Taylor & Francis

Prepare your manuscript for Psychiatry, Psychology and Law.

Review the checklist, choose your article type, and turn your draft into a cleaner submission package.

Checked 2026-08-02

Article types

Review
Clinical Trial
Original Article
Book Review
Editorial
Protocol
Systematic Review
Letter
Lectio

Readiness requirements

Review the key details below, or download the complete checklist with every stored source-backed requirement.

Abstract length

  • Provide an author-written abstract of no more than 150 words.
  • Use a unstructured abstract.
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  • Should contain an unstructured abstract of 150 words.
  • Trial registration numbers should be included in the abstract, with full details in the methods section.
  • Your abstract should focus on what your research is about, what methods have been used, and what you found out.
  • The instructions for authors for each journal will give specific guidelines on what’s required here, including whether it should be a structured abstract or graphical abstract, and any word limits.

Keywords

  • Provide at least 7 keywords chosen by the author.
  • At least 7 keywords.

Reference style

  • Articlo formats your supplied references in APA style and checks that citations match the reference list; source validity is not verified.
  • A typical paper for this journal should be no more than 12000 words, inclusive of tables, references, figure captions.
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  • References should be cited in the text as specified in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, seventh or current edition.
  • Personal communications should be cited as such in the text and should not be included in the reference list.
  • Legal manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the format and style specified in The Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA).
  • Readers should be able to interpret the table without reference to the text.
  • References Manuscripts should be prepared depending on whether they are psychological, psychiatric, or legal in nature: Psychological manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the format and style specified in the ‘Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association’, fifth edition.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: Confirmation the authors take full responsibility for the integrity of the whole content, including accuracy of references.

Figure and table rules

  • Keep every figure and table numbered, captioned, and cited in the manuscript. Keep figures embedded; Articlo also extracts numbered source files for the package.
  • Group figures at the end of the manuscript.
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  • Group tables at the end of the manuscript.
  • Figures should be high quality (1200 dpi for line art, 600 dpi for grayscale and 300 dpi for colour, at the correct size).
  • Tables and figures Show clearly in your article text where the tables and figures should appear, for example, by writing [Table 1 near here].
  • Figures should be saved separately from the text.
  • Tables should present new information rather than duplicating what is in the text.
  • It’s very important that you have been given permission to use any tables or figures you are reproducing from another source before you submit.
  • Figures should be supplied in one of our preferred file formats: PS, JPEG, TIFF, or Microsoft Word (DOC or DOCX) files are acceptable for figures that have been drawn in Word.
  • Check the instructions for authors to see how you should supply tables and figures, whether at the end of the text or in separate files, and follow any guidance given on the submission system.

Funding statement

  • You should declare only the acquired funds and grants that are directly relevant to the work reported in your article; for example, This work was supported by the [Funding Agency #1] under Grant [number xxxx]; [Funding Agency #2] under Grant [number xxxx]; and [Funding Agency #3] under Grant [number xxxx].

Competing interests

  • Include or confirm the competing interests required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Data availability statement

  • Include or confirm the data availability statement required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Ethics statement

  • Add or confirm the author-written Ethics statement; Articlo flags it if author input is still needed.
  • All manuscripts submitted to the journal must include (in the ‘main document with author details’) a statement in the manuscript in the exact form of either Option 1 or Option 2 (below), as well as including relevant information about ethics and informed consent in the Methods section (see ‘ Complying with Ethics of Experimentation ’) below.
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  • If the requirement for approval was waived by the ethics committee this should be explained in the manuscript.
  • Consent All authors are required to follow the ICMJE requirements on privacy and informed consent from patients and study participants.
  • Authors may use this Patient Consent Form, which should be completed, saved, and sent to the journal if requested.
  • This is to acknowledge any financial or non-financial interest that has arisen from the direct applications of your research and to confirm compliance with ethical standards and ethical approval required for the journal to comply with minimal requirements for Medline indexing.
  • Clinical Trial: Clinical Trials Registry In order to be published in a Taylor & Francis journal, all clinical trials must have been registered in a public repository at the beginning of the research process (prior to patient enrolment).
  • Taylor and Francis require authors of research involving human participants to adhere to the ICMJE guidelines on Protection of Research Participants, The Belmont Report, or the Declaration of Helsinki, as appropriate.
  • Research involving human subjects must have obtained formal, prospective, approval from an independent ethics committee (e.g. an Institutional Review Board or Human Subjects Review Committee).
  • A written statement must be included in the Methods section, confirming ethical approval has been obtained from the appropriate local ethics committee or institutional review board, and that where relevant, informed consent has been obtained.
  • Clinical Trial: Please confirm that any patient, service user, or participant (or that person’s parent or legal guardian) in any research, experiment, or clinical trial described in your paper has given written consent to the inclusion of material pertaining to themselves, that they acknowledge that they cannot be identified via the paper; and that you have fully anonymized them.

Cover letter

  • Using Third-Party Material in your Paper You must obtain the necessary permission to reuse third-party material in your article.
  • The use of short extracts of text and some other types of material is usually permitted, on a limited basis, for the purposes of criticism and review without securing formal permission.
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  • If you wish to include any material in your paper for which you do not hold copyright, and which is not covered by this informal agreement, you will need to obtain written permission from the copyright owner prior to submission.

Title page and author information

  • All authors of a manuscript should include their full name and affiliation on the cover page of the manuscript.
  • One author will need to be identified as the corresponding author, with their email address normally displayed in the article PDF (depending on the journal) and the online article.

Article structure and word limits

  • Please include the appropriate statement (choosing option 1 or 2) in your ‘main document_with author details’.
  • Margins Margins should be at least 2.5cm (1 inch).
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  • Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the format and style specified in the ‘Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical Journals’ (which has been reproduced in the British Medical Journal 1982, 12 June; 284:1766–1779; the Medical Journal of Australia 1982;2:590–6; and the Australian Alcohol/Drug Review 1985;4:5–13).
  • It should be a maximum width of 525 pixels.
  • These instructions will ensure we have everything required so your paper can move through peer review, production and publication smoothly.
  • Your research funder or your institution may require you to publish your article open access.
  • Use our APC finder to view the APC for this journal.
  • Manuscripts that do not include this statement, will not be considered for publication in the journal.
  • Authors are required to disclose and acknowledge any financial benefit or interest that has arisen from the direct applications of your research.
  • If you have benefits or interests to declare, this must be included in the disclosure and ethical standards statement.
  • For all NIH/Wellcome-funded papers, the grant number(s) must be included in the declaration of interest statement.
  • The registry should be publicly accessible (at no charge), open to all prospective registrants, and managed by a not-for-profit organization.
  • Please include all relevant safety precautions; and cite any accepted standard or code of practice.
  • Queries Should you have any queries, please visit our Author Services website or contact us here.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: Originality and accuracy of content has been confirmed by the authors.
  • Authors must provide full methodological details and adhere to relevant reporting guidelines where applicable.
  • Authors must retain the original and revised versions which must be shared upon request.
  • The PLSP guidelines for authors must be followed at all times.
  • Before you submit your article, make sure you’ve checked the instructions for authors for your chosen journal, so you are aware of everything required.
  • Most journals create image descriptions during the production process, but a minority may require authors to provide image descriptions.
  • Review: Running heads and received dates These aren’t required when submitting a manuscript for review.
  • Pages should be numbered consecutively.
  • For Psychiatric manuscripts the Vancouver System of referencing should be used and can be found at https://files.taylorandfrancis.com/tf_usvancouver.pdf.
  • Please use SI units (non-italicized).
  • Special characters If you are preparing your manuscript in Microsoft Word and your article contains special characters, accents, or diacritics, we recommend you follow these steps: European accents (Greek, Hebrew, or Cyrillic letters, or phonetic symbols): choose Times New Roman font from the dropdown menu in the “Insert symbol” window and insert the character you require.
  • Special characters If you are preparing your manuscript in Microsoft Word and your article contains special characters, accents, or diacritics, we recommend you follow these steps: Asian languages (such as Sanskrit, Korean, Chinese, or Japanese): choose Arial Unicode font from the dropdown menu in the “Insert symbol” window and insert the character you require.
  • Please do not embed it in the manuscript file but save it as a separate file, labelled GraphicalAbstract1.
  • If you are at the early stage of your research, you may also need to read how to start writing a journal manuscript.
  • Image descriptions are typically used by systems such as pronouncing screen readers to make images accessible to people that cannot read or see the object due to a visual disability.

Reporting guidelines

  • Include or confirm the reporting guidelines required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Preprints and prior publication

  • If you have shared an earlier version of your Author’s Original Manuscript on a preprint server, please be aware that anonymity cannot be guaranteed.

Artificial intelligence disclosure

  • Add or confirm the author-written Artificial intelligence statement; Articlo flags it if author input is still needed.
  • Please include a statement disclosing whether and how generative AI has been used in the research and manuscript preparation process.
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  • Use of AI tools as part of ethical research studies is permitted.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: The name and version number of the AI tool used.
  • Systematic Review: Use of AI tools as part of ethically conducted literature reviews, systematic reviews, meta-analysis and bibliometrics studies is permitted.
  • Use of AI tool assisted plain language summaries (PLS) of authors own work is permitted.
  • Please read our guidance on using AI tools in your research and manuscript preparation to understand scenarios where their use may be permissible, and the required information that must be disclosed.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: Confirmation the authors have checked terms of use for the specific AI tool used, and therefore confirm suitability for publication.

Authorship and originality

  • Preparing Your Paper All authors submitting to medicine, biomedicine, health sciences, allied and public health journals should conform to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, prepared by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Article type and manuscript length

  • Structure 1 Main document with author details: Your paper should be compiled in the following order: title page; abstract; keywords; main text (introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion); acknowledgments; disclosure and ethical standards statement; references; appendices (as appropriate); table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figures; figure captions (as a list).

Language and text style

  • Please use British (-ise) spelling style consistently throughout your manuscript.
  • Please note that long quotations should be indented without quotation marks.
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  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Fourth-level headings should be in bold italics, at the beginning of a paragraph.
  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Fifth-level headings should be in italics, at the beginning of a paragraph.
  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Second-level headings should be in bold italics, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns.
  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Third-level headings should be in italics, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns.

Study reporting guidelines

  • Authors must provide full methodological details and adhere to relevant reporting guidelines where applicable (e.g. CONSORT-AI, STARD-AI, GAMER, TRIPOD-AI, etc).

Manuscript structure

  • Authors must retain full records of the methods undertaken, including full descriptions and records of the prompts used, which must be shared with the journal upon request.
  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: First-level headings (e.g. Introduction, Conclusion) should be in bold, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns.

What your package checks

Abstract: 150 words
Paper: 12,000 words
Keywords: At least 7 keywords
References: APA
Declarations: Ethics, Artificial intelligence
Format: Times New Roman

Source transparency

This preparation guide uses published journal-specific author requirements. Journal instructions can change, so authors should complete a final review before submission.

Open official guideline source