Journal Policies
This page details the operational practices and policies of the Philippine Journal of Physical Therapy (PhJPT). Our editorial board is committed to adhering to best practices and ethical standards of scholarly publication as established by independent organizations such as the Committee for Publication Ethics, the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association, and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.
For details on formatting a manuscript submission, please see the Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
Contents
Mission of Philippine Journal of Physical Therapy
The mission of the Philippine Journal of Physical Therapy (PhJPT) is to provide an open-access publication venue for physical therapy practitioners to disseminate high-quality research and scholarly analysis that informs physical therapy professionals at all levels. For more information, please see our Aims and Scope page.General Submission Rules
Articles submitted to PhJPT must not have been previously published in journals, published proceedings, or books (print or electronic) or be under review for such publication. By submitting an article to the Philippine Journal of Physical Therapy, the author is stating that the submitted work is not currently in the publication process with another journal (print or electronic) and that the work will not be submitted to another journal until the final review decision has been made by the editors of PhJPT. Please note: "publication" in a working-paper series or a pre-print server does not constitute prior publication.Please see the Aims and Scope page for content and article types appropriate for submission to the Philippine Journal of Physical Therapy.
If you have questions or concerns about the submission terms for the Philippine Journal of Physical Therapy, please contact the editors.
Standard for Listed Authorship
Listed Authors
The Philippine Journal of Physical Therapy follows the definition of authorship set by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which lists 4 criteria for inclusion as an author on a research paper.
- Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
- Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
- Final approval of the version to be published; AND
- Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved
Non-author Contributors
Those who do not meet all four ICMJE criteria should be acknowledged. Because acknowledgment may imply endorsement by acknowledged individuals of a study’s data and conclusions, authors are advised to obtain written permission to be acknowledged from all acknowledged individuals.
Please see the ICMJE Roles and Responsibilities page for further details.
Open Access Statement
In alignment with the values of the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences Library and its commitment to the open dissemination of research, PhJPT supports "gold" open-access for all work published in PhJPT, providing access to all content in its final form immediately and without charge to the individual or their institution.Users may read, download, print or share the full text of all articles published within this journal without seeking permission from individual authors or the publisher, so long as that use adheres to the Creative Commons Attribution License. Please see the section below for best practices on attribution and usage under the CC-BY-4.0 license when sharing articles from PhJPT.
Formatting Requirements
The Philippine Journal of Physical Therapy relies generally upon the Publication Manual of the American Psychology Association, 7th ed., for formatting, citation, and reference guidelines. Specific requirements for submission to the Philippine Journal of Physical Therapy can be found in the Manuscript Submission Guidelines. Only manuscripts meeting these guidelines will be considered for publication.Article Submission Agreement
All author(s) must agree to the submission rules (the Submission Agreement) set forth by PhJPT upon submission of the article. The agreement includes the author(s) approval, contribution verification(s), agreement of submission, responsibility for the submitted content, conflict of interest, financial disclosures, and statement of exclusive submission. If there are concerns about the submission agreement, please contact the editors via email (see the Editorial Board).Conflicts of Interest
Editors and peer-reviewers are expected to disclose any potential conflicts before agreeing to review a manuscript, if possible. In any case, such conflicts should be disclosed prior to the submission of a review or publishing recommendation.Authors
Upon submission of manuscripts to PhJPT, the authors must disclose all financial and personal relationships and interests that may pose as a potential bias or conflict of interest within their work. Purposeful failure to disclose conflicts of interest is a form of misconduct which may result in the manuscript not being published by PhJPT.Journal Editors
Editors making final decisions regarding manuscripts submitted to PhJPT will make decisions only for articles in which they hold no conflict of interest. If there is a conflict of interest, the conflict should be immediately disclosed to the senior editor, and the decision will be assigned to an editor who does not pose a conflict of interest.Author Rights
As further described in the Submission Agreement, by submitting the Work for publication, the authors agree to allow first publication rights to PhJPT and to allow PhJPT to share the Work under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) International License.Notwithstanding this CC-BY License, authors retain all rights to future use, including publication, of their work without restriction.
Copyright statement
PhJPT does not require any copyright transfer agreement for publication. Authors do grant to PhJPT the non-exclusive first right to publish accepted work in the journal. Accepted work is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY 4.0) International License. Authors retain all rights to use their work in the future without restriction.Confidentiality
All information regarding manuscript submissions to PhJPT is considered confidential information with intellectual property held by the original authors. The editors and reviewers of PhJPT will not discuss any information submitted to the journal, including the review process or publishing decisions with anyone but the authors and reviewers. There will be no sharing of the authors’ work or ideas prior to publication of the manuscript to ensure the protection of authors’ intellectual property. If a manuscript is rejected, a copy remains within the electronic system but is only accessible by authorized editors when necessary for administrative purposes. If confidentiality is breached for allegations of dishonesty, PhJPT editors will notify authors or reviewers.Plagiarism Policy
All acts of plagiarism, copyright infringement, and other ethical breaches related to the publication of manuscripts are taken very seriously. All submitted manuscripts will undergo a comprehensive plagiarism review using Turnitin software to guarantee originality and uphold the integrity of scholarly work. Manuscripts may be retained within Turnitin after they have been checked. If the commission of plagiarism is identified, PhJPT reserves the right to take action regarding the specified article.Absence of Publication Charges and Fees
PhJPT charges no fees for submission, review, or publication of articles. There are no hidden fees at any stage of the review or publication process. All publication costs are absorbed by the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences Library. This is done in alignment with the USA Library’s commitment to advancing open access publication of scientific research and with PhJPT's mission to promote open access publication and dissemination of accessible physical therapy research.Review Process
Each manuscript will undergo a careful review process before being accepted for publication. Each submission will initially be reviewed by at least one of our editors to ensure that its content meets the aims and scope of the journal and that it has been appropriately reviewed for spelling and grammar. The manuscript will be then reviewed by 2-3 reviewers with expertise in the field of physical therapy. Where possible, specialists on the topic of the paper will be selected. These reviewers assess the importance, methodology, validity, and applicability of the work to physical therapy practice. The reviews are double-blinded. Suggested edits and publication decisions from reviewers will be communicated to editors, who will communicate with the author for revision as required.The review process will be completed within 8 weeks for the delivery of initial revision requests to authors. Additional rounds of review, if needed, may extend that time further. If the manuscript is accepted and when all requested revisions have been made, the editors will submit a final proof to the author for approval. Authors are expected to respond promptly to requests for revision and approval of final proofs.
Attribution and Usage Policies
Work in the Philippine Journal of Physical Therapy is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY 4.0) International License. Reproduction, electronic posting, transmission or other distribution or use of the article or any material therein, requires that attribution be made to the Author and PhJPT.Best practice for such attribution is to include a standard citation of the article, linking to the DOI of the original publication, and to include the statement "Used under CC-BY 4.0 License". If possible, a link to the CC-BY 4.0 license information at the Creative Commons website (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) should also be provided. The cover page attached to each article meets these terms fully.
Archival Policy
As part of our commitment to the persistent accessibility of published material, all PhJPT content will be sustainably archived through a network of mirror sites. Archival pages are also regularly deposited to the Internet Archive with each new issue, and we are currently in planning for implementation of LOCKSS archivingCrossmark Policy for Corrections and Retractions
PhJPT participates in Crossmark, a multi-publisher initiative supported by the Crossref organization to provide a standard method for locating the current and authoritative version of a piece of content. Addenda, corrigenda, errata, and retractions will be issued for previously published articles as appropriate. These will be published in PhJPT and linked directly to the original work through the Crossmark system. Please see our Crossmark Document Update Policy for details.Reporting Misconduct
PhJPT is committed to ethical publication practices and adheres as closely as possible to the guidelines, frameworks, and reporting practices established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). All reports of misconduct will be investigated. PhJPT will likewise cooperate with investigations into misconduct at other institutions that are brought to our attention. Where misconduct is found, disciplinary action will be taken in accordance with best practices established by the COPE. Disciplinary action may include retraction of work, reporting of misconduct to the authors' home institution and/or the sharing of information with other journal editors where appropriate.- Author misconduct may include abuse of credited authorship, data manipulation or fabrication, statistical manipulation, plagiarism, abuse of informed consent, or other research misconduct. Author misconduct should be reported directly to the Senior Editor of the journal for investigation. See the Editorial Board for contact information.
- Peer-reviewer misconduct may include intentional violation of double-blind review policy, failure to disclose financial interest or conflicts, or unethical bias in publication recommendations. Peer-reviewer misconduct should be reported directly to the Senior Editor of the journal for investigation. Please see the Editorial Board for individual contact information.
- Editor misconduct may include assertions of publication bias, abuse of the blind peer-review policy, manipulation of journal impact ratings, failure to disclose conflicts, or other unethical publication management behavior. Editor misconduct should be reported to the Ethics Committee of the Philippine Physical Therapy Association (M.G) (pmc@usa.edu) of the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences.
