1. Introduction

ENGINEERING Health and Rehabilitation Engineering is dedicated to interdisciplinary frontiers in health and rehabilitation engineering. It publishes cutting-edge research that bridges engineering innovation, rehabilitation science, and clinical medicine. The scope of the journal encompasses the 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. Higher Education Press (HEP) publishes the journal quarterly in English online. Online versions are available at https://journal.hep.com.cn/ehre.

1.1 Types of articles

Research Articles (~6000 words, including 3~6 keywords, an abstract, an introduction, main body, brief subheadings, a conclusion, figures or tables, and references) are original, unpublished primary research. They should discuss hot topics, areas of interest, challenges, and prospects in engineering science and technology (EST) development, and present a major, cutting-edge advance. We encourage engineering breakthroughs and innovations of profound economic and social importance, which can arouse widespread interest and follow-up in EST. Papers that emphasize calculation or experimental methods are not suitable. Extensions of work that has been published previously in short form, such as 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 Articles can be an authoritative overview of a field, a comprehensive literature review, 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 be ~10000 words, including 3~6 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 in the EST development, advice of instructive significance for the resolution of grand challenging problems, new ideas of great importance on promoting interdisciplinary 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. Because of the column's limited length, a point of view appropriate for publication in some professional journals won’t be accepted here.

Feature Articles (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 detail.

Perspective Articles (~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.

1.2 Submission checklist

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, descriptions, 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) Supplemental files (where applicable)

c) 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.

2. Before you begin

2.1 Ethics in publishing

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.

2.2 Declaration of competing interests

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.

2.3 Declaration of generative AI in scientific writing

Authors must declare the use of generative AI in the manuscript preparation process upon submission of the paper in the Acknowledgements.

HEP 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, help researchers 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 this journal can use AI Tools to support them. However, these tools must never replace 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.

2.4 Submission declaration and verification

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.

2.5 Use of inclusive language

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 seeking 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 avoiding 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.

2.6 Authorship

Authorship should be limited to those who have made significant contributions to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the work. All co-authors must approve the final version. Authors are expected to consider the list and order of authors carefully 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.

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.

2.7 Data availability

To promote transparency, ENGINEERING Health and Rehabilitation Engineering requires a Data Availability Statement at the end of the manuscript (e.g., " The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. ").

2.8 Submission

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.

3. Preparation

3.1 Peer review

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. 

3.2 Template

We encourage you to 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.

3.3 Article structure

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 in 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 lowercase 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 the purpose of the research briefly, 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, avoid references; if essential, 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) Acknowledgments

Collate acknowledgments 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 authors 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.