Scope and Policy

The Asian Journal of Human Services (AJHS) publishes original articles, review articles, short papers, and case reports in the fields of human services. AJHS publishes research that contributes to the understanding and advancement of academic fields related to help and support for individuals facing social challenges. The scope includes, but is not limited to, interdisciplinary studies in medicine, nursing, social welfare, education, economics, and psychology, as well as research addressing various aspects of human needs and support systems. AJHS welcomes work that demonstrates social significance in promoting well-being, improving quality of life, or enhancing assistance across diverse human service contexts. Manuscripts submitted to AJHS must be original scholarly works that contribute to the advancement of the human services field.

Submissions must not have been previously published or be under consideration elsewhere, including academic journals, commercial publications, institutional repositories, or other scholarly outlets. This restriction does not extend to preliminary research outputs, such as proceedings or reports submitted to funding agencies.

Membership

By submitting a manuscript to AJHS, all authors agree to become members of the Asian Society of Human Services (ASHS). Membership registration is completed automatically upon submission. Membership is free of charge (no registration fee or annual fee), and members will receive official announcements and updates from the Society by email.

Publication Ethics

Authors, reviewers, and editors are expected to comply with best practices in publication ethics. For details, refer to Publication Ethics and publication malpractice statement.

Authors must:
- Avoid plagiarism, duplicate submission/publication, and unethical authorship (ghost or guest authorship).
- Disclose any competing interests, including financial or personal relationships that could influence the research.
- Ensure that all co-authors have made substantial contributions to the work and have approved the final version for submission.

Reviewers and Editors must:
- Treat manuscripts fairly and confidentially. - Declare any potential conflicts of interest.

> Publication Ethics and publication malpractice statement

Research Ethics

Research involving human subjects must adhere to the Helsinki Declaration and be reviewed by an appropriate ethics committee or equivalent review body, either within or outside the authors’ affiliated institution. Personal information must be anonymized. If full anonymization is not feasible, informed consent for publication and acknowledgment of associated risks must be obtained.

Authorship

All co-authors must take collective responsibility for the manuscript.

- All co-authors, including the corresponding author, have made substantial contributions to one or more of the following: conception or design of the study; acquisition, (statistical) analysis, or interpretation of the data; creation of any software used in the study; and drafting or substantially revising the article.
- All co-authors, including the corresponding author, have approved the submission (and any substantially revised version that includes the authors' contributions to the study).
- All co-authors, including the corresponding author, have agreed to be personally responsible for their own contributions and to ensure that any questions regarding the accuracy or completeness of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved and that the resolution is documented in the literature. Before submission, authors are required to check the Research Organization Registry (ROR) website (https://ror.org/). If their institution is listed, authors should register the official English name of their organization as shown in ROR when entering their affiliation in the submission system.

Manuscript Categories

"ORIGINAL ARTICLE" is a study report that is original and has clear conclusions.
"REVIEW ARTICLE" is a study report that summarizes prior research on a particular field or topic.
"SHORT PAPER" refers to research reports that are original and require prompt publication.
"CASE REPORT" is an interesting case report that is highly suggestive to readers.

Manuscript Preparation

At the time of submission, manuscripts must meet the following requirements:
- File format: Microsoft Word (.docx)
- Language: English only
- Native check: Authors whose native language is not English are strongly encouraged to have their manuscripts checked by a native English speaker prior to submission.
- Anonymity: To ensure double-blind review, author information must not appear in the main text. Authors are requested to prepare their manuscripts using the official Manuscript Submission Template, which can be downloaded from the journal’s website. All other details concerning manuscript formatting, structure, and style shall be governed by the Publication Manual, provided separately by the editorial office.

Submission and Review

All manuscripts must be submitted via the Editorial Manager® system. AJHS employs a double-blind peer review process by at least two reviewers, and further details regarding the review procedures can be found in the Peer Review Policy. Decisions (accept, revise, resubmission, or reject) will be communicated by email.

> Peer Review Policy

Publication and Revision Policy

All articles are published open access on the official website, J-STAGE, and Scopus. After publication, authors cannot request revisions except in cases of serious error or legal issue, which must be reported to the editorial office immediately. For further details regarding ethical procedures and post-publication responsibilities, please refer to the Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement.

> Publication Ethics and publication malpractice statement

Copyright and License

Copyright is retained by the authors, who grant the ASHS a non-exclusive, unlimited license to publish the article under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND) and identify ASHS as the original publisher. Submission implies consent to these terms. For further details, please refer to the Copyright and Licensing Policy.

> Copyright and Licensing Policy

Conflicts of Interest

Authors must disclose all commercial interests that may represent potential conflicts of interest, such as consultancy fees, funding, stock ownership, or patents.

Article Processing Charge (APC)

The APC will be invoiced after acceptance. Publication is confirmed upon receipt of payment. For the current APC rate, please refer to the journal information page of AJHS.

> Journal information of the AJHS

Published 1, December, 2013
Last updated 8, December, 2025

General Principles

These instructions provide detailed requirements for preparing manuscripts submitted to the Asian Journal of Human Services (AJHS). All submissions must comply with the Author Guidelines of the AJHS.

Manuscript Format

1. Title
- Font: Times New Roman, 18 pt
- Use title case: capitalize nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
- Articles are capitalized only when they appear at the beginning of the title or subtitle. Conjunctions are written in lowercase, regardless of their length. In hyphenated compound words, the first letter of the second element is also capitalized.
- Subtitles are connected with a colon ( : ).
Ex.) Effects of Exercise-Based Rehabilitation: A Cross-National Study

2. Author Names (After acceptance)
- Family/Last names are written in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS.
- Do not include honorifics or professional titles.

3. Author Affiliations
- Affiliations are written based on the Research Organization Registry (ROR), if the institution is listed there.
- Include the country name where the organization is located.
- Do not include positions, street addresses, or subnational regions. Before submission, authors should confirm the official English name of their institution using the ROR website (https://ror.org/) and use that name in the submission system.

4. Main Text
- Font: Times New Roman, 10 pt for the main text, and 12 pt bold for section headings.
- Language: English only
- Paragraph spacing: Leave one blank line between sections or major headings.

Manuscript Structure

Submissions to our journal may fall into the following categories. An abstract is required for all manuscripts, regardless of the article category. We recommend that each manuscript follow the structure outlined below; however, this is not a mandatory requirement.

1. Abstract Page (at submission)
- Article title
- Abstract: until 250 words
- Keywords: until 5 words
The abstract should briefly summarize the IMRaD (introduction, material and methods, results, and discussion) format.

2. Author Information (After acceptance)
All manuscripts are submitted through the Editorial Manager® system. After acceptance, the following information entered in the submission system will be reflected in the published Abstract Page by the Editorial Office.
- Names and affiliations of all authors. Include the country name where the organization is located.
- Name and email address of the corresponding author

3. Main Text
The use of section numbering in the manuscript should follow the rules below. Numbering is applied to main research sections, while end matter sections (e.g., acknowledgments and references) remain unnumbered.
- Numbering Required: Introduction, Methods, Case Description, Intervention, Results, Thematic Sections, Discussion, Conclusion
- Numbering Not Required: Acknowledgments, Conflict of Interest, Funding, References, Appendix

Tables and Figures

- Tables and figures must be placed within the main text, not at the end of the manuscript.
- All figure titles should be placed below the figures, and all table titles should be placed above the tables.
- Table and figures should be numbered in Arabic numerals.
- Each table and figure must include a title.
- All tables and figures must be explicitly referred to in the text (e.g., “as shown in Table 1”).
- For figures, images should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. If any text or details within an image are unclear, the editorial office may request replacement with a higher-quality version.
- Tables must be created in an editable format (e.g., created directly in Word). If embedding editable tables within the text is not feasible, indicate the intended placement (e.g., Insert Figure 1 here) and submit the table as a separate file, such as Excel (.xlsx).
- Vertical lines should not be used in tables as a general rule.

References

- References must follow the APA 7th Edition style.
- References should be listed in the order in which they appear in the text, not alphabetically.
- In-text citations should be indicated by superscript reference numbers in parentheses (e.g., ¹) placed at the end of the cited sentence or phrase.
- Authors may also include the author’s name and publication year in the text (e.g., as noted by Smith (2023)); however, this does not replace the requirement to include the corresponding reference number.
- All references cited in the text must be included in the reference list, and all listed references must be cited in the text.
- For references obtained online that require a URL, authors must include the retrieval date if the reference does not have a DOI. The retrieval date should be written in the format: Retrieved [Month Day, Year], from [URL]. This rule applies to all online materials cited by URL, including webpages, online news articles, videos, reports, and institutional repositories.

Ethical Statements

For research involving human participants, the manuscript must include a statement confirming that:
- The study was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, and
- It was reviewed by an ethics committee or equivalent review body (either at the affiliated institution or another approved organization). When applicable, include a statement on informed consent and conflict of interest disclosure.

Language and Editing

All manuscripts must be written in clear, academic English. Authors whose native language is not English are strongly encouraged to have their manuscripts reviewed by a native English speaker or a professional editing service before submission.

Submission Checklist

Before submission, ensure that:

- The manuscript file is in Word (.docx) format.

- The title page is a separate page (no author info in main text).

- All references are in APA 7th format.

- The manuscript has been checked by a native English speaker.

Editing and Proofreading

After acceptance, the editorial process will proceed in the following order:

1.Article Processing Charge (APC) Confirmation
- Editing for publication begins only after the APC payment has been confirmed.

2.Editorial Editing
- Following payment confirmation, the Editorial Office will begin editing the accepted manuscript into the final publication format.
- This may include minor stylistic adjustments, layout standardization, and correction of typographical inconsistencies.

3.Author Proofreading
Authors will receive page proofs for review before publication. Authors must check the proofs carefully and return any corrections within the period specified by the Editorial Office. Corrections are limited to factual or typographical errors; substantial content changes are not permitted at this stage.

4.Author’s Responsibility to Respond
Authors are expected to respond promptly and sincerely to all inquiries and correction requests from the Editorial Office during the editing and proofreading stages.

> Publication Ethics and publication malpractice statement

Published 1, December, 2013
Last updated 8, December, 2025

Once everything is ready, you can submit your work through the online submission system.
Let us help you take your research to the next stage and bring it to publication.

Manuscript Submission Template (Download)

Contact

Editorial Office, Asian Journal of Human Services (AJHS)
Asian Society of Human Services
Email: [email protected]

> Detailed contact information is available on this page.

Manuscripts sent by email to the editorial office cannot be accepted for submission.
Please be sure to submit your manuscript exclusively through the designated online system.

Although we make every effort to shorten the review period, the time required varies depending on the nature and quality of the manuscript.
For this reason, we are unable to provide a specific timeframe in response to inquiries about the review period.