This journal is dedicated to interdisciplinary frontiers in health and rehabilitation engineering. It publishes cutting-edge research that bridges engineering innovation with rehabilitation science and clinical medicine. The scope of the journal encompasses latest developments aimed at restoring and enhancing motor, sensory, communication, and cognitive functions for the advancement of human health, including but not limited to artificial Intelligence, biomedical signal processing, biomechanics, digital health, motor control, neural-machine interfaces, neuromodulation, prosthetics and orthotics, robotics, virtual reality, and mobility aids. By establishing a platform for collaboration across industry, academia, and the clinic, the journal aims to drive theoretical breakthroughs, technological innovation, and clinical translation. This mission empowers the modernization of rehabilitation and healthcare systems to advance human well-being.
Research Article (up to ~6000 words, including 3~5 keywords, an abstract, an introduction, main body, brief subheadings, a conclusion, figures or tables, and references.) are original, unpublished primary research. They are expected to discuss hot topics, areas of interest, challenges, and prospects in engineering science and technology (EST) development, and present a major and cutting-edge advance. We encourage engineering breakthroughs and innovations that are of profound economic and social importance, which can arouse widespread concern and follow-up in EST. The papers lay emphasis on the calculation or experiment process are not suitable for Engineering. Extensions of work that has been published previously in short form such as a Letters/Communications are usually acceptable. Additional supplementary materials are encouraged, which can be various types of auxiliary information, including figures and tables, detailed materials and methods, video or audio files, and so on.
Review Article can be an authoritative overview of a field, a comprehensive literature reviews, or tutorial-style reference materials. They should describe and synthesize recent developments of interdisciplinary significance, outline the important unresolved questions, and highlight future directions. Reviews can up to ~10000 words, including 3~5 keywords, an abstract, an introduction, main body, brief subheadings, an outlook, figures or tables, and references. Reviews are usually invited by the editor, but a topic may be proposed by an author via the editorial office.
Views & Comments (1000~2000 words) are expected to provide views of the overall role on the EST development, advices of instructive significance for the resolution of grand challenging problems, new ideas of great importance on promoting inter-disciplinary research, or unique thoughts on some major issues of common concern to the science and engineering community and society. All submissions (including invited), requiring clear and specific views without empty comments, will go through a standard peer-review process. Due to the limited volume of the column, the specific point of view that is appropriate to be published in some professional journals won’t be acceptable here.
Feature Article (up to ~6000 words) are reviews written by leading scientists within their field and mainly summarize his/her group’s recent work from a personal perspective. They cover many exciting and innovative fields and are of general interest to all researchers in the field.
Protocol aims to publish the protocols being used to answer important research questions. The protocols must have been used to acquire data reported in published papers. Protocols are presented in a “recipe” style providing step-by-step descriptions of procedures in details.
Perspective Article (up to ~3000 words) are brief, accessible pieces covering a wide variety of timely topics with some research details. They should highlight recent exciting research and provide new insights.
You can use this list to carry out a final check of your submission before you send it to the journal for review. Please check the relevant section in this Guide for Authors for more details.
Ensure that the following items are present:
(1) One author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details:
· E-mail address
· Full postal address
(2) All necessary files have been uploaded:
a) Manuscript
· Include keywords
· All figures (include relevant captions)
· All tables (including titles, description, footnotes)
· Ensure all figure and table citations in the text match the files provided; Indicate clearly if color should be used for any figures in print
b) Highlights files (where applicable)
c) Supplemental files (where applicable)
d) Further considerations:
· Manuscript has been 'spell checked' and 'grammar checked'
· All references mentioned in the Reference List are cited in the text, and vice versa
· Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet)
· A competing interests statement is provided, even if the authors have no competing interests to declare
· Journal policies detailed in this guide have been reviewed
For further information, visit our Support Center.
Please see our information on Ethics in publishing.
The work described in your article must have been carried out in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/ and EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/lab_animals/legislation_en.htm. This must be stated at an appropriate point in the article.
All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. Authors should complete the declaration of competing interest statement using this template and upload to the submission system at the Attach/Upload Files step. Note: Please do not convert the .docx template to another file type. Author signatures are not required. More information
Authors must declare the use of generative AI in the manuscript preparation process upon submission of the paper.
Elsevier recognizes the potential of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies (“AI Tools”), when used responsibly, to help researchers work efficiently, gain critical insights fast and achieve better outcomes. Increasingly, these tools, including AI agents and deep research tools, are helping researchers to synthesize complex literature, provide an overview of a field or research question, identify research gaps, generate ideas, and provide tailored support for tasks such as content organization and improving language and readability.
Authors preparing a manuscript for an Elsevier journal can use AI Tools to support them. However, these tools must never be used as a substitute for human critical thinking, expertise and evaluation. AI technology should always be applied with human oversight and control.
Ultimately, authors are responsible and accountable for the contents of their work. This includes accountability for:
· Carefully reviewing and verifying the accuracy, comprehensiveness, and impartiality of all AI-generated output (including checking the sources, as AI-generated references can be incorrect or fabricated).
· Editing and adapting all material thoroughly to ensure the manuscript represents the author’s authentic and original contribution and reflects their own analysis, interpretation, insights and ideas.
· Ensuring the use of any tools or sources, AI-based or otherwise, is made clear and transparent to readers. If AI Tools have been used, we require a disclosure statement upon submission; please see example below.
· Ensuring the manuscript is developed in a way that safeguards data privacy, intellectual property and other rights, by checking the terms and conditions of any AI tool that is used.
Finally, authors must not list or cite AI Tools as an author or co-author on the manuscript since authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be attributed to, and performed by, humans.
The use of AI Tools in the manuscript preparation process must be declared by adding a statement at the end of the manuscript when the paper is first submitted. The statement will appear in the published work and should be placed in a new section before the references list.
An example:
· Title of new section: Declaration of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the manuscript preparation process.
· Statement: During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME OF TOOL / SERVICE] in order to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the published article.
The declaration does not apply to the use of basic tools, such as tools used to check grammar, spelling and references. If you have nothing to disclose, you do not need to add a statement.
Please read Elsevier’s author policy on the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies, which can be found in our generative AI policies for journals.
Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract, a published lecture or academic thesis, see 'Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication' for more information), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder. To verify compliance, your article may be checked by Crossref Similarity Check and other originality or duplicate checking software.
Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities. Content should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader; contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on the grounds of age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition; and use inclusive language throughout. Authors should ensure that writing is free from bias, stereotypes, slang, reference to dominant culture and/or cultural assumptions. We advise to seek gender neutrality by using plural nouns ("clinicians, patients/clients") as default/wherever possible to avoid using "he, she," or "he/she." We recommend avoiding the use of descriptors that refer to personal attributes such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition unless they are relevant and valid. When coding terminology is used, we recommend to avoid offensive or exclusionary terms such as "master", "slave", "blacklist" and "whitelist". We suggest using alternatives that are more appropriate and (self-) explanatory such as "primary", "secondary", "blocklist" and "allowlist". These guidelines are meant as a point of reference to help identify appropriate language but are by no means exhaustive or definitive.
Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the journal Editor. To request such a change, the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reason for the change in author list and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed.
Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the Editor considers the request, publication of the manuscript will be suspended. If the manuscript has already been published in an online issue, any requests approved by the Editor will result in a corrigendum.
Our online submission system guides you stepwise through the process of entering your article details and uploading your files. The system converts your article files to a single PDF file used in the peer-review process. Editable files (i.e., Word) are required to typeset your article for final publication. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, is sent by e-mail.
This journal operates a single anonymized review process. All contributions are typically sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the paper. The Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. The Editor's decision is final. Any such submission is subject to all of the journal's usual procedures, with peer review handled independently of the relevant editor and their research groups.
We encourage you use our WORD template when preparing a manuscript submission. You will be asked to provide all relevant editable source files upon submission or revision.
To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the 'spell-check' and 'grammar-check' functions of your word processor.
This section describes the article structure for this journal.
(1) Essential title page information
· Title. Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
· Author names and affiliations. Please clearly indicate the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author and check that all names are accurately spelled. You can add your name between parentheses in your own script behind the English transliteration. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.
· Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. This responsibility includes answering any future queries about Methodology and Materials. Ensure that the e-mail address is given and that contact details are kept up to date by the corresponding author.
(2) Abstract
A concise and factual abstract is required. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason, References should be avoided, but if essential, then cite the author(s) and year(s). Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.
(3) Keywords
Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 6 keywords, using American spelling and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of'). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.
(4) Sections
Divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ...), 1.2, etc. (the abstract is not included in section numbering). Use this numbering also for internal cross-referencing: do not just refer to 'the text'. Any subsection may be given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line.
(5) Figure captions
Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached to the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.
(6) Tables
Please submit tables as editable text and not as images. Tables can be placed either next to the relevant text in the article, or on separate page(s) at the end. Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text and place any table notes below the table body. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in them do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article. Please avoid using vertical rules and shading in table cells.
(7) Math formulae
Please submit math equations as editable text and not as images. Present simple formulae in line with normal text where possible and use the solidus (/) instead of a horizontal line for small fractional terms, e.g., X/Y. In principle, variables are to be presented in italics. Powers of e are often more conveniently denoted by exp. Number consecutively any equations that have to be displayed separately from the text (if referred to explicitly in the text).
(8) Acknowledgements
Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise.
(9) Compliance with ethics guidelines
All author should declare that they have no conflict of interest or financial conflicts to disclose.
(10) References
Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. If these references are included in the reference list, they should follow the standard reference style of the journal and should include a substitution of the publication date with either 'Unpublished results' or 'Personal communication'. Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication.