Starting publication in 1959, Shanghai Archives of Psychiatry was the first psychiatric journal in China. Initially published at irregular intervals (particularly during the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976), it became a regular quarterly publication in 1989 and a bimonthly publication in 2003. In 2012 it became an all-English publication (with Chinese abstracts), making it the first psychiatric journal of this kind from mainland China. One of the main reasons for changing to English was to encourage more international submissions and to help the journal become an important platform for the exchange of new research findings and service developments between Chinese and international mental health professionals. Starting in 2014, a Chinese translation of the full content of each issue has been made available free of charge on the journal’s Chinese website about one month after release of the English-language edition. By accepting manuscripts in both Chinese and English and publishing edited papers in English and, electronically, in Chinese, the journal has provided a unique service that enables Chinese authors to make their work accessible to the wider English-reading audience and enables international authors to make their work available to Chinese-reading readers. To our knowledge, this remains a distinctive model among medical journals.

Covering a full range of topics of interest to psychiatrists and other mental health professionals in China and abroad, the journal has included original research, systematic reviews, meta-analyses (which, unlike many meta-analyses in other journals, may pool results from studies published in both Chinese and English), forums on topical issues with commentaries from Chinese and international authors, case reports, a Research Methods in Psychiatry section, and a distinctive Biostatistics in Psychiatry section written by senior Chinese biostatisticians working overseas. This broad editorial scope has helped the journal serve both as a publication platform and as a forum for academic and clinical exchange across different professional communities.

Original articles on basic research, clinical research, community-based studies, and ecological studies have all been considered for publication. Other types of submissions, including reviews, forum articles, case reports, and related formats, have also been welcomed. Submissions could be made in either English or Chinese. Manuscripts submitted to the journal underwent rigorous peer review, including biostatistical assessment, and accepted papers were line-edited by two native English speakers for clarity. The rejection rate for manuscripts was approximately 85%. The average time from submission to acceptance was under 2 months, and the average time from acceptance to publication was under 2 months. Accepted papers were typeset and PDF versions were placed in the In Press section of the journal’s website prior to publication in the journal. Chinese versions of each article were then prepared and placed on the journal’s Chinese-language website approximately 1 month after publication of the English-language version. There were no translation charges, page charges, or other charges for authors.

Shanghai Archives of Psychiatry is an open-access journal. All users have the right to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of all articles published in the journal. The full text of all articles published since the beginning of 2011 has been made freely available through the journal’s website and through PubMed, in both HTML and PDF formats. The final versions of all articles published by Shanghai Archives of Psychiatry may be archived in any open-access repository, while copyright remains reserved to the Editorial Department of Shanghai Archives of Psychiatry.

The journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and follows the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors. Authors submitting manuscripts to the journal are expected to be familiar with and to follow the ethical requirements set out in the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals. Maintaining clear ethical standards has always been an important part of the journal’s editorial practice.

The work of the journal has been supported by a large Editorial Board that includes prominent researchers and clinicians from China and overseas. The two Editors-in-Chief (one Chinese and one international) have been assisted by the managing editor, five associate editors, three assistant editors, and an active editorial office. In addition, there have been three biostatistical editors and separate editors for systematic reviews and meta-analyses and for the research methods section. Editorial Board members have included the chief editors of fourteen internationally renowned psychiatric journals, including JAMA Psychiatry (formerly Archives of General Psychiatry), the American Journal of Psychiatry, Schizophrenia Bulletin, Psychological Medicine, World Psychiatry, General Hospital Psychiatry, Comprehensive Psychiatry, and others. Board members have also included the chief editors of leading psychiatric journals in China, including the Chinese Journal of Psychiatry, the Chinese Mental Health Journal, the Chinese Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, the Journal of International Psychiatry, and others.

Shanghai Archives of Psychiatry is sponsored by the Shanghai Mental Health Center—one of the largest and most important psychiatric centers in China—which is administered by the Shanghai Bureau of Health and affiliated with the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. At the same time, the journal has been published by its own Editorial Department, and all editorial decisions have been made independently, without input from these institutions.

Shanghai Archives of Psychiatry is currently indexed in the following Chinese databases: Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Science and Technology Full-text Journal Database (VIP, CSTJ), WangFang Data, and Airiti Library (Taiwan). It has also been indexed in PubMed, PubMed Central, SCOPUS, Chemical Abstracts, Academic Search International (EBSCO), Google Scholar, Academic OneFile, InfoTrac, Advanced Placement Psychology Collection, Health Resource Center, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and PsycINFO.

More details about the Editorial Board, the submission process, the journal’s ethics policy, and related information are available on the corresponding pages of this website.