Guidelines for Authors
Aims and Policies
Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal published quarterly by the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Boston University in collaboration with the US Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association (USPRA).
The purpose of the PRJ is to encourage the communication of information relevant to the rehabilitation of people with psychiatric disabilities and to promote the USPRA goal of improving the quality of services designed to support positive community adjustment and integration. To that end, the PRJ gives priority to submissions that are clearly applicable to the development, administration and delivery of services. Articles include descriptive or exploratory studies; qualitative studies; pre-post evaluations of services; measurement development or testing; survey research; and quasi-experimental or randomized studies. Literature reviews and policy studies are also accepted for review.
The journal is intended for, and encourages the submission of manuscripts from all persons involved in psychiatric rehabilitation, including consumers, family members, and mental health and rehabilitation professionals. Brief reports and book reviews are also published. Authors are encouraged to review and use the USPRA Language Guidelines in article submissions.
Manuscripts are initially reviewed by the editors and then sent to members of the editorial board. Manuscripts are acknowledged upon receipt. Generally, it takes 2 to 3 months between acknowledgement of receipt and notification of disposition of a manuscript. Each author receives an individual copy of the PRJ upon publication.
Manuscript Requirements
Manuscripts not conforming to the following guidelines will be returned to the author without review.
Length/Word Counts. The PRJ reviews material for publication on condition that it has not been previously published, including electronic publication, and is not being reviewed for publication elsewhere. All manuscripts submitted as articles should not exceed 5,000 words; brief reports should not exceed 1500 words; and letters to the editor should be under 300 words. Word count includes references and tables.
Abstracts and Section Headings. All research manuscripts should include a structured abstract after the title page with the following information, under the headings indicated:
• Objective: the primary purpose of the article;
• Methods: data sources, subjects, design, measurement, data analysis;
• Results: key findings; and
• Conclusions: implications, future directions.
These headings should also be used to format the article text. Article abstracts should not exceed 250 words. For brief reports, the limit is 150 words.
All theoretical manuscripts should include a structured abstract after the title page with the following information, under the headings indicated:
• Topic: in one sentence;
• Purpose: thesis or organizing construct and the scope of the article;
• Sources used: personal observation, published literature, etc.; and
• Conclusions: implications, future directions.
These headings should also be used to format the article text.
Key Words. Four (4) key words must be provided for both the print and online versions of the journal.
Biographical Information. Limited biographical information should include the degrees, titles, and affiliations for each author in two to three lines of text.
APA Style. All manuscripts and references must conform to the style set forth in the Publication Manual (5th ed.) of the American Psychological Association (http://www.apastyle.org/) also know as APA style. APA style is an editorial style that consists of rules or guidelines that the PRJ observes to ensure clear and consistent presentation of written material. APA style dictates uniform use of such elements as:
• selection of headings,
• construction of tables,
• citation of references,
• presentation of statistics, and
• punctuation and abbreviations.
Final Preparation. All manuscripts should be prepared for blind (masked) review (i.e., with title page free of author[s] name[s], and text free of obvious author-identifying references). Please supply with “track changes” and comments deleted. The entire manuscript, including quotations, footnotes, references, and tables, must be double-spaced. Use 12 point Times New Roman font with consistent headings and subheadings and omit underlining. Place all footnotes in the references at the end of the document. Tables and figures (graphs, illustrations, and line drawings) should be prepared without color and ready for production (See APA manual regarding the use, preparation, and reproduction of tables and figures). The Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal reserves the right to change copy to conform to APA style.
USPRA Language Guidelines. Follow USPRA Language Guidelines. These guidelines are based on the fundamental values of the psychiatric rehabilitation field: respecting the worth and dignity of all persons and groups, as well as honoring and advocating for individual rights and interests, and opposing discrimination in services and in society. Additional resource information related to the use of language for people with disabilities is available at www.apastyle.org/disabilities.html and www.lsi.ku.edu/~lsi/aboutus/guidelines.shtml.
Submission. All manuscripts submitted to the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal are now handled by Manuscript Central located at: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/prj. Through this site, authors can submit articles and track review progress up until acceptance for publication. Please disable "comments" and "track changes" in your documents prior to submitting a manuscript.
Copyright
On acceptance of a manuscript, Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal requires transfer of copyright to the Trustees of Boston University so that the rights of authors can be protected from the consequences of unauthorized use.
NIH-Funded Articles
The National Institutes of Health Public Access Policy requires that all NIH-funded investigators submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central (PMC) an electronic version of their final peer-reviewed manuscript upon acceptance for publication. In compliance with this requirement the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal will on behalf of NIH-funded authors, deposit the final version of the article in PMC stipulating that it be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication. Authors should not deposit PRJ articles to PMC themselves.
For more information, please contact the Managing Editor or view the NIH Policy regarding Public Access at: http://publicaccess.nih.gov.
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