Aims & Scope
International Journal of Eating and Weight Disorders (IJWD) publishes rigorous research on the etiology, prevention, assessment, and treatment of eating disorders and weight-related conditions across the lifespan, integrating biological, psychological, and social perspectives.
Core Research Domains
Clinical Eating Disorders
- Anorexia nervosa: restrictive and binge-purge subtypes
- Bulimia nervosa: diagnostic criteria, prevalence, outcomes
- Binge-eating disorder: assessment and intervention
- Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID)
- Other specified feeding or eating disorders (OSFED)
- Rumination disorder and pica in clinical populations
Weight Disorders & Eating Behavior
- Obesity with comorbid eating pathology
- Night eating syndrome and sleep-related eating
- Emotional eating and stress-induced eating patterns
- Food addiction: diagnostic validity and treatment
- Disordered eating in weight management contexts
- Bariatric surgery outcomes and psychological adaptation
Body Image & Psychopathology
- Body dissatisfaction: measurement and correlates
- Body image disturbance in eating disorders
- Drive for thinness and muscularity
- Appearance-based social comparison and media influence
- Body checking and avoidance behaviors
- Comorbid anxiety, depression, and personality disorders
Treatment & Intervention
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and enhanced CBT
- Family-based treatment (FBT) and systemic approaches
- Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) for eating disorders
- Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) adaptations
- Pharmacotherapy: efficacy and safety profiles
- Digital interventions and telemedicine approaches
Secondary Focus Areas
Biological Mechanisms
Neurobiology of appetite regulation, genetic susceptibility markers, neuroendocrine dysregulation, gut-brain axis in eating behavior, neuroimaging findings in eating disorders.
Special Populations
Eating disorders in children and preadolescents, late-onset eating disorders in older adults, gender and sexual minority populations, athletes and performance contexts, pregnancy and postpartum periods.
Prevention & Early Intervention
Universal and targeted prevention programs, early detection screening tools, risk factor identification, protective factors and resilience, school-based and community interventions.
Sociocultural Factors
Cultural variations in eating disorder presentation, weight stigma and discrimination, social media impact on body image, peer influence and social contagion, health disparities and access to care.
Assessment & Measurement
Psychometric validation of eating disorder instruments, ecological momentary assessment methods, behavioral observation protocols, biomarker development, diagnostic classification refinement.
Comorbidity & Medical Complications
Substance use disorders and eating pathology, trauma and post-traumatic stress, cardiovascular and metabolic complications, bone health and osteoporosis, gastrointestinal sequelae, reproductive health impacts.
Emerging Research Areas
Digital Phenotyping
Machine learning approaches to predict relapse, smartphone-based passive monitoring of eating behaviors, wearable sensor data integration, artificial intelligence in treatment personalization.
Precision Medicine
Genetic and epigenetic markers for treatment response, microbiome profiling in eating disorders, metabolomic signatures, personalized intervention algorithms based on multidimensional data.
Novel Interventions
Virtual reality exposure therapy for body image, neurostimulation techniques (TMS, tDCS), psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, mindfulness and acceptance-based interventions, peer-delivered support models.
Implementation Science
Dissemination of evidence-based treatments, training and supervision models, healthcare system integration, cost-effectiveness analyses, policy evaluation and health economics.
Article Types & Editorial Priorities
Priority 1: Fast-Track Review
Expedited- Original Research Articles (quantitative and qualitative)
- Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
- Methodological Innovations and Validation Studies
- Clinical Practice Guidelines
- Randomized Controlled Trials
Priority 2: Standard Review
Regular- Short Communications (novel findings, pilot data)
- Data Notes and Replication Studies
- Perspectives and Commentaries
- Narrative Reviews
- Study Protocols (for registered trials)
Rarely Considered
Selective- Case Reports (only if exceptionally rare presentation)
- Opinion Pieces (by invitation only)
- Book Reviews
Editorial Standards & Requirements
Reporting Guidelines
All submissions must adhere to discipline-specific reporting standards:
- CONSORT for randomized trials
- STROBE for observational studies
- PRISMA for systematic reviews
- COREQ for qualitative research
- STARD for diagnostic accuracy
Data Transparency
Authors must provide access to de-identified individual participant data upon reasonable request. Analysis code and study materials should be deposited in recognized repositories (OSF, GitHub, Zenodo).
Ethics & Registration
IRB/ethics committee approval required for human subjects research. Clinical trials must be prospectively registered (ClinicalTrials.gov, ISRCTN). Informed consent procedures must be detailed.
Preprint Policy
Preprints on recognized servers (PsyArXiv, medRxiv, bioRxiv) are welcomed and do not preclude consideration. Authors should disclose preprint DOI at submission and update with journal DOI upon acceptance.
Conflict of Interest
Full disclosure of financial and non-financial competing interests required. Industry-funded research must include data access and analysis independence statements.
Statistical Rigor
Power analyses, effect sizes with confidence intervals, and handling of missing data must be reported. P-hacking and HARKing are grounds for rejection. Bayesian approaches are encouraged.
Decision Metrics & Timeline
Ready to Submit?
If your research advances understanding of eating disorders, weight disorders, body image, or related psychopathology through rigorous methodology and clear clinical or theoretical implications, we invite your submission.
Contact Editorial Office
