This journal uses ScholarOne Manuscripts (previously Manuscript Central) to peer review manuscript submissions. Please read the guide for ScholarOne authors before making a submission. Complete guidelines for preparing and submitting your manuscript to this journal are provided below.

The instructions below are specifically directed at authors that wish to submit a manuscript to Sexual and Relationship Therapy. For general information, please visit our Author Services website.

Sexual and Relationship Therapy considers all manuscripts on the strict condition that they have been submitted only to Sexual and Relationship Therapy, that they have not been published already, nor are they under consideration for publication or in press elsewhere. Authors who fail to adhere to this condition will be charged with all costs which Sexual and Relationship Therapy incurs and their papers will not be published.

• Papers are accepted only in English. American or British English spelling and punctuation is acceptable provided usage is consistent throughout. Articles written by those whose primary language is not English should be edited carefully for language prior to submission.
• Articles must be formatted double-spaced with ample margins of at least one inch on all sides and pages must be numbered.
• Ensure that author names, affiliations and acknowledgements do NOT appear anywhere in the main document file (these details need to be entered in a separate section in the online submission system).
• A typical article will not exceed 6,000 words. Short communications and case reports, will be limited to two journal pages (approximately 1200 words including tables and references). Papers that greatly exceed these limits will be critically reviewed with respect to length. Authors should include a word count with their manuscript.
• Manuscripts should be compiled in the following order: title page; abstract; keywords; main text; acknowledgments; appendixes (as appropriate); references; table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figure caption(s) (as a list).
• The first page should include the title and contain an abstract of not more than 200 words. The second page should repeat the title as the heading to the start of the main text of the paper. All pages should be numbered.
• Each paper should have up to six keywords which are not included in the title of the article.
• Section headings should be concise and numbered sequentially, using a decimal system for subsections.
• All the authors of a paper should include their full names, affiliations, postal addresses, telephone and fax numbers and email addresses on the cover page of the manuscript. One author should be identified as the Corresponding Author.
• Please supply a short biographical note for each author (50 words).
• For all manuscripts non-discriminatory language is mandatory. Sexist or racist terms should not be used.
• Authors must adhere to SI units. Units are not italicised.
• When using a word which is or is asserted to be a proprietary term or trade mark, authors must use the symbol ® or TM.

2. Style guidelines

Articles should be prepared according to the guidelines in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th Edition, 2009). Guidelines and free tutorials on APA style can be found at www.apastyle.org which also contains guidelines on the use of unbiased language and terms related to gender and sexual orientation; see www.apastyle.org/manual/supplement/index.aspx.

• Description of the Journal's article style, Quick guide 
• Description of the Journal's reference style, Quick guide

• It is in the author's interest to provide the highest quality figure format possible. Please be sure that all imported scanned material is scanned at the appropriate resolution: 1200 dpi for line art, 600 dpi for grayscale and 300 dpi for colour.
• Figures must be saved separate to text. Please do not embed figures in the paper file.
• Files should be saved as one of the following formats: TIFF (tagged image file format), PostScript or EPS (encapsulated PostScript), and should contain all the necessary font information and the source file of the application (e.g. CorelDraw/Mac, CorelDraw/PC).
• All figures must be numbered in the order in which they appear in the paper (e.g. figure 1, figure 2). In multi-part figures, each part should be labelled (e.g. figure 1(a), figure 1(b)).
• Figure captions must be saved separately, as part of the file containing the complete text of the paper, and numbered correspondingly. Captions should include keys to symbols.
• The filename for a graphic should be descriptive of the graphic, e.g. Figure1, Figure2a.

5. Reproduction of copyright material

As an author, you are required to secure permission if you want to reproduce any figure, table, or extract from the text of another source. This applies to direct reproduction as well as "derivative reproduction" (where you have created a new figure or table which derives substantially from a copyrighted source). For further information and FAQs, please see http://journalauthors.tandf.co.uk/preparation/permission.asp. This applies to direct reproduction as well as ‘derivative reproduction', where the contributor has created a new figure or table that derives substantially from a copyrighted source. Authors are themselves responsible for the payment of any permission fees required by the copyright owner. Copies of permission letters should be sent with the manuscript upon submission to the Editor(s).

• Copyright permission letter template

Conflict of interest declaration should follow the discussion and precede the references.   Specifically it must detail:

• The source(s) of financial support for the research (if none, write “none).
• A description of any sponsor's role(s) in the research (e.g., formulation of research question(s), choice of study design, data collection, data  analysis and decision to publish).
• Information about any financial relationship between any author and any organization with a vested interest in the conduct and reporting of the study.

Sexual and Relationship Therapy aims to conform to the policies of the World Association of Medical Editors in regard to conflict of interest. For full details please see the website www.wame.org/wamestmt.htm#fundres.

7. Acknowledgement of the funding source

All sources of funding should be declared as an acknowledgement at the end of the text. Under a subheading “Role of the funding source”, authors must describe the role of the study sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication.  If the funding source had no such involvement, the authors should so state.

8. Patients' consent and permission to publish

Studies on clients/patients or volunteers need approval from an ethics committee and informed consent from participants. These should be documented in your paper. Identifying information of clients/patients should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the client/patient, or next of kin gives written informed consent for publication.  Informed consent for this purpose requires that the patient be shown the article to be published.

9. Reporting randomized controlled trials

In order to ensure the public availability of the results of randomized controlled trials, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors has suggested that all such trials should be registered.  In common with many other leading journals, Sexual and Relationship Therapy has decided to follow this policy.  From 1 January 2009 we will no longer review any paper submitted to us reporting a randomized clinical trial unless the trial was registered in a public trial registry from the date it commenced recruitment or, if recruitment started before 31 December 2008, we require that the trial was registered no later than 31 December 2008.

All manuscripts reporting randomized controlled trials should have the following sent with them or they will be returned to the authors.

• A check list and flow chart in accordance with the CONSORT guidelines which can be found at http://www.consort-statement.org.  Please send in the checklist as a supplementary file and include the flow chart as Figure 1 in the manuscript. 
• The trial protocol is to be submitted as a supplementary file.  This will not be published but it is needed to appraise and peer review the paper. 
• The registration number of the trial and the name of the trial registry in which it was registered.  Please add these to the last line of the paper's structured abstract. Trials that began enrolment of patients after 1 January 2009 must be registered in a public trials registry at or before the onset of enrolment to be considered for publication in Sexual and Relationship Therapy.  Trials that began enrolment prior to 31 December 2008 must have been registered no later than that date.  Our criteria for a suitable public trial registry are: free to access; searchable; identification of trials by unique number; free or minimal cost for registration; validation of registered information; inclusion of details to identify the trial and the investigator within the registered entry (including the status of the trial); research question; methodology; intervention; and funding and sponsorship disclosed.

• That the authors have not entered into an agreement with the funding organization that has limited their ability to complete the research as planned and publish the results.
• That the authors have had full control of all the primary data.
• That the authors are willing to allow the journal to review their data if requested.
  

Manuscript submission

All submissions should be made online at the Sexual and Relationship Therapy ScholarOne Manuscripts site. New users should first create an account. Once logged on to the site, submissions should be made via the Author Centre. Online user guides and access to a helpdesk are available on this website.

Manuscripts may be submitted in any standard format, including Word, PostScript and PDF. These files will be automatically converted into a PDF file for the review process. LaTeX files should be converted to PDF prior to submission because Manuscript Central is not able to convert LaTeX files into PDFs directly. This journal does not accept Microsoft Word 2007 documents. Please use Word's "Save As" option to save your document as an older (.doc) file type.

Visit our Author Services website for further resources and guides to the complete publication process and beyond.