Aims and Scope
The Journal of Women's Mental Health publishes peer-reviewed research on mental disorders, psychological well-being, prevention, assessment, treatment, services and policy concerning women and girls across the life course, including biological, reproductive, psychological, social and cultural influences.
Aims
What the journal exists to do
Mental health in women and girls is shaped by biological, psychological, reproductive, social, cultural and health-system factors. The journal brings together psychiatry, psychology, epidemiology, health-services research and related disciplines to examine these influences and their interactions.
The journal welcomes research that makes a substantive contribution to understanding or improving mental health in women and girls. Contributions may concern their experiences, needs, determinants, assessment, prevention, treatment or services, as well as sex- and gender-related mechanisms. Studies may address one domain or connect several, from basic mechanisms to population and service research, in any setting.
Its aims are to advance understanding of mental health, support psychological well-being and prevention, and inform assessment, treatment, recovery, services and policy for women and girls. Research should meet reporting and ethical standards appropriate to its design and population, and provide evidence accessible to researchers, clinicians and policy readers.
Relevance
What makes a manuscript relevant to this journal
A manuscript fits when it addresses a substantive question about mental health in women or girls. Merely including women in a general study does not establish this contribution; a comparison with men or a demonstrated sex or gender difference is not required.
The first two criteria define relevance. The remaining criteria illustrate ways to establish that relevance; they are not an exhaustive checklist.
- A mental-health question is central. Mental disorders, psychological well-being, distress, determinants, experiences, assessment, prevention, treatment, services, policy, or relevant mechanisms and methods are the subject. A substantive analysis may focus on a secondary outcome; an incidental mention is insufficient.
- The contribution to women's or girls' mental health is substantive. Explain how the question, population, design, analysis or interpretation advances understanding of their mental health or care. Population-focused descriptive research can qualify with a justified question and sampling approach; comparative or difference-testing designs are not mandatory.
- Sex-linked biology plausibly contributes — reproductive endocrine change, pharmacokinetics in pregnancy or lactation, or a sex difference in presentation or course that the study examines rather than assumes.
- Reproductive or life-course stage is the context — puberty, the menstrual cycle, fertility care, pregnancy, the postpartum period, pregnancy loss, the menopausal transition, or later life.
- Gendered social position or structure is the exposure — caregiving, employment, income, migration, education, discrimination, legal standing, or exposure to violence.
- Recognition, diagnosis or treatment differs for women or girls, or is suspected to — referral pathways, time to diagnosis, diagnostic threshold, treatment response, adherence, or adverse effects.
- The service or system is the subject — access, availability, continuity, workforce, integration with maternity or primary care, or the treatment gap in a given setting.
- The instrument or method is the subject — development, validation, cross-cultural adaptation or measurement invariance of a tool used in this population.
Domains
Six core domains
These complementary domains illustrate the journal's scope. A focused contribution within one domain is welcome, as is research connecting several.
- Perinatal and reproductive psychiatry
- Mental health in pregnancy, the postpartum period, and around pregnancy loss, termination and fertility care, including cognitive and mood change across reproductive transitions, the course of existing illness through these periods, and the considerations that treatment in them carries.
- Hormonal and life-stage influences
- Puberty, the menstrual cycle, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, hormonal contraception, the perimenopausal transition and later life, and the endocrine contributions to mood, anxiety and psychotic presentations — studied alongside the psychological and social factors that act with them, not in place of them.
- Trauma, adversity and their sequelae
- Intimate partner and sexual violence, childhood maltreatment, gender-based violence, trafficking and exploitation, post-traumatic presentations, early-life adversity and adult outcomes, and the coping, resilience and service responses that follow them.
- Social and structural determinants
- Income, housing, caregiving, employment and workplace conditions, migration, education, discrimination, stigma and legal standing studied as determinants of mental health rather than as background variables, including minority stress and intersectional analysis.
- Access to and organization of care
- Service design, referral and continuity, treatment engagement, integration with maternity and primary care, task-sharing and workforce, mental-health rights and policy, and the treatment gap across high-, middle- and low-income settings.
- Measurement, mechanisms and population patterns
- Development, validation and cross-cultural adaptation of instruments, measurement invariance across populations, the cognitive, behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms underlying presentations in this population, and epidemiological studies of prevalence, incidence, trajectory and disparity.
Conditions
Conditions and presentations
The journal is not restricted to a subset of diagnoses. Any psychiatric or psychological presentation is within scope where the relevance test above is met; the groupings below are indicative, not a closed list.
- Mood and anxiety
- Depressive disorders, bipolar disorders, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, including their perinatal and perimenopausal presentations.
- Trauma-related
- Post-traumatic stress disorder, complex presentations following prolonged interpersonal trauma, and dissociative presentations.
- Psychotic disorders and severe mental illness
- Schizophrenia and related disorders, postpartum psychosis, and the reproductive, parenting and service questions that accompany severe mental illness in women.
- Self-harm and suicidality
- Suicidal ideation, self-harm and suicide, including method and risk patterns that differ by sex or gender, and the service response to them.
- Eating and body-image disorders
- Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder and related presentations, including in pregnancy and across developmental stages.
- Neurodevelopmental conditions
- Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism and related conditions, with particular interest in recognition, presentation and late diagnosis in girls and women.
- Substance use and addictive behaviors
- Alcohol, prescription and illicit substance use, and behavioral addictions, including use in pregnancy, treatment access, and stigma as a barrier to care.
- Personality and interpersonal difficulty
- Personality disorder diagnoses and the questions of diagnostic bias, trauma history and service response that attach to them in women.
- Sleep, cognition and mental health
- Sleep disturbance across reproductive transitions and midlife, and cognitive change where it bears on mental health.
- Mental health in physical illness
- Psychological and psychiatric outcomes in cancer, cardiometabolic, autoimmune, gynecological and other chronic conditions, where the mental-health outcome is the object of study.
Life course
Across the life course
The journal takes a life-course view. Reproductive transitions are a major part of that view but are not the whole of it: adolescence, midlife and later life raise questions of social role, caregiving, bereavement, physical comorbidity and cognition that are not reducible to endocrine change.
- Adolescence
- Onset and first presentation, puberty, school and social environment, self-harm, disordered eating, and the transition between child and adult services.
- Reproductive years
- The menstrual cycle and premenstrual disorders, contraception, fertility care, work and caregiving, and the course of established illness.
- Pregnancy and postpartum
- Perinatal depression and anxiety, postpartum psychosis, treatment decisions in pregnancy and lactation, pregnancy loss, stillbirth and termination, and perinatal service provision.
- Midlife and the menopausal transition
- Mood, anxiety and sleep across perimenopause, the interpretation of symptom attribution, caregiving for older relatives and adolescent children, and employment.
- Later life
- Depression and anxiety in older women, bereavement, isolation, poverty, cognitive change, and access to mental-health care in old age.
Clinical
Clinical, prevention and service research
Treatment research is within scope. The journal considers pharmacological, psychological, behavioral, digital and service-delivery interventions, prevention and early-intervention programs, and implementation and integrated-care studies.
Intervention and implementation studies should address a substantive mental-health question relevant to women or girls. Examples include prevention in a perinatal population, treatment response or adverse effects in women, and access to care in women's health settings. Mixed-population studies should provide a supported analysis or interpretation relevant to women; enrollment proportions or unsupported discussion alone do not establish fit. Null findings and an absence of sex differences do not remove an otherwise relevant study from scope.
Diagnostic and assessment research is likewise in scope — including work on diagnostic threshold, delay, bias and instrument performance in this population. The editorial policies state the reporting, registration and ethics requirements that apply.
Adjacent fields
Interdisciplinary submissions
Work from adjacent disciplines is welcome when the mental-health contribution is central rather than ancillary. The pairs below state the distinction the journal applies.
- Obstetrics, gynecology and midwifery
- In scope
A mental-health outcome, exposure or service is studied in an obstetric or gynecological context — psychological outcomes after pregnancy loss, screening within maternity care, mental health after hysterectomy or in endometriosis.
Not in scope
Obstetric or gynecological research with no substantive mental-health question. - Neuroscience and biological psychiatry
- In scope
A mechanism is examined with an interpretation that reaches women's mental health — neuroendocrine contributions to perinatal mood, sex differences in a relevant circuit or pharmacological response.
Not in scope
Basic or preclinical neuroscience with no articulated route to a mental-health question in this population. - Public health and epidemiology
- In scope
Prevalence, trajectory, disparity, determinant or service-access analyses in which the mental-health question and its relevance to women or girls are both central.
Not in scope
General population health studies without a substantive analysis or interpretation addressing mental health in women or girls. - Sociology, anthropology and gender studies
- In scope
Empirical, qualitative, theoretical, legal or policy analysis with a substantive mental-health contribution, including stigma, help-seeking, cultural idioms of distress, rights and access to services. Arguments and interpretations should be supported by appropriate evidence and explicit methods.
Not in scope
Social or cultural analysis without a substantive mental-health question, and advocacy without evidence or scholarly analysis. - Digital health and data science
- In scope
Digital interventions, remote assessment, predictive modeling and methods that address mental health in women or girls, including development, usability, feasibility, measurement and simulation studies. Evaluation should match the development stage and intended claim; clinical effectiveness is not a prerequisite for studying a method.
Not in scope
Generic algorithm or platform development, or technology for a physical condition, without a substantive mental-health question relevant to women or girls. - Primary care and health services
- In scope
Recognition, referral, continuity, integration and workforce questions where the presentation is a mental-health one.
Not in scope
General service-delivery research with no mental-health component.
Populations
Populations and reporting of sex and gender
Sex and gender are not interchangeable. Sex refers to biological attributes; gender to social position, role, expectation and identity. They often act together, and a study that conflates them cannot say which it has observed. The journal asks authors to state which they are examining, to report how it was ascertained, and to say who was and was not included.
Mixed-sex and mixed-gender cohorts are within scope when they provide a substantive analysis or evidence-supported interpretation relevant to women's or girls' mental health. Authors should identify planned and exploratory analyses, report uncertainty and discuss limitations. A statistically significant interaction or a difference between groups is not required.
Girls and adolescents are within scope throughout, as are studies of the transition between child and adult services.
Transgender and nonbinary participants. The journal's subject is mental health in women and girls. Research including transgender and nonbinary people is considered where it bears on that subject — for example studies of gendered social exposures, of reproductive-stage mental health, or of access to women's mental-health services. Authors should distinguish sex, gender identity and reproductive status when relevant, report how each was recorded, and justify population eligibility. Reproductive capacity or stage should not be assumed from gender identity.
Study types
Research approaches and reporting
Scope eligibility and evidence strength are separate questions. A design is not too small for this journal if its claims match what it can support; equally, a large dataset does not excuse a claim it cannot carry.
- Original research. Clinical, epidemiological, health-services, qualitative, mixed-methods and mechanistic research, including observational, diagnostic, intervention and implementation designs. Relevant preclinical, computational, methods and simulation studies should explain their model or method, its relevance to women's mental health and its limitations. Pilot and feasibility studies should be identified as such.
- Evidence synthesis. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and scoping reviews suited to mapping a field, with transparent methods appropriate to the review question.
- Narrative and literature reviews. Critical synthesis addressing a defined question, with a clear account of how the literature was selected and interpreted.
- Brief reports and short communications. Complete studies with claims proportionate to their design, including replications and null or negative results.
- Case reports and case studies. Reports that contribute to recognition, assessment or care, with clear clinical context, limitations, protection of privacy and documented consent for publication.
- Editorials, perspectives and commentaries. Evidence-informed perspectives, theoretical and policy analysis addressing women's mental health, with transparent reasoning and acknowledgment of limitations.
The journal's submission guidance lists Original Research Articles, Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses, Clinical Studies, Measurement & Assessment Studies, Qualitative Research, Brief Reports, Case Studies, Review Articles, and Perspectives & Commentaries. Preparation guidance is available in the instructions for authors.
Boundaries
Outside scope
The boundaries below distinguish unrelated submissions from work with a substantive contribution to women's mental health. Evidence quality is assessed separately from subject fit.
- General psychiatry or psychology with incidental sex or gender
- Studies that include women but provide no substantive question, analysis or supported interpretation about their mental health.
- Women's physical health without a mental-health question
- Physical-health research without a substantive mental-health question, mechanism, experience or service contribution. Physical illness can be the exposure or context of an eligible mental-health study.
- Basic or preclinical science without a stated route to this field
- Molecular, animal or pharmacological mechanism studies with no articulated interpretation for mental health in women or girls.
- Social or cultural analysis without a mental-health question
- Gender, policy or sociological work with no substantive analysis of mental health, its determinants, rights or services.
- Advocacy, opinion and position pieces without scholarly contribution
- Writing whose contribution is a position rather than evidence or analysis. The journal publishes work on rights, policy and structural inequality, and asks that it meet the same evidential standards as any other submission.
- Evidence quality: assessed separately from scope
- Interpretation must match the design. Observational associations alone do not establish causation; causal analyses should state assumptions, address bias and report uncertainty and sensitivity analyses. Qualitative studies should justify sampling and interpretation; models should state assumptions and undergo evaluation appropriate to their claims. Unsupported prevalence or clinical claims require correction and may prevent publication. These are evidence-quality decisions, not subject exclusions.
Assessing fit
Deciding whether to submit
State the mental-health question, the substantive contribution to understanding or improving mental health in women or girls, and the evidence your design can support. Studies can address one domain or several. If fit remains uncertain, contact the editorial office with a title and abstract before submission.
All submissions undergo initial editorial screening. Manuscripts that meet the journal's scope and minimum requirements proceed to independent peer review. Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request. Manuscripts that proceed to external peer review are normally evaluated by at least two independent subject-matter experts. Editorial decisions are based on scope, scientific quality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, reporting quality, and relevance to the journal.
- Instructions for Authors Preparation, reporting guidelines and formatting.
- Editorial Policies Ethics, consent, integrity, corrections and appeals.
- Archives Published work; assess new submissions against the scope above.
- Editorial Board Who assesses submissions, with roles and affiliations.
- About the journal What the journal is, and how it takes responsibility.
- Submit a Manuscript The approved submission routes.
The Journal of Women's Mental Health (JWMH) is published by Open Access Pub under CC BY 4.0. Questions about whether a manuscript fits this scope are welcome before submission — contact the editorial office.