IOSPress

WORK: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment & Rehabilitation is an interdisciplinary, international journal which publishes high quality peer-reviewed manuscripts covering the entire scope of the occupation of work. The journal's subtitle has been deliberately laid out: The first goal is the prevention of illness, injury, and disability. When this goal is not achievable, the attention focuses on assessment to design client-centered intervention, rehabilitation, treatment, or controls that use scientific evidence to support best practice. WORK occasionally publishes thematic issues, but in general, issues cover a wide range of topics such as ergonomic considerations with children, youth and students, the challenges facing an aging workforce, workplace violence, injury management, performing artists, ergonomic product evaluations, and the awareness of the political, cultural, and environmental determinants of health related to work.

Dr. Karen Jacobs, the founding editor, and her editorial board especially encourage the publication of research studies, clinical practice, case study reports, as well as personal narratives and critical reflections of lived work experiences (autoethnographic/autobiographic scholarship), Sounding Board commentaries and Speaking of Research articles which provide the foundation for better understanding research to facilitate knowledge dissemination. Narrative Reflections on Occupational Transitions, a new column, is for persons who have successfully transitioned into, between, or out of occupations to tell their stories in a narrative form. With an internationally renowned editorial board, WORK maintains high standards in the evaluation and publication of manuscripts. All manuscripts are reviewed expeditiously and published in a timely manner.WORK prides itself on being an author-friendly journal.

WORK celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2020.

WORK is affiliated with the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT)
WORK is endorsed by the International Ergonomics Association (IEA)
WORK gives out the yearly Cheryl Bennett Best Paper Award

Instructions to Authors

For detailed instructions please refer to our website, http://workjournal.org/.

By submitting my article to this journal, I agree to the IOS Press License to Publish: https://www.iospress.nl/service/authors/author-copyright-agreement/ and the IOS Press Privacy Policy: https://www.iospress.nl/privacy-policy/.

Publication fee

Please note that for articles that are submitted and accepted from 1 March 2021, authors will be required to pay a publication fee of US$250/€210. Publication fees do not apply to feature solicited articles, book reviews, and letters to the editor.

A waiver request for the publication fee should be submitted before the initial submission of a paper. Please send your title, abstract, keyword list and author list including affiliations to the Editor-in-Chief, Karen Jacobs (kjacobs@bu.edu), along with your motivation for the waiver. Your request will be evaluated. Waivers are available for corresponding authors from low-income countries as identified by the Hinari Project (https://www.research4life.org/access/eligibility/).

Submission of manuscripts

Authors are requested to submit their manuscript electronically to the journal's online submission system.

Author information

In order for WORK to continue to review manuscripts with a double blind peer review process, please do not include a title page or author information in your submission. The online submission system (Editorial Manager) will collect that information and generate a title page.

Preparation of manuscripts

1.  Manuscripts must be written in English. Authors whose native language is not in English should seek the advice of a native English speaker, before submitting their manuscripts. Please use first person language (i.e. a person with an injury, not an injured person)

2. Typically, the journal only publishes data collected within the past 5 years

3. Manuscript formatting

1. Please submit a Word document, not a PDF
2. Wide margins – do not use columns
3. Double spacing throughout the manuscript
4. The preferred length of a manuscript is 20-30 pages double spaced (no more than 7,500 words) not including references, tables or figures
5. Do not use page layout software and do not send PostScript files of the text
6. Please number all pages
7. Avoid excessive use of bold and italics
8. Tables and figures should be submitted as separate documents or attachments
9. Headings and subheadings should be numbered and typed on a separate line, without indentation

4. Manuscripts should be organized in the following order:

• Abstract
• 3-5 keywords that are not in your title
• Introduction
• Body of text (divided by subheadings)
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgements
• References
• Tables
• Figure captions
• Figures

5. Abstract

• Title (should be clear, descriptive and not too long)
• The abstract should be clear, descriptive, self-explanatory
• No longer than 250 words
• The following subheadings should be used: BACKGROUND, OBJECTIVE,
  METHODS, RESULTS, CONCLUSIONS
  It should also be suitable for publication in abstracting services
• Keywords (3-5 words that are not in your title)

6. Tables

• Tables should be submitted on a separate document from the main text file
• Tables should never be included in the mail text file
• Tables should be numbered according to their sequence in the text. The text should include references to all tables
• Each table should have a brief and self-explanatory title
• Each table should have a table caption
• Column headings should be brief, but sufficiently explanatory. Standard abbreviations of units of measurement should be added between parentheses
• Any explanations essential to the understanding of the table should be given in footnotes at the bottom of the table

7. Figures

• Figures should be submitted on a separate document or as a separate attachment from the main text file
• Figures should never be included in the main text file
• Figures should be numbered according to their sequence in the text. The text should include references to all figures
• For the file formats of the figures please take the following into account: line art should be have a minimum resolution of 600 dpi, save as EPS or TIFF; grayscales (incl. photos) should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi (no lettering), or 500 dpi (when there is lettering); save as tiff, not as JPEG, this format may lose information in the process
• Do not use figures taken from the Internet, the resolution will be too low for printing; do not use colors in your figures if they should be printed in black and white, because this will reduce the print quality (note that in software often the default is color, you should change the settings)
• Color figures can be included in the print files, provided the cost of their reproduction is paid for by the author. For these figures, a CMYK encoded EPS or TIFF is required
• Each figure should be identified by its number. If necessary, indicate top or bottom of figure
• Figures should be designed with the format of the page of the journal in mind. They should be of such a size as to allow a reduction of 50%
• On maps and other figures where a scale is needed, use bar scales rather than numerical ones, i.e. do not use scales of the type 1:10,000. This avoids problems if the figures need to be reduced
• Photographs are only acceptable if they have good contrast and intensity
• Each illustration should be provided on a separate sheet. Illustrations should not be included in the text. The original drawings (no photocopies) are required. Electronic files of illustrations should preferably be formatted in Encapsulated PostScript format
• Footnotes should be kept to a minimum, and they should be provided all together on a separate sheet

8. References

• Place citations as numbers in square brackets in the text. All publications cited in the text should be presented in a list of references following the text of the manuscript. Only articles published or accepted for publication should be listed in the reference list. Submitted articles can be listed in the text as (author(s), unpublished data)
• All authors should be listed in the reference list
• References must be listed in Vancouver style:

[1] Rose ME, Huerbin MB, Melick J, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Regulation of interstitial excitatory amino acid concentrations after cortical contusion injury. Brain Res. 2002; 935(12): 406.
[2] Murray PR, Rosenthal KS, Kobayashi GS, Pfaller MA. Medical microbiology. 4th ed. St. Louis: Mosby; 2002.
[3] Berkow R, Fletcher AJ, editors. The Merck manual of diagnosis and therapy. 16th ed. Rahway (NJ): Merck Research Laboratories; 1992.
[4] Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGrawHill; 2002. p. 93113.
[5] Canadian Cancer Society [homepage on the Internet]. Toronto: The Society; 2006 [updated 2006 May 12; cited 2006 Oct 17]. Available from: http://www.cancer.ca/.

9. Footnotes

• Footnotes should only be used if absolutely essential. In most cases it is possible to incorporate the information in the text
• If used, they should be numbered in the text, indicated by superscript numbers and kept as short as possible

10. Pre-press and proofs

• When manuscripts are listed online in “pre-press”, the version that appears is often not the final typeset version with authors corrections. Authors will have the opportunity to make minor corrections during the review of proofs
• The corresponding author is asked to check the galley proofs (the publisher will execute a cursory check only). Corrections other than printer’s errors, however, should be avoided.  Costs arising from such corrections will be charged to the authors

11. Copyright

Authors submitting a manuscript do so on the understanding that if their paper is accepted for publication, copyright in the article, including the right to reproduce the article in all forms and media, shall be assigned exclusively to the Publisher.

12. Quoting from other publications

An author, when quoting from someone else's work or when considering reproducing a figure or table from a book or journal article, should make sure that he is not infringing copyright. Although in general an author may quote from other published works, he should obtain permission from the holder of the copyright if he wishes to make substantial extracts or to reproduce tables, plates or other figures. If the copyright holder is not the author of the quoted or reproduced material, it is recommended that the permission of the author should also be sought. Material in unpublished letters and manuscripts is also protected and must not be published unless permission has been obtained. Submission of a paper will be interpreted as a statement that the author has obtained all the necessary permission. A suitable acknowledgement of any borrowed material must always be made.

13. How to order offprints, reprints, pdf, extra journals, books

• The corresponding author of a contribution to the journal is entitled to receive 1 watermarked copy of the electronic article pdf free of charge. An order form for offprints, journals or a pdf file without watermark will be provided along with the galley proofs
• If you wish to order reprints of an earlier published article, please contact the publisher for a quote. IOS Press, E-mail: editorial@iospress.nl
• Authors are entitled to a 25% discount on books. See author's discount (25%) on all IOS Press book publications.

14. Publication fee

WORK does not charge a publication fee.

WORK Peer Review Policy

WORK: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment & Rehabilitation is a peer-reviewed journal. Articles submitted to the journal undergo a double blind peer review process. This means that the identity of the authors is unknown to the reviewers and the identity of the reviewers is not communicated to the authors.

All submitted manuscripts are subjected to initial appraisal by the Editor-in-Chief and, if found suitable for further consideration, to rigorous peer review by independent, anonymous expert referees. Reasons to reject a paper in the pre-screening process could for example be that the work does not fall within the aims and scope, the writing is of poor quality, the instructions to authors were not followed or the presented work is not novel.

Papers deemed suitable to be reviewed will be assigned to the Editor's Assistant. The Editor's Assistant will then invite reviewers to comment on the work and might consider inviting the reviewers suggested by the author(s). Editors and reviewers are asked to excuse themselves from reviewing a submission if a conflict of interest makes them unable to make an impartial scientific judgment or evaluation. Conflicts of interest include but are not limited to: collaboration with the authors in the past three years; any professional or financial affiliations that may be perceived as a conflict of interest; a history of personal differences with the author(s).

As a standard policy, decisions are based on two reviews, in some specific circumstances one review may be deemed sufficient to make a decision on a paper. The Editor-in-Chief strives to ensure a typical turnaround time (3-5 months).

Reviewers are asked to judge a paper on at least:

• Logical ordering of ideas
• Consistency with purpose and scope of work
• Contribution to the evidence based literature
• Sound research methodology, statistical approach, and interpretation
• Quality of references
• Writing style/clarity in English

Based on the received reviews the handling editor will propose to the Editor-in-Chief a recommendation:

1. Accept with no additional edits
2. Accept with minor to moderate revisions
3. Revise and resubmit
4. Reject

They mean the following:

1. The manuscript is suitable for publication and only requires minor polishing; thus, no further review is requested
2. The authors are required to make minor or moderate changes to their manuscript. The manuscript becomes acceptable for publication if the changes proposed by the reviewers and Editor are successfully addressed. The revised manuscript will be examined by the Editor-in-Chief and a decision is made for official acceptance or the manuscript is sent back to the authors for additional edits. Authors are requested to provide a letter to the reviewers and the Editor detailing the improvements made to the manuscript.
3. The manuscript cannot be accepted for publication in its current form. However, a major revision addressing all issues raised by the reviewers may be acceptable for publication. The revised manuscript will undergo a full second round of review. Authors are requested to provide a letter to the reviewers detailing the improvements made for the resubmission.
4. The manuscript is rejected as it is deemed to be out of scope, not relevant, or not meeting the journal’s quality standards in terms of significance, novelty, and/or presentation.

Authors are notified by the Editor-in-Chief, whose decision is final.