Paper Submission
  The manuscript should be written completely in compliance with the journal's format; otherwise, it will not be accepted.

•    Submitting manuscripts or documents in PDF format is not accepted.
•    The full manuscript must be submitted through the website.
•    The authors are required to consider the points in the Ethical Considerations section.
•    Before sending the manuscript, it needs to be edited by an English language specialist.

  The manuscripts should be submitted via our journal's site: sbrh.ssu.ac.ir.
  The manuscript must be submitted as a Word document. PDF is not accepted. The manuscript should be presented in the following order:

•   Title page
•   Abstract or a summary for case reports (Note: references should not be included in abstracts or summaries). 
•   Main text separated under appropriate headings and subheadings using the following hierarchy: Bold lower case, Italics.
•   Tables should be in Word format and placed in the main text where the table is first cited.
•   Tables must be cited in the main text in numerical order.
•   Acknowledgments
•   Conflict of interests
•   Funding
•   Ethical Considerations

•   Code of Ethics

•   Authors' contributions
•   Reference list.

  Manuscript should be submitted in two separate files (with and without authors' names).
Please Note: The Authorship Statement and Copyright Form  must be completed and signed by all authors and sent as an attached file.

Article processing charges (APC)
  Our journal does not impose any costs on authors for submitting, processing, reviewing, or publishing their manuscripts. All the related costs are supplied by  Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran. The journal doesn’t charge any APCs.

Call for Papers
  Journal of Social Behavior and Community Health (JSBCH) is a semi-annual, peer-reviewed, and open access journal published by Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran. JSBCH is intended to investigate relations between Social Behavior and Community Health, Social Determinants of Health. The Journal publishes papers in all fields of  Community Health, Social Behaviors, Comparative studies in the field.

  Contributions in the form of original research articles, case reports, editorial article, letter to the editor, short communications, and review articles from all countries are considered for publication. The editors welcome original contributions that have not been published and are not under consideration elsewhere. The journal strives to provide the most current and best research in the field of  community health.

Article Types
Original Article
  These articles must be of primary research, methodologically accurate, and relevant to Journal of Social Behavior and Community Health (JSBCH). They Should report original findings and include a maximum of 5500 words of text, plus abstract, 40 references, 5 tables or figures. In general, this kind of publication should be divided into an Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, and References. Each manuscript should clearly state an objective or hypothesis; the design of study and methodology (including study setting, patients or participants, inclusion and exclusion criteria, sampling and data source); data analysis and interpretations; the main results of the study, discussing the results; the conclusion. Conclusions must be supported by the study’s findings. The study’s limitations and delimitations must be incorporated in drawing conclusions. For all original articles, a structured abstract is required.
Qualitative Research Articles
   Articles should be methodologically rigorous, offer new perspectives/data on ‘old’ problems, or extend current knowledge in particular ways. Maximum of 5000 words (including illustrative data), 50 references, and 5 tables or figures. All requirements for original articles should be addressed for Qualitative Research Articles
Editorial
  Editorials deal with important topics on which the author would like to express an opinion, i.e. 'hot' topics.  These manuscripts need no structure and have not abstract. But, the total words number should be at maximum 2000 including references and the references not exceeding more than 10.
Review Article
  These articles consist of systematic reviews, meta-analyses, meta-syntheses, health system reviews, and narrative articles. These articles may be up to 7000 words excluding abstract, tables, and references.
 Inclusion and exclusion criteria for studies should be described in a flow diagram. The specific type of study or analysis, intervention, population, exposure, outcomes or tests should be described for each data source or article. The authors are to cover the following topics in the method section: search strategy and selection criteria, data extraction, quality assessment, and data analysis. A structured abstract is required.
Short Communication
  Short communications are short articles (mini original articles) that present original and important preliminary findings that do not warrant publication as a full-length article but are still worthy of publication. These articles are like those of original ones except that these are shorter and prepared in minimum 1500 and maximum 3000 words. The results and discussion sections should preferably be merged.
Letter to Editor
  It should be about criticism of previous articles in this journal or the others and analysis of a related scientific topic with journal scope. These manuscripts need no structure and have not abstract.
Case Report
  This kind of manuscript should include unstructured abstract, keywords, introduction, case report, discussion, conclusion, conflicts of interest, acknowledgment, and references. Case report should have 1500-2500 words. The title should include the words ‘case report’ as well as a description of the reported phenomenon (e.g., reporting of new and rare food borne pathogen). Three to five key words should be provided.
Book Review
  In this kind of manuscript, a new published internationally and valuable book regarding to the scopes of the journal, is introduced in maximum 1000 words. No abstract or special structured is required for these articles. 
 
Text Style Guide
  Use A4 size. Text should be left-justified. Use preferably Times New Roman font. Use 1.15 line spacing. Use initial upper case for Title, Headings and Subheadings, Keywords, Affiliations, and Authors’ Name. Make the titles, headings and subheadings bold or use different color.
Paper should be written in fluent English using MS Word with margins intended by 2 cm from both sides. Paper files are accepted in Word 2003/2007. All page orientations should be in portrait style.

Positions	Font Name	Font Size
Main title	Times New Roman (Bold)	15
Main text and references	Times New Roman	11
Subtitles	Times New Roman (Bold)	11
Author(s)' name	Times New Roman (Bold)	10
Abstract and keywords	Times New Roman	10
Tables and figures' titles	Times New Roman (Bold)	10
Tables, figures' texts	Times New Roman	10

Abbreviation: Abbreviation is justified only if they are standard (like gr instead of gram). Units should be mentioned in the International System of Units (SI). Just standard abbreviations and symbols are permissible and using short forms in title and abstract should be avoided.
Acronyms: Acronyms are not allowed except when they are very common. Also in the text, the first use of an acronym should be in full form (with the acronym in brackets).The percent symbol (%) should be written like 29%, decimal numbers should be like 15.06, and the decimal digit must be uniform through whole text, for example by two digits.

Preparation of manuscript
  The submitted manuscript should include the following items: title page, abstract,Text (according to article category) Acknowledgments, References, Tables (if any), Figures (if any), Appendices (if any). The description for writing each part is provided as below:

Title Page
  The title page should contain the following components:

• Manuscript Title: please keep it as precise and concise as possible and ensure it reflects the subject matter
• Corresponding author's name, qualification, affiliation, telephone number, and email address

• Each author's affiliation (Department, Faculty, University, City, Country)

• Title (better not to exceed 25 words)
• Running title which is the main title's abbreviation should be mentioned (70 characters with spaces) 
• Abbreviations and acronyms should be avoided in the main title.
• Corresponding author is required to be distinguished by * sign.
• Authors' sequence should be shown by superscript latin lowercase alphabet.
• Three to six keywords should be extracted only by using guidelines from MeSH.

Key words
  Authors are invited to submit keywords associated with their paper. Each manuscript should provide 3 to 6 keywords according to the Medical Subject Headings, MESH (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html).

Main Text of Paper
Introduction
  The introduction presents the general objectives of the study, thus there is no need to provide broad information existing in scientific texts. Papers should clearly describe the subject's background, the authors' work, and unanswered questions from previous studies. Paper text should include the following points:
  In introduction these points should be discussed:

• Variable definitions (research subject description) 
• Research importance
• Brief review of literature 
• Research objective

  If the study includes questionnaires or checklists, they should be mentioned too. Also, authors should determine the exact validity and describe the process of validating. Methods for determining the questionnaire's reliability and the manner of applying final report on the results to meet reliability should also be explained. In standard questionnaires, names and references should be mentioned. All subjects gave their informed consent for inclusion before they participated in the study. The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and the protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of XXX (Project identification code).

Results
  Findings of the research include the most important results and must appropriately answer objectives, questions, and hypotheses. They should be provided in logical order in form text, table, chart, and figure. All tables, charts, and figures have to be numbered.
  If research population is in numbers, the first table should be table of demographic variables of participants. Repeating the data should be avoided. Table content and other information tabulated in tables should not be repeated in text, but rather the numbered related table should be referred to.
  Sequence of tables, charts, and figures should be consistent with objective sequence. Tables, charts, and figures irrespective of text should be completely clear; their understanding should not depend on full study of the text.

Discussion
  Discussion section includes the following:

• Interpreting and discussing the results achieved from the study (by researcher): results should not be repeated in detail in this part. 
• The current findings should be compared with those of previous literature to support or reject the study results.
• Advantages and limitations: when talking about advantages and limitations, the degree of generalization for findings should be considered.

Conclusion
  The study's conclusion should be clear and draw on the achieved findings.

Acknowledgments
  All papers must carry an acknowledgment text to thank all those people who helped in thinking, designing, or carrying out the work, or supplied materials. Also, mentioning the name of supporting organizations and sponsors is necessary in this section. If the manuscript is extracted from a student's proposal, mentioning proposal's number and university name in the acknowledgment section is also necessary. Here in this section the research's sponsor should be mentioned.

Conflict of interest
  All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. If you have no competing interests please state 'I/We have no competing interests'
The following situations are considered conflicts and should be avoided:

• Co-authoring publications with at least one of the authors in the past 3 years
• Being colleagues within the same section/department or similar organisational unit in the past 3 years
• Supervising/having supervised the doctoral work of the author (s) or being supervised/having been supervised by the author(s)
• Receiving professional or personal benefit resulting from the review
• Having a personal relationship (e.g. family, close friend) with the author(s)
• Having a direct or indirect financial interest in the paper being reviewed

  It is not considered a Conflict of Interest if the reviewers have worked together with the authors in a collaborative project (e.g. EU or DARPA) or if they have co-organized an event (e.g PC co-chairs).
 

References
  Please you notice that the reference style of this journal changed to APA from Volume 4, Issue 1 (5-2020). Author(s) should follow the latest edition of APA style 7th editionin referencing. Please visit https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references to learn more about APA style Citations in the text Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Avoid citation in the abstract. Unpublished results and personal communications should not be in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication. For a work with one or two authors, include the author name(s) in every citation. For a work with three or more authors, include the name of only the first author plus “et al.” in every citation (even the first citation).

Author type	Parenthetical citation	Narrative citation
One author	(Luna, 2020)	Luna (2020)
Two authors	(Salas & D’Agostino, 2020)	Salas and D’Agostino (2020)
Three or more authors	(Martin et al., 2020)	Martin et al. (2020)
Group author with abbreviation First citation a Subsequent citations	(National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2020) (NIMH, 2020)	National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH, 2020) NIMH (2020)
Group author without abbreviation	(Stanford University, 2020)	Stanford University (2020)

Reference List
  References should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples
Examples:
Reference to a journal publication:
  Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J. A. J., & Lupton R. A. (2000). The art of writing a scientific article. Journal of Scientific Communications, 163, 51-59.
  Band-Winterstein, T., & Tuito, I. (2018). The meaning of choosing a spouse among ultra-orthodox Jewish women who found themselves in a violent relationship. Violence Against Women, 24(6), 727–744. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801217722236.
  If the journal article does not have a DOI but does have a URL that will resolve for readers (e.g., it is from an online journal that is not part of a database), include the URL of the article at the end of the reference.
  If the journal article has an article number instead of a page range, include the article number instead of the page range.
  Sato T, Aiyama Y, Ishii-Inagaki M, Hara K, Tsunekawa N, et al. (2011) Cyclical and Patch-Like GDNF Distribution along the Basal Surface of Sertoli Cells in Mouse and Hamster Testes. Plos One 6(12): e28367.
Reference to a book:
  Strunk, W., Jr., & White, E. B. (1979). The elements of style. (3rd ed.). New York: Macmillan, (Chapter 4).
  If the book includes a DOI, include the DOI in the reference after the publisher name.Do not include the publisher location.
  If the book does not have a DOI and comes from an academic research database, end the book reference after the publisher name. Do not include database information in the reference. The reference in this case is the same as for a print book.
  Esping-Andersen, G., & Myles, J. (2011). Economic inequality and the welfare state. In B. Nolan, W. Salverda, & T. M. Smeeding (Eds.), The Oxford handbook on economic inequality. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/ 9780199606061.013.0025
  Mikulincer, M., & Shaver, P. R. (2007). Attachment bases of psychopathology. In Attachment in Adulthood: Structure, Dynamics, and Change (chapter 2).
Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
  Mettam, G. R., & Adams, L. B. (1994). How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In B. S. Jones, & R. Z. Smith (Eds.), Introduction to the electronic age (pp. 281-304). New York: E-Publishing Inc.
Reference to a web source:
  Smith, Joe, (1999), One of Volvo's core values. [Online] Available: http://www.volvo.com/environment/index.htm (July 7, 1999)
  Baird, L., Harding, D., Horsley, P., & Dhar, S. (2019). M&A in disruption: 2018 in review. Bain & Company, Inc. [Online]. Available:. https://www.bain.com/insights/M-and-A-in-disruption-2018-in-review/
Tables
  Tables should be self-contained and complement, not duplicate, information contained in the text. They should be supplied as editable files, not pasted as images. Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the table, legend, and footnotes must be understandable without reference to the text. All abbreviations must be defined in footnotes. Footnote symbols: †, ‡, §, ¶, should be used (in that order) and *, **, *** should be reserved for P-values. Statistical measures such as SD or SEM should be identified in the headings.
Figure Legends
  Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the figure and its legend must be understandable without reference to the text. Include definitions of any symbols used and define/explain all abbreviations and units of measurement.
Figures
  Although authors are encouraged to send the highest-quality figures possible, for peer-review purposes, a wide variety of formats, sizes, and resolutions are accepted.

• Should be prepared left to right without any margins.
• Table number and caption always appear above the table.
• Should be editable and upright on the page, not on sideways.
• Should be prepared with no borders and columns.
•  Should be plain with NO colors, shading, or graphics.
• Should not contain inserted text boxes, tables within tables or cells within cells.
• Should be cited in numerical order upon their first mention.
• Symbols and abbreviations should be defined immediately below the table, followed by essential brief description.
• All tables should be inserted at the end of result section. Authors should not upload them as separate files.

Formulas 

• Equations should be typed only in Math Type.
• Graphical objects should not be used.
• Your equations should be editable.
• If you have used built-in equation editing tool in Microsoft Word, the equations will become unusable during the typesetting process. To resolve this problem, please re-key your equations using Math Type.
• Long equations should be set off from the text and numbered sequentially.
• If you cannot avoid using many equations or schemes, you can collect them in a table of equations and shot them as a framed figure to avoid typesetting errors.

Figures/Illustrations 

• All figures/images must be cited within the main text in numerical order.
• All figures/images must be centered. Figure number and legend always appear below the figure.
• Histograms should be prepared in a simple, two-dimensional format, with no background grid.
• Graphics downloaded from Web pages should not be used.
• Figures/images should be inserted at the end of the result section. Authors should not upload them as separate files.
• Figures or illustrations with their titles beneath are accepted in JPG format.
• Minimum figures’ resolution should be 200 dpi and their maximum size can be 500 KB.
• Figures caption should be centered in the below. Charts should be mapped in two dimensions.
• If a figure or table is obtained from another reference, the reference number should be written at the end of figure or table and citation should be included in reference part.
• Appendixes and notes should be mentioned at the end of manuscript after references.

How to Include Other Points
  Appendixes and notes should be mentioned at the end of paper after references.

Conflicts of Interest Guidelines for Publisher and Reviewers
  The JSBCH Journal is committed to maintaining the highest levels of fairness and transparency in its editorial process. We take the issue of conflict of interest seriously to ensure that our reviewers and editorial staff provide an impartial and unbiased assessment of the manuscripts we receive.
  To uphold this standard, we require our referees to disclose any potential conflicts of interest that may arise while reviewing a manuscript. This is to ensure that our reviewers evaluate the manuscripts fairly and objectively. We also expect our editorial staff to provide a current description of their relationships and activities that could affect editorial judgments. In cases where a potential conflict exists, they must remove themselves from the decision-making process. Our editorial staff is prohibited from using any information obtained through working with manuscripts for personal gain. To promote transparency and accountability, we regularly publish our own and our journal staff's disclosure statements. We believe that by disclosing potential conflicts of interest, we can maintain the trust of our authors and readers and uphold the highest ethical standards in the scholarly publishing industry.

Reporting Guidelines
  Reporting guidelines have been developed for different study designs; examples include CONSORT for randomized trials, STROBE for observational studies, PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and STARD for studies of diagnostic accuracy. SBCH encourag authors to follow these guidelines because they help authors describe the study in enough detail for it to be evaluated by editors, reviewers, readers, and other researchers evaluating the medical literature.

Peer review Process
Double blind peer reviewing: Each submitted manuscript is assessed by Editor-in-Chief, at first for its quality, accuracy, novelty, relevance and significance. The manuscript will then be sent at least to one in-office and two out of office reviewers for review.
  All reviewers must have relevant scientific expertise in the scope of the journal. Also, the reviewers should be a faculty member in an academic organization or university around the world. The other important criteria for the reviewers are their suitable experiences in peer-reviewing, perfect academic skills, and effective international collaboration. All the reviewers must be advanced and proficient in English language levels. Authors can suggest to the journal office if they do not wish their manuscript to be reviewed by a particular reviewer because of potential conflicts of interest but, it is up to the Editor-in-Chief to accept it. Final decision pertaining to each manuscript is determined by Editor-in-Chief and after that the decision will be immediately sent to the corresponding author up to about two months. Editor can reject manuscript at any time before publication even after acceptance if concerns arise about the integrity of the work. In the peer review process, research protocols and plans for statistical analysis will be reviewed. Editorials, letters, and book reviews will not be entered to peer-review process.

Revision
  Manuscripts may be returned to the corresponding author for modification of the scientific content and/or for language corrections. Revised manuscript and a letter listing point-for-point response to the reviewers must be submitted to the editor and must be accompanied by a copy of the original version. Suggestion by the editor about resubmission does not imply that a revised version will necessary be accepted. If a manuscript that is returned to the authors for modification is not resubmitted within two months it will be regarded as having been withdrawn and any revised version received subsequently will be treated as a new manuscript and the date of receipt will be altered accordingly. Authors who resubmit a manuscript that has previously been rejected must provide the original manuscript and a letter explaining in detail how the manuscript has been modified.
 

Proofreading
  A copy of manuscript will be sent to the corresponding author before publishing for correcting any probable errors. The changes and corrections should be implemented in the quickest possible time and submitted through the journal's website. Once the paper published, a copy will be sent to the corresponding author and journal issue number will be accessible to both authors and readers.

Corrections, Retractions, Republications and Version Control
  The journal Corrections, Retractions, Republications and Version Control policy for authors follows ICMJE guidelines.
 

Erratum

   An error introduced by the publisher that affects the integrity of the version of record, the reputation of the authors, or the reputation of journal, is termed as Erratum.
   An Erratum is a statement by the authors of the original paper that briefly describes any correction(s) resulting from errors or omissions. Any effects on the conclusions of the paper should be noted. The corrected article is not removed from the online journal, but notice of erratum is given. The Erratum is made freely available to all readers and is linked to the corrected article.

Corrigenda
   A corrigendum is a notification of a significant error made by the authors of the article. All corrigenda are normally approved by the editors of the journal. Corrigendum or Author Correction. Notification of an important error made by the author(s) that affects the publication record or the scientific integrity of the paper, or the reputation of the authors or the journal.
   The JSBCH uses the COPE flowchart for retraction of a published article: http://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines
 

Appeal    
  Our appeals policy allows authors to contest editorial decisions.
If the author(s) of a manuscript believe there has been a substantial error or misunderstanding by the editor or reviewers, a decision affected by a clear conflict of interest, or evidence of bias or inadequate consideration, they may submit an appeal by following these steps:

1.  Submit a formal appeal via email within 30 days of the decision date.
2. Provide a detailed appeal letter, clearly stating the grounds for the appeal, including specific responses to any points raised in the decision letter.
3. Include any relevant supporting documentation or data that can substantiate the claim.

After receiving an appeal:
- The editorial team will acknowledge receipt of the appeal within one week.
- A decision on the appeal will be communicated to the author(s), typically within six weeks of the appeal submission.
- If the appeal is upheld, we may overturn the original decision or request a revised submission.
- If the appeal is rejected, the original decision stands, and further appeals on the same grounds will not be considered.
  Please note that decisions to appeal must not be taken lightly, and the burden of proof rests with the author(s). We reserve the right to reject appeals that do not meet the grounds specified above.
  For appeal submissions or inquiries, please contact the editorial office at sbrh.ssugmail.com or sbrhssu.ac.ir.

Selecting an editor
  Editors play a key role on our journals: they put their reputation and name to the journal, they help publishers steer the strategic direction of the journal and they oversee the journal's peer-review process. So one of the biggest responsibilities of a publisher is to invest the time and effort necessary to appoint the right editors.
  Before we start the recruitment process for an editor, we think through what we want to achieve: "What is best for the journal, and what is best for the community that journal serves?"
  If the journal and its field are expanding, it needs an editor who can manage the growth. If the journal is no longer serving the needs of its community, it requires an editor who can implement and execute change. In both cases, we work to identify somebody who, working with the publisher, is ready and able to help define a vision for the journal and who has the authority within his or her field to execute that vision. Peer reviewers may make a recommendation about an article, but it is the editor who has the ultimate responsibility to make a final decision on whether to accept or reject an article for publication in a journal.

 Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  JSBCH supports the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in research articles. However, authors must disclose the use of AI transparently and accurately in their articles. This disclosure should be made in the Acknowledgments section of the article and should include the name of the AI tool or software used, the specific purpose for which it was used, and any limitations or drawbacks associated with its use. By disclosing the use of AI in their articles, the authors help to ensure that readers are aware of the potential impact of AI on the research's results and conclusions. Some examples of how AI can be used in journal articles include data analysis, machine learning, and computational simulations.