5 Instructions for authors

5.1 Prepare your manuscript

5.1.1 Journal Selection & Article Types

In order to be considered for publication in the Psychosoziale und Medizinische Rehabilitation, manuscripts must demonstrate significant progress in terms of originality, relevance, and timeliness. All contributions should promote the development of research on chronic illness, their treatment, and prevention.

Although the papers are likely to focus on scientifically educated audiences, they should be written in a way that is understandable and of interest to clinicians, public health professionals, medical researchers, and educators.  

Psychosoziale und Medizinische Rehabilitation accepts the following types of articles:

• Research articles
• Empirical papers
• Review articles
• Systematic Review
• Research Notes
• Editorials
• Conference Reports
• Book Reviews
• Letters

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5.1.2 Structure, Word Limit & Style Guide

Structure

Your paper should be compiled in the following order:

1. title of the work
2. names and affiliations of all authors
3. abstract (this should give the reader a sufficient impression of the content of the article in not more than 250 words)
4. 3-5 keywords
5. text contribution
6. references
7. possible acknowledgments
8. funding providers
9. required statements
10. address and contact information of the corresponding author

Word Limits

Please include a word count of your paper.

e.g.:

Empirical papers should not exceed about 30 double-spaced typewritten pages (inclusive of references, figures, and tables).

Research Notes or Practice Notes should not exceed 3,000 words/6 published pages (plus two figures/tables).

Editorials should not exceed 1500 to 2000 words in length and can include a few references.

Style Guidelines

The text should be continuous. This means that you should not use separations or page breaks, and you should only place returns at the end of a paragraph, before and after tables and figures, and in enumerations or the like.

When designing and formatting indents, spaces, or tables, please use tabs to create spaces, never blanks! There should never be more than one blank between two words or more than one return between two lines.

Emphasis in the text should be in italics (no underlining).

Tables and figures should be listed on separate sheets and numbered in Arabic. In the place where they are to be placed in the text, you should only insert the respective table or figure caption. Please use the abbreviations „Tab.“ or „Fig”.

Example:

Text, text, text,

(blank line)

Tab. 3: Standard diagnostics

(blank line)

Text, text, text,

Text, text, text,

(blank line)

Fig. 2: Area-specific recommendations

(blank line)

Text, text, text, text, …

If you refer to tables or figures in the text, please do not write „in the following“, but „in Table X“ or „in Figure X“.

The separately enclosed tables and figures should then only be marked with their Arabic numbering (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, …. Tab. 1, Tab. 2, …). Only use tabs (no blanks) to align the columns in tables.

The figures should be enclosed as high-contrast originals or good copies.

Headings must be clearly numbered (these are replaced in the print by different font sizes) and in bold print.

Example:

1. Framework concept

1.1 Measures at macro level

1.1.1 Clarification of the quality objectives

1.2 Measures at the micro level

1.2.1 Definition of quality objectives

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5.1.3 Templates, Figures & Tables, References

Formatting and Templates

Printout and text file must be identical. Please use a standard word processing program (e.g. Word, Open Office, or similar) and save the text as .docx, .odt or similar.

Figures should be incorporated in the manuscript, and additionally be saved separately from the text and should be enclosed as high-contrast originals or good copies. To assist you in preparing your paper, we provide formatting template(s).

Abbreviations (except for those clearly well established in the field) should be explained when they are first used both in abstract and in the main text.

Images and figures

Please use only images and figures in your article that are relevant and valuable for your reported work. Furthermore, no images and figures should be used that are purely illustrative and have no added value for your scientific work.

References

Please use this reference guide when preparing your paper.

Sources in the text are indicated by stating the surname of the author and the year of publication of the work.

Example: Fiedler (1996) showed that…. As could be shown (Zielke, 1993), it is the case that… Bange and Deegener (1996) showed that… In further study (Backhaus & Riemann, 1996) it was shown that… It was emphasized several times (Beck, 1995, Fiedler, 1996) that… Wittchen (1996, p. 68) points out that…

The bibliography must include all works referred to in the text. All references in the bibliophagy must also be found in the text. They are to be arranged alphabetically according to the author`s last name. 

The psychological (following the guidelines of the American Psychological Association (APA) citation method should be used consistently.

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5.1.4 Required Statements

All submitted manuscripts must include a Statement of Ethics and a Conflict of Interest Statement after the main body of the text, but before the reference lists.

Conflict of Interest Statement

It is imperative that you, as well as all your co-authors, indicate any competing interests that are relevant to the article or that may be considered relevant to the article.

A competing interest exists, for example, if you (or your employer, sponsor, or family/friends) have a financial, commercial, legal, or professional relationship with other organizations or with the people working with them that could influence the research or interpretation of the results. Also, regardless of their potential relevance to the work, all forms of support and financial involvement that have taken place in the last three years should be listed.

Competing interests may be financial or non-financial (personal, political, or professional) in nature. To be on the safe side, you should also list any associations that might be perceived by others as competing interests.

Author Contributions Statement

There should be a short explanation in the section „Author’s Contributions“ in which the contributions of each person named as author are listed in detail.

If an author is removed or added after submission from the listed authors, a statement and signed consent form from all originally listed authors and the author to be removed or added confirming the requested change is required.

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5.1.5 Editorial and Journal Policies

Only papers written in German or English are considered. Before submission, the articles should be edited to ensure that standard German or English grammar and usage are observed.

All manuscripts are subject to editorial review.

By submitting the manuscript, the author transfers to the publisher the exclusive, spatially and temporally unlimited right to print, copy, and evaluate any kind of material for all languages and countries. This applies both to the text and to graphic representations and photographic images.

The submission statement with original (handwritten) signatures is to be provided upon submitting the paper.

Pabst Science Publishers recommends the use of original images and materials whenever possible. By sending the manuscript, the author automatically declares that the manuscript sent by him is free of rights of third parties and approved by all participating authors of a working group. The copyright and usage must be checked carefully to avoid copyright infringement.

Obtaining permission to publish identifiable or protected content

In the case of figures in which a patient is recognizable, the author is responsible for ensuring that the reproduction is authorized by the person depicted or their legal representative. He is also responsible for the complete anonymization of patient-related data.

In addition, further permission for use is required if the content was obtained from communities for which additional permission is necessary or from a protected source (e.g., museum collections). This must be done before the manuscript is submitted.

Citations

It is important that both research and non-research articles cite relevant, current, and reviewed literature (peer-reviewed where appropriate) to support the claims made in the article.

You should also avoid excessive and inappropriate self-citation or collusion between groups of authors to cite each other’s work inappropriately. This may be considered a form of misconduct known as citation manipulation.

If a non-research article (e.g., a review or opinion) is available, the cited references should be relevant and provide a fair and balanced overview of the current state of research or scientific work on the topic. In addition, care should be taken to ensure that the references are not unfairly biased towards a particular research group, organization, or journal.

Using Third-Party Material

You must obtain the necessary permission to reuse third-party material in your article. By sending the manuscript, you automatically declare that the manuscript you sent is free of rights of third parties and approved by all participating authors of a working group.

In general, the use of short text extracts and some other types of material used for criticism or review is permitted to a limited extent without formal permission. Inclusion of material in your paper for which you do not hold copyright, and which is not covered by this informal agreement requires written permission from the copyright holder prior to submission.

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5.1.6 Submission Checklist – What to Include

• Title and author details
  Title (for German articles: title in German and English). The cover page should show the full name and affiliation of all authors of the manuscript. If there is more than one author, the corresponding author must be indicated. Depending on the journal, the e-mail address of the corresponding author will be displayed in the PDF of the article and in the online article. The affiliations of authors mean the affiliations in which the research was conducted.  Please note that no changes of affiliation can be made after your paper has been accepted.
• Abstract & keywords
  Unstructured abstract ≤ 250 words; 3–5 keywords.
• Style & formatting
  Continuous text (no manual page breaks); use tabs, not spaces, for indents/tables; italics only; numbered bold headings; explain abbreviations at first use
• Structure & word count
  Include a word count; Empirical papers ≤ 30 double-spaced pages (incl. refs, figures, tables); Research/Practice Notes ≤ 3 000 words + up to 2 figures/tables; Editorials 1 500–2 000 words
• Figures
  Figures should be incorporated in the manuscripts and additionally be saved separately from the text and should be enclosed as high-contrast originals or good copies.
• Tables
  Tables should contain new content and not simply duplicate the content of the text. Tables should also be interpretable independently of the text. 
• Required statements (after main text, before References)
  Funding Statement, Conflict of Interest Statement, Ethics Statement; Data Availability Statement, Author Contributions Statement.
• References
  In-text: Author (Year) or (Author, Year); reference list alphabetized by author surname (APA style); every citation must match one reference.
• Data deposition
  If you decide to share or disclose the data on which the study is based, please deposit your data in a recognized data repository before or at the time of submission.

5.2 Submission

Submitting Your Paper

By submitting the manuscript, the author automatically declares that the manuscript submitted is free of third-party rights and has been approved by all authors involved in a working group. The author transfers to the publisher the exclusive right, unrestricted in terms of time and territory, to print, reproduce, and exploit the manuscript in any form, in all languages and countries. This applies to both the text and to graphic representations and photographic illustrations.

For illustrations in which a patient is recognizable, the author is responsible for ensuring that the reproduction has been approved by the person depicted or their legal representative. The author is also responsible for the complete anonymization of patient-related data.

The manuscript must be sent to the editor via email (psmr@pabst-publishers.com) in accordance with the following guidelines regarding formatting.

If there is more than one author, the corresponding author will receive the proofs.

The manuscript must be thoroughly revised and proofread in terms of both form and content so that no further changes are necessary. The author will receive one set of proofs, in which only typographical errors may be corrected. Subsequent changes to the content are no longer possible or will be billed to the author.

Should you have any questions concerning your submission, please contact the editors: psmr@pabst-publishers.com

Open Access

You have the option to publish open access in this journal. Publishing open access means that your article is freely accessible online immediately after publication, thus increasing the visibility, readership, and impact of your research. Open access is reserved for English language articles. All articles in German will be printed. Articles can optionally be published open access as an additional English language version. In this case, authors must provide the English version of the article. Translation of a German paper into English must be done by the authors. Requests for open-access publication can be submitted via email: psmr@pabst-publishers.com

After Submission

After submission and if the feedback is positive, photos will be requested from all authors.