A Few Changes and New Directions for the Bulletin
A partnership between the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center and Oxford University Press became responsible for the Schizophrenia Bulletin with the January 2005 issue. We continued attractive and traditional features of the Bulletin including the cover art work provided by artists who also have schizophrenia, the "At issue" section for the presentation of novel concepts or controversial views, reports from workshops that address critical issues in the field, high-quality review papers and themes, and occasional commentaries. We have also published highly selected original articles, especially if the content is related to the theme issues.
In the July 2005 issue, we introduced as special features a summary of information on a gene implicated in schizophrenia and a summary of information on an environmental factor considered relevant to the underlying etiology. These features are often cited and receive much attention on our Web site. Our thanks to Robin Murray for being associate editor for these features and Jim van Os and Mike Owen for arranging these quarterly contributions. We also planned a special feature entitled "Schizophrenia in translation." Paul Shepard and Tom McGlashan will co-organize this feature, the first installment of which appeared in the July 2006 issue.
There has also been a significant change in the processing of manuscripts. Average referee turnaround time is about 12 days—average time from submission to decision is just under a month (an apology to the few authors who experienced longer delays). Publications are available online about 3 weeks after final acceptance. We are also much in debt to all the guest editors of themes, who completed the task on time with excellent manuscripts. Feedback on the quality of paper and print and on the "on time" receipt of the Bulletin has been gratifying. We have maintained the Bulletin's tradition of affordable subscriptions.
During this initial period of our stewardship, we have encountered one especially vexing problem; we are turning away too many high-quality manuscripts. With only 4 issues per year, over 80% of our page budget is currently devoted to publishing special features and theme-related (eg, invited) manuscripts. As a result, our rejection rate for unsolicited papers has approached 90%. We will ease this situation with the institution of 2 changes beginning in 2007. First, the Bulletin will be published on alternate months beginning with the January issue. This will increase our space by 50% and result in a modest increase in subscription rates. Second, we will limit the size of future theme issues, and some issues will carry only a single theme. These changes will not alter our primary niche as the field's source for reviews, workshop reports, special themes, and features. However, it will enable us to be more responsive to selected, high-quality unsolicited articles that our referees judge to be of significant interest to the field of schizophrenia.
With the changes noted above, we have added 3 people to our associate editor group. Robin Murray will continue in that role but no longer edit the gene and environment special features. Jim van Os and Mike Owen will assume these duties and have become associate editors, as has Tom McGlashan who will be responsible for the clinical concepts aspect of the "Schizophrenia in Translation" special feature. Beginning in January 2007, each issue will carry one etiology essay and one translation essay, thus alternating the gene and environmental features and alternating the neuroscience and clinical concepts translation features.
We believe that we should do a better job providing critical assessment of clinical therapeutics including psychopharmacology, psychosocial treatments, integrated therapies, and system-based innovations. We welcome suggestions for other issues or special features that would help the Schizophrenia Bulletin contribute information to the field.
Editor-In-Chief
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||