2476-5279 :pISSN

2476-5279 :eISSN

International Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain Prevention

  • Editor-in-Chief: Nastaran Maghbouli
  • Manager-in-Charge: Sedigheh Sadat Tavafian
  • Publisher: Tarbiat Modares University
  • Journal Type: Scientific
  • Publication Period: Quarterly
  • Access Policy: Open
  • Publication Format: Electronic
International Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain Prevention is one of the TMU Press journals that is published by the responsibility of its Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board in the determined scopes.
Currently known as International Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain Prevention (eISSN 2476-5279).
 Formerly known as International Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain Prevention (eISSN 2476-5279).
IJMPP is a peer-reviewed, double-blind, and open-access journal dedicated to the publication of manuscripts on topics concerning musculoskeletal pain prevention, Pain prevention education, and musculoskeletal rehabilitation musculoskeletal pain epidemiology, musculoskeletal pain preventive interventional programs, musculoskeletal pain management, musculoskeletal pain preventive lifestyle, biopsychosocial interventional program for musculoskeletal pain prevention, multidisciplinary interventional program for musculoskeletal pain prevention. This journal accepts original research, short communications, case reports, reviews, and letters to editor within the scope of the journal.

 
Announcements


 




 

 
Peer-review process
All submitted articles are evaluated at the submission to meet the structural and subject principles of International Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain Prevention. The matched articles will gone under a double-blinded peer-review process by at least 2 reviewers (experts in the field who are not part of the journal’s editorial staff) who are selected by the Editorial Board members according to their field specialties. The Editorial Board members have the final responsibility to select the articles. The best effort of the journal is to inform the authors about the acceptance or rejection of their manuscript within two to three months. To select reviewers this sentence was sent to the eligible and specialist  reviewers" If you are interested in reviewing the manuscript in collaboration with us, please send your resume along with a request to ijmpp@modares.ac.ir. The editorial board of the journal will review your resume and will be in contact with you. After observing the reviewers' comments, the authors will revise the manuscript based on the referee comments and send their response (as well as the revised manuscript) to the journal and the reviewers.
 
Governing body
International Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain Prevention is under the scientific control of the Editorial Board whose members are recognized experts in the subject areas included within the journal’s scope. Some executive roles of the Editorial Board members are delegated to the Editor-in-Chief who is well-known in the journal’s scope.
 
Editorial team
International Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain Prevention is under the scientific supervision of the Editorial Team whose members are all experts with a high numbers of publications in their field.

 
Author fees/Access
There are No Fees or Charges at all for submission, reviewing and publishing processes in International Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain Prevention.
 

Publication rules: terms and conditions
Human Rights
Reporting assurance statement for human subjects at the end of each article:

- Consent from study participants
-Compatibility of the study with the ethical guidelines of the 1975 Declaration of Helsinki 
- Strictly follow the instructions of the COPE  and ICMJE in both experimental and clinical studies, including ethical and scientific subjects. Despite of necessity of stating related declaration by authors, otherwise, the following sentence should be given: None declared.
Reporting assurance statement for animal subjects at the end of each article:
- In the case of animal experimentation, all animals must receive human care; according to "
Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals"(published by the last NIH publication-1985) which shows outlines fundamental as well as ethical guidelines at the International Council for Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS).
- It is highly required to write an ethical approval code for all of submissions related to animal experiences.
 


Ethical Approval Code
It is required for the authors to get ethical permission from their institute. In this case, an ethical approval code is strongly recommended for all related issues to studies such as medical documents and human samples. In addition, the authors' local institutes (such as the National Center of Ethics or the ethics department of universities) must approve this code.

Informed consent
In addition, to write an informed consent at the end of the article, the author should also include a statement that all experiments were performed in compliance with the relevant laws and institutional guidelines. It is also necessary to bring the statement related to the institutional committee (s) that have approved the experiments
Plagiarism
Similarity score
In
International Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain Prevention, the similarity is checked using "iThenticate" in 2 phases by our online system; early submission and before the publishing stage. Authors must ensure that their study is an original work completely and if they use other works, they should refer to it properly. 


Acceptance level in the case of similarity
Since our principle indicates that science should not be repeated, any sentences in submitted manuscripts must be unique and consequently, pre-defining a specific level of similarity is not feasible. The 
COPE terms and conditions are considered regarding similarity and plagiarism.

Duties of authors

Reporting standards
Reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.
Data Access and Retention
Authors are asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data (consistent with the ALPSP-STM Statement on Data and Databases), if practicable, and should in any event be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.
Originality and Plagiarism
The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted.
Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication
An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
Acknowledgment of Sources
Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.
Authorship of the Paper
Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors.
The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Change to Authorship
Hazards and Human or Animal Subjects
If the work involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the author must clearly identify these in the manuscript.
Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest
All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.
Fundamental errors in published works
When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

Duties of Reviewers
Contribution to Editorial Decisions
Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper.
Promptness
Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.
Confidentiality
Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.
Standards of Objectivity
Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
Acknowledgment of Sources
Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor’s attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.
Disclosure and Conflict of Interest
Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions
connected to the papers.

Peer reviewer responsibilities toward the author
  • Authors must be on time in providing written and unbiased feedback based on the scientific value of the work.
  • Reviewers should be responsible for providing clear and relevant comments to the manuscripts, helping the authors at progressing quality of the work.
  • Considering personal and financial interests is forbidden.
  • The process of reviewing must be maintained confidential completely.
Peer reviewer responsibilities toward the editor
  • Determining scientific merit, originality, and scope of the work; indicating ways to improve it, and giving decisions based on rating.
  • The direct contact of the judges with the authors should be strictly avoided; except with the permission and information of the editor.
  • Quickly informing the editor when any problem occurs in reviewing the articles and introducing alternative referees to do that work.
  • Considering the guidelines of the journal and the editor in terms of sufficient minimums for judging an article.
  • Providing clear and well-reasoned reasons for deciding on an article.
  • Complete avoidance of pursuing any personal or financial interests. 
Ethical Responsibilities of Reviewers
  • In addition to keeping the reviewers' comments confidential, the original and copy of the manuscript should not be kept with the reviewers.
  • Reviewers' decisions must be solely based on scientific merit and should not be influenced by reviewers' financial interests or their ethnic, racial, and religious attitudes.
  • The vision of this journal is to find expert reviewers in any field to which manuscripts are sent to them. If the reviewers do not have sufficient expertise regarding the manuscript, they should refuse to accept the refereeing.
  • The reviewer should be responsible for completing the review within the pre-defined time and respect to the limitations of the journal.
Editorial independence and Responsibility
Based on the strategy of this journal, the practical independence of all reviewers, editors-in-chief, and associate editors from the point of view of the publisher is fully guaranteed and they will make decisions solely based on their scientific qualifications.
Principles of Editorial Independence
Since the editor-in-chief is generally an academician, her payments are independent of their journal activities. She is not paid for the journal activities. Therefore, our journal does not pay any salary to the editors.

Publication Ethics


 
  • All IJMPP editorial board members, reviewers, and authors must adhere to and obey guidelines defined by COPE.
  • Corresponding author is the main responsible and owner of the article so she/he can withdraw the article before entering the review process or when a revision is asked for.
  • Authors cannot make major changes in the article after acceptance without a serious reason.
  • All editorial members and authors must resolve to publish any kind of corrections honestly and completely.
  • Any notes of plagiarism, data fabrication, falsification, simultaneous submission, duplicate publication, improper author contribution or attribution, citation manipulation fraudulent data, or any other kinds of fraud must be reported completely to COPE.
  • In case of documented violations of any of the above-mentioned policies in any journal, immediate rejection of the manuscript and prohibition against all of the authors for any new submissions for a minimum of 36 months will be applied.

Republishing Policy
International Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain Prevention strongly advises authors to refrain from submitting articles that have already been accepted elsewhere, even if they were accepted in a language other than English or published in a local journal.
Withdrawal Regulations
Withdrawal of an article can occur in the reviewing or pre-publication processes. it might be because of a mistake in pre-publication in other journals or not considering journal's ethical codes. In addition, it may happen due to the existence of some inconsistency in the declaration of authors’ contributions, or any doubt about the accuracy of data, etc. To submit your withdrawal request please send your request to(
ijmpp@modares.ac.ir).
Retraction Regulations
Although retraction may be initiated by the journal's editors or by the author(s), however, the mail responsibility for retraction goes to the editors of our journal, even if all or some authors refuse to retract the publication. As soon as editors are convinced that a specific publication is seriously flawed, the published title must be retracted.
What Are the Compelling Reasons?
  • High similarity score
  • Author's bogus claims
  • Misuse of data
  • Not considering ethical codes
  • Undisclosed competing interest
  • Multiple submissions and redundant publication
Article Retraction Process
Authors and/or editors of the journal must sign a retraction statement entitled "Retraction: [article title]. This statement should be published in the paginated part of a subsequent issue of the journal and listed in the contents list. Also, a hyperlink is prepared to the original article in the electronic version. Despite of unchanged original article, the HTML version of the document is removed and a watermark on the pdf file of the article must be made to show that it is "retracted".


 Copyright
The content of the
International Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain Prevention is under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International Public License. To the extent this Public License may be interpreted as a contract, we are granted the Licensed Rights in consideration of your acceptance of these terms and conditions, and the Licensor grants you such rights in consideration of benefits the Licensor receives from making the Licensed Material available under these terms and conditions.
 

Process for identification of and dealing with allegations of research misconduct
Publishers and editors of the International Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain Prevention are reasonable in identifying and preventing the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred, including plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication, among others. In doing so, the International Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain Prevention follows COPE’s guidelines in dealing with allegations.
 

Ownership and Management
International Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain Prevention is owned, managed, and published by Tarbiat Modares University, Iran.
 
Conflicts of Interests
All International Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain Prevention Editorial Board members and the Editor-in-Chief submitted articles are gone under the same reviewing process as the other authors. In the cases that a reviewer suspects an undisclosed conflict of interest in a submitted manuscript or a reader suspects an undisclosed conflict of interest in a published article (all authors are filling out the ICMJE Form at the submission time) International Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain Prevention will follow COPE’s guidelines.
 

Complaints and Appeals
International Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain Prevention follows COPE’s guidelines on appeals to journal editor decisions and complaints about a journal’s editorial management of the peer-review process. Any complaint or appeal could be sent to the publisher in these ways: Submit a ticket via Publisher Support at https://journals.modares.ac.ir/
 
Revenue Sources/Advertising/Direct Marketing

International Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain Prevention is financially supported completely by Tarbiat Modares University, Iran, and has no other sources for earning funds. International Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain Prevention accepts No advertisements in the site or even as a report article.
 
Publishing Schedule/Archiving
Also
International Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain Prevention is included in Google Scholar, DOAJ, ISC (Islamic World Science Citation Center), and has a plan to enter Scopus.

 


Attribution-NonCommercial 
CC BY-NC

This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.
View License Deed | View Legal Code



Director-in-Charge and Editor-in-Charge
Tavafian, Sedigheh Sadat; ّFull Professor of Health Education
Affiliation: Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran. 
Email: tavafian@modares.ac.ir
Tel: +98 (21) 82884547
Editorial Board

Jamshidi, Ahmad Reza; Full Professor Rheumatology
Affiliation: Tehran University, Tehran, Iran
Email: jamshida@sina.tums.ac.ir
Tel: +98 (21) 88220065
 
Kazemnejad, Anoshirava; Full Professor of Biostatistics
Affiliation: Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Email: kazem_an@modares.ac.ir
Tel: +98 (21) 82883875
 

Shamsedin Niknami; Full Professor of Health Education and Promotion
Affiliation: Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Email: niknami_sh@modares.ac.ir
Tel: +98 (21) 82883549

Gregory, David; Professor of Qualitative Research Methodology and Research Methods, Mens Health, Aboriginal Health, Education Research and Health Services Research
Affiliation: University of Manitoba Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Email: david.gregory@uregina.ca
Tel: +1 3065855608
 
Khavanin, Ali; Full Professor of Health Professional
Affiliation: Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Email: khavanin@modares.ac.ir
Tel: +98 (21) 82883849
 
Torkaman, Giti; Full Professor of Physiotherapy
Affiliation: Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Email: torkamg@modares.ac.ir
Tel: +98 (21) 82884509
 
Wagner, Joan; Associate Professor of Mixed  Methods Research, Structural Equation Modeling, Spirit at Work and Leadership and Health Services Research
Affiliation: University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Email: joan.wagner@uregina.ca
Tel: -
 

Freshteh Pourkazemi; Research Fellow, Manager
Affiliation: Musculoskeletal Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney 
Email: fereshteh.pourkazemi@sydney.edu.au
Tel: +61 2 9351 9108
 
Ghanjal, Ali; Associate Professor of Physiotherapy
Affiliation: Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Email:
ghanjal@bmsu.ac.ir
Tel: + 98 (21) 88057022
 
Zarei, Fatemeh; Assistant Professor of Health Education and  Promotion
Affiliation: Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Email: f.zarei@modares.ac.ir
Tel: +98 (21) 82884546
 
Azad-falah, Parviz; Professor of Neuropsychology
Affiliation: Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Email: azadfa_p@modares.ac.ir
Tel: +98 (21) 82884658


Completion and signing the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest is necessary for all authors and the articles submission won’t be accepted without filling this form. Also all authors must sign the Authors Introduction and Commitment Form and declare the number, order of appearance, contribution and affiliation of authors and transfer the right of publishing to International Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain Prevention.
The submitted articles will be sent to the reviewers after primary acceptance by the Editor-in-Chief according to the adaptation of the subject to International Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain Prevention scopes and also the structural principles of the article that must be as this instruction. International Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain Prevention has the right of rejection or acceptance and also editing the articles. After final acceptance by International Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain Prevention Editorial Board, the articles will be completely revised by the Editorial Team members scientifically, structurally and methodologically and the galley proof will be sent back to the corresponding author for final confirmation. The authors are responsible for the precision and correctness of the content.
 
How to submit your article
Article admission can only be performed electronically via International Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain Prevention exclusive website. Please avoid postal or email submitting.
The steps of electronic submission of the article are as follows (submitting, reviewing and publishing article are completely free of charges):
  1- Go to the International Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain Prevention exclusive site: journals.modares.ac.ir
  2- Select "submit an article" in For Authors section in the left menu bar of the site.
  3- If you are a site member you can start the process; If not, first register and wait for administrator confirmation.
  4- Select and confirm the number of authors, article type and subject(s) of the article in step 2.
  5- All parts should be filled in step 3. Note that even if the system confirms the submission, in case of insufficiency of the data or not sending the article's files by the mentioned order, the article will be sent back by the administrator. The Main file must be a Microsoft Office Word 2003 file containing the whole article parts.
Notice: The article submitter is considered as the connector author for all affairs about the article and all further connections and data transmission will be done with him/her. The connector MUST be from authors.
 
How to prepare the article file
The entire text should be typed as single column (Font size: 12; Font type: Cambria; Line spacing: 1) in A4 paper size with 3cm margins from top, bottom, left and right of the page. The article file should contain 4 separate parts: Cover Page (1 page), Abstract (1 page), Text Body(several pages), References List (appropriate number according to article type) and Figures (1 figure per each 1000 words of the Text Body)
 
Cover Page
1- The title of the article should be written at the top (Write the running title below the title of the article).
2- Authors must be mentioned separately in order of appearance on the article with following data (Please notice the authorship principles from here):
First name & Surname
Academic Degree (PhD, MD, MSc, etc.)
Affiliation (Department/Research Center, School/Institute, University, City, Country)
(Cell Phone Number, Telephone Number, Fax Number, Post Address and Email are just necessary for the correspondent).
 
Abstract
1- The abstract of all type of articles must have AimsMethodsFindings and Conclusion sections and should not be less than 150 and more than 250 words.
Notice: The abstract does not have any introduction at all and is not an introduction to the article. An abstract should express the maximum data related to the article in the minimum possible volume.
2- The keywords must be 3 to 6 MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) words with the url of them at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/
 
Text Body
1- The section titles and word numbers of the text bodies are different according to the type of the article.
Original Research
Description: These articles are the result of authors’ researches and must have intervention and data analysis processes (not descriptive).
Sections: Introduction, Materials & Methods, Findings, Discussion, and Conclusion
Authors Limitation: Accorded to the research size
Words Limitation: 3000 to 4000 words
References Limitation: Min. 25 and Max. 40
Diagrams Limitation: 3 to 4 (Tables, Charts or Pictures)
Qualitative Research
Description: In the fields that the direct investigation of parameters is not possible, the research can be done regarding to the opinion of the experts qualitatively by appropriate documentation.
Sections: Introduction, Participants & Methods, Findings, Discussion, and Conclusion
Authors Limitation: 2 authors
Words Limitation: 3000 to 4000 words
References Limitation: Min. 25 and Max. 40
Diagrams Limitation: 3 to 4 (Tables, Charts or Pictures)
Short Communication
Description: Original researches in the novel fields of research with low number of references that mainly introduce new achievements although having low number of words.
Sections: Introduction, Materials & Methods, Findings, Discussion, and Conclusion
Authors Limitation: 1 author
Words Limitation: 1500 to 2000 words
References Limitation: Min. 10 and Max. 15
Diagrams Limitation: 2 (Tables, Charts or Pictures)
Descriptive & Survey
Description: Articles that just report descriptive data by checklists or questionnaires and have no intervention and data analysis. These are not considered as research articles and can be just accepted according to their strong practical aspects.
Sections: Introduction, Instrument & Methods, Findings, Discussion, and Conclusion
Authors Limitation: 3 authors
Words Limitation: 2000 to 2500 words
References Limitation: Min. 35 and Max. 50
Diagrams Limitation: 3 to 4 (Tables, Charts or Pictures)
Systematic Review
Description: Review article with research structure that is written by experts in the field of research. The material of these articles are other research papers in the field that should be analyzed completely. 
Sections: Introduction, Information & Methods, Findings, Discussion, and Conclusion
Authors Limitation: 2 authors
Words Limitation: 4000 to 6000 words
References Limitation: Min. 50 and Max. 60 (At least 5 references from the authors)
Diagrams Limitation: 1 (Tables, Charts or Pictures)
Analytic Review
Description: Review articles that are written by one expert in the field of research. The author is usually invited by the Editor in Chief to write a review in the desired field and this kind of article is not accepted from newcomers without enough original researches in the field.  
Sections: Introduction, Sections by Author (6 to 8), and Conclusion
Authors Limitation: 1 author
Words Limitation: 8000 to 10000 words
References Limitation: Min. 80 and Max. 100 (At least 10 references from the author)
Diagrams Limitation: Accorded to the author
Case Report/Series
Description: In exposure to rare case(s), the researcher can report the patient condition, treatment methods and the conclusion. 
Sections: Introduction, Information & Methods, Findings, Discussion, and Conclusion
Authors Limitation: 1 authors
Words Limitation: 1000 to 1500 words
References Limitation: Min. 10 and Max. 15
Diagrams Limitation: 2 (Tables, Charts or Pictures)
Letter to the Editor
Description: This kind of article is written in answer or in critic of the published articles of the journal.  
Sections: Introduction, Sections by Author (1 to 2), and Conclusion
Authors Limitation: 1 author
Words Limitation: 800 to 1000 words
References Limitation: Min. 3 and Max. 5
Diagrams Limitation: No Diagrams
 
2- All articles MUST have AcknowledgmentsEthical PermissionAuthors ContributionConflicts of Interests, and Funding/Supports sections at the end. If there is nothing to report in each case use “None declared by Authors”.
 
Tables & Figures
1- All tables, charts and pictures are numbered in order of appearance in the article under the unique title of “Figure”.
2- Figures must not repeat each other’s data or text data.
3- The description of figures should be clear and complete without the need to refer to the text.
4- Each figure should be placed in a separate page in the original size and the description should be written in the same page above (tables) or below (charts and pictures).
5- In the case of charts, the original excel file (or other formats) must be sent.

References List
Mentioning the references in all necessary cases should be fully observed (the referencing guide can be found here). To mention a reference, the numbering system should be used (Vancouver Style). Thus, the references should be listed in the reference list based on the order of use in the main text and they should be numbered orderly. Where ever necessary, the number of the given reference should be brought in brackets []. If there is more than one number in a [], the numbers must increase from left to right and be separated by “,” (e.g., [8, 11, 42]. If there are more than two following numbers, they must separate with “-“ (e.g., [12, 25, 32-38, 44-51].
Notice that the only valid references for scholarly articles are those with peer-reviewed content, mean published articles in peer reviewed journals; books, web pages, conference papers and posters, thesis and dissertations and so on are not appropriate references for scholarly articles. Due to this, at least 80% of the cited references of the submitted articles MUST be published articles in peer-reviewed journals.