Author responsibilities
Our goal is to provide you with a professional and courteous experience at each stage of the review and publication process. There are also some responsibilities that sit with you as the author. Our expectation is that you will:
- Read about our research ethics for authorship. These state that you must:
- Include anyone as an author who has made a substantial and meaningful contribution to the submission. Anyone else involved in the paper should be listed in the acknowledgements.
- Exclude anyone who hasn’t contributed to the paper, or who has chosen not to be associated with the research.
- In accordance with COPE’s position statement on AI tools, Large Language Models cannot be credited with authorship as they are incapable of conceptualising a research design without human direction and cannot be accountable for the integrity, originality, and validity of the published work.
- Be accountable for all aspects of your work. This includes investigating and resolving any questions about accuracy or research integrity
- Treat communications between you and the journal editor as confidential until an editorial decision has been made.
- If your article involves human participants, you must ensure you have considered whether or not you require ethical approval for your research, and include this information as part of your submission. Find out more about informed consent.
Research and publishing ethics
This journal follows the advice laid out in the guidelines and flowcharts on the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) website.
Please ensure that you have read the research and publishing ethics guidelines and ensure your submission meets these requirements
A few key points:
- Any manuscript you submit to this journal should be original. That means it should not have been published before in its current, or similar, form. Exceptions to this rule are outlined in our pre-print and conference paper policies. If any substantial element of your paper has been previously published, you need to declare this to the journal editor upon submission. Please note, the journal editor may use Crossref Similarity Check to check on the originality of submissions received. This service compares submissions against a database of 49 million works from 800 scholarly publishers.
- Your work should not have been submitted elsewhere and should not be under consideration by any other publication.
- If you have a conflict of interest, you must declare it upon submission; this allows the editor to decide how they would like to proceed. Read about conflict of interest in our research and publishing ethics guidelines.
- By submitting your work to Emerald, you are guaranteeing that the work is not in infringement of any existing copyright.
- Research articles must have ethical approval from an established Human Research Ethics Committee.
Manuscript requirements
Before you submit your manuscript, it’s important you read and follow the guidelines below. You will also find some useful tips in our structure your journal submission how-to guide.
Format |
Article files should be provided in Microsoft Word format While you are welcome to submit a PDF of the document alongside the Word file, PDFs alone are not acceptable. LaTeX files can also be used but only if an accompanying PDF document is provided. Acceptable figure file types are listed further below. |
Article length / word count |
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Article title |
A concisely worded title should be provided that contains the major content concepts. The title should not contain abbreviations. |
Author details |
The names of all contributing authors should be added to the ScholarOne submission; please list them in the order in which you’d like them to be published. Each contributing author will need their own ScholarOne author account, from which we will extract the following details:
In multi-authored papers, it’s important that ALL authors that have made a significant contribution to the paper are listed. Those who have provided support but have not contributed to the research should be featured in an acknowledgements section. You should never include people who have not contributed to the paper or who don’t want to be associated with the research. Read about our research ethics for authorship. |
Biographies and acknowledgements |
IJOT requests that authors do not submit a biography. |
Research funding |
Your article must reference all sources of external research funding in the acknowledgements section. |
Structured abstract |
All submissions must include a structured abstract, following the format outlined below. These four sub-headings and their accompanying explanations must always be included:
The following three sub-headings are optional and can be included, if applicable:
The maximum length of your abstract should be 250 words in total, including keywords and article classification (see the sections below). |
Keywords |
Your submission should include up to 5 keywords that capture the principal topics of the paper. Our Creating an SEO-friendly manuscript how to guide contains some practical guidance on choosing search-engine friendly keywords. Please note, while we will always try to use the keywords you’ve suggested, the in-house editorial team may replace some of them with matching terms to ensure consistency across publications and improve your article’s visibility. |
Article classification |
During the submission process, you will be asked to select a type for your paper; the options are listed below. If you don’t see an exact match, please choose the best fit:
|
Headings |
Headings must be concise, with a clear indication of the required hierarchy. |
Notes/endnotes |
Notes or endnotes are not permitted. |
Figures |
All figures (charts, diagrams, line drawings, webpages/screenshots, and photographic images) should be submitted electronically. Both colour and black and white files are accepted.
|
Tables |
Tables should be typed and submitted in a separate file to the main body of the article. The position of each table should be clearly labelled in the main body of the article with corresponding labels clearly shown in the table file. Tables should be numbered consecutively in Roman numerals (e.g. I, II, etc.). |
Supplementary files |
Where tables, figures, appendices, and other additional content are supplementary to the article but not critical to the reader’s understanding of it, you can choose to host these supplementary files alongside your article on Insight, Emerald’s content hosting platform, or on an institutional or personal repository. All supplementary material must be submitted prior to acceptance. If you choose to host your supplementary files on Insight, you must submit these as separate files alongside your article. Files should be clearly labelled in such a way that makes it clear they are supplementary; Emerald recommends that the file name is descriptive and that it follows the format ‘Supplementary_material_appendix_1’ or ‘Supplementary tables’. All supplementary material must be mentioned at the appropriate moment in the main text of the article, there is no need to include the content of the file but only the file name. A link to the supplementary material will be added to the article during production, and the material will be made available alongside the main text of the article at the point of EarlyCite publication. Please note that Emerald will not make any changes to the material; it will not be copyedited, typeset, and authors will not receive proofs. Emerald therefore strongly recommends that you style all supplementary material ahead of acceptance of the article. Emerald Insight can host the following file types and extensions:
If you choose to use an institutional or personal repository, you should ensure that the supplementary material is hosted on the repository ahead of submission, and then include a link only to the repository within the article. It is the responsibility of the submitting author to ensure that the material is free to access and that it remains permanently available. Please note that extensive supplementary material may be subject to peer review; this is at the discretion of the journal Editor and dependent on the content of the material (for example, whether including it would support the reviewer making a decision on the article during the peer review process). |
References |
All references in your manuscript must be formatted using one of the recognised Harvard styles. You are welcome to use the Harvard style Emerald has adopted – we’ve provided a detailed guide below. Want to use a different Harvard style? That’s fine, our typesetters will make any necessary changes to your manuscript if it is accepted. Please ensure you check all your citations for completeness, accuracy and consistency. Emerald’s Harvard referencing style References to other publications in your text should be written as follows:
A few other style points. These apply to both the main body of text and your final list of references.
At the end of your paper, please supply a reference list in alphabetical order using the style guidelines below. Where a DOI is available, this should be included at the end of the reference. |
For books |
Surname, initials (year), title of book, publisher, place of publication. e.g. Harrow, R. (2005), No Place to Hide, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY. |
For book chapters |
Surname, initials (year), "chapter title", editor's surname, initials (Ed.), title of book, publisher, place of publication, page numbers. e.g. Calabrese, F.A. (2005), "The early pathways: theory to practice – a continuum", Stankosky, M. (Ed.), Creating the Discipline of Knowledge Management, Elsevier, New York, NY, pp.15-20. |
For journals |
Surname, initials (year), "title of article", journal name, volume issue, page numbers. e.g. Capizzi, M.T. and Ferguson, R. (2005), "Loyalty trends for the twenty-first century", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp.72-80. |
For published |
Surname, initials (year of publication), "title of paper", in editor’s surname, initials (Ed.), title of published proceeding which may include place and date(s) held, publisher, place of publication, page numbers. e.g. Wilde, S. and Cox, C. (2008), “Principal factors contributing to the competitiveness of tourism destinations at varying stages of development”, in Richardson, S., Fredline, L., Patiar A., & Ternel, M. (Ed.s), CAUTHE 2008: Where the 'bloody hell' are we?, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Qld, pp.115-118. |
For unpublished |
Surname, initials (year), "title of paper", paper presented at [name of conference], [date of conference], [place of conference], available at: URL if freely available on the internet (accessed date). e.g. Aumueller, D. (2005), "Semantic authoring and retrieval within a wiki", paper presented at the European Semantic Web Conference (ESWC), 29 May-1 June, Heraklion, Crete, available at: http://dbs.uni-leipzig.de/file/aumueller05wiksar.pdf (accessed 20 February 2007). |
For working papers |
Surname, initials (year), "title of article", working paper [number if available], institution or organization, place of organization, date. e.g. Moizer, P. (2003), "How published academic research can inform policy decisions: the case of mandatory rotation of audit appointments", working paper, Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds, Leeds, 28 March. |
For encyclopaedia entries |
Title of encyclopaedia (year), "title of entry", volume, edition, title of encyclopaedia, publisher, place of publication, page numbers. e.g. Encyclopaedia Britannica (1926), "Psychology of culture contact", Vol. 1, 13th ed., Encyclopaedia Britannica, London and New York, NY, pp.765-771. (for authored entries, please refer to book chapter guidelines above) |
For newspaper |
Surname, initials (year), "article title", newspaper, date, page numbers. e.g. Smith, A. (2008), "Money for old rope", Daily News, 21 January, pp.1, 3-4. |
For newspaper |
Newspaper (year), "article title", date, page numbers. e.g. Daily News (2008), "Small change", 2 February, p.7. |
For archival or other unpublished sources |
Surname, initials (year), "title of document", unpublished manuscript, collection name, inventory record, name of archive, location of archive. e.g. Litman, S. (1902), "Mechanism & Technique of Commerce", unpublished manuscript, Simon Litman Papers, Record series 9/5/29 Box 3, University of Illinois Archives, Urbana-Champaign, IL. |
For electronic sources |
If available online, the full URL should be supplied at the end of the reference, as well as the date that the resource was accessed. Surname, initials (year), “title of electronic source”, available at: persistent URL (accessed date month year). e.g. Weida, S. and Stolley, K. (2013), “Developing strong thesis statements”, available at: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/588/1/ (accessed 20 June 2018) Standalone URLs, i.e. those without an author or date, should be included either inside parentheses within the main text, or preferably set as a note (Roman numeral within square brackets within text followed by the full URL address at the end of the paper). |
For data |
Surname, initials (year), title of dataset, name of data repository, available at: persistent URL, (accessed date month year). e.g. Campbell, A. and Kahn, R.L. (2015), American National Election Study, 1948, ICPSR07218-v4, Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (distributor), Ann Arbor, MI, available at: https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR07218.v4 (accessed 20 June 2018) |
Submit your manuscript
There are a number of key steps you should follow to ensure a smooth and trouble-free submission.
Double check your manuscript
Before submitting your work, it is your responsibility to check that the manuscript is complete, grammatically correct, and without spelling or typographical errors. A few other important points:
- Give the journal aims and scope a final read. Is your manuscript definitely a good fit? If it isn’t, the editor may decline it without peer review.
- Does your manuscript comply with our research and publishing ethics guidelines?
- Have you cleared any necessary publishing permissions?
- Have you followed all the formatting requirements laid out in these author guidelines?
- Does the manuscript contain any information that might help the reviewer identify you? This could compromise the blind peer review process. A few tips:
- If you need to refer to your own work, use wording such as ‘previous research has demonstrated’ not ‘our previous research has demonstrated’.
- If you need to refer to your own, currently unpublished work, don’t include this work in the reference list.
- Any acknowledgments or author biographies should be uploaded as separate files.
- Carry out a final check to ensure that no author names appear anywhere in the manuscript. This includes in figures or captions.
You will find a helpful submission checklist on the website Think.Check.Submit.
The submission process
All manuscripts should be submitted through our editorial system by the corresponding author.
A separate author account is required for each journal you submit to. If this is your first time submitting to this journal, please choose the Create an account or Register now option in the editorial system. If you already have an Emerald login, you are welcome to reuse the existing username and password here.
Please note, the next time you log into the system, you will be asked for your username. This will be the email address you entered when you set up your account.
Don't forget to add your ORCiD ID during the submission process. It will be embedded in your published article, along with a link to the ORCiD registry allowing others to easily match you with your work.
Don’t have one yet? It only takes a few moments to register for a free ORCiD identifier.
Visit the ScholarOne support centre for further help and guidance.
What you can expect next
You will receive an automated email from the journal editor, confirming your successful submission. It will provide you with a manuscript number, which will be used in all future correspondence about your submission. If you have any reason to suspect the confirmation email you receive might be fraudulent, please contact our Rights team.
Post submission
Review and decision process
Each submission is checked by the editor. At this stage, they may choose to decline or unsubmit your manuscript if it doesn’t fit the journal aims and scope, or they feel the language/manuscript quality is too low.
If they think it might be suitable for the publication, they will send it to at least two independent referees for double blind peer review. Once these reviewers have provided their feedback, the editor may decide to accept your manuscript, request minor or major revisions, or decline your work.
While all journals work to different timescales, the goal is that the editor will inform you of their first decision within 60 days.
During this period, we will send you automated updates on the progress of your manuscript via our submission system, or you can log in to check on the current status of your paper. Each time we contact you, we will quote the manuscript number you were given at the point of submission. If you receive an email that does not match these criteria, it could be fraudulent and we recommend you email [email protected].
If your submission is accepted
Copyright
All accepted authors are sent an email with a link to a licence form. This should be checked for accuracy, for example whether contact and affiliation details are up to date and your name is spelled correctly, and then returned to us electronically. If there is a reason why you can’t assign copyright to us, you should discuss this with your journal content editor. You will find their contact details on the editorial team section above.
Proofing and typesetting
Once we have received your completed licence form, the article will pass directly into the production process. We will carry out editorial checks, copyediting, and typesetting and then return proofs to you (if you are the corresponding author) for your review. This is your opportunity to correct any typographical errors, grammatical errors or incorrect author details. We can’t accept requests to rewrite texts at this stage.
When the page proofs are finalised, the fully typeset and proofed version of record is published online. This is referred to as the EarlyCite version. While an EarlyCite article has yet to be assigned to a volume or issue, it does have a digital object identifier (DOI) and is fully citable. It will be compiled into an issue according to the journal’s issue schedule, with papers being added by chronological date of publication.
How to share your paper
Visit our author rights page to find out how you can reuse and share your work.
To find tips on increasing the visibility of your published paper, read about how to promote your work.
Correcting inaccuracies in your published paper
Sometimes errors are made during the research, writing and publishing processes. When these issues arise, we have the option of withdrawing the paper or introducing a correction notice. Find out more about our article withdrawal and correction policies.
Need to make a change to the author list? See our frequently asked questions (FAQs) below.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a submission fee |
The only time we will ever ask you for money to publish in an Emerald journal is if you have chosen to publish via the gold open access route. You will be asked to pay an APC (article processing charge) once your paper has been accepted (unless it is a sponsored open access journal). At no other time will you be asked to contribute financially towards your article’s publication. If you haven’t chosen gold open access and you receive an email which appears to be from Emerald, asking you for payment to publish, please contact our Rights team. |
How can I become |
Please contact the editor for the journal, with a copy of your CV. You will find their contact details on the editorial team tab on this page. |
Who do I contact if I want to find out which volume and issue my accepted paper will appear in? |
Typically, papers are added to an issue according to their date of publication. If you would like to know in advance which issue your paper will appear in, please contact the content editor of the journal. You will find their contact details on the editorial team tab on this page. Once your paper has been published in an issue, you will be notified by email. |
Who do I contact if I have |
Please email the journal editor – you will find their contact details on the editorial team tab on this page. If you ever suspect an email you’ve received from Emerald might not be genuine, you are welcome to verify it with the content editor for the journal, whose contact details can be found on the editorial team tab on this page. Alternatively, you can email our Rights team. |
Is my paper suitable |
If you’ve read the aims and scope on the journal landing page and are still unsure whether your paper is suitable for the journal, please email the editor and include your paper's title and structured abstract. They will be able to advise on your manuscript’s suitability. You will find their contact details on the Editorial team tab on this page. |
How do I make a change to the list of authors once the manuscript has been submitted? |
Authorship and the order in which the authors are listed on the paper should be agreed prior to submission. We have a right first time policy on this and no changes can be made to the list once submitted. If you have made an error in the submission process, please email the Journal Editorial Office who will look into your request – you will find their contact details on the editorial team tab on this page. |
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Acting Editor-in-Chief
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Dr
Katie
Cremin
Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
[email protected]
-
Dr
Katie
Cremin
-
Associate Editor
-
Dr
Naomi
Algeo
Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
-
Dr
Ruth
Usher
University College Cork, Ireland
-
Dr
Naomi
Algeo
-
Publisher
-
Dr
Michael
Burrows
[email protected]
-
Dr
Michael
Burrows
-
Journal Editorial Office (For queries related to pre-acceptance)
-
Kevin Leslie
Dsilva
Emerald Publishing
[email protected]
-
Kevin Leslie
Dsilva
-
Supplier Project Manager (For queries related to post-acceptance)
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Vidhi
Tyagi
Emerald Publishing
[email protected]
-
Vidhi
Tyagi
-
Editorial Advisory Board
-
Professor
Tore
Bonsaksen
Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Elverum, Norway
-
Associate Professor
Ted
Brown
Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
-
Professor
Karen
Jacobs
Boston University, USA
-
Dr.
Alison J.
Laver-Fawcett
York St John University, York, UK
-
Patricia
McClure
Associate Head of the School of Health Sciences, Ulster University, Antrim, Northern Ireland
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Professor
Elizabeth
McKay
Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland
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Assoc. Professor - Emeritus
Randy
P. McCombie
PhD, OTR/L West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA
-
Professor
Judith
Pettigrew
University of Limerick, Ireland
-
Dr.
Panagiotis
Siaperas
AMC Metropolitan College, Athens, Greece
-
Professor
Tore
Bonsaksen
0.7
CiteScore 2021
1.0
CiteScore Tracker 2022
(updated monthly)
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Irish Journal of Occupational Therapy is the official peer reviewed journal of the Association of Occupational Therapists of Ireland. IJOT publishes quality articles, on a biannual basis, that further debate and evidence-based practice within occupational therapy, both in Ireland and worldwide.
eISSN: 2398-8819

This journal is open access



Aims and scope
The aim of the Irish Journal of Occupational Therapy (IJOT) is to contribute and stimulate critical debate and evidence-based practice by disseminating research findings, expert opinion, theoretical arguments and developments within clinical practice and professional education in Ireland and internationally.
The journal publishes original articles that will add to the knowledge base within occupational therapy and further evidence-based practice and critical debate within the profession.
The journal contributes to theory, practice, education, research and professional developments within occupational therapy. Theoretical papers, qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods research studies and systematic reviews are equally welcome. Practice reports of innovative service developments and short papers appraising the evidence base for specific interventions will also be considered for publication.
In order to link theory, practice and research the Editorial Board encourages authors to include a description of how theory informs research and/or practice developments.
In addition to submissions from experienced researchers, academics and practitioners, the Editorial Board welcomes short, high-quality submissions based upon work undertaken as part of pre-registration occupational therapy education. Research underpinned by a range of epistemologies (including qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches) is equally welcome.
Submissions are only accepted if the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere and will be subjected to a double-anonymous peer review process.
Irish Journal of Occupational Therapy is published by Emerald Publishing on behalf of the Association of Occupational Therapists of Ireland.
The journal is owned by the Association of Occupational Therapists of Ireland. The title is published under a platinum OA arrangement, in that all charges for publishing an OA article in the journal are funded by the Association of Occupational Therapists of Ireland. There is no charge to the author.
Latest articles
These are the latest articles published in this journal (Last updated: February 2023)
Top downloaded articles
These are the most downloaded articles over the last 12 months for this journal (Last updated: February 2023)
Top cited
These are the top cited articles for this journal, from the last 12 months according to Crossref (Last updated: February 2023)
Transparency statement for Irish Journal of Occupational Therapy
- Journal Ownership: Irish Journal of Occupational Therapy is published by Emerald Publishing on behalf of the Association of Occupational Therapists of Ireland.
- Governing Body: The editorial team is appointed and managed by the Association of Occupational Therapists of Ireland. The journal is governed by the editorial team in collaboration with Emerald Publishing.
- Peer Review Process: The journal operates a double blind peer review model. All articles undergo an initial assessment by the journal editor. If they are considered suitable for consideration, articles will then be a reviewed by a minimum of two external reviewers to assess suitability for publication. Final responsibility for editorial decisions rests with the Editor-in-Chief of the journal.
- Editorial team/contact information: Contact details for the editorial team can be found on the journal homepage. Queries may also be directed to Emerald’s Publishing team as follows: Michael Burrows – [email protected]
- Copyright: All articles in the journal are published Open Access under a Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY-4.0). This allows authors to retain copyright of their work whilst others can share, use and build upon this work created as long as appropriate attribution is given.
- Author Fees: The journal is published under a Platinum Open Access arrangement, in that all costs associated with publishing an Open Access article in the journal are funded by the Association of Occupational Therapists of Ireland. There are currently no Article Processing Charges to the author(s).
- Allegations of Misconduct: All journals published by Emerald are members of and subscribe to the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics. In the event of any allegation of research or publication misconduct the publisher and editor will adhere to COPE guidelines in dealing with such allegations.
- Conflicts of interest: Authors are asked to declare any financial or ethical conflicts of interest upon submitting their work to the journal. Difficult cases will be referred to the Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE) for advice.
- Frequency: The journal currently publishes two issues per annum
- Access: All journal articles are published Open Access on EmeraldInsight.com - http://www.emeraldinsight.com/loi/ijot under a CCBY 4.0 licence (please see section 5).
- Revenue sources: The journal is published under a platinum Open Access arrangement, in that all costs associated with publishing an Open Access article in the journal are funded by the Association of Occupational Therapists of Ireland.
- Advertising: The journal does not accept direct advertising
- Archiving: Emerald provides perpetual access for all e-journal content by working with digital preservation schemes Portico, LOCKSS and CLOCKSS.
- Direct marketing: On occasion the journal will use direct marketing activities (primarily email campaigns) to raise awareness of the journal and to invite authors to submit articles. Marketing activities are conducted by the Association of Occupational Therapists of Ireland unless otherwise agreed with Emerald.
This statement was updated by Doug Medland (Emerald Publishing) on 16th Feb 2020.