About the Journal

The Philippine Journal of Chest Diseases (PJCD) [Print ISSN: 2094-1463, Electronic ISSN: 3028-1199] is an open-access, English language, online, medical science journal published by the Philippine College of Chest Physicians (PCCP). 

Its editorial policies are based on the standards for scholarly publication set forth by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals,” as well as best practices and guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

OUR AIM AND SCOPE

The PJCD seeks to be a high-quality, peer-reviewed publication oriented to the practice of pulmonary medicine. The journal publishes scientific papers in the form of original clinical and laboratory investigations, case reports and series, systematic reviews, clinical practice guidelines, editorials, and other manuscripts of relevance to the art and science of pulmonary care. 

OUR TARGET AUDIENCE

The journal’s target audience are local and international practitioners, clinicians, allied healthcare professionals, scientists, and researchers working on pulmonary medicine.  It shall accept manuscript submissions from consultants, fellows, residents, and other allied medical professions and specialties in the Philippines. Non-members of the PCCP may submit scientific manuscripts to the journal. 

EDITORIAL PROCESS

Only submissions that are in scope and have passed preliminary screening for completeness and documentary requirements shall be considered by the Editor-in-Chief if these may proceed to review.  The Editor-in-Chief shall assign an Associate Editor to oversee and facilitate the peer review process.

After peer review, the Editor-in-Chief shall make the final decision on the manuscript.

The PJCD implements a double-blind peer review policy, in which both the author and reviewer are anonymous. The Associate Editor shall send the anonymized manuscript to two (2) peer reviewers simultaneously.  A third reviewer may be invited if the first two reviews have discordant recommendations or if the Editor thinks that additional reviews may be needed.  For manuscripts that undergo 1 round of peer review, authors can expect an editorial decision within sixty (60) calendar days. There are times that peer reviews and editorial deliberations may take longer, whereupon the author may check the submission’s status in the online portal or request an update from the Editorial Coordinator.

Editorial decisions may be one of the following: 

• Accept: The journal will publish the paper without further revisions.
• Revisions required: The journal will publish the paper after minor revisions have been made to satisfactorily address the concerns raised.
• Revise and resubmit: The journal shall require major revisions to the paper before reconsidering it for publication in another round of decision-making which may include peer review.
• Reject the paper: The journal will not publish or reconsider the paper.

All accepted manuscripts are subject to formatting and edits to conform with the journal’s style guide and branding.

EDITORIAL INDEPENDENCE

The Editors of the PJCD shall be responsible for all editorial decisions on the journal’s scientific content based solely on scientific merit and adherence to international standards for scholarly publication, independent of its mother society, the PCCP, and any financial, commercial, and other competing interests. 

PUBLICATION FREQUENCY

The PJCD is published by the PCCP two times a year (June and December).

OPEN ACCESS POLICY

The PJCD is 100% open access with no paywalls for authors and readers.  It shall not charge author processing fees (APCs), download fees, or subscription fees. 

COPYRIGHT AND CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE

The authors shall keep copyright and intellectual rights for the journal article published and shall grant publishing rights to the journal through a Creative Commons License.  

The PJCD is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) which allows “sharing, copying, and redistributing the material in any medium or format, under strict terms of giving appropriate credit to the authors and this journal.”

PUBLICATION ETHICS

Editor and Reviewer obligations

In order to keep the editorial process objective and unbiased, all editors and reviewers shall be bound by confidentiality and non-disclosure for all manuscripts, data, and other materials undergoing review and deliberation. They shall also be required to disclose financial and non-financial relationships and activities that could present a conflicting interest with their role in PJCD, and declare any conflicts of interest if any exists with any of the authors, companies, or institutions associated with the submitted manuscripts.  If there are conflicts of interest identified, the editors and/or reviewers should excuse themselves from the editorial process. Should there be publication ethics issues, the Editorial Board shall be guided by the COPE guidelines. 

Author obligations
All authors shall be required to accomplish and submit the PJCD Author Form. This form includes: (1) an attestation by all authors on the fulfillment of authorship criteria for all authors; (2) a declaration of conformity to ethical standards for studies on human/animal subjects and/or requisite approval by appropriate ethics committees; and (3) a certification that the work is original, unpublished, not submitted concurrently to other journals, and all references and sources cited appropriately in accordance with the journal’s instructions. 

It is the responsibility of the authors to secure appropriate permissions/consent for reproduction if there are materials such as figures, images, diagrams, tables included or described in the manuscript. 

WITHDRAWAL OF SUBMISSION

Submitted manuscripts may be withdrawn by the author at any time prior to publication, only upon the provision of a formal written request of the author addressed to the Editor-in-Chief. This formal request should state the specific reason for the withdrawal.  

RETRACTIONS

After publication, articles that have been flagged due to violations in publication ethics (such as plagiarism, multiple submissions, and falsification of data) or which have critical errors that invalidate the study’s results and conclusions, shall be promptly retracted.  A Notice of Retraction signed by all the authors shall be published on the website. A revised version of the article watermarked “RETRACTED” shall replace the original published article.

CORRECTIONS

PJCD shall issue a Notice of Correction/Erratum to correct minor errors, such as spelling, labeling, numbering, et cetera.  The Notice shall include details on the changes from the original version and the dates when these changes were made.  The corrected article (with a conspicuous notation that it is the latest and corrected version) shall replace the original published article.  It should be noted that all citations shall be ascribed to the corrected version.

APPEALS, COMPLAINTS, AND DISPUTES

All appeals, complaints or disputes regarding editorial decisions should be communicated formally to the PJCD Editor-in-Chief (see Contact information).

DISCLAIMER

All statements and opinions expressed in the articles and communications herein are those of the author/s and not necessarily those of the editor/s of the PJCD or its publisher, PCCP.

ADVERTISEMENT AND PROMOTIONS

As a purely scientific and academic pursuit, the PJCD shall not accept advertisements and commercial promotions.

CONTACT INFORMATION

E-mail address: pjcdeditorial@philchest.org.ph

Mailing address: 

84-A Malakas Street, Pinyahan, Quezon City, Philippines 1100

Landline number:

+632 8924 9204