Editorial Policy

CJAHS is an international peer-reviewed journal dedicated to advancing scientific knowledge in allied health sciences and related rehabilitation sciences. The journal welcomes high-quality submissions that contribute to evidence-based clinical practice, education, healthcare policy, and rehabilitation research.

The journal publishes a wide range of article types, including original quantitative and qualitative studies, clinical trials, case reports, case series, analytical and descriptive research, laboratory-based studies, short communications, letters to the editor, and special topic reports. The journal also considers high-quality secondary research such as systematic reviews, meta-analyses, scoping reviews, narrative reviews, practice guidelines, methodological papers, conference abstracts, innovation reports, and invited expert contributions. All submissions must be written clearly enough to be understood by a broad readership and should contribute to improved patient care, professional practice, or scientific understanding.

Manuscripts submitted to CJAHS must be original, unpublished, and not under consideration by any other journal. The journal follows the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in all matters of authorship, ethical conduct, peer review, and publication integrity. Authors are encouraged to review ICMJE and COPE guidelines at www.icmje.org and www.publicationethics.org 

Authorship Criteria 

Authorship confers credit and has important academic, social, and financial implications as well as accountability for published work. It is the moral obligation of an editorial board to ensure that individuals making significant contributions to a paper are given credit for it, but also to ensure that the authors understand their role in taking responsibility for their publication. HJPRS follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines, which recommend that authorship be based on the following four criteria:

·       Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND

·       Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND

·       Final approval of the version to be published; AND

·       Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. Those who do not meet all four criteria but have made a substantive contribution to the research should be acknowledged in the acknowledgment section of the article. We accept publications/articles from both National and International Authors. It is important to note that:

·       Funding agencies, data collectors, and biostatisticians do not justify authorship.

·       Once the authorship certificate is submitted, no further changes will be allowed in the sequence and/or addition of new authors.

Authors’ Contributions

An author contribution statement defining each author’s contribution to the article should be provided. This must be done in two forms: by filling out the authors’ undertaking and authorship letter, which can be downloaded from the journal website. For review articles, where individual statements are less applicable, a statement should be included that clarifies who was responsible for the ideation, who performed the literature search and/or data analysis, and who drafted and revised the work. 

Deceased Authors

Deceased authors would be included with a death dagger (†) next to the author’s name and a footnote

stating that the author is deceased, along with the date of death.

Review of Articles 

Submitted manuscripts are reviewed for originality, significance, adequacy of documentation, reader interest, and composition. Manuscripts not submitted according to instructions will be returned to the author for correction before beginning the peer review/process. Revised manuscripts are considered on the adequacy of responses to suggestions made during the initial review. Each manuscript will be checked for technical, epidemiological, statistical, ethical, and language corrections. All parts of accepted manuscripts are subject to editing for scientific accuracy and clarity by the office of the Editor. The editorial board of the journal holds the right to make a final decision on accepting or rejecting any article for publication in the journal, at any stage, including the editorial review.