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Research Transparency
Article Types
Style Guide
Seeking permission to use copyrighted material
Supplementary Files
Reporting Standards
Use of Inclusive Language
Use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools
Authorship and contributorship
Author Affiliations
Competing Interests
Policy on prior publication

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All articles must include the following sections:

1. Key Learning Aims (3 – 5 bullet points)
   - Position – After the Abstract and Keywords
   - Intention – What will the reader learn through reading the paper?
2. Key Practice Points (3 – 5 bullet points)
   - Position – before the references
   - Intention – a summary of the papers with clear and practical implications for the day-to-day practice of CBT therapists
3. Further Reading
   - Position – before the references and after the Key Practice Points
   - Intention – to direct the reader to other relevant follow up literature

This stipulation is in keeping with the practitioner and professional development aims of the journal.

The main types of articles published are detailed below as a guide. Many of these will be therapy related but tCBT also welcomes papers related to subject areas such as CBT supervision and training.

Most papers will have a subject area (e.g. therapy, assessment, supervision, training, service development) and a paper type (e.g. Original Research, Case Study, Review) e.g. a single case study looking at the impact of supervision, an empirically grounded clinical guidance paper focussing on a training method.

Research Transparency

The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist believes in the importance of transparent and reproducible research. We therefore strongly encourage authors to make their evidence, data and other materials that underpin their findings openly available to readers which is outlined in our Research Transparency Policy. Authors will be asked on submission to include in their cover letter to the Editor whether they have made their data publicly available and confirm the inclusion of the Data Availability Statement. If the authors are not making their data publicly available, we ask them to state the reason why in their cover letter.

Types of Paper

Original Research*

Research evidence is at the heart of the practice of cognitive and behavioural psychotherapists. Original research will be published that directly relevant to the practice of CBT, such as the therapeutic relationship, therapeutic process and the evaluation of therapeutic strategies and techniques. It is expected that such reports meet both the necessary standards of scientific rigour and the journal’s requirement of clear implications for the practice of CBT. Consequently, the description of the research and the presentation of results should be sufficiently brief to enable sufficient discussion of the practice implications. Consideration will be given to quantitative, qualitative and mixed approaches given appropriate fit between the question, methodology and research methods chosen.

For examples see:

Hutton, J., Ellett, L., & Berry, K. (2017). Adult attachment and paranoia: An experimental investigation. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 10, E4. doi:10.1017/S1754470X17000058

Kobori, O., Salkovskis, P., Pagdin, R., Read, J., & Halldorsson, B. (2017). Carer's perception of and reaction to reassurance seeking in obsessive compulsive disorder. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 10, E7. doi:10.1017/S1754470X17000095

McManus, F., Leung, C., Muse, K., & Williams, J. (2014). Understanding ‘cyberchondria’: An interpretive phenomenological analysis of the purpose, methods and impact of seeking health information online for those with health anxiety. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 7, E21. doi:10.1017/S1754470X14000270

This category of paper type could also include single-case experimental design research or a case series.

For example see:

Thomson, C., Wilson, R., Collerton, D., Freeston, M., & Dudley, R. (2017). Cognitive behavioural therapy for visual hallucinations: An investigation using a single-case experimental design. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 10, E10. doi:10.1017/S1754470X17000174

Empirically Grounded Clinical Guidance Papers*

Some of the most widely-read and discussed papers in tCBT have been those that are the synthesis of clinical experience, using informed reasoning to link limited direct evidence in the field with evidence from wider fields.

tCBT is very keen to consider submission of such papers in relevant fields that are of interest to CBT therapists, supervisors and trainers. These tend to be written by experts in the field and are designed to solve specific practical problems or clarify gaps in our knowledge. Ideally they lead to practical implications and recommendations whilst generating hypotheses for future research.

For examples see:

Barton, S., Armstrong, P., Wicks, L., Freeman, E., & Meyer, T. (2017). Treating complex depression with cognitive behavioural therapy. the Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 10, E17.

Duffy, M., & Wild, J. (2017). A cognitive approach to persistent complex bereavement disorder (PCBD). the Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 10, E16.

Freeston, M., Tiplady, A., Mawn, L., Bottesi, G., & Thwaites, S. (2020). Towards a model of uncertainty distress in the context of Coronavirus (COVID-19). The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 13, E31. doi:10.1017/S1754470X2000029X

Freeston, M., Thwaites, R., & Bennett-Levy, J. (2019). ‘Courses for Horses’: Designing, adapting and implementing self-practice/self-reflection programmes. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 12, E28.

Menzies, R., & Menzies, R. (2020). Death anxiety in the time of COVID-19: Theoretical explanations and clinical implications. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 13, E19. doi:10.1017/S1754470X20000215

Murray, H., Merritt, C., & Grey, N. (2015). Returning to the scene of the trauma in PTSD treatment - why, how and when? the Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 8, 1–12.

Murray, H., Pethania, Y., & Medin, E. (2021). Survivor guilt: A cognitive approach. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 14, E28. doi:10.1017/S1754470X21000246

Warnock-Parkes, E., Wild, J., Thew, G., Kerr, A., Grey, N., Stott, R., . . . Clark, D. (2020). Treating social anxiety disorder remotely with cognitive therapy. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 13, E30. doi:10.1017/S1754470X2000032X

Young, K., Chessell, Z., Chisholm, A., Brady, F., Akbar, S., Vann, M., . . . Dixon, L. (2021). A cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) approach for working with strong feelings of guilt after traumatic events. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 14, E26. doi:10.1017/S1754470X21000192

Case Studies*

Dissemination of effective practice will be promoted through the publication of case studies that involve CBT with individuals, couples, groups and families. A suggested template is provided which is designed to ensure sufficient information is provided to allow other therapists to replicate successful therapy. All articles must include 3-5 learning objectives that will be achieved through reading the article. At the end of each paper a summary of the main practice points should be included with suggestions for follow-up reading. This stipulation is in keeping with the practitioner and professional development aims of the journal.

The case study should contribute to the development of theory or clinical practice, and feed into CBT practice as a whole rather than just relating to the specific case. Case studies should generally follow this structure:

• Abstract
• Key Learning Points
• Introduction: including an outline of theoretical research and clinical literature relevant to the case
• Presenting problem: including information on the presenting problem and associated goals of treatment, diagnosis, relevant history and development of problems, scores on standard and idiographic measures, relevant history
• Formulation: including a relevant theory-based CBT model used as a framework.
• Course of therapy: including methods used linked to theory and assessment of progress; difficulties encountered and any innovations in therapy
• Outcome: including clinical change, progress towards goals, change to measures, plans for follow-up
• Discussion: including relating to theory and evidence-base as well as reflections on own practice; implications for therapy and recommendations for other clinicians
• Key Practice Points
• Further Reading

For examples see:

Bernstein, R., Angell, K., & Dehle, C. (2013). A brief course of cognitive behavioural therapy for the treatment of misophonia: A case example. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 6, E10. doi:10.1017/S1754470X13000172

Jenkins, P. (2017). Can temporary cessation of CBT really be therapeutic? A case study. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 10, E8. doi:10.1017/S1754470X17000101

In addition to clinical case studies, there may be case studies related to training or supervision which would require a slightly amended structure to the one outline above.

Invited Papers*

At times tCBT will invite papers on specific issues where there is a gap in the clinical literature. This may involve commissioning papers directly from experts in a particular area or this may be a call to the wider CBT community.

Reviews*

Reviews of historical, contemporary, or innovative approaches to practice are also sought providing that they demonstrate relevance to the practice of the current cognitive and behavioural psychotherapies. Prospective authors for review papers should initially discuss their proposals with the Editor-in-Chief.

Reviews of Assessment Tools and Methods*

Reviews of clinical scales and other assessment methods will also be considered.

These reviews should provide the practitioner with a review of a scale’s or other tool’s purpose and properties, sufficient information to know how and when to use it, and how to interpret the results and make use of them. All articles must include a set of 3-5 learning objectives that will be achieved through reading the paper. At the end of each paper a summary of the main points from the paper must be included with suggestions for follow-up reading. This stipulation is in keeping with the practitioner and professional development aims of the journal.

For examples see:

Hyland, P., Shevlin, M., Adamson, G., & Boduszek, D. (2013). The factor structure and composite reliability of the Profile of Emotional Distress. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 6, E15. doi:10.1017/S1754470X13000214

Reiser, R., Cliffe, T., & Milne, D. (2018). An improved competence rating scale for CBT Supervision: Short-SAGE. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 11, E7. doi:10.1017/S1754470X18000065

Service Models, Forms of Delivery and Cultural Adaptations of CBT*

The service model is the clinical and operational framework that exists to support the therapist with the delivery of cognitive behavioural therapies. Description and evaluation of innovative clinical service models (both in the UK and internationally) and delivery formats that can be generalised to other services will be considered for publication. Audits will only be considered if they are of wider interest and value in informing the work of other services.

tCBT is keen to publish research that either expands the evidence base for previously under-represented groups or work that describes and evaluates cultural adaptations that are required for different populations.

For examples see:

Jankowska, M. (2019). Cultural modifications of cognitive behavioural treatment of social anxiety among culturally diverse clients: A systematic literature review. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 12, E7. doi:10.1017/S1754470X18000211

King, D., & Said, G. (2019). Working with unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people: Cultural considerations and acceptability of a cognitive behavioural group approach. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 12, E11. doi:10.1017/S1754470X18000260

Thew, G. (2020). IAPT and the internet: The current and future role of therapist-guided internet interventions within routine care settings. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 13, E4. doi:10.1017/S1754470X20000033

Thew, G., MacCallam, J., Salkovskis, P., & Suntharalingam, J. (2017). Developing and evaluating psychological provision in the acute hospital setting for patients with chronic respiratory disease. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 10, E5. doi:10.1017/S1754470X17000071

* These article types may be eligible for APC waivers or discounts under one of the agreements Cambridge University Press has made to support open access.

Style Guide

Title page

This should uploaded as a separate file the main text to ensure blind review.

The title should phrase concisely the major issues. Author(s) to be given with departmental affiliations and addresses, grouped appropriately. A running head of no more than 40 characters should be indicated.

The following statements should be included on the title page:

Acknowledgements

You may acknowledge individuals or organizations that provided advice, support (non-financial).

Conflicts of Interest

Authors should include a Conflicts of Interest declaration in their title page. This statement will be published in the final article. Conflicts of Interest are situations that could be perceived to exert an undue influence on an author’s presentation of their work. They may include, but are not limited to, financial, professional, contractual or personal relationships or situations. Conflicts of Interest do not necessarily mean that an author’s work has been compromised. Authors should declare any real or perceived Conflicts of Interest in order to be transparent about the context of their work. If the manuscript has multiple authors, the author submitting the title page must include Conflicts of Interest declarations relevant to all contributing authors. For further information about Conflicts of Interest please see: https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/author-responsibilities--conflicts-of-interest.html.

Example wording for your Conflicts of Interest declaration is as follows: “Conflicts of Interest: Author A is employed at company B. Author C owns shares in company D, is on the Board of company E and is a member of organisation F. Author G has received grants from company H.” If no Conflicts of Interest exist, your declaration should state “Conflicts of Interest: None”.

If the study you are submitting focuses on a commercially available product (such as online CBT tools or APPS) or is funded by a commercial company, you should ensure that your Conflict of Interest statement covers the following:

• What the relationship is between the authors and the company. If authors had access to all study data and if they have entered into any agreement with the company that may limit their independence in analysis and interpretation of the data, preparation of the manuscript and choosing where to publish it.
• What the role of the sponsoring company has been in the following areas: design of the study; data collection, analysis and interpretation; writing the manuscript; approving the manuscript for publication and deciding where to publish.
• Authors should also state that they have not been encouraged or asked to repress, withhold, or modify any data, results, or conclusions by the sponsoring company.
• What influence the connection with the company could be perceived to have and how the authors have mitigated this.
• A statement may also be added by the Editorial Office to clarify what steps the Editors have taken to rule out any bias that may arise from any potential Conflict of Interest.
• Please note internal ethical approval by a commercial company would not be acceptable, it would need to be from an independent institution.
• Any authors with questions regarding this policy are welcome to contact the Editorial Office prior to submission to discuss further.

Data Availability Statement

This is a brief statement about whether the authors of an article have made the evidence supporting their findings available, and if so, where readers may access it. More information on Data Availability Statements and example statements can be found here. Please note that if you are not making your data publicly available, we ask you to state the reason why in your cover letter to the Editor. Also see information on Data Availability below in these instructions.

Financial support

Please provide details of the sources of financial support for all authors, Including grant numbers. For example, "This work was supported by the Medical research Council (grant number XXXXXXX)". Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma and space, and where research was funded by more than one agency the different agencies should be separated by a semi-colon, with "and" before the final funder. Grants held by different authors should be identified as belonging to individual authors by the authors’ initials. For example, "This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust (A.B., grant numbers XXXX, YYYY), (C.D., grant number ZZZZ); the Natural Environment Research Council (E.F., grant number FFFF); and the National Institutes of Health (A.B., grant number GGGG), (E.F., grant number HHHH)". Where no specific funding has been provided for research, please provide the following statement: "This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors."

Main Text (anonymised with no author information)

This should be uploaded as a .doc file with the following running order (unless a Case study). The following format is based on APA style, which should be followed throughout: http://www.apastyle.org/

Abstract

This should summarize the article in no more than 250 words, references should not be included in the abstract.

Keywords

Please include up to six key words that could be used to effectively search for the article.

Key Learning Aims

Body of paper

This should begin with an introduction, succinctly introducing the point of the paper to those interested in the general area of the journal. Attention should be paid to the Editorial Statement. The appropriate positions of tables and figures should be indicated in the text. Footnotes should be avoided where possible.

Ethical Statements

All papers should include a statement indicating that authors have abided by the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct as set out by the BABCP and BPS. If preferred, authors based outside of the UK may state research has conformed to the Declaration of Helsinki. Authors should also confirm if ethical approval was needed, by which organisation, and provide the relevant reference number. If no ethical approval was obtained, the authors should state what governance arrangements were in place (e.g. audit committee approval). We also expect authors to respect human participants’ right to privacy, and to gain any necessary informed consent to publish before submitting to us and include a statement in their manuscript that consent has been obtained. Where case reports are detailed in a submission, the author must state that the person described has seen the submission in full and agreed to it going forward for publication.

Key Practice Points

Further Reading

References

Please use APA style for the in-text citations and references. In the reference list there is an additional requirement that author names be listed in bold face. For example:

Grady, J. S., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, C., & Yelinek, J. (2019). Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(3), 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm000...

Authors are encouraged to make use of referencing software packages (e.g. Endnote, Mendeley, Reference Manager etc.) to assist with formatting - extensions for APA formatting are easily accessible. Authors are also reminded to use bold face for author names in the reference list.

Tables and Figures

These should not be included in the body of the manuscript text, but uploaded as individual files.

Use text anchors to show their intended position within the manuscript.

Numbered figure captions should be provided.

Tables

Use APA style. Tables should be provided in editable Word format. They should be numbered and given explanatory titles.

Name your uploaded file to correspond with the caption in the manuscript.

Figures

Use APA style. All artwork should be submitted as separate TIFF format files.

The minimum resolution for submission of electronic artwork is:

Halftone Images (Black and White Photographs only): 300 dpi (dots per inch).

LineTone (Black and White Photographs plus Line Drawings in the same figure): 600 dpi (dots per inch).

Bitmap (Line Drawings only): 1200 dpi (dots per inch).

Please see this link for full guidance on artwork

Seeking permission for copyrighted material

If your article contains any material in which you do not own copyright, including figures, charts, tables, photographs or excerpts of text, you must obtain permission from the copyright holder to reuse that material. As the author it is your responsibility to obtain this permission and pay any related fees, and you will need to send us a copy of each permission statement at acceptance.

Usually the publisher of the original work holds the copyright, unless explicitly stated otherwise. Most publishers have forms on their websites that can be completed electronically, or use automated electronic permissions services like Rightslink® to grant permissions automatically online. See here for more information on when you need to seek permission and how to request this.

Supplementary Files

Where unpublished material e.g. behaviour rating scales or therapy manuals are referred to in an article, copies should be submitted as an additional document (where copyright allows) to facilitate review. Supplementary files can be used to convey supporting or extra information to your study, however, the main manuscript should be able to ‘stand-alone’. Supporting documents are reviewed but not copyedited on acceptance of the article. They can therefore be submitted in PDF format, and include figures and tables within the text. There is no word limit for supporting online information.

Video Content

The journal also allows authors to upload video content as supplementary material to provide support or additional understanding. Video files created by authors should be provided in .mp4 format, and should not exceed 500mb in file size. Video files can be uploaded to the journal's ScholarOne system during the submission process using the file designation 'Video File'. As with other forms of supplementary material, these files will be available to reviewers but not edited on acceptance of the article, and will be hosted online alongside the article when published.

Reporting Standards

The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist supports standardised reporting practices, consult the following table to ensure your submission meets the reporting standards for your manuscript type. Please include the relevant supporting information (such as diagrams and checklists) with your submission files. See http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/ for more information on manuscript types not described below.

The journal also encourages clarity in describing interventions sufficient to allow their replication through the use of the Template for Intervention Description and Replication Checklist (TIDieR).

Randomised Controlled Trial	CONSORT	http://www.consort-statement.org/
Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis	PRISMA	http://www.prisma-statement.org/
Study Protocols	SPIRIT	http://www.spirit-statement.org/

Use of Inclusive Language

tCBT reminds authors to use inclusive language (see these C4DISC guideines for further information) which are in line with the BABCP values of opposing discrimination of any kind and continually working to improve our recognition of, and take an active stance against discrimination and inequality.

Use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools

We recognise that the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in research publications is increasing. However, we do not consider artificial intelligence (AI) tools to meet the accountability requirements of authorship, and therefore generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and similar should not be used in any part of the writing of manuscripts, including editing and referencing. Nor should these tools be listed as an author on any submitted content.

We will permit the use of AI tools for spelling and grammar checking to improve the readability and language of a manuscript. This must be done with human oversight and authors should carefully review the output before submission. Any use of generative AI tools must be disclosed by the authors in the Acknowledgements section in the title page of their manuscript. This should include the tool used and its version, the date it was used and reason for its use along with a declaration that the author(s) are entirely responsible for the scientific content of the paper and that the paper adheres to the journal’s authorship policy. Failure to acknowledge assistance from technical writers, language editors, AI tools and/or writing agencies in drafting manuscripts for publication in the Acknowledgements section may lead to disqualification of the paper.