Submissions

Author Guidelines

Sections

Submission Requirements

Acta Medica Philippina accepts original papers, case reports, narrative and systematic reviews, feature articles, and commentaries from any author - provided that certain criteria are met. They should be scientific and/or academic and within the discipline of human health sciences.

Manuscripts are received with the understanding that they are not under simultaneous consideration by another publisher. Copyright of articles published in Acta Medica Philippina is assigned by the publisher to the authors.  Submitting an article for publication in the Journal signifies consent by all authors.

Both parties should also comply with the stated license. These manuscripts are submitted on the condition that they can be subject to editorial modifications to bring them in conformity with the scientific and integrity standards of the journal as well as its standard layout.

Although the Journal undertakes due diligence in verifying the information included in each manuscript, statements or views expressed in the articles are not the responsibilities of the Editors and/or Publisher. The authors maintain equally this responsibility. All authors are required to sign documents signifying agreement with this responsibility.

Submitting a Manuscript

Authors need to register on the Journal website 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/tracking number. Users are updated through the email that they have provided. Links are provided in the emails to allow opening of the particular submission 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 manuscript threads through the portal.

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.

Contact details of Editorial staff are provided in the website. However, all communications related to a submission should be coursed through the OJS portal in order to capture all aspects of discussions related to the submission.

Author Guidelines

The editorial policies of Acta Medica Philippina follow the recommendations of the International Committee on Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the ethical guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/manuscript-preparation/preparing-for-submission.html
https://publicationethics.org/

Preparation of Manuscript

  • The manuscript should be in Microsoft Word® or a similar format.
  • The document should be accessible by anyone without any passwords.
  • It should not contain any unnecessary format that affects future layout according to the Journal’s style (e.g., EndNotes).
  • The text should be in a single column, single-spaced; in 12-point Arial 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, 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
  • Figures and Images are numbered chronologically using Arabic numerals as they are mentioned in the manuscript.
  • 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. Multiple citations should be placed at the end of the sentences that used them after the period. References that are utilized more than once should use the same number as when first cited. (See Author Guidelines)
  • 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 may be subject to delay in processing. 
  • The journal reserves the right to decline a submission that has remained inactive for more than 60 days. 
  • The author(s) can re-submit all requirements if they would like to pursue the submission.

EQUATOR Network Reporting Guidelines

To help in reporting their findings and writing the study for publication, depending on the study type, authors are strongly encouraged to use the EQUATOR (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency of Research) Network Guidelines study reporting guidelines.

These guidelines are available at: http://equator-network.org

An algorithm provided by the EQUATOR Network can help authors determine which reporting guideline should be used for their manuscript.

https://www.equator-network.org/toolkits/selecting-the-appropriate-reporting-guideline/

  1. CONSORT (2010) Checklist for Reporting Clinical Trials
  2. CARE (2013) Checklist for Reporting Case Reports
  3. COREQ (2007) Checklist for Reporting Qualitative Research
  4. PRISMA (2009) Checklist for Reporting Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
  5. STROBE (2007) Checklist for Reporting Observational Studies
  6. STARD (2015) Checklist for Reporting Diagnostic Accuracy Studies
  7. CHEERS (2013) Checklist for Reporting Economic Evaluation of Health Interventions
  8. SQUIRE (2015) Checklist for Quality Improvement Reporting in Healthcare
  9. ARRIVE (2013) Guidelines for Reporting Animal Research

Copies of these checklists can be found here: 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lmJWeDVyvc2sxDKXwBdV1tgD95bW6OAu?usp=sharing

Acta Medica Philippina shares these checklists with peer reviewers for their possible use in reviewing the manuscripts (See Peer Review policies and procedures)

Additional guidelines are provided below for specific parts of the manuscript:

Abstract

For original articles, the abstract should have a structured format consisting of the Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion, and Conclusion (IMRAD format). Case Reports can provide a Case Summary instead (see below). Authors are strongly advised to limit their An Abstract should not exceed 500 words. Any unduly long Abstract can result in a manuscript being returned to the authors for revision.

For Case Reports, a Case Summary is provided which includes a Background, Case Presentation, and Conclusion. The Case Summary should not exceed 500 words.

Keywords

At least three (3) keywords using terms from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) list of Index Medicus should be listed after the abstract for cross-indexing of the article.

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html

Text

  1. The text should be organized consecutively as follows: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion.
  2. All references, tables, figures, illustrations, appendices, or any other attachments should be cited or mentioned in the text in chronological order. References, Tables, Figures or Illustrations, and Appendices and Attachments that are not mentioned in the text shall be removed and will not be included in the published article.
  3. All abbreviations should be spelled out when used for the first time in the text, followed by the abbreviations enclosed in parentheses (e.g., University of the Philippines (UP)).
  4. All measurements should be in System International (SI) units. Alternative measurements, such as those in the English or Imperial system can be placed in parentheses.
  5. Acknowledgments to individuals/groups of persons or institution/s can be included at the end of the text just before the references. Grants and subsidies from government or private institutions can also be acknowledged as Funding support or Study Grants.

References

  1. References in the text should be identified by Arabic Numerals in superscript on the same line as the preceding sentence.
  2. References should be typed single-spaced and numbered consecutively in the order they are mentioned in the text.
  3. References (numbers) should be cited at the end of the sentence where they are included after the period.
  4. References that are not clearly cited in the manuscript will be removed. If needed, the manuscript will be returned to revise the chronology of the references.
  5. Manuscripts that do not conform to this referencing format shall be returned for revision
  6. The style approved by Acta Medica Philippina conforms to that recommended by the ICMJE and should follow the format of the examples shown below:

Journal Article
Qirjazi E, Kaunda J, Andersen T, Peterson J, Iwaasa K, MacRae J, et al. SARS-CoV-2 shedding in dialysis patients with COVID-19. Kidney Int Rep. 2021 Nov;6(11):2897-99. doi: 10.1016/j.ekir.2021. 08.016. PMID: 34466759. PMCID: PMC8393503

Electronic Material
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Falls among older adults: summary of research findings [Internet]. 2005 [cited 2006 Jan]. Available from:
https://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/pubres/toolkit/SummaryOfFalls.htm.

Preprint Article
Bloss CS, Wineinger NE, Peters M, et al. A prospective randomized trial examining health care utilization in individuals using multiple smartphone-enabled biosensors. Preprint. Posted online October 28, 2015. bioRxiv 029983. doi:10.1101/029983

Book
Dumitru D, Amato AA, Zwarts MJ. Nerve conduction studies. In: Dumitru D, Amato AA, Zwarts MJ, eds. Electrodiagnostic medicine, 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Hanley and Belfus, Inc; 2002. pp. 159–217.

For more reference style and format, follow the standards in the ICMJE Recommendations found in this link.

Tables

  1. Cite all tables consecutively in the text and number them accordingly. The content of tables should include a table number (in Roman numerals) and a title above the table. Explanatory notes and legends as well as definitions of abbreviations used are listed after the table.
  2. Each table must be self-explanatory being a supplement rather than a duplicate of the information in the text. Authors should refrain from just repeating in the text what would normally be completely included in the tables. The use of too many tables is discouraged.

Figures and Other Images

  1. The definition of Figures includes pictures, images, graphs, and illustrations. These should be identified by Arabic Numeral/s numbered sequentially according to the order they are first mentioned in the text. Each should have appropriate titles, descriptions, and other explanations which should be placed under the figures.
  2. The numbers should correspond to the order in which the figures/graphs occur in the text. It is recommended that figures/graphs are also submitted as high-resolution image files (preferably as .jpeg or .tiff files).
  3. All personally identifying data of the subject/s or patient/s under study such as names, case or hospital numbers, etc., should be removed.

Illustrations and Photographs

  1. Digital photographs should be at least 800 x 600 pixels.
  2. For photomicrographs, the stain used (e.g., H & E) and magnification scale (e.g., 500x magnification) should be included in the description.
  3. Identifying arrows or other means to point to a specific area included in the illustrations and photographs should be part of the picture and not a separate object.

Once submission requirements are completed, manuscripts are sent for peer review (see Peer Review)

In addition to the above, authors may also use the ICMJE recommendations for Preparing a Manuscript for Submission to a Medical Journal. However, the provisions above should take precedence.

https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/manuscript-preparation/preparing-for-submission.html

Thesis reports are not acceptable as submissions. Authors should revise these to comply with ICMJE recommendations. Table of Contents, List of Figures and Tables, Review of Literature, etc. are not to be included in a manuscript intended for publication in the journal.

The journal recommends an absolute maximum length of 10,000 words, excluding references, for any single manuscript submitted for consideration. The journal reserves the right to return or decline a manuscript that is longer than this.