-versa, and in the sense of respecting the norm. For journal articles, we adopt the ICMJE format that omits issue number, day and month of publication (only year should be informed). Example: Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:284-7.

Tables and figures
Tables should not be submitted as images. Instead, they should be created using word processor tools specifically designed for this purpose. Do not underline or draw lines inside the tables. Do not insert spaces to separate columns. Explanatory notes should be presented as table footnotes, identified by the following symbols, in this sequence: *, †, ‡, §, ||, , **, ††, etc. Tables should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals. Each table should appear on a separate page and have a concise title. Tables should be cited in the text and should not duplicate information contained in the text.
Figures (photographs, illustrations, graphs, drawings, etc. - all referred to as figures) should also be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals, and should be submitted as separate files (preferably .tif), with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. Photographs should not allow patient identification. Each figure should include a legend, containing the title of the figure and explanatory notes when necessary. All figure legends should appear together on one separate page at the end of the text file.
Previously published tables and figures should be accompanied by written permission of the copyright holder.

Submissions to Trends should be made using the ScholarOne Manuscripts online system, available at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/trends . Registration (login and password) is required on first access, prior to submission.
The submission system has several required fields and also some optional fields. One of the required fields is related to the indication of potential reviewers for the submitted manuscript. Authors should inform the name, email address and affiliation of five preferred reviewers, i.e., experts in the field who do not have conflicts of interest that may impede them from revising the authors' work (for example, indicated reviewers should not be from the same institutions as authors). The final decision on the reviewers invited to analyze each manuscript lies with the editors.
For system support and information on the status of submitted manuscripts, please contact Denise Arend at trends.denise@gmail.com. For general information about the journal, please contact the editorial office at trends@aprs.org.br.