About the Journal
Aims and Scope
Keywords
Open Access and Copyright
About the Journal
In our view, human development, well-being, mental health, nature, culture, and society are co-evolving systems that interact in complex and dynamic ways. We are therefore seeking new quantitative and qualitative empirical studies, comprehensive reviews and thought-provoking perspective articles inspired by theoretical or practical dilemmas, preferably in a comparative way, through individual, socio-cultural, historical, or institutional perspectives.
The European Journal of Mental Health is an international, interdisciplinary, open-access, peer-reviewed journal that publishes research in social and behavioral sciences focusing on mental health, personal and relational well-being, and quality of life. Our journal promotes a broader understanding of mental health and well-being through developmental and life-course perspectives, relational and systemic approaches, social-ecological views, and transdisciplinary thinking. It provides a platform for novel and unique theoretical and empirical findings and welcomes manuscripts from all fields of psychology, psychiatry, other health sciences, sociology, social work, social policy, education, special education, human ecology, and media sciences. The European Journal of Mental Health particularly welcomes interdisciplinary research in applied fields and also focuses on contemporary social and ecological risks and problems affecting well-being and mental health in general, as well as specific populations in Europe and across other cultures. The Journal encourages the conduct and publication of solution-focused and resilience-oriented research.
Letter of the Editor-in-Chief
Dear Authors, Readers, and Supporting Colleagues,
The European Journal of Mental Health was established in 2006. Semmelweis University (Budapest, Hungary) owns and supports it, and the Institute of Mental Health maintains it.
I have been the Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Mental Health since March 2022. The years 2022-2023 were remarkable ones in the history of our Journal. We have introduced several innovations and improvements to the way we work. The Editorial Office and the International Editorial Board have been renewed, the workflow of the Journal has been reformed, and working groups have been set up to take care of the Journal's development strategy, scientific metrics, manuscript management, science communication, PR tasks, and international relations. An interdisciplinary team of Associate Editors that is: the members of the International Editorial and Reviewer Boards help us to publish good-quality articles contributing to interdisciplinary approaches to mental health research.
From 2023, our journal publishes articles on a monthly basis, and from 2024, we expect to publish three types of articles: original empirical research, comprehensive review, and thought-provoking perspective articles. In spring 2024, we launched our new website.
Please find out more about our Journal, visit our website and be part of the story! Write articles for us, contribute to the work of the International Editorial Board, and be our peer reviewer!
Have success for all of us!
Beáta Dávid
Editor-in-Chief
In our view, human development, well-being, mental health, nature, culture, and society are co-evolving systems that interact in complex and dynamic ways. We are therefore seeking new quantitative and qualitative empirical studies, comprehensive reviews, and thought-provoking perspective articles inspired by theoretical or practical dilemmas, preferably in a comparative way, through individual, socio-cultural, historical, or institutional perspectives.
The European Journal of Mental Health is an international, interdisciplinary, open-access, peer-reviewed journal that publishes research in social and behavioral sciences focusing on mental health, personal and relational well-being, and quality of life. Our Journal promotes a broader understanding of mental health and well-being through developmental and life-course perspectives, relational and systemic approaches, social-ecological views, and transdisciplinary thinking. It provides a platform for novel and unique theoretical and empirical findings and welcomes manuscripts from all fields of psychology, psychiatry, other health sciences, sociology, social work, social policy, education, special education, human ecology, and media sciences. The European Journal of Mental Health particularly welcomes interdisciplinary research in applied fields and also focuses on contemporary social and ecological risks and problems affecting well-being and mental health in general, as well as specific populations in Europe and across other cultures. The Journal encourages the conduct and publication of solution-focused and resilience-oriented research.
The Journal was established in 2006. Semmelweis University (Budapest, Hungary) owns and supports the Journal, and the Institute of Mental Health maintains it. The European Journal of Mental Health does not charge a submission and editing fee. Since 2017, the European Journal of Mental Health has published articles only in English. The Journal uses the DOI system. As of 2023, the Journal publishes 1–3 articles on a monthly basis. The Journal does not sell advertising spaces nor are sponsorships accepted.
mental health, well-being and quality of life;
lifelong development and socio-ecological contexts;
developmental psychopathology and resilience;
human relationships and systems theory;
individuals, couples, families and communities;
translation between theory and practice;
planning and evaluating interventions;
social and behavioral sciences, interdisciplinarity; quantitative and qualitative research;
literature reviews and perspectives
The European Journal of Mental Health is a fully open access journal publishing its articles under the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY). This means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking for prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition of open access.
Authors retain the copyright of their work and can deposit their publication in any repository. The article may be freely disseminated and shared.
From 2023, the Journal facilitates and supports the pre-registration of studies and access to research data, as well.
Readership
We bring our articles to the attention of researchers, academics, clinicians, other practitioners, and the general public worldwide.
The professionals who can most benefit from reading the publications of the journal are: psychologists, psychiatrists, psychotherapists, counselors, doctors, nurses, health visitors, public health and health promotion professionals, sociologists, social workers, social policy experts, educators, special needs teachers, human ecologists, media professionals, researchers and practitioners of various fields.
Topics in Details
The primary thematic focus of the European Journal of Mental Health is the social-ecological context of mental health and well-being. The Journal specifically invites submissions of high-quality, original research as well as comprehensive reviews, and thought-provoking perspective articles on findings and dilemmas in well-being and mental health research across the lifespan and in different ecological, cultural, and historical contexts.
EJMH is encouraging:
- theoretical approaches based on the social ecology of resilience to mental health research and practice;
- methodological approaches based on responsible research and innovation, open science, as well as patient-based, participatory, and dialogue models;
- practice- and policy action-oriented research that is responsive to individuals with mental health problems and to their families, healthcare workers, policymakers, and funders, etc.
In particular, we are looking for contributions from the following areas by examining any period of the lifespan (from infancy to old age):
- the socio-ecological context of the development of mental health problems;
- vulnerability and stress over the life course (among children, adolescents, young adults, and older people); risk and protective factors for well-being and mental health; developmental psychopathology and resilience;
- the role of the physical, built, and social environment, social and community relationships in maintaining mental health;
- links between new media use (e.g., internet, games, and social media) and mental health;
- the impact of aging, challenges of long-term care, etc.
The empowerment of mental health service users and carers is also a key topic for our journal:
- co-responsibility in patient-based research; research with and for service users;
- examination of informal care and family functioning of people with mental health problems;
- anti-stigmatization, anti-victimization, and anti-discrimination interventions;
- social inclusion, health inequalities, access to mental health promotion, prevention, and intervention services;
- evaluation methods to assess the quality of mental health services;
- ways of coping and recovery, etc.
The Journal promotes a systemic understanding of the sociocultural and socioeconomic contexts of well-being and mental health:
- differences in the financial, regulatory organization, implementation, and reliability of service provision, the effectiveness of health-care systems;
- the political and legal context of mental health; mental health policies; formal and informal networks of care, ethical dilemmas, and diagnostic issues;
- socio-cultural change, climate adaptation, urbanization, digitalization, globalization and individualization, changing labor markets, global epidemics and community transitions, demographic shifts, mass migration, etc.
Last but not least, we are interested in mental health promotion, prevention, and intervention strategies:
- strength-based, resilience-oriented mental health promotion and prevention programs;
- intervention programs for pregnant women, young children, adolescents, adults, and older generations, couples, families, communities and networks;
- interventions using new scientific and technological advances, ICT-based (eHealth) approaches;
- social innovation in mental health care and service delivery, etc.
Content Types
The European Journal of Mental Health welcomes original Research Articles of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method empirical findings, impact assessments, effectiveness evaluations, and participative (action) research, as well as Narrative, Systematic and Scoping Reviews, Meta-Analyses, Meta-Syntheses, and Perspective Articles from the full range of disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences mentioned above. For detailed information on article types, see the Authors' guidelines.
The Journal regularly runs Special Calls and publishes Special Thematic Compilations of peer-reviewed articles on important contemporary aspects of mental health and well-being. Thematic compilations edited from our past and recent articles are available here.
To suggest a theme of a Special Call, please contact the Editorial Office: ejmh-editor@semmelweis.hu.
Performing ethical and methodologically appropriate research and writing good-quality manuscripts
The European Journal of Mental Health agrees with and encourages research and publications according to the following guidelines:
- Randomized controlled trials (RCTs): CONSORT guidelines, flowchart and structured abstract checklist
- Systematic reviews and meta-analyses: PRISMA guidelines, flowchart and structured abstract checklist
- Observational studies in epidemiology: STROBE guidelines (also referring to RECORD for observational studies using routinely collected health data) and MOOSE guidelines
- Diagnostic accuracy studies: STARD guidelines
- Quality improvement studies: SQUIRE guidelines
- Multivariate prediction models: TRIPOD guidelines
- Economic evaluation studies: SQUIRE guidelines
- Animal preclinical studies: ARRIVE guidelines
The Benefits of Publishing in the European Journal of Mental Health
The open-access policy of the European Journal of Mental Health allows for the maximum visibility of articles published in the Journal, as they are widely available to a potential readership.
From the spring of 2024, manuscripts are submitted online through a well-structured and reliable electronic system (Open Journal System), where the manuscript tracking system will be continuously monitored.
The Journal employs a thorough and professional peer-review process (see below) and a comprehensive editorial workflow (see below), managed fully electronically, and aimed at maximizing the quality of manuscripts throughout the publication process.
Manuscripts are likely to be published within 9-12 months from submission, depending on the depth of the requested revisions and the number of revision rounds.
Citing Articles in the European Journal of Mental Health
Articles in the European Journal of Mental Health should be cited in the same way as articles in a traditional, printed journal. From 2023, articles are published on a continuous monthly basis and are not sorted into issues, so they have no page number linked to an issue, but have a unique article number.
Article citations follow this format until 2022 December:
e.g., Smith, J. (2022). Mental Health of preschool children during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bulgaria. European Journal of Mental Health, 17(2), 15–24. https://doi.org/10.5708/EJMH.17.2022.2.2
Article citations follow this format from 2023 January:
e.g., … Smith, J. (2023). Mental Health of preschool children during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bulgaria. European Journal of Mental Health, 18, eXXXXXXX. https://doi.org/10.5708/EJMH.18.2023.1.2
Peer-review process
Peer review is a system for assessing and improving the quality of a manuscript before publication. Following a multi-stage formal and professional editorial pre-screening process, independent researchers in the relevant research area are invited to evaluate submitted manuscripts for originality, validity, and relevance, so that editors can decide whether to publish the manuscript in our Journal.
The Journal operates a double-blind peer review system in which the reviewers do not know the authors’ names and affiliations, and the authors do not know the reviewers’ identity.
In most cases, manuscripts submitted are judged by two, or in the cases of dilemmas up to three reviewers, who must assess whether the manuscript is scientifically sound and coherent, presents interesting and unique results for the field, is methodologically correct and replicable, and is sufficiently clear and understandable for publication. Reviewers will also provide a detailed and coherent textual assessment and point out the need for minor or major revisions within the manuscript. The editors will decide on the basis of these reports whether to revise and publish the manuscript. Following the revision process, the reviewers receive the manuscripts again and approve publication. Depending on the quality of the manuscript, authors may be asked to submit 1-3 rounds of revisions. One of the editors will be responsible for monitoring the revision process, confirming the reviewers’ requests and/or making formal, methodological, and professional suggestions in addition to those the reviewers made.
If the reviewers do not consider a manuscript worthy of publication, the editors may still decide to publish a manuscript, and conversely, they may also decide to reject a manuscript while the reviewers have accepted it.
Editorial Policies
The Journal’s professional supervision is provided by the Editor-in-Chief, a multi-member editorial office headed by a professional coordinator, and an International Editorial Board.
Psychologists, sociologists, and doctors make up the editorial office. The International Editorial Board consists of representatives from different disciplines, professions, and countries.
The pre-screening of manuscripts is carried out in four rounds by the Editorial Secretary, two Editors of the Editorial Office, and one invited International Editorial Board member. One of the Editors carries out the monitoring of the review process. From 2024, all manuscripts in the peer review process are read and reviewed also by a Specialist Editor who is an expert in statistical methodology.
