Publications Policies

  1. Publication Frequency
  2. Open Access Policy
  3. Archiving
  4. Corssmark Policy Statement
  5. Publication Ethics and Policy Guidelines
  6. Plagiarism Policy
  7. Repository Policy
  8. Data Sharing Policy
  9. Advertisement Policy
  10. Appeals Process
  11. Complaint Process
  12. Authorship Criteria
  13. Double Blind Peer Review & Editorial Process
  14. Withdrawal Policy

  15. Ethics and malpractice policy 

PUBLICATION FREQUENCY

Bi-Annually

OPEN ACCESS POLICY

All articles in JHRR are open access and freely available online. The journal's contents are released under the Creative Commons Attribution licence, which allows for unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium as long as the original authors and source are cited. 

ARCHIVING

Long term preservation and archiving (LPTA) of data ensures that the journal’s data is backed up in a network of libraries created by a dedicated digital archiving and preservation service. JHRR employs PKP Private’s LOCKSS network to create a file distributed among the participated libraries, allowing these libraries to create permanent files of the journal with goals to preserve and restore the digital data. Other than that, a separate doi has been assigned to each article.

CROSSMARK POLICY STATEMENT

All articles published in Journal of Health and Rehabilitation Research receive a DOI and are permanently published. This applies regardless of the outcome of the peer review that follows after publication.

Authors can revise, change and update their articles by publishing new versions, which are added to the article’s history; however, the individual versions, once published, cannot be altered or withdrawn and are permanently available on the Journal of Health and Rehabilitation Research website. Journal of Health and Rehabilitation Research participates in the CrossMark scheme, a multi-publisher initiative that has developed a standard way for readers to locate the current version of an article. By applying the CrossMark policies, Journal of Health and Rehabilitation Research is committed to maintaining the content it publishes and to alerting readers to changes if and when they occur. There are 12 defined types of accepted updates within Crossmark:

  1. Addendum
  2. Clarification
  3. Correction
  4. Corrigendum
  5. Erratum
  6. Expression of concern
  7. New edition
  8. New version
  9. Partial retraction
  10. Removal
  11. Retraction
  12. Withdrawal

Any such update in the contents will be published as a regular document in the coming issue, bearing regular pagination and DOI, with a link to its parent content/ document/ work. 
Readers are encouraged to submit their comments regarding our published work as “Editorial Correspondence”. These comments will be shared with the authors to respond and then these comments with author responses will be published in coming issue. If the authors could not respond/ explain properly, then editorial board will decide regarding the fate of that document. The readers can also submit their comments online as “ADD COMMENT” option on each published work. The authors can respond online by post or email. These posts are saved, and any reader can see these without registration.

PUBLICATION ETHICS AND POLICY GUIDELINES

AUTHORSHIP DISPUTES

Acknowledgements

This journal advocates acknowledging contributions to scientific work where authorship is not claimed. All additional individuals who contributed to the study and are not a part of authorship should be credited, and their contributions should be detailed, according to ICMJE criteria. All authors must reserve the right to know their contributions were acknowledged along with the technical assistance, data gathering assistance, writing assistance and services offered from departmental head. Support in terms of funding and access to scientific instrumentation should also be acknowledged.

Number and order of authors

The number of authors is not limited, although it shouldn't be substantially higher than the amount of work produced. The contribution to the work should determine the rank of the authors. All authors should concur on the number and arrangement.

Principal and corresponding authors

Author with the most significant contribution should be ranked as the principal/first author. First author or the primary author should be the person who contributed the most. The principal author may, with the consent of all authors, either be the corresponding author himself or nominate another author for it.

Informed consent & maintaining the confidentiality of research participants

  1. Before including case specifics, other personal information, or images of patients and other persons in their work, writers must first obtain the relevant authorization forms, permits, and releases in order to be in compliance with the country's or region's data protection and privacy laws.
  2. Each participant who appears in any video, audio, photograph, image, illustration, case report, or other form in which they can be identified, or who is the person's legal guardian, or another person with legal authority to act on their behalf, is informed beforehand that such photographs are being taken or such video, recording, photograph, image, illustration, or report is being made and of all the purposes for which they might be used, including disclosure. That person, their legal guardian, or another person in a position of authority must express their written consent in order for it to be accepted.
  3. The written consent must abide by all applicable privacy and data protection laws in its entirety. When minors are involved (especially those with special needs or learning difficulties), when an individual's head or face appears, or while the individual's name or other personal information is mentioned, extra caution should be given when acquiring consent.
  4. In the instance of a child, consent should be regarded not to have been provided and those photographs should not be disseminated if the child's parents or legal guardians disagree with the use of those images. To decrease the probability of images being used improperly, it is also crucial to make sure that only pictures of child wearing appropriate clothing are displayed.
  5. Even if permission has been granted, care must be taken to ensure that the person being depicted and captioned are courteous and cannot be seen as disparaging that person.
  6. In order to publish a manuscript, authors must persuade the editors that "informed consent to participate" was obtained from all adult subjects or from the parents or guardians of any minor subjects.
  7. Names, initials, hospital or social security numbers, dates of birth, or other personal or identifiable information should not be used for patients or research participants.
  8. Images of patients or research subjects should not be used for publication unless it is absolutely necessary for the scientific investigation and the patient (or parent/guardian) has given written, informed consent. Identifying information ought to be omitted if it is unnecessary, even when consent has been given. Editors may request to submit the written consent.
  9. In cases where there is any ambiguity regarding anonymity, informed consent is required.
  10. The authors must make sure that the editors do not misrepresent the scientific meaning while choosing the themes.
  11. For the use of completely anonymized images from which the individual cannot be identified, such as X-rays, ultrasound images, pathology slides, or laparoscopic images, formal consent is not necessary so long as the images are free of any identifying marks and are not accompanied by text that could place the individual at risk of being identified.
  12. It is typically insufficient to anonymize a photo simply by adding eye bars or obscuring the subject's face if authorization has not been obtained.
  13. The CARE case report writing guidelines should be followed by authors.

Conflicts of interest/ Grant support and financial disclosure

  1. Any conflicts of interest including financial or personal ties to other people, businesses, or organizations that can improperly affect (bias) their work must be disclosed by all authors.
  2. Financial conflicts include, but are not limited to, work-related consultancy, stock ownership, honoraria, expert testimony that was paid for, patents or patent applications, and travel grants; all of which started within three years of the work that was submitted.
  3. Authors should declare no conflict of interest.
  4. Authors of studies who have received funding from an organization are required to sign a statement attesting to their full access to all the study's data and their full responsibility for the validity of the data they gathered and the reliability of their data analysis. This declaration must be included with the manuscript.
  5. A further obligation for reviewers is to disclose any conflicts they may have with the work they are assigned to assess.
  6. This journal publishes conflicts of interest/ grant support and financial disclosure along with all published items.

PROTECTION OF RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS

Approval of Ethical Committee/ Use of humans and animals/ Helsinki Declaration

  1. We presume that the authors believe in the culture of responsible research.
  2. To uphold the fundamental principles of research objectivity, honesty, openness, fairness, accountability, and stewardship we encourage research integrity.
  3. We support the fundamental principles of the COPE standards and handle any alleged conduct in accordance with them.
  4. At the time the article is submitted, the ethical approval certificate for any research involving individuals or animals must be provided.
  5. The most recent version of the Helsinki Declaration must be used and noted when reporting studies involving human participants.
  6. For medical research involving human subjects, we abide by the ICMJE Recommendations on Protection of Research Participants and the Declaration of Helsinki-related ethical principles of the World Medical Association (WMA).
  7. If there is any question about whether the study was carried out in line with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must justify their strategy and show that the institutional review board specifically accepted any questionable components of the trial.
  8. The WMA declaration on animal use in health research, the consensus author guidelines on animal ethics and welfare from the International Association of Veterinary Editors, and the guide for the care and use of laboratory animals should all be followed by authors.
  9. Authors must certify in writing that all legal and ethical regulations for the human treatment of the animals used in the study have been complied with.
  10. The relevant steps used to reduce pain or discomfort should be noted in the Methods (experimental methods) section, and information regarding animal care should be included.
  11. This journal suggests the following 3Rs principal for using people and animals in research.

Replacement: approaches which avoid or replace the use of animals.

Reduction: approaches which minimize the number of animals used per experiment.

Refinement: approaches which minimize animal suffering and improve welfare.

PLAGIARISM POLICY

Plagiarism is the presenting of another author's language, text, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own unique work. Self-plagiarism is also included, which includes duplicate/redundant publication, content recycling, and salami slicing. JHRR adheres to the COPE, ICMJE, and HEC (Higher Education Commission) of Pakistan recommendations, norms, and policies on plagiarism. JHRR uses TURNITIN to check the similarity index, and notifications are sent to the authors if it is greater than 50%. If it is greater than 50%, it will be rejected without further inspection or processing. For authenticity, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan needs a similarity of less than 20%. If the authors have already checked the paper with the same software, they can submit the similarity report as a supplementary file. Plagiarism is considered academic dishonesty. If it is proven after the article has been published, it will be retracted, the authors may be permanently or temporarily blocked, and the parent institution may be notified for departmental proceedings against the author. If it is proven before publication, the present work will be rejected, and the authors may be prohibited from submitting to this journal for one or more years.

REPOSITORY POLICY

Authors are permitted to deposit all versions of their paper in an institutional or subject repository:

  1. Preprint
  2. Author’s Accepted Manuscript
    3. Version of Record

No embargo is applied.

DATA SHARING POLICY

Authors can submit their data in any public repository and share the information or link under this section at the end of the manuscript.

ADVERTISEMENT POLICY

  1. All advertisements are subject to the approval of the JHRR Management, which reserves the right to reject or cancel any ad at any time.
  2. All advertisements are accepted and published by JHRR on the warranty of the agency and advertiser that both are authorized to publish the entire contents and subject matter of the advertisement.
  3. In consideration of publication of an advertisement, the advertiser and the agency, jointly and severally, agree to indemnify and hold harmless Publisher, its officers, agents and employees against expenses (including legal fees) and losses resulting from the publication of the contents of the advertisement, including, without limitation, claims or suits for libel, violation of privacy, copyright infringement, or plagiarism.
  4. JHRR will not be liable for any failure to publish any advertisement accepted by JHRR; however, JHRR shall use its reasonable efforts to place such advertisement in subsequent available space.
  5. All advertisements must clearly and prominently identify the advertiser by trademark or signature.
  6. Any references to JHRR or its products or services in advertisements, promotional material, or merchandising by the advertiser or agency is subject to JHRR’s written approval for such use.
  7. All advertising contract position clauses are treated as requests. JHRR cannot guarantee fixed positioning.
  8. JHRR is not responsible for incidental or consequential damage for errors in displaying or printing an ad.
  9. JHRR may change the terms set forth herein at any time, provided that no such change applies to ads whose closing date precedes the announcement of the change.
  10. JHRR will not be bound by any condition, printed or otherwise, appearing on any insertion order or copy instructions.
  11. In the event of non-payments, JHRR reserves the right to hold advertiser and/or its advertising agency jointly and severally liable for such monies as are past due and payable to JHRR.
  12. Proprietary names of pharmaceutical products must be accompanied by the chemical, generic, or official name; the quantity of all active substances must be stated along with the recommended dosage. New ad copies and creative for pharmaceutical products should be sent to the advertising department. Please allow two weeks for clearance.
  13. Advertiser represents and warrants that all advertisements and pharmaceutical products they advertise are compliant with all applicable laws, rules, and regulations in the country where the advertisement will be seen. Advertisements for pharmaceutical products must comply with Concerned Government Department regulations regarding advertising and promotion.
  14. DIGITAL ADS: Any use of JHRR trademarks or copyrighted material for links to and from JHRR’s website must be approved in advance by JHRR. Any unauthorized linking is prohibited. JHRR does not endorse or support any product or organization linked to its website, nor is JHRR responsible for the content of any website promoted in an ad. The use by advertiser or its agency of pixels, beacons, cookies, tracking tags, or similar technology in advertising creative for the purpose of collecting personally identifiable information is prohibited.

Digital Cancellation Policies

Advertiser may cancel the entire insertion Order, or any portion thereof, as follows:

RUN-OF-SITE BANNER PROGRAMS

On written notice to the JHRR, advertisers may cancel all, or a portion of the campaign, without penalty 21 days or more before the campaign start date. For cancellations made within 21 days of the start date, the advertiser will be responsible for 50% of the campaign amount that was reserved for delivery.

FLAT FEE-BASED, SOV-BASED, OR FIXED PLACEMENT PROGRAMS

 On written notice to the Publisher, advertisers may cancel all, or a portion of the campaign, without penalty 30 days or more before the start date of the campaign. For cancellations made 30 to 15 days before the start date, the advertiser will be responsible for 50% of the campaign amount that was reserved for delivery. For cancellations made within 14 days of the start date, the advertiser will be responsible for 100% of the campaign amount that was reserved for delivery.

APPEALS PROCESS

The readers, authors, reviewers or any other person may submit a formal appeal through official email (submit@jhrlmc.com) of the journal regarding any problem, including but not limited to any conflict, delays in review or publishing or article processing charges or rejection of manuscripts to the Chief Editor. The case will be referred for examination/ investigation to the Appeals Committee of the Editorial Board/ Advisory Board to give recommendations to the Board for decision.

COMPLAINTS PROCESS

Regarding any publication misconduct on the part of an author, a reviewer, or the Editor/Editorial Board, readers, writers, or any other person may send a written complaint to the Chief Editor using the journal's official email address (submit@jhrlmc.com). The Complaints Process Committee of the Editorial Board/Advisory Board will be asked to investigate the issue and make suggestions to the Board regarding its course of action. The Committee is comprised of.

  • Dr. Umair Ahmed
  • Dr. Muhammad Junaid Ijaz
  • Dr. Hafiz Sheraz Arshad

AUTHORSHIP CRITERIA

JHRR follows the International Committee of Medical Journals Editor (ICMJE) guidelines for authorship criteria as “Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors” available at: http://www.icmje.org./recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html

Each author must have made enough contributions to the work to be considered an author, according to the principal author. One must fulfil all four of the following criteria for authorship, according to ICMJE rules.

  1. Idea or creation
  2. The gathering, examination, or interpretation of data
  3. Writing and approval of the manuscript
  4. Each author accepts responsibility for the entirety of the work, ensuring that any concerns about the veracity or integrity of any part of it are duly examined and addressed.

The mere arrangement of a research grant, the gathering of data, or general project management cannot justify authorship. Such actions could also be acknowledged in various ways. When submitting the work, the primary author must include the names of other authors in the proper order. Later additions of authors are not permitted. Contributions from authors will be published alongside the document. The editorial board will decide on any authorship disputes in accordance with ICMJE and COPE norms. The authors who assume primary responsibility for the manuscript should be identified when the study was carried out by a sizable, multi-center group. The above-described standards for authorship should be fully met by these. The corresponding author should explicitly identify all authors in a group author manuscript before submitting it. The acknowledgements section needs to list the other group members. After submission, changes to the authors' names or order are not permitted.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Readers may “Share-copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format” and “Adapt-remix, transform, and build upon the material”. The readers must give appropriate credit to the source of the material and indicate if changes were made to the material. Readers may not use the material for commercial purposes. The readers may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

The authors will retain the copyrights of their submitted manuscripts for all purposes.

PRIVACY STATEMENT

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

AUTHOR FEES

Waivers Policy:

If an author has no funds to pay such charges, he may request for full or partial waiver off of publication fees. We do not want charges to prevent the publication of worthy work.

DOUBLE BLIND PEER REVIEW & EDITORIAL PROCESS

JHRR operates a double-blind peer review process for all submissions to ensure the quality and integrity of the articles published in our journal. This policy is applicable to all publications submitted to JHRR.

The editorial process for JHRR begins with an initial evaluation of the manuscript to assess its scope and originality. If the manuscript meets our standards, it is then sent to two expert reviewers for a peer review. The reviewers are anonymous to the authors, and the authors are anonymous to the reviewers. The reviewers have two weeks to review the manuscript and make their decision.

In case of major or minor revisions, the manuscript is returned to the authors for further amendments and resubmission within three days (which can be extended upon special request). After the revised manuscript is submitted, it undergoes a final review by the reviewers with a final decision made by the editor. The entire publication process typically takes between 15-20 days. We are committed to providing authors with timely and constructive feedback to help improve the quality of their work. If there is a conflict of interest regarding a specific manuscript, a member of the Editorial Board will be assigned to assume responsibility for overseeing the peer review. Reviewers are treated anonymously, and the pre-publication history of each article is not made available online.

We take pride in the quality and transparency of our editorial process. We are committed to providing a fair, transparent, and timely editorial process for authors who submit their work to JHRR. Thank you for considering JHRR as a platform for your research.

 

WITHDRAWAL POLICY

At The Journal of Health and Rehabilitation Research (JHRR), we recognize that authors may occasionally need to withdraw their manuscript after submission. While we encourage authors to carefully consider their submission before doing so, we have established the following policy to guide the process of manuscript withdrawal:

Withdrawal before Peer Review: If the author(s) requests a withdrawal before the manuscript has been assigned to a reviewer, the request will be honored without question. The author(s) must send an official withdrawal request to the Editor via email.

Withdrawal during Peer Review: If the author(s) requests to withdraw the manuscript during the peer review process, they must provide a valid, detailed reason for the withdrawal. If the Editor determines the reason to be valid, the manuscript may be withdrawn without penalty.

Withdrawal after Peer Review/Revision: If the author(s) request to withdraw the manuscript after it has been peer-reviewed or revised, they must provide a strong, compelling reason. The decision to allow withdrawal will be at the Editor's discretion, and may result in a withdrawal fee to compensate for the resources used in the review and editing process.

Withdrawal after Acceptance/In Press: If the author(s) request to withdraw the manuscript after it has been accepted for publication or is already in press, this will generally not be permitted. Exceptions may be made in extraordinary circumstances at the Editor's discretion.

All withdrawal requests must be made in writing to the Editor-in-Chief via the official journal email. The request must include the manuscript title, the authors' names, the reason for withdrawal, and the date of submission.

Please note that manuscript withdrawal is a serious matter, and frequent or unjustified withdrawals may result in the author(s) being prohibited from submitting to The Journal of Health and Rehabilitation Research (JHRR) in the future.

 

Ethics and Malpractice Policy

The Journal of Health and Rehabilitation Research (JHRR) is committed to upholding the highest standards of ethical conduct and academic integrity. This Ethics and Malpractice Policy outlines the expectations and responsibilities of all individuals involved in the manuscript submission and publication process, including authors, reviewers, and editors.

  1. Duties of Authors:
  • Authors must ensure that all submitted work is original, properly cited, and explicitly acknowledges the contributions of others. Plagiarism in any form is strictly prohibited.
  • Data fabrication and falsification are unacceptable. Authors are expected to present their results clearly, honestly, and without manipulation.
  • Authors must not submit a manuscript to more than one journal concurrently. Such behavior is considered unethical and unacceptable.
  • Any potential conflicts of interest must be disclosed to the editors at the time of submission.
  1. Duties of Editors:
  • Editors are responsible for making publication decisions based solely on the manuscript's academic merit and without discrimination of any kind.
  • Editors should handle submissions confidentially and are prohibited from using unpublished information for their own research without explicit written consent from the author.
  • Editors should take responsive measures when ethical complaints have been presented regarding a submitted or published manuscript.
  1. Duties of Reviewers:
  • Reviewers should provide objective, constructive, and unbiased feedback to assist in improving the quality of the manuscript.
  • Reviewers should treat manuscripts confidentially and should not use the content for personal advantage.
  • If reviewers find any conflict of interest, potential plagiarized material, or data inconsistency, they should report to the editor immediately.
  • Reviewers should complete their reviews within the specified timeline.
  1. Allegations of Misconduct:
  • In the event of allegations of misconduct, JHRR will take the issue seriously. All allegations will be investigated thoroughly and promptly, respecting the confidentiality and integrity of all involved parties. If the allegations are found to be valid, appropriate corrective actions will be taken, which may include the retraction of the published paper, notification to the author's institution, and prohibition of the author from future submissions to JHRR.
  • This policy is intended to maintain the integrity of the scientific record, promote honest and transparent collaboration among researchers, and uphold public trust in the scientific process. We expect all parties involved in the act of publishing: the author, the journal editor, the peer reviewer, and the publisher, to agree upon these standards of ethical behavior.