Submissions

Author Guidelines

SUBMISSIONS

The Philippine Journal of Chest Diseases shall only accept submissions through its official Open Journal Systems platform.

• The submission file shall be in OpenOffice or Microsoft Word file format only. 
• Articles shall be single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; with 1 inch margins on all sides.
• All illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.

No hard copies or submissions through e-mail shall be accepted.  

Complete submissions shall include the following:

• PJCD Cover letter (Template)
• PJCD Author Form (Form)
• ICMJE Declaration of Conflicts of Interest (Form)
• Manuscript
• Other forms relevant to the submission:
  • Informed Consent Form depending on the article type (Form)
  • Institutional Review Board (IRB)/Ethics Committee Approval

Each of the above is described in the following sections.

COVER LETTER

A cover letter shall be addressed to the Editor-in-Chief stating the authors’ intention to submit to the PJCD, the complete title of the manuscript, and a listing of all authors. A Cover Letter template is available here.

The Corresponding Author, who shall act as the focal point for correspondences with the Editors and Coordinator of the PJCD, shall be clearly indicated in the letter. 

If the study on which the manuscript is based has already been included in previous conferences,  conventions, or scientific meetings as oral presentation, posters, or abstracts, this shall be mentioned in the cover letter. Authors are asked to include information on the title and dates of the meeting, as well as awards or distinctions, if any. This information shall be placed as a footnote in the accepted article’s final layout.

AUTHOR FORM

The PJCD Author Form is a comprehensive form accomplished by all the listed authors and includes:

DECLARATION OF CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

All authors are required to submit individual declarations of conflicts of interest using the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors Disclosure of Interest form. The form should be completely accomplished and included with the submission.

Potential conflicts of interest include (but are not limited to) ownership, employment, research support, involvement as speaker, consultant, or any other financial relationship or arrangement with manufacturers, companies, suppliers, or distributors, by any of the authors or his/her immediate family.

INFORMED CONSENT FORM

For case reports/series and grand rounds, the authors shall be required to submit a scanned copy of the written/informed consent for publication from the involved patient/subject.  The PJCD encourages the use of its standard Informed Consent Form. If the authors prefer to use their institution’s Informed Consent Form, the same may be accepted provided there is explicit mention that the patient consents to the publication of information about him/her in a journal article. The Editor-in-Chief may require the use of its standard ICF if the institutional ICF is found to be insufficient. Shall the involved subject/s and/or relative/guardian no longer be available to provide Informed Consent, the Author/s shall state so in the cover letter with a description of the due diligence exerted in order to secure Informed Consent.

ARTICLE CATEGORIES

The PJCD publishes articles in the following general categories:

NOTE: Unless justified in the cover letter, manuscripts exceeding the word count may be returned to the authors for reduction before being considered for peer review.

MANUSCRIPT

Title

• Complete title of the article shall be informative and as brief as possible (no more than 20 words)

Author/s

• Complete names of each author with highest academic degree(s) and complete address of a maximum of one (1) institutional affiliation per author.

Presentations in Previous Conferences/Conventions/Scientific Meetings

• Listing of any meeting(s)/conference(s) where the work has been previously presented as oral report or poster, and/or any awards/distinctions. The title, venue, month, and year of the meeting/conference shall be included.

Corresponding Author

• Corresponding author’s name and complete contact information which includes official mailing address, telephone, and e-mail address. Personal contact information are discouraged. The corresponding author will be responsible for all questions about the manuscript. 

NOTE: Only one author is to be designated as corresponding author and he/she does not need to be the first author on the manuscript.

• Appropriate footnotes for explanatory purposes or additional information may be placed with proper cross-referencing to the main text, in the following order of usage: *, **, ***

Funding Source

• Information on financial support, if any, shall also be listed. This shall include at least the funding agency name and grant number.  

Abstract

• Original Articles and Review Articles require a structured abstract of not more than 300 words, with the following four headings:

Background: Briefly state the problem being addressed and the purpose/s or aim/s of the study.

Methodology: State the study design (e.g., randomized clinical trial, case-control study, cross-sectional study, systematic review), setting (multi-center, institutional, etc), study population. 

Results: Briefly summarize the data obtained. Results shall be accompanied by data with confidence intervals and the exact level of statistical significance.

Conclusions: Provide brief and concise conclusion(s) directly supported by the data.

NOTE: Do not place crosslinks to references in the abstract.

• Case Reports/Case Series and Grand Rounds do not require a structured abstract, with a maximum of 200 words.

Keywords

• At least 5 keywords should be provided. These terms are relevant to the article that readers or researchers may use to facilitate online searches in journal databases. 

NOTE: Medical Subject Headings database ([MeSH] of the National Center for Biotechnology Information [NCBI]  [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/]) may be used to check if keywords provided are likely to yield search results.

Body of the Text

• For Original Articles and Review Articles, the manuscript shall be written following the IMRAD format (Introduction, Methodology, Results and Discussion, Conclusion).
  • Introduction: The Introduction shall provide a brief background for the study, to include the research question, rationale, objectives of the study, and hypothesis to be tested if any.  Cite only the most pertinent past publications and shall not be an extensive review of the literature.
  • Methodology: Methods shall be written with sufficient detail to permit reproducibility.  
    • Study Design: State the study design using a phrase such as randomized or nonrandomized clinical trial, case-control study, cross-sectional study, cohort study, systematic review, meta-analysis;
    • Setting: (e.g. multicenter, institutional, clinical practice); 
    • Study Population: Number of participants, inclusion/exclusion criteria, selection and randomization procedures undertaken
    • Intervention, to include main and secondary outcome measure(s);
    • Data and statistical analyses, to include what specific software was used for the computations.  
    • For Original Articles, statements regarding adherence to the Declaration of Helsinki, approval by the Institutional Review Board (IRB)/Ethics Committee, and description of the informed consent process shall be included. 
  • Results: Results must be concise. This may include demographic data of the study population, outcomes, and measurements. Data shall be accompanied by confidence intervals (usually at the 95% interval) and exact p-values or other indicators of statistical significance.  Negative results should also be reported.
  • Discussion: The discussion shall be restricted to the significant findings presented.  Results should not be repeated in this section. Limitations should be stated, to include whether additional studies are required, and the implications of the results. 
  • Conclusion/s: The conclusion(s) shall be directly supported by the results and shall state how the study addresses the objectives. Overgeneralization and speculation are discouraged.  

• For Case Reports/Series and Grand Rounds, the manuscript should contain the following general sections: Introduction, Case Presentation, Discussion, and Conclusion.
  • Introduction: The Introduction shall provide a brief summary of what is unique about the case and what it adds to the scientific literature.
  • Case Presentation: The Case Presentation shall include the patient history, physical examination, test results, differential diagnoses, diagnosis, treatment, and, when available, the course on follow-up and outcomes.
  • Discussion: This section should contain the discussion of the diagnosed condition, including the treatment options and managements, as in other clinical manuscripts. The strengths and limitations of the case should be stated.
  • Conclusion: The conclusion shall provide readers with the learning points gathered from the case report/series or grand rounds.
• For Grand Rounds, the body of the text, including commentaries by specialty experts (discussants) should be edited from the presentation for clarity and conformity with the length guidelines described above. The names of the discussants should be reflected in the commentary, along with relevant identifiers (e.g., Dr. Juan Dela Cruz, Pulmonologist: <commentary>).

Abbreviations

• All abbreviations shall be spelled out once (i.e., the first time they are mentioned in the text), followed by the abbreviation enclosed in parentheses.
• Abbreviations shall be restricted to those that are widely used, accepted, and understood. 

Measurements

• All measurements and weights shall be  expressed in SI units.

Mention of Drugs and Medications

• Use generic names only in the text body. State the trade name of a particular drug cited in parentheses including the manufacturer’s name, city, state and/or country when first mentioned in the text. 

Mention of Instruments, Equipment, and other technologies

• With regard to instruments or equipment utilized in the study, enclose in parentheses the specific model, manufacturer’s name, city, state and/or country.

Conflicts of Interest

• Potential conflicts of interest where existing, shall be disclosed. This includes but is not limited to:  ownership, employment, research support (including provision of equipment or materials), involvement as speaker, consultant, or any other financial relationship or arrangement with manufacturers, companies or suppliers. Such disclosure will indicate whether the person and/or his/her immediate family has any financial relationship with pharmaceutical companies, medical equipment manufacturers, biomedical device manufacturers, or any companies with significant involvement in the field of health care.

Acknowledgments

• Contributors to the work who do not fulfill all of the authorship criteria shall be acknowledged in this section.

Tables, Figures, Illustrations and Photographs 

Tables

• All tables shall be embedded within the body of the text at the appropriate points. 
• Only tables cited in the text should be included.  All tables should be called out in the text and shall be numbered in ascending order depending on the sequence they were referred to in the text.   A different order for tables and figures is to be used. Symbols are * † ‡ § ¶.
• Table titles must be placed on top of the table. Headings within the table must be bold-faced. Columns should be clearly labeled, including units of measure.
• Explanatory notes or legends should be written at the bottom of the table or figure. All abbreviations should also be explained.
• Footnotes may be placed at the bottom of the table if there is a need to make the table understandable that will not easily fit into the table title or data cells. 

Figures (Graphs, Illustrations, and Photographs)

• All figures shall be embedded within the body of the text at the appropriate points.
• Each figure must be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals by order of citation in the text. Each shall have a brief explanatory legend as necessary. Legends must identify all symbols or letters that appear on the prints.  Any figure that has been published elsewhere or adapted shall have an acknowledgement to the original source. A copy of the release to publish the figure signed by the copyright holder must also be submitted.
• Each final figure (graph, illustration, and photograph) shall be submitted as individual Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), Portable Network Graphics (PNG), or Tag Image File Format (TIFF)  files with appropriate labels (figure number, title)
• Modifications, such as cropping, changes in color, orientation, or placement of arrows or shapes, should be disclosed.

Photographs

• Photographs (clinical photographs, fluorescein angiograms, computed tomography [CT] scans, magnetic resonance imaging [MRI], X-ray, photomicrographs, transmission/scanning electron micrographs [TEM/ SEM], graphs, etc.) shall have  a resolution of at least 600 dpi.  Clinical photographs shall be masked when possible to prevent identification of the patient. Photographs may be in black and white, or submitted in full color.
• Photomicrographs shall include stains used and magnification.

Graphs

• Graphs may be submitted in “PowerPoint” or “Excel” format. Raw data may be requested by the Editorial Board for verification of computations.

Illustrations

• Illustrations must be professionally rendered with appropriate labels.  

Supplementary Material

• Supporting material that cannot be included in the publication of the manuscript for reasons of space but is complementary and directly relevant to the manuscript content, can be made available online as supplementary material. These may include additional figures or tables, data sets, or detailed methods.
• The supplementary material should be referred to in the main manuscript for example as  “See Supplementary Table 1” or “See Supplementary Figure 1”. 

References

• Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their references and for correct text citations. 
• All references should be identified at the appropriate parts of the text  using Arabic numerals as superscript, cross-referenced in consecutive order in the list of references.
• For the names of authors, start with the author family name followed by abbreviated first/second names (e.g. Rosales RL). No marks should be placed between family name and abbreviated first name. A comma separates between author names till the last author. Do not place “and” before the last author. 
• Journal article references must contain, in order, the following: 
• Authors - List all when there are six authors. In the case of more than six authors, list the first three authors followed by “et al.”
• Title of the article - sentence case, no quotation marks
• Publication source – the journal name should be italicized and abbreviated according to Index Medicus. 
• Year of publication
• Volume number
• Issue number
• Page number (inclusive)

• Personal communications, unpublished data or manuscripts in preparation should not be included in the references. Instead, these may be cited in the text in parentheses or as a footnote on the page where they are mentioned. Authors assume responsibility for verifying the accuracy of their cited reference.
• For Grand Rounds, the same referencing guidelines should be followed. Commentaries are not referenced.