Down Syndrome Research and Practice
Publication Policies and Editorial Guidelines

Aims

Down Syndrome Research and Practice publishes news, reviews and peer-reviewed scientific papers of importance to the quality of life of people with Down syndrome. The journal's coverage is multidisciplinary and emphasises the practical implications of research findings.

The journal aims to inform researchers, education and health professionals and the families of people with Down syndrome of research findings and the implications for practice. The journal offers a unique focus for interdisciplinary communication with a central focus on practical outcomes for people living with Down syndrome.

Readership

Down Syndrome Research and Practice is read by researchers, practitioners, the families of people with Down syndrome and all others interested in issues of importance to the quality of life of people with Down syndrome.

Researchers include those active in many disciplines, including genetics, medicine, psychology and education. Practitioners include doctors, consultants and other healthcare professionals, psychiatrists, speech and language therapists, clinical and educational psychologists, physiotherapists, teachers and social workers.

Down Syndrome Research and Practice is read by people from many countries around the world.

Subject areas

It is increasingly difficult to maintain a narrow disciplinary view of Down syndrome and Down Syndrome Research and Practice reflects this. Down Syndrome Research and Practice promotes a multidisciplinary perspective and encourages interdisciplinary contributions. An indicative list of disciplines covered by the journal includes psychology, education, speech pathology, neuroscience, medicine and health, genetics and molecular biology, epidemiology and political science.

Indexing and cross-referencing

Down Syndrome Research and Practice is indexed in MEDLINE/PubMed and PsycINFO. Down Syndrome Education Internationalis a member of CrossRef and all published resources are assigned DOIs and these DOIs are registered for future resolution via the DOI network. Down Syndrome Education International's web sites are well positioned in search results from popular Internet search engines.

Publication criteria

Please refer to the descriptions of the types of content that we accept for publication. The criteria that we apply when selecting contributions are:

  1. Original - does the contribution offer new findings, ideas or a new view on an issue?
  2. Important - does the contribution offer valuable information for researchers, practitioners and families?
  3. Interesting - does the contribution offer information of interest across disciplines and audiences?
  4. Justifiable - does the contribution offer reports of studies that have adopted rigorous methodologies their investigations and contributions that fully justify their conclusions?
  5. Ethical - does the contribution offer reports of studies that have obtained appropriate permissions and adhered to the highest ethical standards?
  6. Relevant - does the contribution offer information of immediate or potential practical relevance to the lives of people living with Down syndrome?

Submissions are judged against all of these criteria and need to satisfy some or all of them. All submissions must meet the relevance requirement (6).

Presubmission enquiries

Authors are encouraged to enquire about the suitability of proposed contributions in advance of submission. Please email dsrp-editor@downsed.org with details of a referenced abstract of the paper and an outline of why it may be suitable for publication in Down Syndrome Research and Practice. If invited, then the submission can be entered into the standard editorial and review process.