Aims and Scope

Vision and Mission

We believe that mental health is a foundational component of lifelong wellbeing and that early identification and intervention in youth can transform trajectories. Our mission is to:

• Provide a robust, interdisciplinary forum for original research, theory, and practice in child, adolescent and developmental mental health.
• Enhance the diagnostic and therapeutic repertoire of clinicians, educators and allied professionals worldwide.
• Ensure that published work is accessible, transparent, reproducible and ethically conducted.
• Support global equity in research by inviting contributions from under-resourced settings and promoting inclusion of diverse perspectives.
• Translate evidence into practice, bridging gaps between neuroscience, psychology, public health and policy.

Scope and Thematic Coverage

As a journal, APMH welcomes contributions that explore the full spectrum of mental health and behavioural challenges affecting children and adolescents. While the focus is broad, typical thematic areas include (but are not restricted to):

• Adolescent anxiety and mood disorders (including sub-threshold phenomena and cross-cultural variations).
• Child anxiety, phobias and obsessive–compulsive disorders.
• Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and related behavioural syndromes.
• Autism spectrum disorder, Asperger’s disorder, neurodevelopmental differences, and the interface with schooling and social participation.
• Bipolar disorder in adolescence, eating disorders (e.g., anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa), self-harm and suicidal behaviour.
• Conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, risky behaviour, and disruptive behaviour disorders in youths.
• Psychosis, including early-onset schizophrenia and at-risk mental states in adolescents.
• Child and adolescent brain development, neuro-imaging, neuro-biology and neuro-inflammation as they relate to mental health.
• Environmental, familial, social and cultural determinants of youth mental health (including trauma, migration, digital exposure and peer networks).
• Prevention programmes, school-based interventions, resilience building, community-based mental health services, policy and system-level research.

As highlighted on the earlier site: “The reach of Archives of Psychiatry and Mental Health acumen in bringing together empirical and exploratory researches, studies, reviews and different points of views to play a role in enhancing the science of pediatric mental health and to prowess the therapeutic and diagnostic skills in adolescent care.” 

Article Types and Formats

To support wide dissemination of knowledge and exchange of perspectives, APMH accepts the following manuscript types:

• Original Research Articles: Full-length reports of empirical or theoretical work that present novel findings or frameworks in child/adolescent psychiatry and mental health.
• Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses: Comprehensive syntheses of existing literature with robust methodology and clear implications for practice or further research.
• Short Communications or Brief Reports: Concise reports of timely or focused findings meriting rapid dissemination.
• Case Reports/Case Series: Description of individual or grouped clinical cases, especially in under-represented settings, with reflection on implications for practice and research.
• Invited Commentaries, Perspectives or Letters to the Editor: Opinion pieces, critiques or reflections offering scholarly insight or responding to published work.

Why This Focus Matters

The adolescent and child-mental health field is undergoing rapid transformation: advances in neuroscience, digital health, global mental health, translational research and preventive interventions are converging. By affording a dedicated platform for youth-centred psychiatry and mental health scholarship, APMH contributes to:

• Bridging evidence ↔ practice: The translational gap between research and routine clinical/educational settings remains large—this journal emphasizes studies with clear relevance to real-world care and systems.
• Reducing research inequities: Many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) face a scarcity of context-specific evidence. We encourage cross-setting collaborations and regionally meaningful research.
• Promoting early intervention: Childhood and adolescence are key periods where prompt intervention can alter developmental trajectories—publishing early research in this domain can have outsized impact.
• Advancing interdisciplinary science: Complex youth mental health issues must be studied through the lenses of psychiatry, psychology, neuroscience, public health, education, sociology and policy. APMH fosters that cross-disciplinary exchange.

Real-World Scenario

Scenario: A research team in Ghana investigates school-based resilience training combined with mobile-health check-ins in adolescents exposed to climate-related displacement. They design a mixed-methods study, submit it to APMH, and upon publication their open-access article enables policymakers in West Africa and beyond to replicate and adapt the intervention. The ripple-effect: improved screening, earlier referral and community-led wellness programmes.

Best Practice Checklist for Authors

• Ensure work aligns with the journal’s focus on child and adolescent mental health—justify relevance in the introduction.
• Report transparent methodology, ethics approval and participant consent/assent where applicable.
• Discuss implications for practice, policy or further research—especially with real-world or global context.
• Facilitate accessibility (clear language, structured abstract with sub-headings, appropriate keywords) and open data where feasible.
• Acknowledge limitations and include suggestions for replication or translation across settings.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: Does my study need to be exclusively about children/adolescents?

A: While the core focus is youth mental health, we welcome research that spans transitional ages (e.g., late adolescence to early adulthood) provided the connection to youth development and mental health is clear.

Q: Are submissions from any country eligible?

A: Yes. We actively encourage global submissions—including from LMICs—and advocate for contextually rich research with international relevance.

Q: Do you publish qualitative research or mixed-methods studies?

A: Absolutely. We value rigorous qualitative, mixed-methods and community-based research, particularly when it engages youth, caregivers or system-level change.

Q: Will my article be open access?

A: Yes. All articles are published open access under a CC-BY 4.0 licence, subject to payment of the article processing charge (see Charges Policy for details).

Q: How quickly will a decision be made?

A: The journal uses double-blind peer review and aims for an efficient turnaround; exact timelines depend on reviewer availability, but our editorial process is designed for timely publication.

Conclusion

Through its defined aims and broad but focused scope, Archives of Psychiatry and Mental Health (APMH) positions itself as a key venue for advancing youth-centred mental health scholarship. By integrating rigorous research, global relevance and open access dissemination, we hope to catalyse change in care, policy and practice—ultimately contributing to better mental health outcomes for children and adolescents everywhere.