Editorial Policy

The International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation (IJPR) is committed to rigorous, fair, and transparent editorial practice. This policy outlines how manuscripts are reviewed, how editorial decisions are made, and how the journal handles authorship, conflicts of interest, research ethics, and post-publication corrections. IJPR follows the guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) throughout.

Peer Review Process

IJPR uses a double-blind peer review process: author identities are withheld from reviewers, and reviewer identities are withheld from authors. Every submitted manuscript is initially screened by the editorial office for scope and basic quality, then assigned to at least two independent reviewers with relevant subject expertise. Reviewers evaluate manuscripts for originality, methodological soundness, clarity, and relevance to the journal's aim and scope.

Typical time to first editorial decision is 4–6 weeks from submission. Final decisions rest with the Chief Editor or an assigned Associate Editor, informed by reviewer recommendations.

Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported work. All those who made substantial contributions should be listed as co-authors, and all co-authors must approve the final manuscript before submission. Any change to the author list after submission, including addition, removal, or reordering, requires written agreement from all listed authors and an explanation to the editorial office.

Disputes over authorship are handled in line with COPE guidance on authorship disagreements. The journal does not adjudicate authorship credit itself but will pause the review or publication process until resolution is confirmed by the parties involved.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors must disclose any financial, personal, or professional relationships that could be perceived to influence the reported research or its interpretation, including funding sources, employment, consultancy, or stock ownership. Reviewers and editors must recuse themselves from handling a manuscript where a conflict of interest exists, for example, a recent collaboration or institutional affiliation with the authors.

Disclosed conflicts are evaluated by the handling editor and, where relevant, noted in the published article.

Research and Publication Misconduct

IJPR takes allegations of misconduct seriously, including plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, duplicate or redundant publication, and undisclosed conflicts of interest. All submissions are screened using plagiarism-detection software prior to review.

Suspected misconduct, whether identified before or after publication, is investigated following COPE flowcharts, and the corresponding author is given the opportunity to respond before any editorial action is taken.

Research Involving Human or Animal Subjects

Studies involving human participants must have been approved by an appropriate institutional review board or ethics committee, and this approval, including the reference number, must be stated in the manuscript.

Authors must confirm that informed consent was obtained from participants or their legal guardians. Case reports and studies including identifiable participant details or images must state whether consent to publish that material was obtained. Where such consent was not given, participant information must be fully anonymized.

Research involving animals must comply with relevant institutional and national guidelines for the ethical treatment of animal subjects.

Data Availability

Authors are encouraged to make the data underlying their findings available, either as supplementary material, in a public repository, or upon reasonable request, except where restricted by participant privacy, ethical approval terms, or legal constraints.

Any such restriction should be stated in the manuscript. A brief data availability statement is required in every submission, even where no data can be shared, so that readers know what to expect.

Corrections, Retractions, and Post-Publication Concerns

Errors identified after publication are corrected with a formal erratum or corrigendum, clearly linked to the original article. Where the integrity of a publication is found to be seriously compromised, the article will be retracted following COPE's retraction guidelines, with a retraction notice explaining the reason.

Readers and authors may raise post-publication concerns about a published article by contacting the editorial office at [email protected] .

Complaints

Complaints regarding the journal, its editorial staff, editorial board, or the publisher may be submitted to [email protected] . Complaints are acknowledged within 5 business days and handled by the Chief Editor or, where the complaint concerns the Chief Editor directly, by the publisher.

Appeals

Authors who wish to appeal an editorial decision may submit a written appeal to the editorial office, explaining the basis for reconsideration. Appeals are reviewed by an editor not involved in the original decision where practicable.