JCPP Advances invites manuscripts for a special issue entitled “Transdiagnostic Approaches to Child and Adolescent Mental Health” to be edited by Dr. Alessio Bellato, Dr. Giorgia Michelini, Prof. Catharina Hartman, Prof. Stephen Becker, Prof. Henrik Larsson, Prof. Emily Jones, Dr. James Li, Dr. Samantha Lynch, and Dr. Jill Ehrenreich-May, and due for publication in June 2026.
Interested authors should submit a letter of intent as a Microsoft Word document to the JCPP Advances editorial office with ‘JCPPA Special Issue 2026’ in the subject line by Friday 11 April 2025.*
About the special issue
This special issue aims to advance our understanding of transdiagnostic mechanisms across clinical dimensions in child and adolescent mental health through high-quality empirical studies and evidence synthesis, including systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
Co-occurrence of child and adolescent psychiatric conditions is the rule rather than the exception. Many children referred to mental health services present with complex clinical and risk profiles, characterised by dimensional variations across multiple diagnostic categories. Similarly, certain psychopathological processes (such as emotion and arousal dysregulation, and cognitive impairments) are shared across different disorders, posing significant challenges for clinical decision-making and practice.
In recent years, transdiagnostic approaches (e.g., RDoC, HiTOP, transdiagnostic clinical staging models) have emerged as valuable frameworks for understanding co-occurring conditions, overlapping clinical presentations, and shared underlying mechanisms. However, as studies have primarily used cross-sectional designs and samples lacking ethnic-racial diversity, there has been limited attention to developmental processes and cross-cultural perspectives. Furthermore, translation of these approaches into clinical care has been limited.
This special issue will spotlight innovative approaches to clinical assessment, prevention, and intervention that target shared core processes/mechanisms and cross-disorder clinical dimensions. We also welcome studies investigating the transdiagnostic validity of novel factors or domains and how they shape specific clinical presentations, as well as fundamental research in the field of developmental psychopathology.
We invite submissions on transdiagnostic processes and mechanisms (e.g., emotion regulation, arousal regulation) and clinical dimensions (both established and novel) cutting across diagnostic categories, with an emphasis on (but not limited to):
- Differences and similarities in developmental trajectories across child and adolescent psychiatric conditions (e.g., early risk factors, sensitive/vulnerability periods, development of transdiagnostic dimensions)
- Cultural and contextual influences on transdiagnostic mechanisms and dimensions (e.g., the cultural validity of transdiagnostic models and frameworks)
- Innovative and multidisciplinary methodologies relevant to understanding transdiagnostic constructs and mechanisms (e.g., ecological momentary assessment, network analysis, computational modelling, machine learning, genetics, psychophysiological or neuroimaging approaches)
- Opportunities and practical challenges in translating transdiagnostic research into clinical settings, policy, or public health strategies.
We particularly welcome contributions from underrepresented regions and involving people with lived experience, and research that focuses on diverse populations to ensure broad and inclusive perspectives in the field.
Submissions should adhere to open and reproductible science practices, such as pre-registration of hypotheses before data analysis, data sharing in public repositories, and use of adequately powered samples, as applicable. Systematic reviews should adhere to specific reporting guidelines (e.g., PRISMA), as appropriate, and protocols should be pre-registered. We also welcome narrative reviews, methodological perspectives, and clinical opinions.
Submission Information
Interested authors should submit a letter of intent as a Microsoft Word document to the JCPP Advances editorial office (finley.overland@acamh.org) with ‘JCPPA Special Issue 2026’ in the subject line by Friday 11 April 2025.*
The letter should include:
- A tentative title
- A brief description of the proposed submission (up to 500 words) including a clear statement of the methods and findings
- A brief explanation of the unique contribution made by the proposed manuscript (under 100 words)
- Names of co-authors
- Contact information for the corresponding author.
A unique aspect of this special issue is that the Editors will be directly involved in assessing letters of intent, handling submissions, and serving as peer reviewers together with external, independent reviewers. This will help streamline the review process while maintaining high standards of peer review and editorial quality.
The editors will review all submissions and invite shortlisted authors to submit full manuscripts. The editors will contact all authors by no later than 19 April 2025 to inform them on whether they have been invited to submit a full manuscript. If you do not hear back by this date, please do notify the editorial office (finley.overland@acamh.org). The submission of full manuscripts will be due by no later than 27 August 2025.
Please note that, following the letters of intent, all submitted full manuscripts will be subject to the standard robust peer review process and final acceptance is not guaranteed. In some instances, some manuscripts may be accepted for publication in normal JCPP Advances issues outside of the Special Issue 2026. Papers accepted into JCPP Advances will be published on Early View ahead of appearing in the Special Issue 2026.
Our team of editors are well accomplished researchers and academics and bring in expertise from various areas of child and adolescent mental health. They are themselves prolific authors and reviewers and have contributed to various international journals. They are all committed to the cause of JCPP Advances and are very keen to help authors publish high quality papers.
Open Access Fees and Funding Information
Please note that JCPP Advances is an Open Access journal and will therefore involve article processing fees. However, your institution or funder may be able to help with open access Article Publication Charges (APCs) through a Wiley Open Access Account. Check here for more details.
For indexing information, please see here. Your paper will be indexed on PubMedCentral and therefore discoverable on Pubmed and Medline.
*Extended by two weeks from original deadline