Structured Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy in the Abstract

The journal would be nothing without our strong editorial team; so, thanks and farewell to Craig Steel as Book Review Editor (and to Tracy Johnson who has ably assisted him). Fortunately, we retain Craig as Associate Editor specializing in Psychosis. Also fortunately, we are able to welcome a new book review team: Victoria Oldfield and Fiona Challacombe. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our wonderful team of Specialist Associate Editors for the excellent work they do. Also a big welcome to Manuela Herrera, our new editorial assistant, who has ably taken up her duties and is making everyone's life better and easier!

As you all know, the journal recently moved to five issues per year. This year, there is a bonus. . . . . a sixth issue! This in fact is a one-off additional issue appearing at the end of 2008. It is not a supplement, having been subject to full peer review in the usual way. John Taylor and Craig Steel have taken the lead, and the result will be on your desk in the near future; a landmark issue!

As most of our members and readers will be aware, the majority of journals have now adopted a system of structured abstracts. This way of summarizing research papers came from clinical research, on the basis that it facilitates electronic searching and systematic reviewing, which have become increasingly important. It spread into social, behavioural, biological and basic medical sciences and is now the gold standard. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy will require abstracts to be structured from the first issue of 2009, so all future submissions must be in that format. The format of the abstracts in future should be no longer than 250 words:

Background:

Structured abstracts are regarded as a particularly helpful way of presenting research in journal articles.

Aims:

This editorial is intended to announce our intention to adopt structured abstracts in a clear way.

Method:

Discussion at editorial board level was conducted on a purely verbal basis. No questionnaires have been administered, and no data were collected. The sample size is small (n=0). Analysis was not statistical, and involved no repeated measure Analyses of Variance.

Results:

Structured abstracts will be adopted as of the first issue of 2009. All are agreed that these are helpful.

Conclusions:

Structured abstracts in this format are likely to make information published in the journal more accessible.

So, here's to a structured future for Cognitive and Behavioural Psychotherapy.