Author Guidelines
Manuscript submission
Papers submitted for publication should be original work not previously published in English and not currently submitted elsewhere for consideration. If accepted for publication, a paper cannot be published elsewhere in any language without the consent of both Editor and publisher.
Manuscripts should be submitted to the following website:
http://fch.khuisf.ac.ir/. Full submission instructions can be found on this website.
Covering Letter
A cover letter should be submitted with your manuscript and must include a statement that the data has not been published, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. It will be presumed that all listed authors of a manuscript have agreed to the listing and have seen and approved the manuscript. The cover letter should include a statement outlining what is new, impact making and original about the paper and why it should be considered for publication.
Please also include a paragraph detailing the Authorship contribution detailing the Author(s) responsible each of the following:
- designing the work
- acquiring the data
- interpreting the data
- drafting the work/ revising the work critically for intellectual content
A statement from the authors agreeing to be held accountable for all aspects of the work and any questions relating to the accuracy or integrity of the work should also be included.
Manuscript Format
Before you submit, you will need:
- Your manuscript: this can be a single file including text, figures, and tables, or separate files – whichever you prefer. All required sections should be contained in your manuscript, including abstract, introduction, methods, results, and conclusions. Figures and tables should have legends. References may be submitted in any style or format, as long as it is consistent throughout the manuscript. If the manuscript, figures or tables are difficult for you to read, they will also be difficult for the editors and reviewers. If your manuscript is difficult to read, the editorial office may send it back to you for revision.
- The title page of the manuscript, including statements relating to our ethics and integrity policies:
- funding statement (if applicable)
- conflict of interest disclosure
- ethics approval statement
- permission to reproduce material from other sources
Important: the journal operates a double-blind peer review policy. Please anonymise your manuscript and prepare a separate title page containing author details.
(Why is this important? We need to uphold rigorous ethical standards for the research we consider for publication.)
- Your co-author details, including affiliation and email address. (Why is this important? We need to keep all co-authors informed of the outcome of the peer review process.)
- An ORCID ID, freely available at https://orcid.org. (Why is this important? Your article, if accepted and published, will be attached to your ORCID profile. Institutions and funders are increasingly requiring authors to have ORCID IDs.)
To submit, login at http://fch.khuisf.ac.ir/ and create a new submission. Follow the submission steps as required and submit the manuscript.
If you are invited to revise your manuscript after peer review, the journal will also request the revised manuscript to be formatted according to journal requirements as described below.
1. Manuscripts should allow for 'blind/anonymised' refereeing and must not contain author names or any identifiable data.
2. Manuscripts must be typed in double spacing throughout, including quotation, notes and references in the following order:
- Title Page: to contain the title of the paper, word count, suggested running head (short title for your paper), key words, author names, affiliations and contact details for the corresponding author.
- Abstract: on a separate sheet, the title to be repeated followed by a summary of not more than 150 words. The suggested running head should also be present.
- References: References in published papers are formatted according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th edition). However, references may be submitted in style Vancouver, as long as it is consistent throughout the manuscript. References are not more than 45
- The word limit, excluding abstract and practitioner points will vary depending on the type of paper you are submitting. Please refer to the ‘Advice to Authors’ section below.
4. Style: Whilst Journal style is generally formal, originality in presentation does not necessarily preclude publication if clarity and readability is thereby enhanced. Sexist language forms are unacceptable.
Your manuscript will be returned to you if you fail to conform to these requirements.
Preprint Policy
This Journal will consider for review articles previously available as preprints. Authors may also post the submitted version of a manuscript to a preprint server at any time. Authors are requested to update any pre-publication versions with a link to the final published article.
Case material and Confidentiality
Journal of Family Centered Health Care readers particularly welcome papers which link theory and practice, and such papers are often enhanced by case material.
The Author takes responsibility for de-identifying material in order to protect client confidentiality. While recognising that it is often details and contextual features which give an account its richness, these need to be de-identified as much as possible without jeopardising their integrity (i.e., being adequate to support the author’s claims). All possible identifying information must be altered. Another way of protecting confidentiality is by presenting composite case material, made up of different aspects from a number of similar cases.
Signed consent must always be sought to include accounts of clinical material, even though de-identified. When children and young people are included in the material described, their consent too will need to be sought, according to their level of understanding.
Every paper that contains case material must be accompanied by:-
- A statement in the letter to the Editor from the Author(s) specifying whether the material presented is disguised/generic/composite; or
- A statement in the letter to the Editor that the Author has gained signed consent from patients/clients or teachers/students authorizing publication of the material. Please note that upon signing the Author Agreement the Author becomes liable for any third party information collated and takes complete responsibility for preparing the work and gaining the relevant permissions and consent.
Article Preparation Support
We offer expert help with English Language Editing, as well as translation, manuscript formatting, figure illustration, figure formatting, and graphical abstract design – so you can submit your manuscript with confidence.
Also, check out our resources for Preparing Your Article for general guidance about writing and preparing your manuscript.
All services are paid for and arranged by the author, and use of one of these services does not guarantee acceptance or preference for publication.
Evaluation of Manuscripts
The Editorial office will acknowledge receipt of manuscripts. The Editor will arrange for evaluation by at least two assessors. Following receipt of the assessors comments the Editor will advise the authors about the decision concerning the manuscript. This will be done as rapidly as possible with the aim being 12 weeks for a first decision. Revised manuscripts may take longer to reach a final decision).
If your paper is accepted, the author identified as the formal corresponding author for the paper will receive an email prompting them to login into Author Services; They will be able to complete the license agreement on behalf of all authors of the paper.
Copy Editing
Following acceptance for publication an article is copy edited for conformity to the style of publication, clarity of presentation, punctuation, standard usage of terms, etc.
Proofs
Authors will receive an e-mail notification with a link and instructions for accessing HTML page proofs online. Page proofs should be carefully proofread for any copyediting or typesetting errors. Online guidelines are provided within the system. No special software is required, all common browsers are supported. Authors should also make sure that any renumbered tables, figures, or references match text citations and that figure legends correspond with text citations and actual figures. Proofs must be returned within 48 hours of receipt of the email. Return of proofs via e-mail is possible in the event that the online system cannot be used or accessed.
These articles are fully peer reviewed, edited and complete and are considered fully published from the date they first appear online. This date is shown with the article in the online table of contents. The articles are available as full text HTML or PDF and can be cited as references by using their Digital Object Identifier (DOI) numbers. On print publication, the article will be removed from the Early View area and will appear instead in the relevant online issue, complete with page numbers and volume/issue details. No other changes will be made.
Author Name Change Policy
In cases where authors wish to change their name following publication, will update and republish the paper and redeliver the updated metadata to indexing services. Our editorial and production teams will use discretion in recognizing that name changes may be of a sensitive and private nature for various reasons including (but not limited to) alignment with gender identity, or as a result of marriage, divorce, or religious conversion. Accordingly, to protect the author’s privacy, we will not publish a correction notice to the paper, and we will not notify co-authors of the change. Authors should contact the journal’s Editorial Office with their name change request.
ADVICE TO AUTHORS
These are the types of papers that are regularly submitted to the Journal of Family Centered Health Care (The word count for all these papers does not include tables and figures.)
Research Presentation (3,000-6,000 words)
A research paper should include:
- An introduction to the principal concepts and theoretical issues relevant to the study
- Previous work
- Description of methodology including participants
- Results/Findings
- Discussion of results, including implications for future research and practice
Systematic reviews (up to 6000 words).
Systematic reviews are welcomed. For systematic reviews and meta-analyses please ensure that you have used the PRISMA checklist and include a flowchart as part of your submission. Please complete and supply AMSTAR for systematic reviews which are narrative reviews not meta-analyses.
Suggested headings for systematic reviews are:
- background or context;
- objective;
- search strategy;
- inclusion criteria;
- data extraction and synthesis;
- main results; discussion and conclusions.
Please ensure that you include the standard points for practice.
You should provide the PROSPERO number in the methods section of the paper, or explain in your covering letter if you have not registered your review with PROSPERO.
Case Study (up to 2,000 words*)
*Longer papers may be considered at the discretion of the Editor if it is felt the manuscript fulfils the role of a full paper.
The Journal of Family Centered Health Care welcomes case studies. A case study paper should include the following:
- Theoretical/Research Basis
- Introduction of the case including presenting issues
- Relevant background information
- Systemic case conceptualisation
- Self-reflexivity
- Description of intervention/ treatment
- Outcomes and follow up
- Implications/contributions to the field
For anonymised case studies informed consent to publish must be obtained from all participants in the treatment and/or all family members before submission.
CONSENT TO PUBLISH MUST ALWAYS BE OBTAINED FROM CLIENTS/FAMILIES BEFORE SUBMISSION
Theoretical Discussions or Controversial Theoretical Papers (4,000-6,000 words)
We welcome the submission of articles of this nature. A paper of this type would include:
- A brief general introduction
- A review of previous statements of the issues
- A definition of problems and solutions
- A development of an argument (Research based work which was undertaken for a thesis may be referenced)
- Relation of theory to practice
- Issues to be resolved
Often we will ask one of the reviewers to write a commentary on the paper to stimulate debate through the Journal pages.
Teaching and Learning (up to 2,000 words*)
*Longer papers may be considered at the discretion of the Editor if it is felt the manuscript fulfils the role of a full paper.
These should include:
- Practitioners Points – key ideas for trainers from paper
- Description of context – situation in which teaching event occurred, experience and constitution of participants and trainers, pre and post learning required for this session
- Aims of teaching event – aims and learning outcomes
- Theoretical Description which includes systemic theory / practice and education / learning/ pedagogical theory
- Description of event – pre reading, structure of session, length, didactic, experiential
- Feedback from participants – formal and informal
- Learning as a result of experience – trainers own evaluation, any suggested changes as a result of feedback or experience, suggestions for application in other settings
Copyright form
The copyright form must be downloaded, signed by all authors and will be sent to the journal office by Email. All authors of every manuscript must contribute to composing the manuscript or research and they must sign the copyright & conflict of interest letter. If authors use funding or have any financial and non-financial sponsorship, they must reveal them in their 'conflict of interest' section. The Journal email address: Fch@khuisf.ac.ir
Please Download the copyright_and_conflict_of_interest Form
Additional Notes to Authors:
- FCH journal has an international readership, so spell out details that might be unfamiliar to the non-English field.
- FCH journal welcomes the linking of previous literature in a substantive, explanatory sense and therefore advises authors to reference other papers where possible.
PAPERS EXCEEDING THE SPECIFIED WORD LIMITS (including references) WILL BE RETURNED TO THE AUTHOR