Topics in Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation
Instructions for Authors

Purpose of the journal

Topics in Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation (TSCIR) is an interdisciplinary journal devoted to the study and dissemination of practical and theoretical information related to the subject of spinal cord injury rehabilitation. The journal reviews and reports on clinical practices, state-of-the-art concepts, and new developments in spinal cord injury patient care and research. Both primary research papers and comprehensive reviews of existing literature are included. The objective of each issue is to summarize and synthesize current knowledge on a selected timely topic in spinal cord injury rehabilitation.

Click here for a message to TSCIR readers from ASIA President Michael Kennelly, MD.

TSCIR is indexed in EMBASE, the Excerpta Medica database; CINAHL, the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature; Psychological Abstracts; PsycINFO; PsycLIT; and OT Bibsys.

Manuscript submission

TSCIR endorses the Declaration of Helsinki and assumes that authors of papers submitted to HCT will have followed all ethical and legal standards for pursuing original experiments on human beings as determined by their institutions.

TSCIR uses the Editorial Manager online manuscript submission system. To access Editorial Manager click here. A brief registration is required. Forms and further information are available on the Editorial Manager system.

Manuscript review process

All manuscripts are reviewed by one of the Editors and at least two outside reviewers for clinical relevance, originality, scientific quality, and statistical accuracy.

Manuscript preparation

Submissions are limited to a 4,000 word length without prior permission from the Editor (scieditor@thomasland.com). Microsoft Word (6.0 or higher) is the preferred software. Manuscripts should be double-spaced (including quotations, lists, references, footnotes, figure captions, and all parts of tables). Manuscripts should be ordered as follows: title page, abstracts, text, references, appendixes, tables, and any illustrations. Number pages consecutively. Research Articles and Clinical Studies should consist of the following sections: abstract, at least three and up to seven key words, introduction, methods, results, discussion, conclusion, acknowledgments, and references.

This journal uses blinded peer review. Please be sure that no author information is included in your manuscript file. Instead, include author and title information (title, author names and degrees, affiliations, acknowledgments, etc.) in a separate cover letter file.

Copyright

Authors must release copyright ownership of their manuscript at the time of its submission. A Copyright Release form (available in Editorial Manager) must accompany the manuscript before processing for publication can begin. It is understood that articles submitted to be published in TSCIR will not be submitted to any other publication.

Submission checklist

Each submission must include the following:

1. A cover letter including (1) title of the article, (2) author names (with highest academic degrees) and affiliations (including titles, departments, and name and location of institutions of primary employment), (3) any acknowledgments, credits, or disclaimers, and (4) a shortened title (maximum 45 characters) for use as a running head.

2. Structured Abstract of no more than 250 words and up to 7 key words that describe the contents of the article like those that appear in the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) or the National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). For abstracts of Research Articles and Clinical Studies, please include background, objective, methods, results, and conclusions sections. (click here for an example of a structured abstract)

3. Clear indication of the placement of all tables and figures in text.

4. Acknowledgment section at the end of the text that includes all funding sources, corporate, academic, and institutional associations. Also all financial, institutional, or consultant sponsorship that is related to the submission and any association that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submission should be noted.

5. Signed Copyright Release Form.

6. Written permission for any borrowed text, tables, or figures. Reprint Permission Request Form.

References

Cite references in text and style in the reference list according to the American Medical Association Manual of Style, 10th ed. They should be numbered consecutively in the order they are cited; reference numbers can be used more than once throughout an article. References should not be created using Microsoft Word’s automatic footnote/endnote feature. References should be included on a separate page at the end of the article and should be double-spaced.

Tables

Include tables on a separate page at the end of the manuscript, not embedded in the manuscript. Number tables consecutively and call out each one in text. Supply a brief title for each table. Type explanatory statements, notes, or keys below the table. Explain in footmotes all nonstandard abbreviations. For footnote labels, use lowercase letters a, b, c, etc. Type source and permission lines below the table. Type credit lines exactly as requested by the original copyright holder.

Illustrations

High-resolution figures can be submitted electronically as either a TIFF or JPEG file with at least 300 dpi. Save and submit files in both the application in which they were created (i.e., Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw and Photoshop) and as either JPEG or TIFF files. We do not accept art that is in color, is embedded in the text, was downloaded from the Internet, or has been photocopied. Cite each figure in the text in consecutive order. Supply a caption for each figure. Captions should include the figure title; explanatory statements, notes, or keys; and source and permission lines. If a figure has been previously published, in part or in total, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce or adapt the material.

Permissions

Permission to reprint. The author is responsible for obtaining signed letters from the copyright holders granting permission to reprint material that is borrowed from other sources (including previously published material in TSCIR). Permission is needed when using any copyrighted table, figure, or illustration or direct quotes of 200 words or more from a periodical article. Permission forms are available in Editorial Manager.

Permission to adapt. Permission is also required if material is redrawn, reworded, modified, or adapted.

Fee payment. Copyright holders sometimes require that a fee be paid before granting permission. It is the author’s responsibility to pay this fee.

Drug names. The generic (nonproprietary) name of a drug should be used throughout a manuscript. Use the complete name of a drug, including the salt or ester (eg, tetracycline hydrochloride) at first mention and elsewhere in contexts involving dosage. When no generic name exists for a drug, give the chemical name or formula or description of the names of the active ingredients.

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