For authors and reviewers

General requirements

• Manuscripts must be original, must not have been published elsewhere, and must not be under consideration by another journal.
• Manuscripts must be written in English; submissions in other languages are not accepted.
• An ORCID iD is required for all authors at submission.

Article types

• Original research article: up to 8,000 words (excluding references, tables, and figures).
• Review article: critical synthesis of the literature, up to 10,000 words.
• Letter to the Editor: commentary on articles published in the journal or on current issues in the field, up to 1,500 words.

Manuscript preparation

Manuscripts are submitted as Word files (DOCX); PDF or LaTeX files cannot be processed. Two versions of the same manuscript are uploaded: an anonymised file for double-blind review (no author names, affiliations, acknowledgements or identifying self-citations) and a file with author details (all authors, affiliations, ORCID iDs and acknowledgements), which is never shown to reviewers. The initial submission may follow your own layout; once the manuscript is returned for revision or accepted, the revised version must be prepared using the journal's article template: download the article template (DOCX).

• Abstract of 130–150 words, followed by 3–5 keywords.
• Number all headings; cite every table and figure in the text.
• Research with human participants: state the name of the ethics committee, the date and the decision number in the Methods section; if approval was not required, explain why.
• Include statements on funding, conflicts of interest and data availability at the end of the manuscript.

References — APA style

References must follow the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition. In-text citations use the author–date format, e.g. (Yılmaz, 2024) or (Demir & Kaya, 2023, p. 15). Include a DOI for every source that has one. Examples:

• Journal article: Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (2024). Title of the article. Journal Name, 12(3), 45–67. https://doi.org/xx.xxxx/xxxx
• Book: Author, C. C. (2022). Title of the book (2nd ed.). Publisher.
• Chapter: Author, D. D. (2023). Chapter title. In E. E. Editor (Ed.), Book title (pp. 101–120). Publisher.

For how to submit, see E-submission.

Mobility & Social Care follows the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) at every stage of the publication process. The principles below are binding for authors, reviewers, and editors alike.

Research integrity

Fabrication, falsification, or selective reporting of data is a serious ethical violation and results in rejection or, if discovered after publication, retraction.

Plagiarism

All submissions are screened with similarity-detection software before review. Text, ideas, or findings of others must be properly attributed; this includes self-citation of the author's own earlier work.

Authorship

Only individuals who have made a substantial scholarly contribution should be listed as authors, and all authors must approve the final manuscript. Disputes over author order must be resolved before submission.

Ethics approval

Research involving human participants — including surveys, interviews and focus groups — requires approval from an ethics committee. The name of the committee, the date and the decision number must be stated in the Methods section. Informed consent must be obtained from all participants. Where approval was not required, the manuscript must explain why.

Conflicts of interest

Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose any financial or personal relationships that could influence the evaluation of the work. Editors and reviewers with a conflict withdraw from the process.

Use of artificial intelligence

Generative AI tools may not be listed as authors. Any use of AI tools in the preparation of a manuscript must be transparently described in the methods or acknowledgements section.

Corrections and retractions

Errors and ethical breaches found after publication are handled under the journal's published updates policy; see Publication updates and corrections.

To raise an ethical concern, contact the editorial office at contact@mjournals.org. All reports are handled confidentially.

The version of an article published in Mobility & Social Care is the version of record. Once an article has been published it is not silently altered, replaced or removed. Any change that affects the scholarly content is made through one of the published notices below, and every notice is linked to the article it concerns.

Correction (erratum and corrigendum)

A correction is issued when part of an article is wrong or misleading but the findings and conclusions still stand. An erratum covers errors introduced by the journal during production; a corrigendum covers errors made by the authors. Typical cases are a mislabelled figure, an incorrect value in a table, a missing funding or ethics statement, or a wrong author name or affiliation.

Corrections are published as separate, citable items and linked from the original article in both directions. Purely typographical errors that do not affect meaning (for example a misspelt word) may be fixed without a separate notice; the fix is published as a new version of the article with its date and a short note, and the DOI and citation of the article do not change.

Expression of concern

An expression of concern is published when the editors have well-founded doubts about an article but the investigation is not yet complete, or when an investigation cannot be concluded — for example because an institution does not respond. It is a temporary notice and is replaced by a correction, a retraction, or a statement of resolution once the matter is settled.

Retraction

An article is retracted when its main findings are unreliable or when a serious ethical breach is established. Grounds for retraction include fabricated or falsified data, plagiarism, duplicate publication, undisclosed conflicts of interest that materially affect the work, unethical research, and honest error substantial enough to invalidate the conclusions.

Retraction is not a punishment. It is a correction of the scholarly record, and the notice states plainly what was wrong, who requested the retraction, and whether the authors agree.

What happens to a retracted article

The article is not deleted. It remains online so that anyone who has cited or downloaded it can still see what was published. The following applies:

• the article page and the PDF are clearly marked as retracted;
• the retraction notice is free to read and is linked from the article;
• the article keeps its identifier, so existing citations continue to resolve;
• the article is removed from the journal's list of published research and is not counted in journal metrics.

Complete removal is reserved for the rare cases where leaving the article online would be unlawful, would violate a court order, or would present a serious risk to health or to an identifiable person. In those cases the metadata and a notice remain in place.

Reporting a problem with a published article

Anyone may raise a concern — readers, reviewers, authors and institutions alike. Write to the editorial office with the article title, what you believe is wrong, and any supporting material. Concerns raised anonymously are considered on their merits.

The editors first ask the corresponding author for an explanation, and normally allow two weeks for a reply. Where necessary the authors' institution is contacted. Cases are handled following the flowcharts of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The people who raise a concern are kept informed of the outcome, and their identity is not disclosed to the authors without their consent.

Contact details are on the Contact us page.

Authorship changes after publication

Adding, removing or reordering authors after publication requires a written request signed by all authors, including the person being added or removed, together with the reason for the change. Approved changes are published as a corrigendum.

All submissions to Mobility & Social Care undergo double-blind peer review: the identities of authors and reviewers are mutually concealed throughout the process.

1. Initial screening (≈1 week): the editor checks scope fit and formal requirements.
2. Reviewer assignment: at least two independent experts are appointed.
3. Review (≈4–6 weeks): originality, methodology, coherence of findings, and contribution are assessed.
4. Decision: accept, minor revision, major revision, or reject, based on the reviewers' reports.
5. Production: accepted articles are copy-edited, typeset, and published with a DOI.

The average time to first decision is 6–8 weeks. Authors may appeal an editorial decision once, with a reasoned letter to the editorial office; the editor's decision following an appeal is final. Letters to the Editor are reviewed by the editors.

Publication frequency

The journal follows continuous publication: each article is published as soon as it is ready, in one volume per year, with an article number (e.g. e0001).

Data availability

Authors are encouraged to make the data supporting their findings available in a public repository and to cite it in the article. Every article includes a data availability statement; where data cannot be shared — for example to protect participants' privacy — the statement explains why and how the data can be requested.

Preprints

Posting a preprint (for example on SSRN, OSF Preprints or a personal or institutional repository) does not prevent submission. Authors should tell the editors about the preprint at submission and, after publication, link the preprint to the published article. To keep the review double-blind, the anonymised manuscript should not cite the preprint.

Reviewers safeguard the scholarly quality of Mobility & Social Care. Reviewers are expected to:

• provide objective, constructive, and timely evaluations;
• keep all information about the manuscript strictly confidential;
• not use the content of a manuscript under review for personal advantage;
• decline the assignment when a conflict of interest exists;
• point out relevant published work that is not cited, and flag suspected plagiarism or data problems to the editor.

Reviewers are invited by the editorial office. The invitation e-mail contains a sign-in link, the abstract and the deadline. The usual review period is 21 days from accepting the invitation; an extension can be requested from the editor. Reviewers answer a short evaluation form, give a recommendation (accept, minor revision, major revision or reject) and write comments to the authors and, optionally, confidential comments to the editor. Reviewers of a revised version use a shorter form.

Manuscripts are submitted online: submit your manuscript. Sign in with your email address — no password is needed and new authors get an account automatically. You will need the manuscript in Word twice — anonymised for review and with the author details — and the ORCID iD of every author. You can save your submission and finish it later, and follow every step of the review on your dashboard. Questions: contact@mjournals.org.

Before submitting, please confirm that:

• the manuscript has not been published and is not under review elsewhere;
• the manuscript is a Word file (DOCX), not PDF — the article template becomes mandatory at the revision stage;
• the manuscript is uploaded twice: anonymised for double-blind review, and with all author details;
• the abstract (130–150 words) and 3–5 keywords are included;
• references follow APA 7 and include DOIs where available;
• all tables and figures are cited in the text;
• ethics committee name, date and decision number are stated (if applicable);
• funding, conflict of interest and data availability statements are included;
• all authors' ORCID iDs are provided;
• a conflict of interest statement is included in the manuscript;
• the corresponding author accepts the CC BY 4.0 licensing terms on behalf of all authors when completing the submission.

Authors retain copyright in articles published in Mobility & Social Care. By completing a submission, the corresponding author confirms on behalf of all authors that the work may be published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence, granting the journal the right of first publication.

This confirmation is given electronically in the submission system. No signed document is required and nothing needs to be printed, scanned or posted.

Authors must disclose any financial support, employment, consultancy or personal relationship that could be seen to influence the work submitted to Mobility & Social Care. Where there is nothing to disclose, this should be stated explicitly.

The declaration is made electronically during submission, by the corresponding author on behalf of all co-authors, and is repeated in the manuscript itself. There is no separate form to complete, sign or upload.

Mobility & Social Care does not charge any fee at any stage of the publication process. There is no submission fee, no page charge, and no article processing charge; all publication costs are covered by the publisher.