To:Council, Royal College of Psychiatrists

June 1, 2011

From:Professor Michelle Riba

Zonal Representative 2

Re:WPA Secretary for Publications- Statement of Work Intentions

I am honored to submit this information for the position of WPA Secretary for Publications and appreciate the review by the Council, Royal College of Psychiatrists. Currently, I am Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan, Past President of the American Psychiatric Association, WPA zonal representative 2, Chair, WPA Section on Psychiatry, Medicine and Primary Care; and Co-Chair with Luigi Grassi, M.D. of the WPA Section on PsychOncology and Palliative Care; and Consultant, WPA Operational Committee on Publications, and meet the qualifications of a position on the WPA Executive Committee.

Summary of Experience in Publications

I have a demonstrated record of expertise and productivity in publications with over100 scientific articles, books, chapters and scientific abstracts. I have served on the editorial board of a number of journals, including Psychiatric Services, Mental Health in Family Medicine, Current Psychiatry, and on the International Advisory board of Academic Psychiatry and the editorial advisory board of a major publishing firm, American Psychiatric Press, Inc. I am a reviewer for many of the major psychiatric journals, including The American Journal of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine, Academic Psychiatry, Journal of Psychiatric Practice, and Psycho-Oncology. I have edited or co-edited 15 editions of The American Psychiatric Press Review of Psychiatry series; Primary Care Psychiatry, Saunders; The Doctor-Patient Relationship in Pharmacotherapy: Improving Treatment Effectiveness, Guilford; Clinical Psycho-Oncology: An International Perspective(in production), Wiley; Clinical Manual of Emergency Psychiatry, APPI., Inc.; Competency in Combining Pharmacotherapy and Psychotherapy, APPI., Inc. (published in Japanese, Slovak and English); Psychiatry and Cardiology, Wiley (in publication); and Treatment-Resistant Depression: A Roadmap , APPI, Inc.. In addition, I have co-edited special editions of journals, such as “Resident as Teacher”, Academic Psychiatry. I was much honored to have served as an editor for the WPA Educational Programme on Depressive Disorders, volume 2, on “Physical Illness and Depression”. In addition, I have served on the editorial board of Cancer News on the Net, and been honored by Current Psychiatry as Section Editorof the Year. I have also been a mentor and educator, having helped students and trainees with getting their work published and mentoring groups of trainees and young psychiatrists in their own roles of serving on editorial boards and journal review functions.

As a consultant to the WPA Operational Committee on Publications, I have had the privilege to be part of many of the important decisions and plans regarding WPA’s impressive portfolio of publications, under the auspices of Secretary for Publications, Helen Herrman and President Mario Maj.

Work Intentions

It will be important to seek to involve colleagues from throughout the WPA membership, especially from underrepresented parts of the world. I would seek the expert counsel and support of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and work to determine how we could help promote the publication goals and vision of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. We might want to set up specific meetings, conference calls, or a task group, to assess the need and goals between the WPA and the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Work Intentions continued

Opportunities exist to help member societiesenhance existing journals, start journals that are important to their local societies and regions, and collaborate with others who have experience with building opportunities for focused journals.

At WPA meetings, it will be important to continue practices that have proven very successful, e.g. open forums for colleagues to receive informal consultation on ways to publish their work, either in books or journals; seeking ideas from our members, through email or web, on new and focused ways to be helpful to our member societies regarding publications; opportunities to teach trainees and young psychiatrists about new publications technologies; and panel discussions with editors about topics such as ethics in publications, conflict of interest ; and networking about ways to obtain assistance, if needed, in data management, statistics, and language.

It would be helpful to consider new journals that have an express purpose, for example, to increase the participation of medical students, residents, and junior faculty, in WPA, and to give them the opportunity for publication. It would be helpful to consider the viability of having a WPA journal, either online or paper, that is focused on medical students, residents, and/or junior colleagues, with an editorial board that includes these students, residents, and junior investigators, as members.

Publishing important lectures, grand rounds, invited symposia, etc., either online or in paper journals, might be explored. Some very exciting lectures could form the basis for curricula at various institutions around the world, as well as offering the ability for members of WPA societies to hear speakers give talks. These might also be integrated into other WPA educational materials.

Providing books and journals to low income countries is very important and should be sustained, and expanded.

Translating WPA journals is muchneeded and helps to disseminate ideas and impart understanding of cross cultural issues in psychiatry. I would seek to work with WPA member societies who are interested and desirous of such efforts.

As DSM-V evolves, there may be opportunities for WPA publications to help test and disseminate the DSM-V, including clinical and research oriented issues as well as didactic curriculum for students and residents.

Collaboration and Receiving Input

It will be integral to my work plan as Secretary for Publications to strongly collaborate with our distinguished officers on the WPA Executive Committee, zonal representatives, WPA section members, and Presidents, Secretaries and officers of WPA Member Societies such as the Royal College of Psychiatrists in building the WPA portfolio of publications. By seeking to excel in the area of publications, we can continue to demonstrate the value of evidence-based psychiatric scholarly work and clinical experiences that are so useful and vital to our colleagues throughout the world.

Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to working with you. I wish you the best for a successful meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. I would be pleased to provide further information and can be reached at or 734-764-6879.

With sincere appreciation,

Michelle Riba, M.D., M.S.