As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
Author Guidelines
The quarterly Journal of Research on Religion and Health, affiliated with Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences is active in spreading and publishing articles in the field of religious sciences and health by national and international researchers and experts in Persian, English and Arabic. Publishing these articles is hoped to promote knowledge and skills of the audience and researchers in the related scientific fields. Given the small number of specialized journals that focus specifically on both religion and health, it seems essential to publish a journal that works on both fields to reveal the connection between them.
Language
This quarterly journal publishes full articles in Persian with Persian, English and Arabic abstracts.
Articles accepted for publication in this journal
The different types of articles accepted in the journal include:
1) Editorial: This type of articles are normally written by the chief editor or board of directors or experienced individual in a particular field and is about the original research articles published in the journal or a particular subject.
2) Research Article: These articles constitute the major articles of the journal. The writing guidelines for these articles have been mentioned in the following section.
3) Systematic review and meta-analysis: These articles are usually published only based on the suggestions made to experts by the board of the directors.
4) Case Report: In these articles, there is no need for structured abstracts. The number of works in the abstract is maximum 75, which includes information about introducing the patient (or new method), findings, and conclusion. The number of words is maximum 800. These articles must have 3-5 keywords and maximum 10 references. The text of the article includes an introduction, introducing the patient, and discussion.
5) Letter to Editor: This type of article is a scientific comment or criticism about one of the articles of the last issue of the journal and is maximum 500 words and has 3-5 references. If the first author is willing to respond to the criticism, his/her answer is published simultaneously with the critical article.
6) Brief Communication: It is similar to Letter to Editor and is written about the introductory report of a new project, method or instrument, introducing a health or medical study in short or a short review. It is prepared in three A4 pages and has three references. The number of authors is also maximum three.
7) Clinical Note: It is a two-page introduction that does not normally happen, in which an individual’s opinion, experience or observations are mentioned.
The rules related to unauthorized republication of a content
The articles submitted to the journal office must not have been published in another Persian journal. Furthermore, they must not be simultaneously under review in another journal and must not be submitted to another journal for review and publication after submitting them to the Journal of Research on Religion and Health unless no answer is sent by the journal office indicating acceptance or rejection of the article in three months.
If the submitted article has been already published in another national or international non-Persian journal (except in the form of abstract or a part of speech published or presented in scientific seminars and conferences, review articles or theses or dissertations), the corresponding author must inform the editor in writing attaching a copy of the published article along with the article republication agreement obtained from the first publisher.
If the article summary has been published in the book of articles of a seminar or conference, the number of words of the complete article submitted for republication must be two times the article summary or have a larger number of words than the article summary and have tables and graphs.
Announcing the scientific findings on the public media before the article has been published in the journal is against the journal policies. In rare cases and after making the required coordination with the chief editor, it will be acceptable to spread the findings before publication. For example, when there is an emergency for public health and the related authorities have confirmed its publication.
Authors’ conditions
All the individuals who are called authors should have the required qualifications and anyone who has the needed criteria must be referred to as author. Each author must have made enough contribution to the completion of the article and take responsibility for a part of the article s/he has written. Recognition as author must be based on the following responsibilities:
1) Developing the initial idea or design or complete implementation or data analysis;
2) Drafting the article or reviewing its content based on the presented ideas;
3) Confirming the final version for publication
All the three conditions must be met by all authors and contribution to getting budget or collecting data does not justify authorship. General supervision over the research team is also not enough.
Observing the ethical guidelines
Authors are required to observe the ethical guidelines in medical and Islamic writings.
Protecting patients’ rights
- Patients have privacy rights, which must not be violated without obtaining their written consent. Identify information must not appear in the writings, figures, and family trees unless it is essential for scientific reasons and the patient (or his/her parents or guardianship) gives written consent for publication. Obtaining written consent for this purpose requires that the patient see the published article. Identity details must be removed if they are not essential. But the identity information related to the patient must not be falsified in a way that s/he cannot be identified. Absolute anonymity is hardly possible and if there is doubt about it, written consent must be obtained.
- In articles that are the result of a clinical trial, patients’ information (including their name, hospital bed number, etc.) must not be mentioned within the article text and figures.
- If the study has been conducted on human, in the methods section, it must be mentioned that information consent has been obtained from the participants.
- With regard to the articles that are the result of an epidemiologic study or a clinical trial, the copy or scanned file of the Ethics Committee’s agreement in the research institute must be sent along with the article.
Conflict of interests
To avoid the conflict of interests, in multicenter studies, the researchers’ agreement must be sent along with the article. In the studies sponsored by private firms, the agreement provisions must be mentioned.
The constituent parts of research papers
1) Page number: All pages must have page numbers.
2) Title page: In the first page of the article (title page), the following must be included:
Complete title, author(s) name including their name and surname, workplace (e.g., department, faculty, university). The corresponding author must be specified and his/her address must be mentioned as follows: complete postal address, phone number (along with the country or city dialing code) or mobile phone, email address, and fax number (if available) along with the country or city dialing code.
* The name of the author(s) and their order needs to carefully mentioned when submitting the article to the journal office.
3) Abstract: The Persian abstract must be maximum 300 words and include background and objective, methods, results and conclusion.
The English abstract must be maximum 300 words and include background and objective, methods, results and conclusion.
The Persian and English abstracts must be simultaneously submitted to the journal office along with the complete Persian article. The text of Persian and English abstracts must be matched.
In the background and objective section, besides a brief report of the background, the objective(s) must also be mentioned and the methods section should include the major methods (selecting the participants under study or the animal subjects, observation method and analysis).
The findings section includes the major findings of the study (specific data and their statistical significance). In the conclusion section, the major conclusions of the study are mentioned. Also the novel and important aspects of the research or observations must be emphasized.
4) Keywords: It is necessary to selected 3-10 keywords in accordance with the article text and include them at the end of the Persian and English abstracts to help the index developer in indexing the journal. Furthermore, choosing appropriate keywords makes it easier to find the article in the search engines and articles databases. For this purpose, the keywords must be selected from the list of Medical Subject Headings MeSH. If there are no appropriate keywords for a particular word, new words can be used. To access the MeSH words, refer to the following internet address: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=mesh
5) Main text of the article: The body of the article includes the following sections:
Introduction, Methods, Discussion and Conclusion, Limitations of the Study, Suggestions for Further Research, Acknowledgment, Ethical Considerations, Funding, Conflict of Interests, Authors’ Contribution, and References
A) Introduction
In the introduction section, a brief review of the literature and purpose of the study are mentioned and the justification for the study is declared. In this section, only the most related references are mentioned and the data and conclusions are not reported.
B) Methods
The population under study and the sampling method (the patients or animals under study including the control group) must be clearly mentioned. Their age, gender, and other information also need to be mentioned.
The methods applied and the instruments used are referred to. The name of the manufacturer of the equipment, the firm producing the used materials, and the name of country of origin are included within parentheses.
The procedures are stated with enough explanation in a way that other researchers can examine and retrieve the results or even replicate the study. If necessary, references are included for the particular and defined methods (including the statistical methods). The new or adjusted methods are explained; the reasons for their use are stated and their limitations are evaluated.
All the drugs and chemical materials used and their generic name, dose and method of consumption are elaborated on. Provide evidence that confirms the experimental sensitivities and specialized nature of the experimental methods.
The reports of randomized clinical tests must present some information related to all the important elements of the study including the research method (sample population, procedures, results, statistical logic (determining the type of intervention) behind the randomized methods, concealing the different medical groups) and blinding method of the study. A part of the article must explain the methods of finding, selecting, extracting and creating the data. These should also be included in the article summary.
Units of measurement: All the measurement units are reported in the SI metric system (the international of system of units).
Statistical methods: These methods should be presented with enough details so that the reader can test the article results. It is essential but not enough to refer to the software used for statistical analysis. For each of the research variables, the applied statistical test must be mentioned. Mean scores, median, standard deviation, and confidence intervals are recommended to be used for showing the results.
Results
It must be presented with a logical order of a text including tables, graphs, figures and illustrations. In analytical studies and clinical trials, first, characteristics of the two groups (experimental and control) should be focused on. Then, the research data are referred to. The data presented within the tables, graphs and illustrations should not be repeated within the text. Do not use ambiguous and unmeasurable words like natural, considerable, significant, etc. Furthermore, the words with a certain statistical meaning including random, significant, sample, correlation, etc. must not be used in a nontechnical and informal sense. The methods of examining, discussion and conclusion should not be mentioned in this section.
Tables and graphs
The number of tables and graphs must be proportionate to the article size; for every 1000 words, one table can only be included. Do not use tables and graphs whose information has been already mentioned within the text. Each table must be self-explanatory with no need to refer to the text for understanding it. The tables and graphs must have complete labels. They should be arranged using the Word software with Persian numbers from right to left. For drawing the graphs, use software like Excel. In the graphs, the labels of the horizontal and vertical axes and their scales must be mentioned.
Figures
The figure files must be prepared with a minimum of 300 dpi resolution. Figures should have a label listing the figure number, title of manuscript, and the name of the first author. If necessary, use an arrow to indicate the direction of figure. With regard to the pictures prepared from the patients, it is essential to cover up the parts that reveal the patients’ identity.
* If the table, graph or figure has been previously published, except in the case of public documents, the author or publisher’s permission must be obtained and presented.
C) Discussion and Conclusion
In the first paragraph of this section, the major findings that answer the research questions must be included. The important and new aspects of the study and the related conclusions must be emphasized. The other data or content related to the introduction or results section must not be repeated here. In the discussion, the interpretation of the findings and their limitations must be mentioned. The observations must be related to the other related studies and the reason for the likely different findings must be explained. Furthermore, conclusion must be related to the purpose of the study and unclear conclusions that are not supported by the data must be avoided. New hypotheses, in necessary, and also the recommendations must be included at the end of discussion.
Acknowledgment
In this section the following are acknowledged:
All contributions that do not meet the criteria for authorship, for example the general support provided by the head of the department, or the related faculty, university or institute.
Technical support
Financial help, and materials and instruments by mentioning the nature of the assistance
All contributors have provided mental help in preparing the article but do not qualify as authors should be mentioned and their contribution and activities should be reported, for example, providing scientific advice, editing, criticizing the article draft, data collection, and participants in the clinical test.
* The relationship between the authors, companies, and institutions must be mentioned because not mentioning them leads to conflict of interests.
D) Ethical considerations
If the article is the result of an approved research project, it is essential to mention the research project number and also the code of ethics of the articles in this section. In review articles, there is no need to mention the code of ethics in Letter to Editor and data analysis and editorial.
E) Funding
If a particular organization or center has funded the study or article, it is necessary to mention the name of the center providing the fund.
F) Conflict of interests
In this section, there is a need to mention that the authors had no conflict of interests in different stages of article preparation.
G) Authors’ contribution
It is necessary to mention what kind of contribution each author has made to the article. \
References:
References must be numbered consecutively in order of citation in the text (Vancouver style). Special care must be given to the punctuation and the space between the words and letters when preparing the list of references. Whenever the article summary is only used, the word ‘abstract’ must be included at the end of the references. The references must be prepared carefully based on the following patterns:
Article
English article
Johnson KS, Tulsky JA, Hays JC, Arnold RM, Olsen MK, Lindquist JH, et al. Which domains of spirituality are associated with anxiety and depression in patients with advanced illness? Journal of general internal medicine. 2011;26(7):751-8.
Note: If the number of authors is fewer than 6, the name of all authors must be included. If the number exceeds 6, use et al. after the sixth author.
Non-English and Persian article:
Ryder TE, Haukeland EA, Solhaug JH. Bilateral Infrapatellar Seneruptur Hostidligere Frisk Kvinne. Tidsskr nor Laegeforen 1996; 116:41-2.
Organization as author:
The Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand. Clinical Exercise Stress Testing. Safety and Performance Guidelines. Med J Aust 1996; 164(5):282-4.
Article, no author given
Cancer in South Africa [editorial]. S Afr Med J 1994; 84:15.
Supplemental Journal
Shen HM, Zhang QF. Risk Assessment of Nickel Carcinogenicity andOccupational Lung Cancer. Environ Health Perspect 1994; 102 Suppl. 275:81-2.
Conference paper
Kimura J, Shibasaki H, editors. Recent Advances in Clinical Neurophysiology. proceedings of the 10th International Congress of EMGand Clinical Neurophysiology; 1995 Oct 15-19; Kyoto, Japan. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 1996.
Book
English book
Kunst A, Mackenbach J, Measuring socioeconomic inequalities in health, Copenhagen: WHO Regional office for Europe. 1995; IQsh-59.
Note: Mention surnames and initials of all authors when the number of authors is less than 6. In the case of seven or more authors, the names of the first six authors followed by et al. should be included.
Chapter of a book
Philips SJ, Whisnant JP. Hypertension and Stroke. In: Laragh JH, Brenner BM, editors. Hypertension: Pathophysiology, Ddiagnosis, andMmanagement. 2nd ed. New York: Raven Press; 1995. P.465-78.
Thesis or dissertation:
Kaplan SJ. Post-hospital Home Health Care: the Elderly Access and Utilization (Dissertation). St Louis (MO): Washington University; 1995.
Persian thesis or dissertation:
The references for Persian theses and dissertations must be arranged as follows:
Sabri S, Pour Tahmasebi S, Tajvar A. Barresi-ye Rabeteh-ye bein Eltezam-e Amali be Namaz ba Salamat-e Ravini va Hoviat-Yabi-ye Daneshjooyan-e Daneshgah-e Azad-e Ardebil. Khorasgan: Daneshgah Azad Eslami , Vahed Khorasgan; 2011.
Article in electronic form
Morse SS. Factors in the Emergence of Infectious Diseases. Emerg InfecDis [Internet]. 1995 Jan-Mar [cited 2007Jun 5]; 1(1): [24 screens]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/eid.htm
Software
Hemodynamics III: the Ups and Downs of Hemodynamics [computer program]. Version 2.2. Orlando (FL): Computerized Educational Systems; 1993.
For more information about how to cite other sources, visit the following URL: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html.
Important points
If the submitted article does not follow the structure and format included in the guideline, the article will be returned to the author for adjustment and resubmission.
The Editorial Board is free to accept or reject or ask for revision or summarization of the articles.
The article must be prepared using the Microsoft Word and B Nazanin 12 font and the file must be submitted to the journal office along with the Article Copyright Transfer Agreement form. This form can be downloaded from the journal website or from the form included in the previously published volumes of the journal. Otherwise, call and ask the journal office to send the form to the corresponding author. Besides, another file with no names and addresses and acknowledgment should be sent along with the main manuscript. In addition, it is essential to send the tables and graphs source on the SPSS and Excel.
The journal office will acknowledge receipt along with sending the registration number after receiving the article. After primary evaluation, the article is sent to the reviewers. After making the final decision and once accepted, it is placed in the queue for publication, which will be informed to the corresponding author in writing.
A summary of maximum 1000 and minimum 700 words has to be sent with the main manuscript. The summary must include all components of an article including: background and objective, methods, discussion and conclusion, acknowledgment, ethical considerations, funding, conflict of interests, authors’ contribution and references.
After final edition of the article, the finalized version to be published is presented to the corresponding author so that the next stages for publication can be followed after his/her confirmation. The corresponding author must inform the journal about any likely mistake in the final version as soon as possible so that it can be corrected in the final version.
How to submit your article
Via Online Submission on the journal website (http://journals.sbmu.ac.ir/jrrh)
Via the journal email: jrrh@sbmu.ac.ir
Note
Please visit the journal website for how to write and arrange the text and the letters and lines of the article.
The journal will send the corresponding author a Receipt Certificate after receiving the article.
The Journal of Research on Religion and Health tries to announce its decision on publication, the need for revision, or rejection of the article to the corresponding author within 12 weeks from the submission date.
Under Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing (June 20, 2003), cience-research Journal of Pizhūhish dar dīn va salāmat are fully compliant with open access mandates, by publishing its articles under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). Authors retain copyright of their work and can deposit their publication in any repository. This means that articles can be freely reused by the author and others as long as the article is properly cited. Published articles in Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences Journals can be deposited immediately into an online repository without any cost. This articles can be, printed, archived in a collection, included in course-packs, and distributed without restrictions. Please read the full Creative Commons License for further information.
