EDITORIAL POLICY

Foundation University Journal of Rehabilitation Sciences (FUJRS) is an official rehabilitation sciences journal of Foundation University Institute of Rehabilitation Sciences being published by Foundation university institute of rehabilitation sciences, Foundation University Islamabad

Submission of a manuscript to FUJRS implies that all authors have read and agreed to its content and that the manuscript conforms to the journal’s policies. FUJRS remains neutral regarding jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

ISSN (Print): 2709-5134 ISSN (Online): 2789-2700

Frequency and Timeline of publication:

Foundation University Journal of Rehabilitation Sciences is a biannual journal and publishes a volume with 2 issues every year. i.e., January and July of each year. Issue 1 of the volume is published online by January 31^st of every year, while issue 2 of the volume is published by July 31^st of every year.

Submission Process:

FUJRS only accepts manuscripts for consideration for publication via the OJS platform. If researchers/authors are interested in the publication of their valuable manuscripts, kindly submit the complete article with relevant required documents on the OJS platform of FUJRS (Click here). For guidelines related to Manuscript Submission Process and Manuscript Preparation please click.

Third-Party Submissions:

All manuscripts must be submitted by the corresponding author/ authors themselves. FUJRS does not accept manuscripts submitted by a third party on behalf of authors.

Authors Declaration Form:

The authors are required to submit a duly signed author declaration form (Available here). Authors are to ensure that the data provided in the author declaration form and the journal’s OJS metadata is the same. Otherwise, the journal reserves the right to replace metadata with the information provided by the authors in the author declaration form.

Authorship Policy:

FUJRS expects all published articles to contain clear and accurate attribution of authorship. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that all authors that contributed to the work are fairly acknowledged and that the published author list accurately reflects individual contributions. FUJRS follows the guidelines laid down by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) while receiving, processing, and publication of research manuscripts. The journal will consider a right to authorship when all four authorship criteria of ICMJE are met. These criteria are as follows:

Substantial participation in the research work with a contribution to all stages of research namely, the conception of the research work; the research design itself; or the data collection; data analysis following collection; or data interpretation following analysis
Active contribution to the research manuscript during drafting or its critical revision with reference to the importance of the intellectual content
Active contribution/participation in the final approval final copy of the manuscript that is ready for publication
Willingness to share responsibility for the whole research work to allow for investigation and resolution of integrity and accuracy of research work.

Where authors employ the services of third-party agencies prior to submission, for instance in language editing or manuscript formatting/preparation, they must ensure that all services comply with the following guidelines.

Corresponding author:

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all listed authors have approved the manuscript before submission, including the names and order of authors, and that all authors receive the submission and all substantive correspondence with editors, as well as the full reviews, verifying that all data, figures, materials (including reagents), and code, even those developed or provided by other authors, comply with the transparency and reproducibility standards of both the field and journal.

This responsibility includes but is not limited to: (i) ensuring that original data/original figures/materials/code upon which the submission is based are preserved following best practices in the field so that they are retrievable for reanalysis; (ii) confirming that data/figures/materials/code presentation accurately reflects the original; and (iii) foreseeing and minimizing obstacles to the sharing of data/materials/code described in the work. The corresponding author should be responsible for managing these requirements across the author group and ensuring that the entire author group is fully aware of and in compliance with best practices in the discipline of publication.

To discourage ghost authorship, corresponding authors must reveal as appropriate whether the manuscript benefited from the use of editorial services that, if unacknowledged, might constitute an undisclosed conflict of interest. Examples include use of an editor from an organization that may have a vested interest in slanting the results or reliance on a technical writer at a level that would warrant authorship credit. These situations might variously be addressed by including a statement in the acknowledgments, by describing the effort in the methods section, or by adding an author.

The involvement of scientific (medical) writers or anyone else who assisted with the preparation of the manuscript content should be acknowledged, along with their source of funding. The role of medical writers should be acknowledged explicitly in the ‘Acknowledgements’ or ‘Authors’ contributions’ section as appropriate.

Corresponding authors should indicate whether any authors on earlier versions have been removed or new authors added and why. It is incumbent on the corresponding author to ensure that all authors (or group/laboratory leaders in large collaborations) have certified the author list and contribution description: that all authors who deserve to be credited on the manuscript are indeed identified, that no authors are listed who do not deserve authorship credit, and that author contributions, where they are provided, are expressed accurately. All contributions of authors and contributors will be published at end of article.

Any potential authorship disputes brought to the editors’ attention will be handled in line with COPE guidelines.

Changes in authorship:

FUJRS discourages change of authorship during review process or after publication. Authors are instructed to ensure that such issues don’t rise. Even so if change in authorship is required, the requests for changes to authorship must be directed to the journal editor. Requests will be dealt with fairly and in accordance with the relevant COPE guidelines (detailed below). Changes in authorship will only be permitted where valid reasons are provided and all authors are in agreement with the change. Post-publication changes to authorship will typically be made via a published correction.

‘Ghost,’ ‘Guest,’ or ‘Gift’ authorship:

FUJRS considers all forms of ghost, guest, and gift authorship to be unethical and works closely with editors and publishing partners to take a firm stance against such practices. Any allegation of ghost, guest, or gift authorship will be investigated in accordance with the COPE guidelines. Where such practices are identified the authors in question will be removed from an article through a post-publication correction or erratum. In addition, the journal may choose to notify the institutional or local ethics committee for the authors in question.

Ethical approval for research:

As described by Helsinki Declaration, the authors are required to declare if their experiments involving human subjects were conducted in accordance with the best ethical standards in place. It is important to note that the use of any information that can lead to the identification of human subjects is strictly prohibited. Likewise, reports of experiments should state the institutional or national standards that were followed during experiments. Manuscripts submitted to the FUJRS should be accompanied by an approval from the ethics committee/ethical review board of the institution where the study was carried out. In conditions where no ethical approval was required for the study, a statement explaining the situation countersigned by the head of the department should be submitted.

Retrospective Ethical Approval:

If a study has not been granted ethics committee approval prior to commencing, retrospective ethics approval usually cannot be obtained, and it may not be possible to consider the manuscript for peer review. The decision on whether to proceed to peer review in such cases is at the Editor-in-chief's discretion.

Informed Consent:

Informed consent should be obtained from the patients as patients have a right to privacy and utmost care should be exercised to not violate their privacy. The latest version of Helsinki Declaration can be followed as a useful guide for ethical standards involving informed consent and FUJRS follows the guideline provided by the ICMJE as far as the rights of patients are concerned. All information that can be used to identify the patients like their initials, names, or hospital record number should be omitted from the written or photographic material unless its inclusion can be justified and/or the patient or the parents/guardians of the patient consented to the inclusion in writing. Although it is not required at the time of submission of the manuscript but can be asked at any stage of processing and should be mentioned in the methodology section of the manuscript.

Patient Confidentiality:

FUJRS will ensure that a patient's right to privacy has not been infringed without prior consent. For the publication of material that contains detailed patient information about a living individual, it is compulsory for a signed patient consent to be obtained. Any identifier that might reveal a patient’s identity will be removed (i.e., x-rays, MRIs, charts, photographs, etc.). Written informed consent is required from any potentially identifiable patient or legal representative and will be presented in either the Methods section or the Acknowledgements.

Clinical Trial Registration:

FUJRS will only consider the publication of results of those randomized controlled trials which have been conducted according to the ICMJE instructions. The clinical trials which are unregistered and/or which have recruited participants before registration of the trial will be published at the discretion of the editor.

Registration of Systematic Reviews:

FUJRS supports the prospective registration of systematic reviews and encourages authors to register their systematic reviews in a suitable registry (such as PROSPERO). Authors who have registered their systematic review should include the registration number as the last line of the manuscript abstract.

Acknowledgments:

Contributors who do not meet the ICMJE criteria for authorship, but helped in the study, may be listed in the acknowledgment section. These may be named, and their function or contribution should be defined. Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission from the person acknowledged by name.

Disclosure of Research Funding:

FUJRS requires disclosure of all funds and grants received for the purpose of completion of the research. These disclosures can be made at the end of the manuscript after the declaration of conflict of interest. In case of no external funding sources are used, the authors should declare this in their manuscript.

Withdrawal of Manuscript Policy:

Submitted manuscripts to FUJRS can be withdrawn at any stage of the evaluation process without any penalty imposed but the authors are bound to inform the Editor in chief via email with the reason for withdrawing the manuscript. This email would include the filled “Withdrawal Form” of the manuscript duly signed by all authors. Afterward, the Editorial Board will confirm the completion of the withdrawal process. Authors are not allowed to submit their manuscripts anywhere else without this confirmation letter from FUJRS. In case of any such misconduct, authors will be included in the blacklist for future correspondence. The manuscript withdrawal form is available here. After filling out the form it should be sent to the editorial office at the email address: fujrs@fui.edu.pk

Conflicts of interest / competing interests:

A competing interest, also known as a ‘conflict of interest’, can occur when you (or your employer or sponsor) have a financial, commercial, legal, or professional relationship with other organizations, or with the people working with them, that could influence your research.

Full disclosure is required when you submit your paper to a Foundation University Journal of Rehabilitation Sciences. The chief editor will firstly use this information to inform his or her editorial decisions. The editorial board may then publish such disclosures to assist readers in evaluating the article. Or, instead, the editor may decide not to publish your article on the basis of any declared competing interest. You can declare the competing interest in the author declaration form available on the website.

All manuscripts for articles, original research reports, editorials, comments, reviews, book reviews, and letters that are submitted to the journal will be accompanied by a conflict-of-interest disclosure statement or a declaration by the authors that they have no conflicts of interest to declare. All articles that are published in the journal will be accompanied by a conflict-of-interest disclosure statement or a statement that the authors have replied that they have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Competing interests can be financial or non-financial in nature. To ensure transparency, any associations which can be perceived by others as a competing interest must also be declared.

Any financial relationship from the past three years (dating from the month of submission) of any size should be disclosed. These potential conflicts of interest can be but are not limited to:

Direct employment, either full or part-time.
Grants and research funding (this includes grants from trade associations and non-profits substantially (50 percent or more) funded by private sector firms.
Travel grants, speaking fees, writing fees and other honoraria.
Paid expert testimony for one side in an adversarial proceeding (this does not include testimony as a factual witness in a civil or criminal case).
Patents granted, pending and applications, whether or not generating royalties.
Membership on private sector scientific or other advisory boards, whether paid or unpaid.

In addition, any current negotiations regarding future employment or current job offers, either full- or part-time, must be disclosed.

Non-Financial Conflicts of Interest may be personal, political, or intellectual and may include any expression of strongly held views relevant to the subject of the submission. Discloseable non-financial conflicts of interest would also include membership or affiliation with non-governmental organizations that have an interest in the submission.

In cases of a failure to disclose relevant conflicts of interest, the editor-in-chief will investigate the allegation. If true, the editor-in-chief will determine the cause of the failure to disclose a relevant conflict. In all cases of failure to disclose a relevant conflict of interest, the editor-in-chief will publish an editor’s note that becomes part of the permanent record of that article. In those rare cases where the editor-in-chief uncovers a willful desire to hide financial conflicts of interest, the editor-in-chief will consider appropriate penalties, such as refusing to allow that author to publish in the journal for a specified period.

When considering whether to declare a conflicting interest or connection we encourage authors to consider how they would answer the following question: Is there any arrangement that would embarrass you or any of your co-authors if it was to emerge after publication and you had not declared it?

Editor’s conflict of interest:

FUJRS expects its journal editors to declare competing interests at the point of agreeing on their position and update them annually. FUJRS’s standard editor agreement obliges the editor to declare any potential conflict of interest that might arise during the term of editorship prior to entry into any agreement or position.

Editors are required to recuse themselves from individual manuscripts if they themselves have a potential conflict of interest and to avoid creating potential conflicts of interest through the assignment of handling editors or peer reviewers.

Reviewers/referees' conflict of interest:

We encourage editors to consider potential conflicts of interest when assigning reviewers. The journal includes wording in their invitation to review stating that acceptance of the invitation implies no competing interest. Where a reviewer declares a potential conflict of interest the editor will select alternative reviewers. Failure to declare a conflict of interest may result in the removal of the reviewer from the journal database.

Plagiarism Policy:

FUJRS has Zero tolerance Policy on the Plagiarism issue and follows the COPE guidelines and HEC (Pakistan) policies regarding Turnitin Originality Report and Plagiarism. Plagiarism is the use of others' published and unpublished ideas or words without permission and presenting them as new and original rather than derived from an existing source. FUJRS journals evaluate submissions on the understanding that they are the original work of the author(s). We expect that references made in a manuscript or article to another person’s work or idea will be credited appropriately. Equally, we expect authors to gain all appropriate permissions prior to publication.

Re-use of text, data, figures, or images without appropriate acknowledgment or permission is considered plagiarism, as is the paraphrasing of text, concepts, and ideas. All allegations of plagiarism are investigated thoroughly and in accordance with COPE guidelines.

Any disputes are considered on merit and the editorial Board decides the issue after looking at all the pertinent facts.

HEC relevant Weblinks:

Scientific Misconduct Policy:

Guidelines laid down by the Higher Education Commission, Pakistan (HEC), ICMJE, WAME and COPE are followed by FUJRS. The forms and examples of misconduct covered by the scientific misconduct policy include fabrication of scientific data, plagiarism, taking credit of authorship when there has been none, not giving other actual authors their due recognition, re-publishing the same research work as different research work in another journal, inclusion of individuals who have not participated in the research, fraudulently using other researcher’s ideas as own without informed consent. Similarly, not declaring competing interests regarding the source of funding for the research and not assuring transparency are also construed as misconduct by the journal.

Data falsification and fabrication:

Data falsification is manipulating research data with the intention of giving a false impression. This includes manipulating images, removing outliers or “inconvenient” results, changing, adding, or omitting data points, etc. Data fabrication means the making up of research findings.

Any questions regarding data integrity raised during or after the peer review process will be referred to the Editor-in-chief. The Editor-in-chief may request (anonymized) underlying study data from the author(s) for inspection or verification. If the original data cannot be produced, the manuscript may be rejected or, in the case of a published article, retracted. Cases of suspected misconduct will be reported to the author(s)’ institution(s).

Defamation:

Whilst striving to promote freedom of expression wherever possible, FUJRS aims to avoid publishing anything that harms the reputation of an individual, business, or organization unless it can be proven to be true. We take all possible measures to ensure that published work is free of any text that is, or may be libelous, slanderous, or defamatory.

Journal's Option for Post-publication discussions, retractions, corrections, and comments:

The editorial office thoroughly investigates the complaints made against any paper or requests for an update. Options are Addendum, Erratum, Corrections, and Retractions. The final decision is made by Editor-in-chief. Relevant persons and institutions will be consulted as necessary, including university authorities, or experts in the field.

Addendum:

The original article can be amended through an Addendum reporting previously omitted results if those were unintentionally omitted from the original publication. The Addendum with the DOI in the current issue of the journal.

Erratum:

If the author or contributor list is incorrect for example when somebody who does not meet authorship criteria has been added or when a deserving author has been omitted, then Errata should be published which can include missing or unclear figures or text. Minor mistakes do not qualify for an Erratum. All authors are instructed to proofread the final version carefully.

Corrections:

Corrections should be submitted for any scientifically relevant errors in published articles. Any changes may be evaluated by the Assistant Editor. Any changes after publication that affect the scientific interpretation (e.g., changes to a misleading portion of an otherwise reliable publication, an error in a figure, error in data that does not affect conclusions, or addition of missing details about a method) are announced using a Correction. This is a separate publication that links to the original paper, which is updated. A note will also be added to the abstract page, which tells the readers that an updated version was uploaded.

Retraction:

FUJRS follows the retraction guidelines provided by the ICMJE and a retraction notice will be published in the following issue of FUJRS citing the reason for the retraction of the article. A published manuscript can be retracted if it is found to be a duplicate publication or if any unethical act has been proven. A written message announcing the retraction of the article will replace the online article on the journal website.

Recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) are followed by FUJRS for the retraction. Sometimes an article needs to be completely removed from the journal which can be due to inadvertent errors made during the process, major ethical breeches, fabrication of data, or some form of plagiarism. Such articles threaten the integrity of scientific records and need to be retracted. Potential Retractions are thoroughly investigated by the Editorial Office with the support of the Editorial Board and final approval by the Editor-in-Chief. Other persons and institutions will be consulted as necessary, including university authorities, or experts in the field. If a Retraction is published, the original publication is amended with a “RETRACTED” watermark, but will still be available on the journal’s website for future reference. However, retracted articles should not be cited and used for further research, as they cannot be relied upon. The Higher Education Commission and the author’s institute will also be notified.

Data Sharing, Reproducibility, and Intellectual property policy:

Foundation University Journal of Rehabilitation Sciences encourages authors, where possible and applicable, to share datasets and other supplementary materials demonstrating the results published in the article, provided this does not violate the protection of human subjects or other valid subject privacy concerns and confidentiality. Data may be provided as additional supporting files in the other files section during the submission of the manuscript. Authors may also provide a data availability statement, including a link to the public repository used and a persistent identifier e.g. a DOI for the data, or an accession number. Authors are also further encouraged to cite any data referenced in the paper whether it is the author’s own work or someone else’s and cited data sets should also be included in the reference list.

Complaints and appeals:

FUJRS follows the Guidelines published by the Committee on Publication Ethics for Complaints and appeals (https://publicationethics.org/appeals). If any reader, author, or reviewer has any complaints against the journal, its staff, editorial board, or publisher, the authors can raise complaints by sending an email to: fujrs@fui.edu.pk.

The journal must be provided with sufficient, specific information about the matter to demonstrate that a potential ethics violation may have occurred. Complaints may be submitted regarding issues related to inappropriate authorship, gift, and ghost authorship; undeclared conflicts of interests, plagiarism, multiple, duplicate, or concurrent publication/Simultaneous submission; unethical research, fabrication/falsification of results, research standards violations, reviewer bias/competitive harmful acts by reviewers or any contribution to FUJRS that infringes the copyright or other intellectual property rights. Complaints may also be submitted about scientific content, e.g., an appeal against rejection where the Editor-in-Chief will consider the authors’ argument, the reviewer reports and decides whether the decision to reject should stand; another independent opinion may be sorted.

Once a complaint is lodged, an acknowledgment email will be sent to the complainant. The investigation process will be initiated by the journal team according to the directions of the Editor-in-Chief within three working days excluding the complaint receiving date. After the investigation is conducted, a complete inquiry report on the complaint will be prepared and forwarded to the concerned author through his submitted email ID.

All received complaints are welcomed in an unbiased, and timely manner with certainty. When needed, the journal can contact other journals or concerning institutions and seek independent and legal advice. FUJRS welcomes highlighting any error or mistake to be corrected.

For complaints about publication ethics or scientific content:

Send your query with the subject: “ETHICAL CONCERN: Article Title.” via email to fujrs@fui.edu.pk.

For complaints about processes:

Send your query with the subject: “MANUSCRIPT PROCESSING: along with Article no.” via email to fujrs@fui.edu.pk.

For Appeal against a rejection:

Only one appeal is permitted for each manuscript. Final decisions on appeals will be made by the Editor in chief. The appeal must address:

the authors can demonstrate that an error that determined the final decision has been made – by a referee or the Editors – during the review

if important additional data can be provided

if a convincing case of bias in the process can be demonstrated

Send your query with the subject: “APPEAL ON REJECTION with Article no.” via email to fujrs@fui.edu.pk.

Subscription Details:

Currently, FUJRS does not charge for any type of subscription and provides journal copies free of charge to universities, institutes, libraries, and general practitioners across Pakistan. Institutions/organizations/individuals from Pakistan, interested in a subscription of the printed version can forward their request to an official email address i.e., fujrs@fui.edu.pk for a free subscription. Overseas Institutions/organizations/individuals can forward the request for quotation on the official email address and only shipping charges will be charged.

Note: All subscription requests will be evaluated, the editor has the full right to approve the subscription or any discontinuation.

Article Processing Charges/Publication Fee:

All articles published in our journals are open access and freely available online, immediately upon publication. FUJRS does not charges any article-processing charges (APC) or publication charges to authors and publishes articles free of charge.

Copyright and licensing policy:

Copyright on any open access article published by Foundation University Journal of Rehabilitation Sciences (FUJRS) is retained by the author(s). Authors grant Foundation University Journal of Rehabilitation Sciences (FUJRS) to publish the article under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial License 4.0 and identify itself as the original publisher. Authors also grant any third party the right to use the article freely as long as its integrity is maintained and its original authors, citation details, and publisher are identified. The Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial License 4.0 formalizes these and other terms and conditions of publishing articles.

All articles published in Foundation University Journal of Rehabilitation Sciences (FUJRS) represent the view of the authors and do not reflect the official policy of Foundation University Journal of Rehabilitation Sciences (FUJRS).

Following copyright notice will be attached with each accepted article.

Copyright Notice

All Articles are made available under a Creative Commons "Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International" license. Copyrights on any open access article published by Foundation University Journal of Rehabilitation Sciences (FUJRS) are retained by the author(s). FUJRS is an open-access journal that allows free access to its published articles, in addition, to copy and use for research and academic purposes; provided the article is correctly cited. FUJRS does not allow commercial use of the articles published in FUJRS. All articles published represent the view of the authors and do not reflect the official policy of FUJRS.

Open Access Policy:

Foundation University Journal of Rehabilitation Sciences is an Open Access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the DOAI definition of Open Access.

Privacy Statement:

The names and email addresses entered in the journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of the journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.