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Papers submitted to Iranian Rehabilitation Journal which do not adhere to the “Instruction for Author”, will be returned for appropriate revision to be in line with the guidance of this Instruction. They may then be resubmitted. Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same from and language, without the written consent of the publisher.

1. Manuscript Submission Procedure
Manuscripts can be submitted electronically via the online submission site http://www.irj.uswr.ac.ir The use of an online submission and peer review site enables immediate distribution of manuscripts and consequentially speeds up the review process. It also allows authors to track the status of their own manuscripts.

 1.1. Getting Started online submission

• Launch your web and go to the journal's online Submission Site: http://www.irj.uswr.ac.ir

• Log-in or, if you are a new user, click on "register here".

• Log-in and select "Author".

1.2. Submitting Your Manuscript

• After you have logged into your "Author", submit your manuscript by clicking the submission link.

• Enter data and answer questions as appropriate. You may copy and paste directly from your manuscript and you may upload your pre-prepared covering letter.

• Click the "Next" button on each screen to save your work and advance to the next screen.

• You are required to upload your files.

• Review your submission (in HTML and PDF format) before completing your submission by sending it to the Journal. Click the "Submit" button when you are finished reviewing.

1.3. Manuscript Files Accepted

Manuscripts should be written in English and uploaded as Word (doc.) or Rich Text Format (rft) files (not write-protected) plus separate figure files. GIF, JPEG, PICT or Bitmap files are acceptable for submission, but only high-resolution TIF or EPS files are suitable for printing. The text file must contain the entire manuscript including title page, abstract, text, references, tables, and figure legends, but no embedded figures. In the text file, please reference figures as for instance "Figure 1", "Figure " etc to match the tag name you choose for all individual figure files uploaded. Manuscripts should be formatted as described in the Author Guidelines below.

1.4. Blinded Review

All manuscripts submitted to Iranian Rehabilitation Journal will be reviewed by two experts in the field. Iranian Rehabilitation Journal uses double blind peer review. For mor information please visit:
http://irj.uswr.ac.ir/page/70/Policies-of-Peer-Review

1.5. E-mail Confirmation of Submission

After submission you will receive an e-mail to confirm receipt of your manuscript. If you do not receive the confirmation e-mail after 24 hours contact the editorial office.

2. Manuscript Types Accepted
  The editorial policy of the Iranian Rehabilitation Journal is to encourage the publication of evidence-based research articles related to rehabilitation. IRJ also publishes original articles; hypothesis formation; literature reviews; case reports; short communications, special reports; letters to the editor; discussions of public policy issues and book reviews, methodology in physical and mental rehabilitation, epidemiological studies on disabling conditions and reports on vocational and socio-medical aspects of rehabilitation. 
The authors should obtain code of ethics from Ethical committee before the submission and also for protection of human subjects in research projects, criteria for Institutional Review Board (IRB) should be under consideration.

2.1. Original Research Articles: Must describe novel and significant observations and provide sufficient detail so that the findings can be critically evaluated and, if necessary, repeated. Normally should not exceed 3000 words (without abstract and references). These articles consist of Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Ethical consideration, Acknowledgement and References.

2.2. Reviews: Reviews are selected for their broad general interest; all are refereed by experts in the field who are asked to comment on issues such as timeliness, general interest and balanced treatment of controversies, as well as on scientific accuracy. Reviews should take a broad view of the field rather than merely summarizing the authors own previous work, so extensive citation of the authors own publications is discouraged. These articles consist of: Abstract, Introduction, Methods (this section consists of the access methods to all of related references and number of each kind such as book, journal, web page etc.), Discussion, Conclusion and References.
2.3. Case Reports: Authors are invited to submit case reports on clinical topics of relevance to the aim and scope of the Iranian Rehabilitation Journal. The reports should be around 1500 words and follow the general author guidelines of the Iranian Rehabilitation Journal.

Case reports are published only if the report is of exceptional interest and should present a novel and rare case. These articles consist of: Abstract (does not needed to be structured), Introduction, Case Presentation, Discussion and References (Max:15). Necessary documentation of the case like 1-4 figures, pathology report, laboratory test report and imaging should be included in the submission package.

2.4. Brief reports: Describe significant developments of ongoing research in the field of rehabilitation and contain less scientific data than the original articles. These articles should include Abstract (does not needed to be structured), Introduction, Topic, Discussion and References and should be around 1500 words and 15 references.

2.5. Commentaries: are opinion pieces on topics of general interest to the rehabilitation community. They need not be confined to purely scientific topics; policy issues and educational and social implications may also be covered. Main article should be less than 1200 words (without abstract, tables and references) and 10 references.

3. Manuscript Format and Structure
3.1. Format

Language: The language of publication is English. Authors for whom English is a second language must have their manuscript professionally edited by an English speaking person before submission to make sure the English is of high quality.

Abbreviations, Symbols and Nomenclature: Iranian Rehabilitation Journal adhere to the conventions outlined in Units, Symbols and Abbreviations: A Guide for Medical and Scientific Editors and Authors. Non-standard abbreviations must be used three or more times and written out completely in the text when first used.

3.2. Structure

All manuscripts submitted to the Iranian Rehabilitation Journal should include: Title page, abstract, main text, acknowledgements, references and tables, figures and figure legends as appropriate.

3.2.1. Title page: The article title must be concise and contain no more than 100 characters including spaces. The title page should include a running title of no more than 50 characters; 5-10 key words, complete names of institutions for each author, and the name, address, telephone number, fax number and e-mail address for the corresponding author. The title page should also include the date of submission (or revision/resubmission) and Authors’ contribution.
Authors’ contribution
In this section, you have to provide the contributor role of each author on these divisions:
Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data Curation, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project Administration, Funding Acquisition.
The example below shows the Author Contributions:
Author Contributions: Conceptualization, Author names [A, B, C, or all authors]; Methodology, Author names [A, B, C, or all authors]; Investigation, Author names [A, B, C, or all authors]; Writing – Original Draft, Author names [A, B, C, or all authors]; Writing – Review & Editing, Author names [A, B, C, or all authors]; Funding Acquisition, Author names [A, B, C, or all authors]; Resources, Author names [A, B, C, or all authors]; Supervision, Author names [A, B, C, or all authors]
 

3.2.2. Abstract: should be 250-300 words and contains heading of "Objectives", "Methods", "Results", "Discussion" and "Keywords".

3.2.3. Please provide ‘’Highlights’’ and ‘’Plain Language Summary’’ after abstract.

Highlights: Article Highlights take the form of 3 to 5 bullet points that convey the key information and findings of an article. These serve two key purposes:

• Providing an opportunity to authors to highlight the impact of their research.
• Helping to inform readers that an article is of interest or relevance to them.

Article Highlights should comprise 3-5 bullet points, totalling no more than 80 words altogether. Each bullet point should be a full sentence and authors should ensure that only the key results of the article are included.

Plain Language Summary: A plain language summary describes findings of study in everyday language that is understandable to a non-research audience. A plain-language summary is a synopsis of research evidence written in a way that a non-specialist audience would understand. In fact it is knowledge translation totalling no more than 200 words altogether. Consider that Plain Language Summary is different from abstract and it has to be written for non-specialists. To provide it, consider the following points: 1. think about your audience (e.g. journalists, science-interested public), 2. Get rid of jargon, 3. Explain what the study is about. Remember, others will need more context about what you studied, 4. Explain what you found, 5. Explain why this matters. Discuss the importance of these findings not just in terms of their implications for your field but in terms of their relevance to the public.

3.2.4. Main Text of Original Research Articles should include Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, conclusion, Acknowledgment, Ethical Considerations and Ethical Approvals, Conflict of intrest, Funding and Supporting, References.

Main Text of Reviews and Case Reports: need not follow the usual divisions of original research articles, but should contain appropriate headings and subheadings.

3.2.4.6. Ethical Considerations: Iranian Rehabilitation Journal is committed to apply ethics of publication, based on the COPE’s Code of Conduct and Best Practices. Also, in medical studies, IRJ has engaged to apply ethics of research, based on Declaration of Helsinki: Statement of Ethical Principles for Medical Research. In addition, Iranian Rehabilitation Journal has promised to apply ethics of research, based on American Psychological Association’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, in psychological studies. So, the research’s ethical considerations must be addressed in the Materials and Methods section.  For more information on the journal’s ethical Principles, please refer to following links:

- IRJ's Principles on Publishing Ethics

- IRJ's Ethical Principles for Medical Research

- IRJ's Ethical Principles for Psychological Research

3.3.4. Permissions:

 If all or parts of previously published illustrations are used permission must be obtained from the copyright holder concerned. In most cases, this will be the original publisher of the material. It is the author's responsibility to obtain these in writing and provide copies to the Publishers.

3.3.5. Withdrawing the article (unpublished paper)

At any stage of reviewing the article, authors should send a letter to the journal if they refuse to publish it. However, although less time is given to the authors in medical journalism, in this journal, a delay of more than three months in each step by the corresponding author constitutes the authors' refusal to publish the article.

The period from the initial review of the article to the first decision, like the average in most journals, will be two to three weeks.