Author Instruction
Author Instruction
| Last update: 2019/12/28 |
Authors' Guidelines for the Social Welfare Quarterly
The Social Welfare Journal (a scientific-research journal) returns manuscripts that do not comply with these guidelines to the authors without preliminary review. Submission of a manuscript means that it has not been previously published (except as an abstract or part of a thesis/dissertation), is not currently under review by another journal, and, if accepted, will not be published elsewhere.
Manuscript Submission Requirements
Originality: The manuscript must not have been previously published in any print or electronic publication.
No simultaneous submission: The manuscript must not currently be under review by another journal.
Completion of the Authors’ Commitment Form: All authors must sign the commitment form and approve the final content. Any change in the order of authors, or the removal/addition of an author after submission, requires the written agreement of all authors and approval by the Editor-in-Chief.
Ethics code: For human-subject research (quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods), obtaining an ethics code from a competent ethics committee is mandatory. The ethics code number must be stated in the “Ethical Considerations” section of the manuscript.
Originality and Similarity Checking
All submitted manuscripts are checked using Samim Noor similarity-detection software (or iThenticate).
If plagiarism or self-plagiarism is detected (republication of previously published data without explicit citation), the manuscript will be immediately rejected and reported to the COPE Ethics Committee. The authors will be prohibited from submitting manuscripts to this journal.
Full compliance with the double-blind peer-review principles is required: authors’ identifying information must be removed from the anonymous manuscript file, while author details must be provided in the main file.
At present, the Social Welfare Journal does not charge a peer-review fee. After acceptance, a publication fee will be charged to authors according to the amount approved by the University Board of Trustees.
Copyright: After acceptance, authors transfer copyright to the publisher; however, they may use their article for personal teaching and research purposes.
Open access: Articles in this journal are published under the Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0 license.
Online Submission Process
1. Manuscripts must be submitted exclusively through the journal’s online system at:
https://refahj.uswr.ac.ir
1.1. Getting Started
- Enter the system. If you are a new user, select “Register.”
- Complete the registration form and log in to the website using your personal username.
- Obtain a unique code for each manuscript and specify the manuscript details.
- Click “Submit a New Manuscript.”
- Follow the step-by-step process: enter data, answer the questions, and upload the files.
- At each stage, click “Next” so that the information is saved.
1.2. Required Files
- Main manuscript file in Word format with the .doc or .docx extension.
- Figures and images in JPEG format with a resolution of 300 pixels.
- The manuscript file must include the title page, abstract, main text, references, tables, and figure captions. Figures must be referred to in the text using expressions such as “Figure 1” and “Figure 2.”
- Complete the commitment form and upload it in the supplementary files section. Commitment Form link.
- If everything is confirmed, click the “Submit” button.
- Confirmation email: after submission, an acknowledgment email confirming receipt of the manuscript will be sent within 24 hours. Otherwise, contact the journal office.
Formatting and Writing
- The title should refer to the main subject of the article in the shortest and most appropriate form possible.
- Font and size: for Persian text, B Lotus, size 12; for English text, Times New Roman, size 12.
- Page margins: 2.5 cm on all sides.
- Line spacing: 1.5.
- Title: B Lotus, size 13, bold.
- Headings: B Lotus, size 12, bold.
- Separate title page: The title (in Persian and English), authors’ names, academic field, academic degree, organizational affiliation, place of employment, ORCID, mobile number, and email address must be provided.
- The Persian abstract should contain 200–250 words, including Introduction, Method, Findings, and Discussion, and should be placed on the first page of the manuscript.
- An extended English abstract of 1,000–1,200 words must be prepared, including Introduction, Methods, Findings, and Discussion, and must contain the article’s content, model, main tables, and references.
- Keywords: 3–5 terms selected from Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) or standard Persian terminology. Each article may have a maximum of five Persian and five English keywords, presented in alphabetical order within each language.
- Tables: Each table must have a number and title above it (e.g., “Table 1: Frequency distribution of respondents by province”). The source must be provided below the table.
- Figures: Each figure must have a number and caption below it (e.g., “Figure 3: Trend of changes in the Gini coefficient over the past two decades”). Minimum quality: 300 pixels.
- All tables and figures must be referred to in the main text.
- The manuscript file, including the Persian abstract, English abstract, extended English abstract, main text, and references, should contain approximately 7,000 words.
- The general principle is to use Persian terms. The non-Persian equivalent of important concepts and the spelling of non-Persian names should be provided in a footnote on the same page. Only proper nouns should begin with capital letters.
- The journal’s orthographic style follows the official orthographic conventions approved by the Academy of Persian Language and Literature, as provided in the following sources:
- Academy of Persian Language and Literature, 1386, Persian Orthography, Tehran, Academy of Persian Language and Literature (Nashr-e Asar).
- The reference style for social sciences and welfare is APA.
- Sadeghi, Ali-Ashraf, and Zandi-Moghadam, Zahra, 1385, Persian Spelling Dictionary, Tehran, Academy of Persian Language and Literature (Nashr-e Asar).
- For in-text references, provide the author’s surname and the publication year. Example: Hosseini (1370). In the rare cases where a direct quotation from an author is necessary, first, the author’s exact words must be placed within quotation marks (" "), and second, the page number must be provided after a colon. Example: (Ahmadi 1375: 407).
- Persian references must be translated into English and prepared and formatted using reference-management tools such as EndNote.
- Persian and non-Persian references must be presented separately in alphabetical order in the final section of the article, according to the following formats:
- Article: Surname, Initial of first name. (Year of publication), Article title, Full journal title, Volume/Year (issue number): pp. Example:
Babaei-Fard, A. (1389), Cultural Development and Social Development in Iran, Scientific-Research Quarterly Journal of Social Welfare, Year 10 (37): 7–56.
- Book: Surname, Initial of first name. (Year of publication), Book title, City of publication, Publisher.
Example: Mousavi, M., & Mohammadi, M. (1388), Concepts and Theories of Social Welfare, Tehran, Danjeh Publishing.
- Chapter in an edited book (when each chapter has a separate author): Surname, Initial of first name. (Year of publication), Chapter title. In: Editor’s first and last name (Ed.), Book title, City of publication, Publisher: pp. Example:
Madani, S. (1381), Social Welfare as Freedom. In: Ghazi-Tabatabaei, M. (Ed.), Freedom and Justice: An Attempt at Convergence of Ideals, Tehran, Azadikhahan Publishing: pp. 85–124.
- When citing a translated book, after the book title, the word “translated by” followed by the translator’s full name must be provided in parentheses.
Sadock, V. A., & Sadock, B. I. (1385). Synopsis of Psychiatry: Behavioral/Clinical Sciences (translated by Farzin Rezaei), Tehran, Arjmand Publications.
- Persian references are listed in the same manner as non-Persian references, except that instead of the author’s initials, the author’s full name is given.
- When internet sources are used, in addition to observing the above requirements, the source’s Internet address and the date of access must be provided. Example:
Stark, B. (2000), Women and Globalization, available at: www.emory.edu (25 April 2002).
Types of Articles
B. Guidelines for Original Research Articles: An original research article is a manuscript resulting from primary research based on data, whether qualitative or quantitative, and whether new data were collected during the research process or existing data were secondarily analyzed to test a new hypothesis. Research articles consist of the following sections: Introduction, Methods, Findings, and Discussion.
- Introduction: Theoretical background, research problem, and innovation.
- Methods: Study design (e.g., cross-sectional, randomized clinical trial, cohort, phenomenology), population and sample, including the formula and sampling method, data-collection instruments (with validity and reliability), data-analysis method (software name and version), statistical tests, significance level, and the method used to address outliers and missing data.
- Findings: Presented as text, tables, or graphs. For quantitative studies, reporting the mean, standard deviation, median, range, ratios, effect size, correlation coefficient, standardized mean difference, and confidence interval is mandatory. For qualitative studies, emphasis should be placed on themes, codes, and supporting quotations.
- Discussion: Comparison with previous findings, explanation of mechanisms, limitations (both internal and external), and policy and research implications.
- Conclusion: Main summary and specific recommendations.
- Ethical Considerations (informed consent, confidentiality, ethics code).
- Conflict of Interest (declaration of any financial support, industrial relationship, or personal relationship).
- References.
C. Guidelines for Review/Overview Articles: A review article is a manuscript resulting from the author’s reflection on and critical evaluation of previous research, whether in terms of methods or results. The issue addressed in review articles is generally broad. Review articles often do not report how sources were searched or the reasons for their inclusion or exclusion, nor is the evaluation of sources necessarily conducted according to a single predetermined rule. The synthesis of review articles is also generally a narrative summary. According to the regulations of the relevant ministry, the journal is required to publish no more than one review article in each issue, preferably on the special topic of that issue. Review articles consist of an Introduction, Critical Review of the Literature (with main and subheadings), and Discussion.
D. Guidelines for Systematic Review Articles: A systematic review, like a narrative review, is conducted on previous studies. The difference is that a systematic review is criteria-based (standardized) and objective; therefore, its method is explicit and reproducible and, like primary research, it includes Methods and Findings. The research question addressed by systematic reviews is precise and specific and has previously been investigated in numerous studies, which have produced different answers. The researcher’s aim is to collect, critically appraise, and ultimately synthesize all relevant evidence without bias. Systematic review articles, like research articles, consist of Introduction, Methods, Findings, and Discussion.
The main text includes: Structured Abstract, Introduction, Search Methods (databases and inclusion/exclusion criteria), Results, Discussion, Limitations, and Conclusion.
E. Guidelines for Methodological Articles: The different scientific fields that constitute the interdisciplinary field of social welfare have also brought with them somewhat different methodologies, familiarity with which is useful to others. The journal publishes methodological articles only when they contain material beyond what is presented in conventional research-methods books and, in particular, when they relate the topic to social welfare through examples. The journal’s framework for such articles is as follows: history of the method; necessity of the method for social welfare knowledge (applications and limitations of the method in finding answers to social welfare problems), with examples from the journal or other social welfare sources; description of the method (stages and strategies); method of analyzing findings obtained through the method; issues related to rigor, including validity in quantitative research and trustworthiness in qualitative research; and methodological critique of examples of research conducted using the method (from the journal or other social welfare sources).
Peer-review Process
- If the manuscript has been prepared according to the Authors’ Guidelines, it will be sent anonymously to two reviewers.
- Type of review: Double-blind; the identities of authors and reviewers remain confidential.
- Number of reviewers: At least two specialists.
- Authors retain the right to appeal the review decision. In such cases, the journal will send the manuscript to other reviewers.
- Approximate time: The first decision will be made within 15 weeks after submission.
- Process: Preliminary screening (Editor) → Assignment to reviewers → Peer review → Reviewer comments sent to author → Manuscript revision by author → Review by Editor-in-Chief → Decision on revised/rejected/accepted manuscript → Announcement of publication fee → Payment of publication fee by author → Placement in publication queue → Publication.
- Revisions: At least two rounds of revision are required. Responses to reviewers must be presented in a separate table, and the revised manuscript must be submitted with the changes highlighted.
Research Ethics and Conflict of Interest
- Ethics code: Required for all human-subject research (surveys, interventions, and qualitative studies involving interviews).
- Informed consent: Must be described in the research method.
- Authorship principles: Effective contribution to the design, analysis, writing, or critical revision. Individuals who do not meet these criteria should be acknowledged in the “Acknowledgments” section.
- Conflict of interest: Any financial support, organizational relationship, or personal interest must be declared at the end of the manuscript (before the references). If there is none, write: “No conflict of interest has been declared.”
- Acknowledgments.
Guidelines for the Use of Artificial Intelligence
The use of artificial intelligence in the research process and the preparation of scientific articles is permitted and beneficial, provided that scientific and research-ethics principles are observed. The authors bear full responsibility for all content of the article, including text, data, images, analyses, and conclusions, regardless of the extent to which artificial intelligence has been used.
1. Artificial intelligence must not be listed as an author of the article because it lacks the necessary eligibility to assume scientific, ethical, and legal responsibility for the article.
2. Authors must carefully review all outputs generated by artificial intelligence and revise them when necessary, because such outputs may be inaccurate, incomplete, biased, or contain fabricated sources and citations. Authors are also responsible for ensuring the originality of the text, images, charts, and other materials in the article and for respecting intellectual property rights.
3. Any substantive use of artificial intelligence must be reported in the “Acknowledgments” section. This report must include, at a minimum:
- The name and, where possible, the version of the artificial intelligence system or tools used;
- The purpose and manner of use (such as language editing, summarization, thematic categorization, programming, data analysis, charting, or image generation);
- Where artificial intelligence has been used for data analysis or content generation, the amount and scope of its use.
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