Author Guidelines

Please read these instructions carefully as any manuscripts not complying with these guidelines will be returned to the authors for revisions prior to any review being undertaken.

SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPT

By submitting your article to this journal, You agree to the Author Copyright Agreement, the IOS Press Ethics Policy, and the IOS Press Privacy Policy.

Authors are requested to submit their manuscript electronically to the journal’s editorial management system. Please be sure to complete all fields of the online submission form. The manuscript should be a Microsoft Word file, uploaded as one file with tables and figures included. Please be sure to carefully read the section “Preparing your paper” below, and to include the following files:

•    Submission letter
•    Title page
•    Manuscript


Open Access Fee

JPRM does not charge an open access fee for manuscripts submitted until December 31, 2022.

Accepted papers submitted from January 1, 2023 are required to pay an open access fee to publish under a CC BY. The fee for publishing your article open access CC BY-NC 4.0 is US$/€1250. To publish under a CC BY 4.0 license, as mandated by certain funding agencies, the fee is US$/€2000. Waivers are available for corresponding authors from eligible countries as identified by Research4Life project. A fee waiver may also be available if your institution has an institutional agreement with IOS Press. A waiver request for the open access fee should be submitted at the initial submission of a paper. Other authors who envisage difficulties paying the article processing charge may appeal to the Editor-in-Chief to discuss waiving the charge prior to submitting their article.

CATEGORIES OF MANUSCRIPTS

JPRM accepts the following article types for submission. For submissions that do not fall under one of the following categories, please contact the editorial office.

• Research Articles: Original research investigations that advance the field of pediatric rehabilitation medicine. Advised limits: 6,000 words; 7 Tables; 7 Figures.
• Review Articles: JPRM accepts systematic reviews and scoping reviews that are relevant to pediatric rehabilitation medicine and in line with the journal’s aims & scope. If you are interested in submitting a review of another type (e.g., bibliometric, prognostic), please contact the editorial office prior to submission. Advised limits: 7,000 words; 7 Tables; 7 Figures.
• Brief Report: Typically a short synopsis of an original study or evaluation/novel report of a clinical case or case series. This article type is intended not as a means of presenting preliminary data, but rather to present unexpected observations that may encourage further research. A structured abstract is required. Advised limits: 1000-1500 words; 3 tables and/or figures.
• Case Report: An acceptable Case Report will explain the diagnosis, treatment, and outcome of an individual case which has not been previously published in the medical literature. Administered treatments should be supported by previously published research. Advised limits: 2,000 words; 4 Tables; 4 Figures.
• Commentary: A short opinion piece representing the author’s viewpoint on a particular aspect of pediatric rehabilitation medicine. Advised limits: 2,000 words; 2 Tables; 2 Figures.

Manuscripts are blinded and peer reviewed with appropriate feedback. Statistical analysis is reviewed by a biostatistician for accuracy. Readers are encouraged to submit and/or suggest case reviews, commentaries, original research, conference schedules, and reviews. Please note that JPRM does not encourage submission of study protocols or narrative or literature reviews. Study protocols may be considered if the full research study is also submitted for publication.

Submission Letter

All manuscripts submitted should be accompanied by a cover letter that clearly defines:

• A corresponding author, with full contact information including address, telephone and fax numbers, and email address.
• Why the manuscript will be valuable to the journal’s readers.
• How the manuscript will add to the currently available medical literature.
• Any conflicts of interest.

PREPARING YOUR PAPER

Manuscript Organization and Style of Presentation

We encourage authors to use 1-inch margins and double spacing throughout, including the abstract and references. Every page of the manuscript, including the title page, references, tables, etc., should be numbered. However, in the text no reference should be made to page numbers; if necessary, one may refer to sections. Excessive use of italics and bold face should be avoided.

Blinding

JPRM is a double-blinded journal, meaning that reviewer and author identities are confidential during the peer review process. Please do not include any potentially identifying information within the manuscript file during peer review. The authors’ country should only be identified if it is important to the subject matter.

Quality of English writing

Manuscripts must be written in English. Authors whose native language is not English are advised to consult a professional English language editing service or a native English speaker prior to submission. Non-compliant manuscripts will be sent back to the corresponding author for revision prior to peer review.

Manuscripts should be written in third person. Please avoid the use of first person, such as ‘I’, ‘we’, or ‘our’.

JPRM recommends the APA guidelines on reducing bias when reporting racial and ethnic identities. When possible, please use the NIH-recommended terms “Black” and “White,” but avoid using them as standalone nouns. 
Singular they/them pronouns are encouraged when referring to a patient whose gender identity is anonymous, unknown, or nonbinary.

Statistics

Any statistical analysis included in a manuscript should be reviewed carefully before submission, preferably by a statistician. All manuscripts that include statistical analysis will be peer reviewed by a biostatistician.

Units

All measurements should be reported as the SI, i.e., the units based on the meter, kilogram, second, etc. This also applies to hematological and clinical chemistry values.

Manuscripts should be organized in the following order:

• Title page
• Abstract
• Body of text (divided by subheadings)
• Acknowledgments
• References
• Tables
• Figure captions
• Figures

Headings and subheadings should be numbered and typed on a separate line, without indentation.

Title Page

The title page should be uploaded as a separate document to enable double-blind peer review. This page should include:

- Article title (should be clear, descriptive, and have up to 150 characters including spaces)
- Author(s) name(s) without abbreviation
- Author(s) affiliation(s): department, institution, city, country
- Complete mailing address of the author to whom all correspondence should be sent, including professional email address
- Running head
- Acknowledgments
- Declaration of interest

Authorship 
Please ensure everyone meeting the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) requirements for authorship is included as an author of your paper. Where available, please also include ORCIDs. One author will need to be identified as the corresponding author, with their email address normally displayed in the article PDF and the online article. Authors’ affiliations are the affiliations where the research was conducted.

Acknowledgments
This section should contain all acknowledgments, including any funding source to the research. Please supply all funding details, including funding source and grant number, required by your funding and grant-awarding bodies. Open access articles are to be submitted to PubMed Central by IOS Press within 12 months. Non-open access NIH/federally funded studies should be submitted to PubMed Central (http://www.nihms.nih.gov/db/sub.cgi) by the corresponding author according to the IOS Press Article Sharing Policy.
Any contributors to the manuscript that do not meet the authorship requirements should be included in the Acknowledgements section.
If there are no acknowledgments or funding, then please state “The authors have no acknowledgments”.

Conflict of interest
A conflict of interest is defined as any financial remuneration received within the last two years greater than $500 in employment/affiliation, grants, or funding (non-profit or government), consulting, honorarium, speakers bureaus, stocks, expert testimony, royalties, or patents. Financial conflicts of interest can include any financial relationship between the authors and any organization that may have a financial interest in their research or financial interests on the part of the authors themselves. This can include, but is not limited to, employment, stocks or shares, patents, research funding, travel or other expenses, lecture fees, or goods or services. Non-financial conflicts of interest can include any relationship between the authors and any person or organization that could reasonably be seen to compromise (or impact) the impartiality of the authors of an article. This can include, but is not limited to benefits to relatives, close friends or associates, or organizations that the author has an unpaid relationship with (such as consulting or advisory roles, or providing administrative assistance). Please refer to the ICMJE guidelines on Conflicts of interest for further information.
If there is no conflict, then please state “The authors have no conflict of interest to report”.

Abstract 

The abstract should be clear, descriptive, self-explanatory, and not longer than 200 words. The abstract should also be suitable for publication in abstracting services. Research Articles must have an abstract formatted as follows: Purpose, Methods, Results, Conclusion.

Please list up to 5 keywords following the abstract.

Materials and Methods 

Review articles
JPRM adheres to the guidance laid out in the 2023 article by Kolaski et al.: doi.org/ 10.3233/PRM-230019. Manuscripts including a literature review must clearly state whether or not it was performed systematically. Scoping and systematic reviews without a registered protocol will not be considered for publication, and a appropriate checklists must be provided (e.g., PRISMA 2020, PRISMA-ScR).

Experimental subjects
Studies involving experimental subjects must comply with the IOS Press Use of Experimental Subjects Policy.

Experiments involving human subjects must conform with the Declaration of Helsinki and be approved by a local Institutional Review Board. Compliance with the former and approval by the latter MUST be provided in the Methods section or in a separate section at the end of the article. IRB approval numbers should not be included with the blinded submission files but must be listed in the published article.

When experimental animals are used, the Methods section must briefly but explicitly state measures that were taken to minimize pain or discomfort, e.g., type and dose of anesthetic used. Experiments should be carried out in accordance with the European Communities Council Directive of 24 November 1986 (86/609/EEC) or the Guidelines by the NIH Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare regarding the care and use of animals for experimental procedures.

All studies using human or animal subjects should include an explicit statement in the Materials and Methods section identifying the review and approval committee for each study. Editors reserve the right to reject papers if there is doubt whether appropriate procedures have been used.

Informed Consent
Participants have a right to privacy that should not be infringed without informed consent.
Identifying information, including participants' names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the participant (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that a participant who is identifiable should be shown the manuscript before it is published.
When informed consent has been obtained, it should be indicated in the Methods section.

Acknowledgements 

This section should repeat the information detailed in the Title Page Acknowledgments as much as possible while preserving anonymity, for the purposes of blinded peer review. Please do not include any identifying information while the manuscript is under review.

If there are no acknowledgments, do still include this section and insert "The authors have no acknowledgments".

Conflict interest 

This section should repeat the information detailed in the Title Page Conflict of Interest statement as much as possible while preserving anonymity, for the purposes of blinded peer review. Please do not include any identifying information while the manuscript is under review.

If there is no Conflict of interest then still state that “The authors have no conflicts of interest to report”.

Ethical considerations 

Please indicate whether Institutional Review Board approval was sought and received; if informed consent was obtained, please also indicate it in this section. Studies exempt from Institutional Review Board approval should inform the reason for exemption, e.g. “This study, as a literature review, is exempt from Institutional Review Board approval”. If the manuscript is accepted, please include the Institutional Review Board approval number and date in the final copy.

Supplementary data

If there is an online dataset associated with the paper, you are welcome to provide information about where the data supporting the results or analyses presented in the paper can be found. Where applicable, this should include the hyperlink, DOI, or other identifier associated with the dataset(s).

References 
Authors are requested to use the Vancouver citation style. All publications cited in the text should be presented in a list of references at the end of the manuscript. List the references in the order in which they appear in the text. Only articles published or accepted for publication should be listed in the reference list. Submitted articles can be cited as (author(s), unpublished data). If an article has a DOI, this should be provided after the page number details. Manuscripts will not be considered if they do not conform to the Vancouver citation guidelines.

The following are examples of correct citations in the Vancouver citation style:

[1] Rose ME, Huerbin MB, Melick J, et al. Regulation of interstitial excitatory amino acid concentrations after cortical contusion injury. Brain Res. 2002; 935(1-2): 40-6. doi: 10.1016/s0006-8993(02)02445-9

[2] Murray PR, Rosenthal KS, Kobayashi GS, Pfaller MA. Medical microbiology. 4th ed. St. Louis: Mosby; 2002.

[3] Berkow R, Fletcher AJ, editors. The Merck manual of diagnosis and therapy. 16th ed. Rahway (NJ): Merck Research Laboratories; 1992.

[4] Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGrawHill; 2002. p. 93113.

[5] Canadian Cancer Society [homepage on the Internet]. Toronto: The Society; 2006 [updated 2006 May 12; cited 2006 Oct 17]. Available from: www.cancer.ca/.
 

Tables & Figures

Tables

Tables should be numbered as Table 1, Table 2, etc. All tables must be referred to in the text. Each table should be provided on a separate page of the manuscript. Tables should not be included in the text. Each table should have a brief and self-explanatory title. Column headings should be brief, but sufficiently explanatory. Standard abbreviations of units of measurement should be included in parentheses. All abbreviations and Any explanations essential to the understanding of the table should be listed in brief footnotes at the bottom of the table.

Figures

Number figures as Fig. 1, Fig 2, etc. and refer to all of them in the text. Each figure should be provided on a separate page. Figures should not be included in the text. Each figure should have a self-explanatory caption.

Color figures can be included in the print version, provided the cost of their reproduction is paid for by the author. The online version has no extra charges for color figures. JPRM prefers figures and images in color, but either black & white or color figures/images are acceptable.

For the file formats of the figures please take the following into account:
- line art should be have a minimum resolution of 600 dpi; save as EPS or TIFF
- grayscales (including photos) should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi (no lettering), or 500 dpi (when there is lettering); save as TIFF
- do not save figures as JPEG, because this format may lose information in the process
- do not use figures taken from the Internet, the resolution will be too low for printing
- do not use color in your figures if they are to be printed in black & white, as this will reduce the print quality (note that in software often the default is color and you may need to change the settings)
- for figures that should be printed in color, please send a CMYK encoded EPS or TIFF
Figures should be designed with the format of the page of the journal in mind. They should be of such a size as to allow a reduction of 50%. Photographs should have good contrast and intensity.

REQUIRED STATEMENTS AND FORMS

Statement of Authorship 

The journal adheres to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (http://www.icmje.org) definition of authorship. All authors will receive an email requesting confirmation of authorship upon submission.  

Clinical Trial Registration 

The journal adheres to the ICJME policy for registration of all trials in a public trials registry that is acceptable to the ICMJE (http://www.icmje.org/faq_clinical.html). In June 2007 the ICMJE adopted the World Health Organization’s definition of a clinical trial as: “any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes”. Above statements supersede all previous policies and are effective immediately.

Photo Release

Authors must submit a release for any photographs with identifying information.

Institutional Review Board, Animal Care Board, and/or Ethics Committee Approval 

Authors must keep on record approval forms from the respective board/committee. Informed consent forms from study participants should also be kept on file.

Copyright Permission 

Authors of manuscripts including previously copyrighted material (quotations, figures, images, etc.) must submit written permission from the original copyright holder. Please see below for further details.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright of Your Article

Authors submitting a manuscript do so on the understanding that they have read and agreed to the terms of the IOS Press Author Copyright Agreement.

Article sharing
Authors of journal articles are permitted to self-archive and share their work through institutional repositories, personal websites, and preprint servers. They may also make copies of their article for non-commercial purposes, such as for teaching or presenting at conferences. Authors have the right to use excerpts of their article in other works written by the authors themselves, provided that the original work is properly cited. The consent for sharing an article, in whole or in part, depends on the version of the article that is shared, where it is shared, and the copyright license under which the article is published. Please refer to the IOS Press Article Sharing Policy for further information. 

Quoting from other publications
An author, when quoting from someone else's work or when considering reproducing figures or table from a book or journal article, should make sure that he is not infringing a copyright. Although in general an author may quote from other published works, he should obtain permission from the holder of the copyright if he wishes to make substantial extracts or to reproduce tables or figures. If the copyright holder is not the author of the quoted or reproduced material, it is recommended that the permission of the author should also be sought. Material in unpublished letters and manuscripts is also protected and must not be published unless permission has been obtained. A suitable acknowledgement of any borrowed material must always be made.


PROOFS

The corresponding author will receive a PDF proof and be asked to check this proof carefully (the publisher will execute a cursory check only). Corrections other than printer's errors, however, should be avoided. Costs arising from such corrections will be charged to the authors.

PURCHASES

The corresponding author of a contribution to the journal will receive a complimentary PDF Author’s Copy of the article, unless otherwise stated. This PDF copy is watermarked and for personal use only. A free PDF copy will not be provided for conference proceedings and abstract issues. An order form for a PDF file without watermark, reprints or additional journal copies will be provided along with the PDF proof. If you wish to order reprints of a previously published article, please contact the publisher for a quotation.
Authors are entitled to 25% discount on IOS Press books. See Author's discount (25%) on all IOS Press book publications.

KUDOS 

Authors of published articles (non-prepress, final articles) will be contacted by Kudos. Kudos is a service that helps researchers maximize the impact and visibility of their research. It allows authors to enrich their articles with lay metadata, add links to related materials and promote their articles through the Kudos system to a wider public. Authors will receive no more than three emails: one invitation and a maximum of two reminders to register for the service and link the published article to their profile. Using and registering for Kudos remains entirely optional. For more information, please have a look at our authors section.


HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR WORK 

Would you like some pointers on how to help your research achieve a wider reach and greater impact? Please consult our Promotional Toolkit for Authors for tips.

Please visit the IOS Press Authors page for further information.