INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS
Turkish Journal of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation is the official journal of the Turkish Physiotherapy Association. Turkish Journal of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation is open-access, free, impartial, and employs a double-blind peer-review process published electronically and in print. It is published three times a year, in April, August, and December, in Turkish and English. The manuscripts submitted in English will be given priority in the publication process. We are pleased to receive articles reporting original scientific research, invited reviews, systematic reviews or meta-analyses, rare case studies, and letters to the editor. The journal aims to publish original studies of the highest scientific, ethical, and clinical value on physiotherapy and rehabilitation. Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously, that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that it is not having commercial concerns. The publication of an article is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in Turkish, English or any other language. The journal adopts the principle of originality, which is the most important criterion for an article with high scientific quality and citation potential to be accepted for publication. The editorial rules of the journal are based on the guidelines published by Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals - International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (http://www.icmje.org) and Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (https:// publicationethics.org). Turkish Journal of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation (Turk J Physiother Rehabil) publishes articles from all over the world and gives priority to articles with the following characteristics:
• Original studies that address important research questions that will have an impact on physiotherapy and rehabilitation practices and test hypotheses with a strong method and research design
• Laboratory-based studies that can be the basis for clinical or field applications
• Studies that can help facilitate and improve decision-making in rehabilitation practices, policies, education, or research.
ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITY
Editorial Board
Editors have ethical duties and responsibilities based on the “COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors” and “COPE Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors” published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) as open access. Editors:
• Every article published in the journal is published by journal publication policies and international standards,
• To improve the quality, originality, and readability of the journal,
• To conduct processes transparently without compromising intellectual property rights and ethical standards,
• To complete the impartial and independent evaluation processes of the articles, they are responsible for taking precautions against conflicts of interest that may arise between the authors, reviewers, and third parties. Editors make positive or negative decisions based on the importance, original value, and validity, clarity of the narrative, and the journal’s goals and objectives. They apply the “Blind PeerReview and Evaluation Process” policies included in the publication policies of the journal. In this context, the editors ensure that the evaluation process of each study is completed in a fair, impartial, and timely manner without conflict of interest. An independent external editor may be invited to manage the evaluation processes of the articles in which the editorial board members are the authors.
Reviewers

Manuscripts submitted to the Turkish Journal of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation go through a double-blind peer-review process. To ensure an unbiased review process, each submission is reviewed by at least two independent reviewers who are experts in their fields. The reviewers are obliged to keep the information about the article confidential. In case of a conflict of interest, the reviewers notify the Turkish Journal of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation. The reviewers cannot use the article sent to them for any purpose until the evaluation process is completed and it is published. Reviewers should use kind and constructive language while evaluating the article and avoid bad comments and expressions. The reviewers are responsible for evaluating the article on time and by paying attention to the ethical rules.
Authors
The scientific content of the manuscripts and their compliance with ethical principles are under the responsibility of the author(s). The ethics committee must approve research protocols of experimental and clinical studies and case reports following international agreements (World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki “Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects” www.wma.net). The journal accepts manuscripts which; have been approved by the relevant Ethical Committees and are by ethical principles stated in the Declaration of Helsinki. The authors must state that they conducted the study according to the abovementioned principles in the “METHOD” section for studies conducted on human subjects. They also must express ethical committee approval and obtain “informed consent forms” from volunteers who participated in the study. Authors should document informed consent or consent forms of patients or participants when necessary. Information about the approval of the volunteers, the name of the ethics committee, and the ethics committee approval number should also be stated in the “METHOD” section of the manuscript. For studies that do not require ethics committee approval, letter of an exemption from the ethics committee in accordance with the design and content of the study or an informative statement written by the responsible author (for meta-analysis, systematic review, or invited review) should be uploaded to the system. In studies involving “animals,” the author(s) should state in the “Methods” section that they have protected the rights of the animals by the principles of “Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals” (http://www.nap.edu/catalog/5140.html) and obtained approval from the relevant Ethical Committees. Each person listed as an author must meet the following 4 criteria for authorship recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE-www.icmje.org:
• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
• Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
• Final approval of the version to be published; AND
• Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
The scientific content of the articles and their compliance with ethical principles are the responsibility of the authors. All studies must be checked by a licensed plagiarism detection software (iThenticate/Turnitin etc., by CrossCheck) and uploaded to the system as a supplementary document at the time of application. The similarity rate in the content of the article should not be over 20% and should not have any similarity with the previous works of the authors except for the references, table, and figure contents. Articles with a more than 20% similarity rate are rejected without being sent to the referee. In case of suspected or detected plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data forgery/ fabrication, the editorial board will follow the COPE guidelines and act accordingly. The corresponding author carries out all kinds of correspondence from the presentation stage to the printing of the article. The corresponding author should scan and upload the following documents to the system.
• Ethics committee approval form,
• Copyright transfer form (must be e-signed or original signed. Another author’s name cannot be added later, and the order of authors cannot be changed, except for those whose signatures are on this form.)https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/journal/2860/file/2023/download
• Author contribution form https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/journal/2860/file/3665/download
Suppose there are cited articles, tables, and figures previously published in articles, books, or journals. In that case, the authors must obtain written permission from the copyright holder for the table, figure, survey, and scale (validity, reliability studies and special permission for its use, certificate/scales), send the permission letter together with the article, and indicate this in the article. In addition, the signed permission of the patient or his legal representative should be attached for the photographs that may reveal the identity of the patient, and it should be stated in the “METHOD” section. Finally, if the papers are presented in scientific meetings and presented and/or published in the abstracts book, authors must be stated on the title page.
Instructions for Authors
Articles should be prepared following ICMJE -Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication for Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (updated in December 2019 - http://www.icmje.org/icmje recommendations.pdf). In addition, authors are required to prepare an article in accordance with the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) Statement. Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) Statement should be used for original research studies, Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Statement should be used for systematic reviews and meta-analysis, and Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) Statement for experimental animal studies. Turkish dictionary of Turkish Language Institution should be considered in Turkish manuscripts. A native speaker should edit the manuscripts and abstracts in English before being submitted to the journal. Editors or field editors may request proofreading for English articles or English abstracts if they deem necessary.
Original Article: It consists of research that provides basic or clinical information on a current and essential topic, extends, and advances previous studies, or introduces a new approach to a classic topic. Original articles should not exceed 4000 words, and the number of references should not exceed 40.
Case Report: It describes interesting cases, novel ideas, and techniques. Figures, tables, and references should be as minimal as possible to explain and support the text. The number of words should not exceed 2000, and the number of references should not exceed 20.
Editorial Comment: The Editorial Board may invite an author who is an expert in education and clinical practice to write an informative article or comment on a particular subject. The number of words should not exceed 1000, and the number of references should not exceed 10.
Invited Review/Systematic Review/Meta-Analysis: Systematic reviews and meta-analyses are prepared directly, while invited authors prepare invited reviews. They should also include the current literature for any subject about physiotherapy and rehabilitation science and clinical applications. It is especially preferred that the authors have published publications on that subject. The number of words should not exceed 6000, and the number of references should not exceed 100.
Editorial Letter: It is published with the approval of the Editorial Board. If the letter is a commentary on an article published in the journal, it should be stated as the source to which article (number, date) it is dedicated. The answer to the letter is given by the editor or the author(s) of the article, again by publishing it in the journal. The number of words in the letters is limited to 500, and the number of references is limited to five.
Articles submitted for publication in the journal;
• The writing page should be A4 size, with a PC-compatible Microsoft Word program.
• “Times New Roman” font with a 12-font size should be used, and all parts of the article should be written with 1.5 line spacing.
• At least 2.5 cm of space should be left on each side of the page.
• Pages (bottom right corner) and lines should be numbered.
• The main headings of the article (Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion, and References) should be written in capital letters and in bold.
• Sub-headings should begin with a capital letter as a sentence case and bold.
• In the numerical values given in the text, a comma (,) should be used in Turkish articles and a period (.) in English articles. In these numerical values given, two more digits of the number should be given after the comma or period, excluding p and r values (Example: 13.31 or 15.21); the p and r values should be written as three digits after the comma/ period.
• Abbreviations are given in parentheses at the first occurrence of the word, and that abbreviation is used throughout the text. Reference can be made to the scientific spelling rules for internationally used abbreviations.
Title Page
The title of the manuscript should be brief but descriptive for the content and compatible with the purpose. Article title should be written in Turkish and English. The Turkish and English titles should be written in bold with capital letters. Besides, a short running title (not exceeding 40 characters) should be specified both in Turkish and English on the title page. The number of words (excluding title page, references, tables, and figures) of the article should be written. Full names, surnames (written in a capital letter), academic titles, institutions, and digital identifiers Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) of the authors, full name and address of the clinic, department, institute, hospital, or university which the study was conducted at should be declared using superscript numbers for each author. The contact information of the corresponding author should also be specified. The title page should include each author’s contact information, address, current e-mail address, and business phone number.
Abstracts
Each manuscript should include both Turkish and English abstracts.
Turkish Abstract and Keywords
The Turkish abstract should begin from a separate page and not exceed 250 words. The Turkish summary section should include the purpose of the study, the methods, the primary findings, and the result. The abstract should be titled “Öz” and divided into subheadings of “Purpose,” “Methods,” “Results,” and “Conclusion.” The p-value must be specified in the “Results” section. A comma (,) should be used in decimal numbers in Turkish article summaries. The number of keywords should not be less than 3 or more than 5. Keywords should be selected from the “Turkey Science Terms” list (http://www.bilimterimleri.com). The out-of-list terms may be used for a new concept. Each keyword begins with an uppercase letter, separated by a comma and written in alphabetical order. If the article is in Turkish, the keywords in the English abstract should be written in the alphabetical order of the Turkish keywords.
English Abstract and Keywords
The English abstract should begin on a separate page and not exceed 250 words. A period (.) should be used in decimal numbers in the English summary. English abstract must be divided into subheadings of “Purpose,” “Methods,” “Results,” and “Conclusion.” The English abstract and keywords should be the same as the Turkish abstract and keywords. Keywords should be selected from “MeSH (Medical Subject Headings)” terms. The out-of-list terms may be used for a new concept that has not taken place in MeSH yet. Each keyword begins with an uppercase letter, separated by a comma and written in alphabetical order. If the article is in English, the keywords in the Turkish abstract should be sorted according to the alphabetical order of the English keywords.
Sections of the Original Research Articles
The sections of Turkish Article consist of “Giriş”, “Yöntem”, “Sonuçlar” and “Tartışma”. In English articles, there are “Introduction,” “Methods,” “Results,” and “Discussion” sections. Abbreviations can be used for the expressions repeated more than five times in the manuscript. The explanation of the abbreviation should be stated in the first place in the text.
Introduction
The introduction should summarize the basic knowledge obtained from previous studies related to the study topic. The rationale and purpose of the study should be described briefly.
Methods
The clinical, technical, or experimental methods in the study should be clearly stated. Appropriate references should be given for the method. In this section, the authors must state that they carried out their studies on humans in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki, that they received approval from the relevant ethics committee (name of the ethics committee, date, and protocol number should be written) and informed consent was obtained. The method section should include the subtitle as “Statistical analysis.” If an animal is used in the study, the authors should state that they protect animal rights in line with the principles of the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (http://www.nap.edu/catalog/5140.html) and have obtained approval from the relevant ethics committee. A statement that publication approval has been obtained for photographs that may reveal the identity of the participants should be included in this section. If any statistical program is used, the name of the software program, version number, location, date and company information should be written. Information on statistical analysis methods and the calculation of sample size should be presented and supported with references when necessary.
Results
The results should not contain any interpretation that is not based on numerical data. In the text, repetition of the data presented in the tables should be avoided, and the most important results should be emphasized.
Discussion
The discussion should begin with information on the most important results obtained in the study. Results from the study should be interpreted and correlated with the results of previous studies. In the discussion, the limitations of the study, its contribution to the literature, and clinical practice should be stated. It should be avoided to repeat the findings in the “Results” section and the tables with their details in the discussion section. Data not obtained in the study should not be discussed.
The following titles should be added after the discussion section with their explanations:
• Sources of Support: If there are supporting organizations, it should be specified.
• Conflict of Interest: It should be stated if there is a conflict of interest.
• Author Contributions: Authors’ contributions to the article should be stated. Contributions should be gathered under the headings of idea/concept, design, supervision/consulting, resources and funding, materials, data collection and/or processing, analysis and/or interpretation, literature review, article writing, critical review.
• Explanations: If the article has been presented in the form of an abstract and/or a conference proceeding before, information about the scientific meeting, place, and date of the presentation, and if published, the publication organ should be stated in the “Explanations” section.
• Acknowledgement: Information about individuals and/or organizations that do not meet the criteria for being an author but provided support during the research (reading the article, writing, technical support, language, and statistical support, etc.) should be stated in the “Acknowledgements” section as briefly and concisely as possible.
References
References should be placed after the main text. References should be numbered in the order of occurrence in the text, at the end of the sentence (before the point), with Arabic numerals, and in parentheses [Example: ....... it was found (21).]. The number of references should not exceed 40, and the use of references older than ten years should not exceed 15% of the total number of references. Unless necessary, the use of books, web pages, unpublished observations, and personal interviews as references should be avoided. If more than one reference is cited, a comma should be placed between them, and no spaces should be left before or after the comma. An example (3,7,15–19) can be given; “15–19” covers five publications from reference 15 to reference 19. If the article is in English, the references that the name will indicate in the text should be specified as “Author’s name et al.” (Example: Burtin et al.); if the text is in Turkish, the references that the name will indicate in the text should be specified as “Yazar adı ve diğ.” (Example: Burtin ve diğ.). Journal names should be presented in abbreviated form as in Index Medicus. All authors should be written if the number of authors is six or less in the standard journal. If the number of authors is more than 6, the first six authors should be written, and the other authors should be specified as “ve diğ.” for Turkish articles and “et al.” for English articles. Authors who will use programs such as Endnote, Mendeley should use the “VANCOUVER” style. The information that must be included in a reference given in Vancouver style is as follows: - Author(s) name(s), - Article title, - Journal name (abbreviated as in Index Medicus), - Publication year, - Journal volume and issue, - Page range (Example:10-5).
Reference writing examples are as follows:
• Article; Burtin C, Saey D, Saglam M, Langer D, Gosselink R, Janssens W, et al. Effectiveness of exercise training in patients with COPD: the role of muscle fatigue. Eur Respir J. 2012;40(2):338-44.
• Studies published as a supplement of the journal; Hielkema T, Hadders Algra M. Motor and cognitive outcome after specific early lesions of the brain–a systematic review. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2016;58(Suppl 4):46-52.
• Book; Murtagh J. John Murtagh’s general practice. 4th ed. Sydney: McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd; 2007.
• Book Section; Cerulli G. Treatment of athletic injuries: what we have learned in 50 years. In: Doral MN, Tandogan RN, Mann G, Verdonk R, eds. Sports injuries. Prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation. Berlin: Springer-Verlag; 2012: p. 15-9.
• Congress Papers; Callaghan MJ, Guney H, Bailey D, Reeves N, Kosolovska K, Maganaris K, et al. The effect of a patellar brace on patella position using weight bearing magnetic resonance imaging. 2014 World Congress of Osteoarthritis Research Society International, April 24-27, 2014, Paris. Osteoartr Cartilage; 2014;22(Suppl):S55.
• Web pageı; Diabetes Australia. Gestational diabetes [Internet]. Canberra (AU): Diabetes Australia; 2015 [updated 2015; cited 2017 Nov 23]. Available from: https://www. diabetesaustralia.com.au/gestational-diabetes.
Tables
Tables should be prepared in Microsoft Word file format, placed at the end of the article on separate pages, and numbered according to the order in which they occur in the main text. The total number of tables and figures should be at most 6. A short title should be written for each column heading in the tables. The first letter of each word in table columns must be capital. Table number and title should be at the top of the table; “table” should be written in bold, separated from the table title by (.) (Example: Table 1. Sociodemographic Characteristics of the Participants). Vertical lines should not be used in tables, and only horizontal lines should be used before and after the first line and at the end of the table. The p values in the table should be indicated with *, **. Notes and explanations of abbreviations used in the table should be written at the bottom of the table. While writing the explanation of the abbreviations, the abbreviation should be written first, and the open version of the abbreviation should be written after the colon (:) sign. Abbreviations should be separated by commas. The units of the variables used in the table should be specified in parentheses. Units covering a certain range should be expressed numerically by the range segment. In decimal numbers given in tables, comma (,) in Turkish articles; point (.) in English articles should be used. In the decimal numbers given in the tables, two digits should be written after the comma or the point (Example: 31,12 or 20.10). Values other than a mean, percent, and median values (p, r, etc.) should be written as three digits after the comma/point (Please see the example table below).
Figures
A list of figures should be placed on a page after the list of tables. The authors are expected to submit good quality figure(s) in JPEG, TIFF, or PNG versions as separate files. The photographs used in the manuscript should be clear. The photographs and figures should be numbered in the order in which they are referenced. If the manuscript involves humans, written consent of the participants should be collected, and precautions should be taken to disguise individuals’ identities. The text of the consent form should be sent to the journal with the manuscript. It should be indicated in the first paragraph of the “METHOD” section that the written consent was collected from the participants.
Manuscript Submission
Two copies of the manuscript should be prepared for submission as Word files. One file must have all author details included, and the other must be anonymized. Both versions should include the title, abstract, body, and references. All institutions mentioned in the anonymous file (including the institution where the ethics committee approval was obtained) must be written as “X.” Both copies will be uploaded (after registering as a user) in the DergiPark (http://dergipark. gov.tr/tjpr) system.
Peer Review Process: The editorial and publication process of the journal is shaped following the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), World Association of Medical Journal Editors (WAME), Council of Science Editors (CSE), Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), European Association of Science Editors (EASE), and National Information Standards Organization (NISO). The author(s) will be able to follow the evaluation process of the article from the DergiPark system (https://dergipark.org.tr/tjpr). Manuscripts submitted to the journal will first go through a technical evaluation process where the editorial office staff will ensure that the manuscript has been prepared and submitted following the journal’s guidelines. Submissions that do not conform to the journal’s guidelines will be returned to the submitting author with technical correction requests. The articles will be evaluated by at least two external referees who are experts in the relevant field, and the referee reports will be sent to the corresponding author. If a revision is required, the author should respond to all referee comments and upload the revised version of the manuscript. This process will be repeated until the editorial board approves the manuscript.
Copyrights
Copyrights of all published articles will be held by the publisher: Turkish Physiotherapy Association.
Disclaimer
The information, opinions, and views presented in the Turkish Journal of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation reflect the views of the authors and contributors of the articles and not of the editors, the editorial board, or the publisher. The editors, the editorial board, and the publisher disclaim any responsibility or liability for such materials. The final responsibility regarding the published content rests with the authors.