Evaluation of formal quality of Spanish psychiatry journals

Standardization of scientific journals is a fundamental factor for a successful scientific communication, since it has repercussions on the role accomplishment of journals as research dissemination agents and expressive and representative channels of the different scientific communities. The formal characteristics of the seven psychiatric journals included in the IME (Spanish Medical Index) database in 2006 were evaluated. A specific form was designed to evaluate the 64 different characteristics of each journal, based on the IME qualitative criteria for being included. Journals having the highest overall scores were Actas Españolas de Psiquiatría with 68/82 points, followed by European Journal of Psychiatry (65/82 points), Anales de Psiquiatría (58/82 points), Psiquiatría Biológica (57/82 points) and Informaciones Psiquiátricas (45/82 points). Spanish psychiatric journals fulfill most of the requirements, although some of them could be improved, such as failures in the regularity of the publication, the English presentation of the abstracts and the paper typology specification, indication of the reception and acceptance date and lack of a clear description of the publishing process for the selection of the manuscripts and peer review.