Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy is an international multidisciplinary journal for the publication of original research, of an experimental or clinical nature, that contributes to the theory, practice and evaluation of behaviour therapy. As such, the scope of the journal is very broad and articles relevant to most areas of human behaviour and human experience, which would be of interest to members of the helping and teaching professions, will be considered for publication.

As an applied science, the concepts, methodology and techniques of behavioural psychotherapy continue to change. The journal seeks both to reflect and to influence those changes. While the emphasis is placed on empirical research, articles concerned with important theoretical and methodological issues as well as evaluative reviews of the behavioural literature are also published. In addition, given the emphasis of behaviour therapy on the experimental investigation of the single case, the journal from time to time publishes case studies using single case experimental designs. For the majority of designs this should include a baseline period with repeated measures; in all instances the nature of the quantitative data and the intervention must be clearly specified. Other types of case report can be submitted for the Brief Clinical Reports section.

The following types of articles are suitable for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy:

• • Reports of original research employing experimental or correlational methods and using within or between subject designs.

• • Review or discussion articles based on empirical data and having important new theoretical, conceptual or applied implications.

• • Brief reports and systematic investigations in single cases employing innovative techniques and/or approaches.

Articles should concern original material that is neither published nor under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Accelerated Publication Section

In order to respond to rapid development in the field, the journal includes an accelerated publication section. Articles accepted in this section will appear in the first possible issue of the journal, usually 3–6 months from receipt by the editors.

The accelerated publication section is intended to accommodate a small number of important papers. Such papers will include major new findings for which rapid dissemination would be of considerable benefit and impact. For example: reports of the results of important new clinical trials; innovative experimental results with major implications for theory or practice; other work of unusually high calibre.

Authors wishing to submit manuscripts for the accelerated publication section must briefly indicate in a covering letter (i) their reasons for requesting accelerated publication; (ii) that the material is original and has not been published nor is currently under consideration for publication elsewhere, (iii) that in the event of acceptance, the authors agree to the assignment of all copyrights to the manuscript in all forms and media to the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies. Authors should also indicate whether they wish the manuscript to be transferred to the normal (non-accelerated) review process if rejected for either of the stages of accelerated review outlined below. When submitting, the envelope should be clearly marked ACCELERATED REVIEW.

Accelerated review will proceed in two stages:

1. 1. In the first stage, an editor and a reviewer will decide whether, in principle, the study merits accelerated publication. Authors will be informed within 14 days of receipt if this stage is not passed, and the manuscript will be withdrawn at that stage or continue in the normal (non-accelerated) review track, depending on the preference specified by the author(s).

2. 2. Once passed in principle, the paper will then be subject to review by the same reviewers as in stage 1 using normal criteria. At the end of this stage, manuscripts will be either accepted (with or without minor alterations) or rejected for accelerated publication. Acceptance will depend on unanimity between the reviewer and editors. If accelerated publication is ruled out at this stage, a manuscript will revert to normal review if this option has been indicated by the author(s), otherwise it will simply be returned.

In order to maximize the speed at which accelerated review proceeds, details of decisions on accelerated publications will be restricted to whether the manuscript has been accepted or not. Where applicable, minor alterations requested should be returned to the editors within three days of receipt. If a manuscript is transferred to the non-accelerated review track, the normal journal conventions regarding review decisions will be adhered to. The entire accelerated review process from receipt to final decision should take an average of 2 weeks.

In the interests of maintaining a rapid response, electronic submission to the accelerated publication section is encouraged. This can be done via email to journal@babcp.com or by mail with a PC diskette (rich text format or Microsoft Word are the preferred formats). Paper submission remains an option as before. Submission should be consistent with the instructions to authors and the editorial statement. Where possible, it would be helpful if authors made an e-mail address available for rapid communication concerning submission to this section, although again this is desirable rather than being a requirement.

Empirically Grounded Clinical Interventions Section

This section is intended for reviews of the present status of treatment approaches for specific psychological problems. It is intended that such articles will draw upon a combination of treatment trials, experimental evidence and other research, and be firmly founded in phenomenology. It should take account of, but also go beyond, treatment outcome data. Articles should seek to draw upon the range of factors described in P. M. Salkovskis (2002). Empirically Grounded Clinical Interventions: Cognitive-behavioural therapy progresses through a multi-dimensional approach to clinical science. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 30, 3–9.

Brief Clinical Reports

Material suitable for this section includes unusual case reports, accounts of potentially important techniques, phenomena or observations; for example, descriptions of previously unreported techniques, outlines of available treatment manuals, descriptions of innovative variations of existing procedures, details of self-help or training packages, accounts of the application of existing techniques in novel settings and so on. The brief clinical reports section is intended to extend the scope of the clinical section. Submissions for this section should be no longer than five typescript, double spaced pages (1500–1800 words), and should include no more than six references, one table or figure and an extended report that contains fuller details. There are no restrictions on the size or format of this backup document. This may, for instance, be a treatment manual or a fully detailed case report, therapy transcript and so on. If a submission is accepted for publication as a Brief Clinical Report, the author/s must be prepared to send the fuller document to those requesting it, free of charge or at a price agreed with the editor to reflect the cost of materials involved. The extended document will also be mounted on the journal's website (www.journals.cambridge.org) and therefore we require an electronic version in Word or PDF format (this material will not be copyedited).

Manuscript Submission in French, Spanish, German or Italian

To reflect the international nature of the journal, we will allow “presubmission” in French, Spanish, German or Italian for those who wish to submit papers to the journal but who may not have English as a first language. This recognizes the fact that authors who do not normally write in English may be reluctant to undertake the difficult and time consuming task of translation when they have little or no idea of the acceptability of the material. We will now seek to provide some preliminary information concerning the likely acceptability of an article prior to translation into English. Initial submissions to this journal can, as of now, be made in French, Spanish, German or Italian. Such submission will be sent to an assistant editor fluent in the submission language for an initial evaluation. If that editor and their referees regard the paper as viable, the author will be encouraged to submit a translation for consideration. International language editors and referees' reports will inform the final review process. If the paper is accepted in English translation, the journal will also publish the original language abstract alongside the English one. However, please note that we do not wish to receive submissions of articles previously accepted for publication in a non-English language journal. We will allow submissions of non-English translations subsequent to publication in Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy provided permission from the BABCP as copyright holder has been obtained and appropriate acknowledgement to the original publication in Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy is made. Our policy is to publish only original articles.

International Editors

• Jean Cottraux: French language

• Hopital Neurologique

• Anxiety Disorder Unit

• 59 Boulevard Pinel

• Lyon 69394

• France

• Winfried Rief: German language

• Psychosomatische Klinik Roseneck

• Marburg

• Germany

• Laura Hernandez-Guzman:

• Spanish language (The Americas)

• Apartado Postal 22-211

• 14091 Tlalpan

• Mexico DF

• Cristina Botella: Spanish language (Europe)

• Departamento de Psicologia Basica, Clinica y Psicobiologia

• Universitat Jaume 1

• Facultat de Ciences Humanes y Socials

• Campus de al Crta Barriol

• 12071 Castellón

• Spain

• Ezio Sanavio: Italian language

• Dipartimento di Psicologia Genarale

• Universitá di Padova

• via Venezia

• 8-35131 Padova

• Italy