Editorial Policies

Guiding principles ensuring integrity, transparency, and quality in child and adolescent psychiatry research.

All submissions undergo single-blind peer review by at least two independent experts. Reviewers assess scientific validity, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, and relevance to child and adolescent psychiatry. Editorial decisions are based on reviewer recommendations, editor assessment, and alignment with journal scope.

Research involving human participants must demonstrate appropriate ethics approval from institutional review boards. Studies involving children and adolescents require documented parental or guardian consent and age-appropriate assent. Identifiable information must be protected, and privacy safeguards clearly described.

Authorship must reflect substantial contribution to conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the research. All authors must approve the final manuscript and agree to accountability for the work. Changes to authorship after submission require written agreement from all parties.

Authors must disclose all potential conflicts of interest that could influence research design, conduct, or interpretation. Financial relationships, institutional affiliations, and personal connections that could be perceived as conflicts should be declared. Reviewers and editors recuse themselves from decisions involving conflicts.

Authors should include data availability statements describing how underlying data can be accessed. When data involves sensitive information about minors, appropriate safeguards and access restrictions should be described. Code and analysis scripts should be shared when possible to support reproducibility.

Authors may appeal editorial decisions by submitting a detailed response addressing reviewer concerns and providing additional justification. Appeals are reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief or an independent editor not involved in the original decision. Valid appeals may result in re-review or reconsideration.

JCAP publishes corrections for errors affecting the scientific record. Retractions address serious issues including data fabrication, plagiarism, or ethical violations. All post-publication notices follow COPE guidelines and are linked to the original article.

JCAP follows COPE guidelines for handling allegations of misconduct including fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, and duplicate publication. Investigations are conducted confidentially, and appropriate actions include corrections, retractions, and notification of institutions as warranted.