1. Authorship

JRCR has committed to accept and publish manuscripts according to the guidelines of The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (http://publicationethics.org) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors' ethical guidelines (http://www.icmje.org/urm_main.html).

Two minimum requirements define authorship across all definitions; making a substantial contribution to the work and being accountable for the work and its published form.

According to ICMJE guidelines, the following factors should be used to determine authorship:

1. Significant contributions to data collection, analysis, and interpretation, or idea and design.
2. Composing the article or critically editing it for key intellectual substance.
3. Final approval of the published version.
4. Anyone who satisfies the aforementioned three requirements is qualified to be listed as an author on the manuscript.
5. One of the writers must grant the article's final clearance and serve as the article's data accuracy guarantor. (Corresponding author)

All those designated as authors should meet all five criteria for authorship. Authors are accountable for following discipline-specific guidelines

1. Contributions Statement

At the time of submission, it is necessary to submit detailed contribution of each author (Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Funding accusation; Investigators; Funding; Methodology; Project administration; Supervision, Validation; Visualization; Roles/Writing- original draft; writing, review and editing.) and this must be mentioned in submission statement. In case of incomplete form submission, processing of manuscript could get delayed.

2. Corresponding Author

The person who is responsible for communication with journal, is corresponding author. The concerned person should be available throughout the process of publication and readily respond to queries and cooperate with journal.

3. Author’s Address and affiliation

Authors should submit the list of names of co-authors with their affiliations and email addresses.

4. Alterations in the List of Authors

JRCR does not suggest to make changes in the authors list i.e., adding or removing authors after submission.

2. Privacy policy statement

JRCR values its trust and relationship with all authors and reviewers. Protecting the personal information and privacy of authors and reviewers is of great importance to us. Authors and reviewers must read privacy statements and instructions carefully.

All authors and reviewers are requested to read this policy, if there is any clarification or question, please contact at concerned.

1. Authors personal Information:

• While contacting us, during manuscript submission, enquiries, reviewing, participation in discussion or providing any service, individuals may contact us through email. During contact, information provided to us must include Name, email address, contact number, mailing address, educational details, subject and technical expertise etc.
• JRCR retain all information shared with us, safely in office record for a period of 5 years and is only used for the purpose it is meant for.
• We keep personal information encrypted with password in electronic record. In some cases, paper format may be kept under strict lock and key.

2. Author’s/ reviewer’s right

• JRCR would take care of all rights of authors, reviewers and other coordinators according to data ownership, intellectual property rights and other protection regulations of the country Pakistan. It is also suggested for concerned persons to develop full understanding of their rights according to policies at national level.

3. Acknowledgement Criteria

Author must give acknowledgement, in which credit will be given to all those people who helped with the research but did not qualify for authorship. (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proof reading the article etc.)

4. Clinical Trial Registration

All Randomized control or clinical trials manuscripts would only be considered and published if trial registration number is provided along with manuscript and ICMJE recommendations are followed. If trial was unable to provide registration number, manuscript would not be accepted for processing.

5. Conflict of Interest

Author must declare conflict of interest stated before references. It may include grants, honorarium, memberships, data ownership rights, ownership of study location etc. In case of no conflict of interest, “none to declare” should be mentioned

6. Plagiarism Policy

Journal of Rehabilitation and Clinical Research (JRCR) would review all submitted manuscripts for originality. Turnitin services will be used for similarity check and those exceeding limit of >=19% would be send back for further correction, as per HEC criteria.

7. Data Falsification and Fabrication

Data should be analyzed properly, but improper analysis is not always a sign of malfeasance. Data fabrication and data falsification will be considered as misconduct. Authors must mention all sources of data analysis, either electronic processing or any other source. If someone is using unique methods of analysis, it must be fully explained and referenced.

8. Copyright Policy

For publication of work, publishing rights to reproduce, publish and communicate the work or any part of work to public for educational or other purposes, through any or all form of media is granted to JRCR by author (s). In addition, author reserves rights in respect to moral rights.

9. Ethical Approval of Research

1. Rights and ethics in publication

The authors are directed to follow the guidelines of The Committee on Publication Ethics (http://publicationethics.org) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors' ethical guidelines (http://www.icmje.org/urm_main.html).

2. Helsinki Declaration

Manuscript involving human subjects must mention that the study is approved by the institutional or ethical review board, guarantee that the study protocol complied with the 1975 Helsinki Declaration and written informed consent was taken before the recruitment in the study.

3. Ethical approval

• Ethical approval letter is required to be submitted with ethical clearance statement mounted on letterhead of ERC or IRB with date, sign and stamp of director of committee.
• If reporting a case report, statement including informed consent from participants should be presented on institutional letterhead.

4. Informed consent

If an author desires to incorporate case information, photos of patients or any other information, the necessary consent or permission must be obtained. Although copies should not be sent to the journal, written consents must be kept by the author unless requested by the journal in unusual circumstances (for instance, if a legal concern occurs).

10. Funding Disclosure

If authors are using any kind of research grants in study, it must be disclosed and should be declared properly. Also mention its spending accurately. State “none to declare” in another case.

11. Editorial Triage

The initial step is scrutiny, that will be performed at editorial office. The submissions will be evaluated on the basis of plagiarism, novelty, and alignment with the publication’s theme. Not all submissions may be suitable for publication due to various reasons. Editorial triage involves making decisions on whether to reject, accept, revise, or hold a piece for further consideration.

12. Peer Review

Peer review process would be double blind process and manuscripts would be sent to experienced external peer reviewers.

12. Redundant publication

Redundant publication (salami publishing) occurs when two or more papers, without full cross reference, share the same hypothesis, data, discussion points, or conclusions.

1. Published studies do not need to be repeated unless further confirmation is required.
2. Text-matching software will be used to find any redundancy or duplication.
3. In case of major overlap/redundancy i.e., based on same data with identical or very similar findings and/or evidence that authors have sought to hide redundancy e.g., by changing title or author order or not citing previous papers) corresponding author will be contacted in writing, ideally enclosing signed authorship statement (or cover letter) stating that submitted work has not been published elsewhere and documentary evidence of duplication.
4. In case of minor overlapping/redundancy (e.g., methods) or re-analysis (e.g., sub-group/extended follow-up/discussion aimed at different audience), corresponding author will be contacted in neutral terms/ expressing concern/explaining journal’s position It will also be explained that secondary papers must refer to original. In addition, author will be requested to remove overlapping material and proceed with review/decision.
5. Previous publication of an abstract during the proceedings of meetings does not preclude subsequent submission for publication, but full disclosure should be made at the time of submission.
6. Re-publication of a paper in another language is acceptable, provided that there is full and prominent disclosure of its original source at the time of submission.
7. At the time of submission, authors should disclose details of related papers, even if in a different language, and similar papers in press.

14. Duties of editors

A peer reviewed journal is defined by the ICMJE as one that has submitted most of it published articles for review by experts who are not part of the editorial staff They must consider and balance the interests of many constituents, including readers, authors, staff, owners, editorial board members, advertisers and the media.

1. Editors’ decisions to accept or reject a paper for publication should be based only on the paper’s importance, originality, and clarity, and the study’s relevance to the remit of the journal.
2. It is responsibility of editor to explain the editorial, peer review process, ensure fair treatment and treat the authors respectfully, promptly respond to queries and ensure quick publication of manuscripts.
3. Editor must show sympathetic consideration of appeals and ensure disclosure of financial, other interests which might bias the studies.
4. Studies reporting negative results should not be excluded.
5. All original studies should be peer reviewed before publication, taking into full account possible bias due to related or conflicting interests.
6. Editor must protect confidentiality of human subjects, promote self-correction by publishing retractions, corrections critiques of published articles.
7. When a published paper is subsequently found to contain major flaws, editors must accept responsibility for correcting the record prominently and promptly.

15. Rejected Articles - Appeals

• Authors, after facing a rejection from JRCR reserves rights to appeal for review with providing detailed explanations. Their manuscripts would be reviewed and decision would be taken accordingly.
• Revised articles, once rejected would not be reconsidered at any condition.
• Authors submitting manuscripts with material reproduced from any source or attempting to republish an article would face rejection of article.
• Taking copyright clearance is responsibility of author to take consent while using full or any part of source in its study.

16. Reproducing material published by JRCR

Journal does not grant permission to reproduce any part of its publication without prior permission from journal or author.

17. Withdrawal Policy

• The copyright belongs to JRCR journal upon submission of manuscript and it is considered unethical to submit manuscripts in more than one journals at a time.
• There is a requirement of email about intention to withdraw manuscript during processing. After that an email with withdrawal form requiring signatures of all authors (electronic signature would not be accepted) to be scanned and returned. Formal letter of withdrawal would be issued, after that manuscript would be considered withdrawn.

18. Dealing with misconduct

Types of misconduct: Scientific misconduct in JRCR publications includes but is not necessarily limited to,

1. Data fabrication
2. Data falsification including deceptive manipulation of images
3. Authorship problems and failure to disclose relationships and activities

1. Data fabrication:

JRCR will be dealing with misconduct regarding data according to COPE guidelines as mentioned below;

 

2. Data falsification including deceptive manipulation of images:

JRCR will be dealing with misconduct regarding Data falsification according to COPE guidelines as mentioned below;

3. Authorship problems and failure to disclose relationships and activities

JRCR will be dealing with Authorship problems and failure to disclose relationships and activities according to COPE guidelines as mentioned below;