Starting publication in 1959, the Shanghai Archives of Psychiatry was the first psychiatric journal in China. Initially published at irregular intervals (particularly over the Cultural Revolution era of 1966-1976), 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 such psychiatric journal from mainland China. The main reasons for changing to English was to encourage more international submissions and to transform the journal into an important platform for exchanging new research findings and service developments between Chinese and international mental health professionals. Starting in 2014 a Chinese translation of the entire 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 both in Chinese and English and publishing the edited papers in both English and (electronically) in Chinese we provide a unique service that allows Chinese authors to have their work accessible to the wider English-reading audience and allows international authors to have their work available to the Chinese-reading audience. To our knowledge this is the only medical journal of any kind to do this.

Covering a full range of topics of interest to psychiatrists and other mental health professionals both in China and abroad, the journal includes original research, systematic reviews, meta-analyses (that, unlike meta-analyses in other journals, pool results from studies published in Chinese and English), forums on topical issues (with commentaries from Chinese and international authors), case reports, a ‘Research Methods in Psychiatry’ section, and a unique section on ‘Biostatistics in Psychiatry’ written by senior Chinese biostatisticians who are working overseas.

Original articles on basic research, clinical research, community-based studies, and ecological studies are all considered for publication. Other types of submissions (reviews, forum, case reports, etc.) are also welcomed. Submissions can be in either English or Chinese. Manuscripts submitted to the journal undergo a rigorous peer review, including a biostatistical assessment, and, if accepted, are line-edited by two native English speaker for clarity. The rejection rate for manuscripts is currently about 85%. Average time from submission to acceptance is under 2 months and average time from acceptance to publication is under 2 months. Accepted papers are typeset and pdf versions are placed on the ‘in press’ section of the journal’s website prior to publication in the journal. Chinese versions of each article are prepared and placed on the journal’s Chinese-language website approximately 1 month after publication of the English-language version. There are no translation charges, page charges, or other charges for authors

The 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 on Shanghai Archives of Psychiatry. The full text of all articles published since the beginning of 2011 are freely available from the journal’s website or from Pubmed both in html and pdf formats. The final versions of all articles published by Shanghai Archives of Psychiatry can be archived in any open access repository, but the copyright is reserved to the Editorial Department of Shanghai Archives of Psychiatry.

The journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and expects that authors who submit manuscripts to the journal be familiar with and follow the ethical requirements specified in the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals.

The work of the journal is supported by a large Editorial Board that includes prominent researchers and clinicians from around China and overseas. The two Editors-in-Chief (one Chinese and one international) are assisted by the managing editor, five associate editors, three assistant editors and an active editorial office. There are also three biostatistical editors and separate editors for systematic reviews and meta-analyses and for our research methods section. Editorial Board members include the chief editors from fourteen internationally renowned psychiatric journals including the 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 also include the chief editors of the 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.

The 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. However, the journal is published by its own Editorial Department, so all editorial decisions are made independently without input from these institutions.

The Shanghai Archives of Psychiatry is currently indexed on 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 is also indexed on 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, about the submission process, about the journal’s ethics policy, and about how to subscribe to the journal are available on the corresponding pages of this website.