Guide for Authors

Behavior Therapy is a quarterly international journal devoted to the application of the behavioral and cognitive sciences to the conceptualization, assessment, and treatment of psychopathology and related clinical problems. It is intended for mental health professionals and students from all related disciplines who wish to remain current in these areas and provides a vehicle for scientist-practitioners and clinical scientists to report the results of their original empirical research. Although the major emphasis is placed upon empirical research, methodological and theoretical papers as well as evaluative reviews of the literature will also be published. Controlled single-case designs and clinical replication series are welcome.

Manuscript Requirements

All manuscripts should be prepared in conformity with the format described in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Fifth Edition (2001), and it is the responsibility of the author that manuscripts adhere to the format and other requirements of Behavior Therapy. The activities described in manuscripts published in the journal should be consistent with the generally accepted standards of ethical practice.

Authors are strongly encouraged to submit online via the Elsevier Editorial System (EES) page at http://ees.elsevier.com/bt. Authors, reviewers and editors send and receive all correspondence by e-mail and no paper correspondence is necessary. Full, detailed information about this electronic submission process and specific instructions on how to submit manuscripts can be found at the EES page. Problems encountered while submitting online can be resolved by emailing authorsupport@elsevier.com. Questions about a possible manuscript for Behavior Therapy may be discussed with the editor:

Thomas H. Ollendick, Ph.D.
Editor, Behavior Therapy
Department of Psychology
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA 24060
USA

Phone: +1 540-231-6451
Fax: +1 540-231-8148
Email: behavior.therapy@vt.edu


The journal uses a masked reviewing system for all submissions. You will be asked to provide two separate manuscript versions. The first version should be a complete manuscript which includes all author information. The second version should omit the authors' names and affiliations but should include the title of the manuscript and the date it is submitted. Footnotes containing information pertaining to the authors' identity or affiliations should not be included in the second version of the manuscript, and every effort should be made to see that the manuscript itself contains no clues to the authors' identity.

Cover Letter (including Authors' Names and Contact Information)

The cover letter accompanying the manuscript submission must include all authors' names and affiliations to avoid potential conflicts of interest in the review process. Addresses and phone numbers, as well as email addresses and fax numbers, should be provided for all authors for possible use by the editorial office and later by the production department.

Only original papers will be considered. Manuscripts are accepted for review with the understanding that the same work has not been and will not be published-nor is presently submitted-elsewhere, and that all persons listed as authors have given their approval for the submission of the paper; further, that any person cited as a source of personal communications has approved such citation. Written authorization may be required, at the Editor's discretion. Articles and any other material published in Behavior Therapy represent the opinions of the author(s) and should not be construed as reflecting the opinions of the Editors, the Association, or the Publisher.

Tables and Figures: All tables and figures should be grouped together at the end of the manuscript and numbered separately using Arabic numerals. Clearly visible notes within the text should indicate their approximate placement. Please see the EES web page http://ees.elsevier.com/bt for full detailed instructions.

Keywords: Authors should include 3 to 5 keywords on the submission.

Author Inquiries: For inquiries relating to the submission of articles, please visit the EES page at http://ees.elsevier.com/bt. EES also provides the facility to track manuscripts.

English language help service: Upon request Elsevier will direct authors to an agent who can check and improve the English of their paper (before submission). Please contact authorsupport@elsevier.com for further information.

Copyright
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to transfer copyright to ABCT. This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. A letter will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript. A form facilitating transfer of copyright will be provided.
If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has forms for use by authors in these cases available at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissions phone: (+44) 1865 843830, fax: (+44) 1865 853333, e-mail: permissions@elsevier.com

Proofs
When your manuscript is received by the Publisher it is considered to be in its final form - please do not regards Proofs as 'drafts'.
One set of page proofs will be sent to the corresponding author, to be checked for typesetting/editing. No changes in, or additions to, the accepted (and subsequently edited) manuscript will be allowed at this stage. Authors are responsible for correcting proofs of their articles.
The Publisher reserves the right to proceed with publication if corrections are not communicated in a timely manner. Should there be no corrections, please confirm this.

Offprints
Twenty-five offprints will be supplied free of charge. Additional offprints and copies of the issue can be ordered at a specially reduced rate using the order form sent to the corresponding author after the manuscript has been accepted. Orders for reprints (produced after publication of an article) will incur a 50% surcharge.

Journal Policy Statement

Conflicts of Interest

A conflict of interest may exist when an author or the author's institution has a financial or other relationship with other people or organizations that may inappropriately influence the author's work. A conflict can be actual or potential and full disclosure to the Journal is the safest course. All submissions to the Journal must include disclosure of all relationships that could be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest. The Journal will publish such disclosures. A decision may be made by the Journal not to publish on the basis of the declared conflict if the conflict is clearly seen as influencing the choice of subjects, methodology, and/or outcomes.

Disclosure Statement for Authors

At the end of the text, under a subheading "Disclosure Statement", all authors must disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or organizations within three (3) years of beginning the work submitted that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest which should be disclosed include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. Potential conflicts of interest should be disclosed at the earliest possible stage. Unless the authors include a statement disclosing conflicts of interest, the corresponding author will sign a statement to the effect that there is no real or potential conflict of interest.

The Role of your Funding Source

If funding has been provided, all sources of funding must be declared. Authors must describe the role of the study sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication. Authors must report any royalties that may be affected directly or indirectly from material contained in the paper.

Reporting Standards

Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Data Access and Retention

Authors may be asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data (consistent with the ALPSP-STM Statement on Data and Databases), if practicable, and should in any event be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.

Originality and Plagiarism

The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others, that this has been appropriately cited or quoted.

Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication

An author should not submit and certainly may not publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

Authors who wish to publish translations or adaptations (including clinical guidelines, manuals) of a previously published paper should contact the publisher to discuss such a submission. The primary reference must be cited in the secondary publication.

Acknowledgement of Sources

Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work. Information obtained privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source. Information obtained in the course of confidential services, such as refereeing manuscripts or grant applications, must not be used without the explicit written permission of the author of the work involved in these services.

Authorship of the Paper

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors.

The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Hazards and Human or Animal Subjects

If the work involves chemicals, procedures, or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the author must clearly identify these in the manuscript. If the work involves the use of animal or human subjects, the author should ensure that the manuscript contains a statement that all procedures were performed in compliance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines and that the appropriate institutional committee(s) have approved them and whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Authors should include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed.

Fundamental errors in published works

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author's obligation to promptly notify the journal editor and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper. If the editor or the publisher learns from a third party that a published work contains a significant error, it is the obligation of the editor to inform the author and for the author to promptly retract or correct the paper or provide evidence to the editor of the correctness of the original paper.

Duties of Reviewers

Reviewers who feel unqualified to review a manuscript or know that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse him- or herself from the review process.

Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.

Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

Acknowledgement of Sources

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Disclosure and Conflict of Interest

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in a reviewer's own research without the express written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

Advertising Policy

For advertisers in ABCT periodicals, the following is the procedure:

Staff will include ABCT's nondiscrimination policy in advertising rate sheets. Staff will provide advertisers with the nondiscrimination policy and require statements from them on how they differ from our policy. This will apply to some, but not all, advertisers. It applies only to those who are advertising job or training opportunities (so booksellers and publishers, unless they're looking for someone to sell books or help with redaction, are exempt, as long as they're advertising books, journals, conferences, and the like). The following statement will appear on the advertising rate sheet: It is the policy of the Board of Directors of ABCT that all advertisers for jobs or training positions review the ABCT nondiscrimination policy. The Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies is committed to a policy of equal opportunity in all of its activities, including employment. ABCT does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, or veteran status . If the advertiser's own policy differs from the ABCT policy, then that must be stated in the ad. We recommend that wording similar to the following be used: "Please note the nondiscrimination policy of xxx differs from the ABCT policy in that it does not include age, sexual orientation, or gender identity and expression." This wording appears ONLY if your non-discrimination policy differs from ABCT's. For those advertisers who are not offering jobs or training opportunities (for instance, book sellers or VR distributors), this does not apply.

Following is our accepted advertising Policy in ABCT's policy and procedure manual

Policies Regarding Advertising

Advertisements must meet all relevant legal, professional, and ethical guidelines. ABCT publications are published for, and on behalf of, the membership and the cognitive and behavioral therapies community.

The Association reserves the right to unilaterally reject, omit, or cancel advertising which, by its tone, content, or appearance, is not in keeping with the essentially scientific, scholarly, and professional nature of its publications or the goals of the organization. The Association reserves the right to refuse ads that, because of omissions or inaccuracies, provide misleading or incorrect information. The Director of Communications, acting on behalf of the Editor, has the full and final authority for approving advertisements and enforcing advertising policy for those ads submitted to the Association. Ads submitted to Elsevier running in multiple journals fall under the purview of Elsevier's publisher or its representative.

Publication of any advertisement by ABCT is neither an endorsement of the advertiser nor of the products or services advertised. ABCT is not responsible for any claims made in an advertisement. Advertisers and advertising agencies assume liability for all content (including text representation and illustrations) of advertisements printed, and also assume responsibility for any claims arising therefrom made against the Publisher. The Publisher's liability for any error will not exceed the charge for the advertisement in question.

Correspondence

Readers may submit comments or criticisms about published articles to our sister publication, the Behavior Therapist. The authors of articles discussed in correspondence will be given an opportunity to respond, preferably in the same issue in which the original correspondence appears.

Randomized Clinical Trials: Use of CONSORT Reporting Standards

Title of Manuscript

The title of a manuscript should be accurate, fully explanatory, and preferably no longer than 12 words. The title should reflect the content and population(s) studied. If the paper reports a randomized clinical trial (RCT), this should be indicated in the title, and the CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) criteria must be used for reporting purposes.

ABCT Journals require the registration of all clinical trials in a public trials registry. These registries set standards for the uniform reporting of the minimum registration data set as determined by the World Health Organization and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors ( http://www.clinicaltrials.gov, http://www.anzctr.org.au, http://www.umin.ac.jp/ctr, http://www.isrctn.com, http://www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/index.asp/). Clinical trials are defined as any study that prospectively assigns human subjects to intervention or comparison groups to evaluate the cause-and-effect relationship between an intervention and an outcome.

Manuscripts that report randomized clinical trials are required to include a flow diagram of the progress through the phases of the trial and a checklist that identifies where in the manuscript the various criteria are addressed (see www.consort-statement.org for a full description of reporting procedures). The checklist should be placed in an Appendix of the manuscript for review purposes. When a study is not fully consistent with the CONSORT statement, the limitation should be acknowledged and discussed in the text of the manuscript. ABCT journals do not view single case studies as being included among randomized clinical trials and are, therefore, exempt for these standards.

For follow-up studies of previously published clinical trials, authors should submit a flow diagram of the progress through the phases of the trial and follow-up. The CONSORT checklist should be completed to the extent possible, especially for the Results and Discussion sections of the manuscript.

ABCT Journals require the use of the CONSORT reporting standards (e.g., a checklist and flow diagram) for randomized clinical trials, consistent with the policy established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors' Uniform Requirements for Medical Journals.