Submissions

Author Guidelines

Sections

1. Submission Preparation Checklist
2. Aims and Scope
3. Manuscript Types
4. Submitting a Manuscript
5. Formatting your Manuscript
6. Guidelines in Preparing your Manuscript
7. Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations
8. Editorial Review and Acceptance
9. Copyright and Licensing
10. Editorial Office Contact Details

1. Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items. Submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

• The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
• All listed authors have been sufficiently involved in this submission to take responsibility for its validity and final presentation as an original publication.
• Authors must accomplish the following forms and include in the submission:
  • Authorship Responsibility, Disclosure of Conflict of Interest, and Acknowledgment Statement Form
  • Copyright Agreement Form
• A separate file for the tables, figures, and images should be submitted using the acceptable file format, in addition to being embedded in the main document.
• Articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License
• All authors understand that the Corresponding Author is responsible for communicating with the other authors about the status of their submitted manuscripts, results of peer reviews and/or comments, submission of revisions as appropriate, and final approval of galley proofs.
• By default, only two (2) authors are allowed to be designated as first or lead authors. These would normally be the first 2 as written in the published article. More than that will require a strong justification to be signed by all the authors of the manuscript.

2. Aims and Scope

The Philippine Journal of Gastroenterology accepts original research and review articles, meta-analysis and systematic reviews, case reports and series, clinical guidelines, editorials, video articles, image articles as well as correspondence. No processing fees are charged. 

All articles are published under Creative Commons licences. This open licence allows for maximum use of scientific data. Open access allows work to be reused and published without cost as long as attribution is given to the original author/s of the article. PJG uses the Creative Commons Attribution v. 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND). This allows readers to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and to alter, transform, or build upon the material, including for commercial use, provided that the original is credited. 

3. Manuscript Types

Original research - Original research articles (prospective, retrospective, or experimental) concerned with clinical practice, basic science, and research in the fields of hepatology, gastroenterology, and endoscopy. These articles are limited to 3,000 words, with up to 50 references, and 3-7 figures and tables.

Review articles - focus on specific subjects of current interest which are where there have been recent and significant advances. They are short, factual, focused updates of up to 3,000 words of text.

Systematic review and meta-analysis - These are articles that underpin evidence-based medicine with a critical appraisal of the current literature on a well-defined research question. Articles should be up to 3,000 words of text.

Case reports and series - Case reports and series are considered if they are deemed relevant, clear, concise, and well-written. They should be concerned with clinical practice and research in relevant fields, as well as reports of basic science advances and experimental work. These articles are limited to 1,500 words.

Clinical guidelines - Guidelines from local medical societies can be considered if they have not been published elsewhere.

Editorials - May be solicited by the Editor to address particular topics relating to one or more papers in a given issue. Editorials are generally up to 1,500 words, may contain one figure or table, and cite up to 15 references.

Video and Image articles - This section presents unusual cases, unusual features of common conditions, or novel endoscopic techniques performed in a patient. The write-up should be brief and concise with a word limit of 500 words. The image should be of high quality in a TIFF or JPEG format. Videos should only be up to 5 minutes long and in .mov, .mp4, or .mpeg format.

Correspondence - Short, relevant letters commenting on articles recently published in the PJG are welcome and will be considered for publication. For letters to be considered, they should be submitted up to 12 months from the publication of the article, with a word limit of 500 words, and up to 5 references.

4. Submitting a Manuscript

Manuscripts should be submitted via the editorial online submission available at http://philjgastro.com/index.php/pjg/about/submissions. Authors need to register first on the Journal website to be able to submit a manuscript. 

The Journal uses the Open Journal System (OJS) platform. Users must create a profile providing User and Password details. These need to be provided by the user each time they want to use the portal to track their submissions and/or communicate with editorial staff. All communications related to submitted manuscripts should be coursed through the portal. Each manuscript submitted will be provided with a unique reference number. Users are updated through the email that they have provided. Links are provided in the emails but authors would still need to login in with their details to respond to the queries and/or updates.

Details about submissions, including their status in the publication workflow, comments from peer reviewers, submission of revisions, and other communications are visible through the portal. Authors may use this to review previous communications about a particular manuscript. Different manuscripts, even if submitted by the same author(s) will be located in different portal threads.

Inquiries and other clarifications related to the manuscript submission are entertained only through the Journal portal. Users must log in to access the details of their submission.

5. Formatting your Manuscript

• The manuscript should be in Microsoft Word format written in the English language.
• The text should be in a single-column, double-spaced; in 12-point Times New Roman font. It employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses). All illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points with labels, rather than at the end. Appendices and other attachments or supplements are placed at the end after the References.
• Tables are numbered chronologically using Roman numerals as they are mentioned in the manuscript. A separate file should be submitted in Microsoft Word format, in addition to being embedded in the main document.
• Figures and Images are numbered chronologically using Arabic numerals as they are mentioned in the manuscript. A separate file should be submitted in addition to being embedded in the main document. The file name should be the same as the captions for the figures and images in the main document (manuscript). Please submit in the accepted file formats: .jpg, .tiff, or .pdf. Images should be submitted in high resolution with at least 300 dpi to ensure quality.
• Images that can identify a patient should be anonymized. This includes pictures of faces, identifying tattoos (unless required in the report), and diagnostic images such as radiologic plates, hospital numbers, etc.
• References are formatted according to the AMA (Vancouver) referencing style. These are numbered chronologically according to the order they are cited in the manuscript text. The number should appear as superscripts at the end of the statements where they are used, after the period. References that are utilized more than once should use the same number as when first cited. Names of journals should be abbreviated in the style used in MEDLINE.
• The corresponding author must fill in all the required fields in the metadata of all contributors (complete name with middle initial, email address, country, complete affiliation - department and institution, no acronym). Submissions that fail to comply with the above requirements will be returned.
• Submissions that are not compliant with requirements will be automatically declined after two (2) weeks of no activity. The author(s) can re-submit all requirements if they would like to pursue the submission.
• Check out the resource on Preparing Your Manuscript for general guidance about writing and preparing your paper.

6. Guidelines in Preparing your Manuscript

• The manuscript should have the following parts: title page, abstract, keywords, text (introduction, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion), acknowledgments, references, appendix (if applicable)

Title Page
The title page should include:

1. Title of the article
2. Full name of each author (given, middle initial, last) with highest academic degree(s) and the name and the address of the department(s)/institution(s) with which each author is affiliated or to which the work should be attributed.
3. Corresponding author’s name and contact details (mailing address, phone/fax numbers and email address). The corresponding author (who does not need to be the first author on the manuscript, and preferably occupies a more permanent position in the institution) will be responsible for all inquiries about the manuscript.
4. Statements relating to ethics and integrity policies, which may include any of the following:

• • Financial or funding statement
  • Conflict of interest disclosure
  • Ethics approval statement (if applicable)
  • Patient consent statement (if applicable)
  • Permission to reproduce material from other sources (if applicable)
  • Clinical trial registration (if applicable)

5. Word count and number of tables and figures
6. List of meeting(s) where the material has been previously presented or is under consideration for presentation. Indicate name, place, date, of meeting and any prizes or awards (if presented in a contest).

Manuscript Parts

The following sections should be included in the manuscript:

• Abstract - generally only up to 250 words and should have the following format:

• Keywords - provide 3 to 10 key words or short phrases that capture the main topics of the article to assist in cross-indexing
• Introduction
• Methods
• Result
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgement
• References
• Appendix (if applicable)

Authors can refer to the resource on Preparing Your Manuscript for a more detailed instruction and recommendation for the manuscript formatting and style.

7. Submission of Revised Manuscripts

Authors should provide both a tracked and untracked version of the main document to show revisions. The manuscript file should follow the same format as the initial submission which include the title page, structured abstract, keywords, introduction, manuscript text, and references

7. Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations

Requirements for Authorship

Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for its content and have met the authorship criteria set out by the International Council of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). He or she should have made substantial contributions to all four of the following conditions: (1) conception or design of work; or acquisitions, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; and  and (2) drafting or revising the manuscript critically for important intellectual content; and (3) final approval of the version to be published; and (4) agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity for any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. General supervision of the research, advising or editing, collection of data, funding acquisition or statistical analysis do not constitute authorship.

The Authorship Responsibility Form should be filled out and signed.

Conflict of Interest Notification

To prevent information on potential conflict of interest for authors from being overlooked or misplaced, it is necessary for that information to be part of the manuscript. The Disclosure of Conflict of Interest Form should be filled out and signed.

Each author is expected to disclose any type of financial or proprietary interest related to the manuscript, including (but not limited to) stock in or ownership of an entity connected to a product described in the paper, consultancy for the company or competing companies, honoraria, travel support or patent rights to a drug, instrument or equipment, or benefits derived from the use thereof. Conflict of Interest also includes “intellectual passion,” (the tendency to favor positions that one has already espoused or perhaps even established); personal relationships (the tendency to judge the works of friends/colleagues or competitors/foes differently because of the relationship); political or religious beliefs (tendency to favor or reject positions because it affirms or challenges one’s political or religious beliefs); and institutional affiliations (tendency to favour or reject results of research because of one’s institutional affiliations). Where no conflict of interest exists, a written statement should be made to that effect.

Ethical Guidelines

The editorial policies of the PJG adheres to the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors for the conduct, reporting, editing, and publication of scholarly work in medical journals. (https://www.icmje.org)

Open Access Statement

This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full text of the articles, or use the articles for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author, as long as the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license are met. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

8. Editorial Review and Acceptance

The acceptance criteria for all papers and reviews are based on the quality and originality of the research and its clinical and scientific significance to our readership. All manuscripts are single-blind peer reviewed under the direction of an Editor if the paper meets appropriate quality and relevance. The Editor reserves the right to refuse any material for review.

In-house submissions, i.e. papers authored by a member of the Editorial Board, will be sent to Editors unaffiliated with the author or institution and monitored carefully to ensure there is no peer review bias.

9. Copyright and Licensing (Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 License)

• Copyright transfer ensures maximum international protection and facilitates efficient processing of requests for reprints. It includes inclusion in document delivery services, electronic journal databases and online journal versions.
• A Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license is granted, which means that readers are free to share (copy and redistribute) the material in any medium or format under the following terms:
  • Attribution – they must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. That may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in a way that suggests the licensor endorses them to their use.
  • NonCommercial – they may not use the material for the commercial purposes.
  • NoDerivatives – if they remix, transform or build upon the material, they may not distribute the modified material.
• Each author retains moral rights to his/her/their article(s), including the right to be identified as the author(s) whenever or wherever the article is cited or published.
• Assigning the copyright does not forfeit author(s)’rights to reprint their article(s) or contribute them elsewhere after obtaining written permission from the editors, or without such permission as long as the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license are met, provided that the  PJG is acknowledged as the original source.
• Where in special cases, a contributor’s employer (such as the government) holds the copyright to an article, written non-exclusive permission to deal with reprint requests from third parties should be provided to the editors.
  By signing the copyright form, authors certify that the submitted article is their original work, that it has not been previously published nor is it being considered for publication elsewhere; that they have obtained permission for and acknowledged the source(s) of quoted excerpts or paraphrased references in the text, tables, figures and algorithms. Further, authors certify that to the best of their knowledge, their article is free of libellous, unlawful or actionable contents.

10. Editorial Office Contact Details

PJG Editorial Office
Email: secretariat@philjgastro.com

Author Guidelines updated 29 April 2024