It is published by Elsevier and is the official journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

The group Healthy Skepticism has accused the journal of having published an article, in 2001, that misrepresented the results of an industry-sponsored clinical trial, study 329.

[2] The trial was sponsored by, and ghostwritten on behalf of, SmithKline Beecham (now GlaxoSmithKline), and is widely regarded as having downplayed the trial's negative results.

This claim is disputed on the basis that primary and secondary outcomes for efficacy were manipulated and safety results were obscured or omitted.

Critics therefore argue that the Journal's editors have failed to uphold the scientific standards of clinical research by failing to retract a fraudulent article.