Guide for Authors of Iranian Journal of Insurance Research (IJIR)

(Version dated 2025/07/22)

The Template Raw Manuscript File Form (Word) is available for download from the journal's website

Guide for Authors

Authors should submit their contributions electronically through the IJIR Journal website submission system to the Editorial Office:

Iranian Journal of Insurance Research (IJIR), 
Insurance Research Center, 
No. 43, Western Sarv Street, Kaj Square, Saadat Abad
Tehran 1998758513
Iran

Website: https://ijir.irc.ac.ir/?lang=en
Journal Email: ijir@irc.ac.ir
Journal Email: ijiresearch.2011@gmail.com
    
Phone: +9821-2209 2263-4

       Ex.: 146
Telefax: +9821-2209 2265 

The quarterly Iranian Journal of Insurance Research (IJIR) has been published by the Insurance Research Center (IRC) since 2012 with a scientific-research ranking. The Iranian Journal of Insurance Research publishes selected articles, after undergoing a peer review process, in Persian with an extended English abstract.

Authors must submit their work as an electronic file through the journal's submission system (https://ijir.irc.ac.ir/?lang=en) and according to the journal's format. Selected submitted articles will be published after review and peer evaluation.

Please note, the journal reserves the right to publish special issues in either Persian or English, at the discretion of the editorial board. Authors and readers will be notified of such publications through the journal's standard communication methods.

Required Files for Manuscript Submission

Submission of the following files is mandatory. In case of any deficiency in the submitted files, the article will unfortunately be returned:

• Original Manuscript File (without author names) in standard Word format: The manuscript file must be uploaded without any identifying information of the authors (including names, affiliations, email addresses, etc.) and only in Word format. This file will serve as the basis for peer review.
• Authors' Specification Form: This form is available in the "Guide for Authors" section of the journal and must be completed and submitted according to the author guidelines.
• Cover Letter, Conflict of Interest, and Authorship Forms: These forms are available in the "Guide for Authors" section and must be completed, signed, and submitted.
• If attachments to the manuscript are required, these files should be submitted under the title "Supplementary Files."

Required Files at the Final Acceptance Stage: Upon notification from the journal for final preparation of the files to receive final acceptance, the author must prepare and upload files in the formats specified by the journal. In other words, to receive final acceptance, the article must, in addition to the standard format, also be prepared and uploaded in the "Early View" format and other desired formats of the journal, which will be communicated to the author upon successful peer review results and approval of all implemented corrections. These files, which will usually be requested by the journal from the author before granting final acceptance, are as follows:

1. Manuscript file with complete English and Persian author names and affiliations, in standard and clean format (with all comments deleted and all Track Changes accepted).
2. Manuscript file with complete English and Persian author names and affiliations, in standard format with highlighted changes.
3. Manuscript file with complete English and Persian author names and affiliations, in Early View format.
4. Manuscript file without author names and affiliations, in standard format.
5. Response to Reviewers' Comments file.
6. English Abstract file with complete English author names and affiliations, in standard format.
7. Final list of author names and affiliations in Persian and English.
8. Registration of ORCID ID for all authors in the journal's system and also in all named versions of the article.

It is essential that the content and structure of all submitted versions of the article (including the Early View version, clean standard version, highlighted changes version, named version, etc.) precisely match and be identical.

Preparation and Submission of Manuscript

The article must be written in Persian with an extended English abstract (between 700 to 900 words) and a non-extended Persian abstract (between 300 to 500 words), adhering to correct grammar and appropriate Persian and English terminology. The article must be typed in Nazanin font 11 and submitted in MS-Word, single-column format with 2.5 cm margins on each side.

After electronic submission of the article to the journal's system, a Submission ID will be generated. The author is not permitted to resubmit and obtain more than one ID for a single manuscript. Submitting more than one version of a manuscript will result in losing the chance of the initially submitted manuscript being reviewed.

From a writing perspective, the verb tenses and sentences in different sections of a manuscript must conform to the following scientific writing standards:

Verb Tense Usage in Article Writing

Types of Articles Publishable in IJIR

The Iranian Journal of Insurance Research accepts original and innovative specialized research papers and review papers that are prepared according to the structure outlined in the journal's guide for authors.

General Article Structure

The manuscript must be typed with single spacing in MS Word format and submitted electronically through the journal's system. After submitting the manuscript, the author will receive a Submission ID to track the review progress. Submitted manuscripts must have the following 17 main internal headings, depending on the article type:

1. Article Title in English, preferably between 12 to 20 words.
2. English Name and Surname, English Organizational Affiliation, Email Address, and ORCID ID of authors [only in the named version].
3. Extended and Structured English Abstract (between 700 to 900 words), including sections: BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES, METHODOLOGY, FINDINGS, CONCLUSION, KEYWORDS.
4. Article Title in Persian, preferably between 12 to 20 words.
5. Persian Name and Surname, Persian Organizational Affiliation, Email Address, and ORCID ID of authors [only in the named version].
6. Non-extended and Structured Persian Abstract (between 300 to 500 words), including sections: پیشینه و اهداف (Background and Objectives), روش‌شناسی (Methodology), یافته‌ها (Findings), نتیجه‌گیری (Conclusion), کلیدواژه‌ها (Keywords).
7. Introduction
8. Theoretical Foundations of Research
9. Literature Review
10. Research Methodology
11. Results and Discussion
12. Conclusion and Suggestions
13. Authors' Contributions
14. Acknowledgments and Funding: [In the named version of the manuscript, including "Acknowledgments and Funding" information at the end of the manuscript (before the references) is essential. It should be noted that in the anonymous version of the manuscript, only the heading "Acknowledgments" is sufficient to maintain confidentiality, and no information should be included below it. It is clear that after the completion of the review stages, when the author is asked to upload the final versions of the article according to the journal's desired formats, completing the information in this section by the author is necessary.
15. Conflict of Interest
16. References [Reference list and in-text citations should be formatted according to APA style, and alphabetical order should be observed in the reference list].
17. Appendices [If any]

Furthermore, authors are kindly asked to pay attention to the following details regarding each section of the manuscript:

Article Title

The manuscript title should align with the main objectives of the research and be short and concise in describing the article's content. The title should preferably be between 12 to 17 words. Attention should be paid to using keywords that increase the article's discoverability. The location, city, or country where the research was conducted or about should not be included in the title. In addition to providing the full manuscript title, a short title for the manuscript headers should also be provided. Avoid using superfluous phrases at the beginning of the title, such as "A Study of...", "An Empirical Investigation of...", "Results of...", "Methods of...".

Abstract

The English abstract must be presented in the following four sections. Precise use of the following internal headings in the English abstract is mandatory: BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES, METHODS, FINDINGS, CONCLUSION.

The Persian abstract must be presented in the following four sections. Precise use of the following internal headings in the Persian abstract is mandatory: پیشینه و اهداف (Background and Objectives), روش‌شناسی (Methodology), یافته‌ها (Findings), نتیجه‌گیری (Conclusion).

References should not be included in the abstract. Avoid using abbreviations in the abstract. Avoid using footnotes in the abstract. The abstract content should be concise and include a maximum of four to five findings. Quantitative study data should be included in the abstract text, specifically in the findings section. The Persian abstract should be between 300 to 500 words. The English abstract should be between 700 to 900 words. It is necessary for the English abstract to be professionally edited by native English speakers familiar with the article's subject matter.

Keywords

Keywords should be limited to 4 to 7 words. Keywords should be written alphabetically below the abstract and separated by semicolons. English keywords should start with a capital letter.

Introduction

The introduction states the importance and objectives of the conducted research. The introduction explains, elaborates on, and compares previous studies with the submitted research to justify the need for conducting the study. In the introduction section, specific problems under investigation are addressed, and strategies adopted for conducting the research are outlined based on the following:

• Why is this research important?
• How does this study relate to similar previous studies and scholarly works?
• What are the primary and secondary objectives and implications of the study?
• How are the research design and hypotheses related to each other?
• What are the theoretical and practical concepts related to the research?

The end of the introduction should conclude with a general question that represents the main research problem. In other words, a brief description of the research topic or problem should be provided in this section. The research problem should be clearly stated in the introduction section. The introduction must cover three main topics: the importance of the subject [with citation], the current state of advancements in this field [with citation], and finally, the problem and concern that prompted the researcher to conduct this study [without citation, based on the author's analysis, creativity, and concern, and building on previous content]. The final research problem should be posed as a general question. To enhance article quality, efforts should be made to cite articles published in journals indexed in Web of Science and Scopus. In original research papers, references should preferably not be older than ten years as much as possible. Materials, methods, results, and conclusions obtained from the research should not be included in the introduction.

Materials and Methods

This section is presented when sufficient empirical findings are provided. The type of research and hypotheses should be clearly stated. Scientific methods and principles involved in the study should be clearly articulated. Precise citation to literature describing the experiments conducted in the study or statistical data should be provided. All figures and charts must be created and submitted in XLS format using Excel. All photos or images must be submitted in JPEG format with a resolution of 300 dpi. All mathematical equations and formulas must be created using Microsoft Word's Equation Editor. All maps must show scale and the North direction.

Results and Discussion

The results and discussion section should include tables and figures obtained from the research operations, a discussion and argumentation regarding the results and innovations, and a discussion about the validation of the obtained results. The results and discussion should include the following:

• The study results should be explained, and data should be presented as concisely as possible.
• Results should be shown using tables and figures where necessary. However, large tables and figures should be avoided.
• The discussion section should provide an interpretation of the significance of the obtained results by citing similar works done by other authors.
• Tables and figures should be used to organize all data intelligently: tables are used to show precise values, while figures are used to show patterns or the effect of a connection.
• When presenting data, readers should be able to understand figures and tables without referring to the text.
• Do not use both tables and figures to display the same data.
• For each table and figure, a textual description should be provided that highlights the main results.
• The results section should use multiple tenses while presenting different information.
• The findings and interpretations presented should indicate conformity or non-conformity with previous research.
• Theoretical and practical implications should be discussed.
• Various works in the literature covering the topic and how this work contributes to the broader field of research are discussed at the end of the section.

Figures

Figures and images should be high-quality artwork, at 200-300 DPI. All tables and figures must be placed within the article text. Figures should be clear and legible, with clear and readable values suitable for publication. Each figure must have a brief description in the article text that accurately describes what the image depicts. Figure and table captions should be clear and complete. Figure captions should be placed below the figure, and table captions should be placed above the table. All elements in the figure should be identified in the figure caption, and boxes, circles, etc., should be used as coordinates in diagrams.

Conclusion and Suggestions

The conclusion section should explain and highlight the significant innovations of the research and state the added value of the main findings without citation. As the conclusion section is one of the most important elements of an article, it should be expanded scientifically and content-wise to at least half a page. The conclusion includes a summary of the research and a conceptual presentation of the results.

Contribution of Each Author

The contribution of each author to the research should be presented separately and concisely.

Acknowledgments and Funding

This is a statement of gratitude and appreciation to individuals or organizations who have indirectly participated in the research but are not among the authors and researchers of the study. In addition to acknowledging individuals and organizations, the information in this section also indicates the originality of the article. Therefore, it is necessary to state in this section from which thesis, dissertation, research project, independent research, or similar the article is extracted. In other words, acknowledgment and appreciation of supporting individuals and organizations, including an indication that this article is derived from a thesis, dissertation, research project, or similar, should be included in the named version of the article under the heading "Acknowledgments." If the research was not supported by any organization or was not extracted from a thesis, dissertation, research project, or similar, and was conducted independently by the authors, it is also necessary to state in this section that "This article is the result of independent research conducted by the authors and has not been supported by any organization." If financial support or funding was received for the research, the authors are obliged to acknowledge their financial supporter. The names of organizations, awarded certificates, and relevant information should be stated fully and clearly.

Conflict of Interest

The author(s) must declare any potential conflict of interest for the publication of their article. The following text must be included verbatim in the article: "The author declares that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of the registered research. Furthermore, ethical considerations including plagiarism, informed consent, misconduct, fabrication and/or falsification of data, duplicate publication, and/or misconduct have been fully observed by the authors."

References

The reference list must be formatted according to APA 7^th style, and citation management tools such as Mendeley Cite or EndNote should be used as much as possible. In this regard, authors are kindly asked to pay attention to the following:

• Details of in-text citation style and how to include the reference list (such as writing style, italicization, punctuation, bolding, etc.) must precisely match the APA 7^th style guide available at https://apastyle.apa.org/.
• Utmost care must be taken in preparing the reference list, and it must be ensured that bibliographic information for all in-text citations is included in the reference list.
• To increase accuracy and ease of use in APA 7^th style citation, it is primarily suggested to use the free software Mendeley Cite or EndNote as much as possible.
• If this citation management software is not used, it is suggested that bibliographic information for Latin sources in APA 7^th format be extracted directly from Google Scholar as text, and after adding the DOI to the end of the bibliographic information, be transferred to the article's reference list, and then, if necessary, corrections be made.
• Given the availability of automatic generation of bibliographic information for articles in APA 7^th format on the websites of most domestic journals, for articles in Persian journals, it is suggested that bibliographic information for the article be converted from the journal's website to APA 7^th format, and after adding the DOI to the end of the bibliographic information, be transferred to the article's reference list, and then, if necessary, necessary corrections be made.
• Alphabetical order must be observed for all references. Also, ensure that all in-text citations are present in the reference list.
• The correct DOI for works must be included at the end of their bibliographic information.
• If a DOI is old or unavailable for a work, not including the DOI is acceptable.
• If an article lacks a DOI but has a URL, the article's URL must be included instead.
• Note that the DOI must follow the journal's pattern.
• Based on the journal's pattern, the DOI starts with HTTPS: or HTTP. Example: https://doi.org/10.22056/ijir.2025.03.03
• The DOI or URL must lead exactly to the page of the cited work. For example, an article's DOI must lead to the article's page, not the journal's page.
• Since DOI or URL is monitored by the journal and also by reputable citation and specialized indexes, and including an incorrect DOI or URL is considered a fake source, it is necessary to ensure the accuracy of the relevant links before submitting the manuscript to the journal.
• Persian references should be prepared in B Lotus font, thin, size 12, and English references in Times New Roman font, thin, size 11, and formatted as hanging indent with a one-centimeter indentation on the next line.
• In-text citations for foreign sources must be in English with the Gregorian publication year, and APA 7th style must be observed.
• In-text citations for Persian sources (both authored and translated works) within the text, while observing APA 7th style, must be in Persian with the Solar publication year.
• The final reference list must be in alphabetical order and start with Persian language sources. Then, English sources should be sorted and follow the Persian sources.
• In the Persian reference list section, bibliographic information for Persian sources will be in Persian. Additionally, an English translation of all Persian sources, with the Solar year converted to Gregorian year, must be simultaneously included in the English reference list section, and at the end of them, the phrase "[In Persian]" must be bolded.
• For example:
• Persian source to be included in the Persian reference list:

حاجیان، ح.، و زرجینی، الف. (1402). تحلیلی بر کاربردهای داده کاوی در صنعت بیمه بر اساس شبکه هم رخدادی واژگان ها و شناسایی معتبرترین مجلات با شاخص استناد به پژوهش های علمی با استفاده از رویکرد علم سنجی. پژوهشنامه بیمه، 13(1)، 71-86. https://doi.org/10.22056/ijir.2024.01.06

• English translation of the Persian source to be simultaneously included in the English reference list, based on the English bibliographic information in the source itself, with "[In Persian]" at the end:

Hajiyan, H., & Zarjini, A. (2023). A Comprehensive Analysis of Keywords Co-occurrence Network and the Most Cited Journals on Data Mining Techniques in the Insurance Industry Using Scientometrics Approach. Iranian Journal of Insurance Research, 13(1), 71-86. https://ijir.irc.ac.ir/article_139314.html?lang=en [In Persian].

• Explanation 1: In translating sources from Persian to English, bibliographic information such as article title, journal title, author name writing style, conversion of Solar year to Gregorian year, etc., should not be personally translated or transliterated by the author; instead, the English form of the bibliographic information must be obtained from the cited source itself, and this information must precisely match the English information included in the cited source.
• Explanation 2: In cases where a foreign author's name is mentioned in the Persian text, it is necessary to cite the English surname and Gregorian publication year of the work in parentheses and in-text during citation.

For example, Glänzel et al. (2006) showed in their research that ...

It should be noted that the complete bibliographic information for this work in APA 7th style will be included in the article's reference list.

• Example:

Glänzel, W., Debackere, K., Thijs, B., & Schubert, A. (2006). A Concise Review on the Role of Author Self-citations in Information Science, Bibliometrics and Science Policy. Scientometrics, 67(2), 263-277. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-006-0098-9

Examples of APA 7th style citation and reference formatting.

Generally, the overall structure of reference list formatting in APA 7th style follows the pattern below. It is necessary to add the DOI according to the journal's guidelines to the end of the bibliographic information:

Authors must refer to the following address and study the APA 7th citation style, as well as benefit from the examples provided therein, to ensure the accuracy and precise conformity of their in-text citations and reference list with APA 7th style before preparing and submitting the article to the journal:

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples

Reminder: An article that is not prepared and formatted according to the journal's author guidelines will be excluded from the journal's scientific evaluation process.

Publication Ethics and Journal Policy Regarding the Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools

The publication ethics policy of the Iranian Journal of Insurance Research (IJIR) is based on the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and is consistent with the ethical codes of conduct of the IJIR International Editorial Board. Readers, authors, reviewers, and editors of the Iranian Journal of Insurance Research must first adhere to these ethical policies. The ethical policy of selecting an article emphasizes the editor's consultation with other editors and reviewers in decision-making. Reviewers must confidentially evaluate research articles based on the submitted content. Reviewers also suggest to authors, through the journal, to improve the quality of the research article with their technical comments. Authors must ensure that their submitted research work is original and has not been published or submitted elsewhere in any language. Rules and agreements related to copyright must be observed by authors. Any form of plagiarism is unethical and unacceptable publication behavior.

Additionally, the journal has specified the permissible limits for the use of artificial intelligence for authors, peer reviewers, scientific editors, and editorial board members. The journal's policy and guidelines regarding the use of artificial intelligence in the manuscript preparation process are publicly available on the journal's website and must be studied and adhered to by the journal's stakeholders.

To verify and ensure the absence of similar texts and plagiarism in Persian, refer to https://en.irandoc.ac.ir/service-product/97, or https://www.samimnoor.ir/view, and for verifying the absence of plagiarism in the English section of the article, refer to https://www.ithenticate.com

Peer Review Process

Submitted articles are first subjected to structural and citation evaluation, and if approved, they are evaluated and peer-reviewed by the editor-in-chief, editorial board, and reviewers. If approved, after necessary corrections (if any) and editing, they are published in due turn. To maintain and develop the peer review system, authors can, if they wish, request to participate in the peer review process to evaluate other articles as reviewers. If applicable, authors are obliged to provide retractions and/or corrections of errors to the journal's editors and publisher. All submitted articles to the Iranian Journal of Insurance Research will be reviewed for at least one round. The Iranian Journal of Insurance Research adopts a double-blind review policy. The review process at the Iranian Journal of Insurance Research is double-blind, meaning reviewers and authors do not know each other.

After online submission of the article to the system, the system immediately notifies the journal office, and after passing an initial quality check by the editor-in-chief, the article is sent to two or more specialized reviewers. After receiving reviewers' comments, a member of the editorial team makes the appropriate decision. Since reviewers sometimes disagree with each other, the final decision sent to the author may not precisely reflect the recommendations of any single reviewer. The decision after each round of peer review may be one of the following:

• Accepted without any changes (Accept).
• Returned to the author for minor corrections (Minor revisions).
• Returned to the author for major corrections (Major revisions). The revised version will undergo another round of review. Usually, it is sent to the original reviewers, or the editor-in-chief makes the decision personally.
• The submitted article is very weak or outside the journal's scientific scope and is rejected without review (Reject).