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Policies

Contents

Philosophy of the Asian Journal of Physical Therapy

For more information, please see the AJPT's Aims and Scope page.

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Absence of Charges and Fees

We eliminate the burden of cost to authors by making the AJPT completely free of charge. No submission, review, assistance, or publication fees forever.

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General Submission Rules

Submitted articles cannot have been previously published nor be forthcoming in an archival journal or book (print or electronic). Please note: "publication" in a working-paper series does not constitute prior publication. In addition, by submitting materials to AJPT, the author is stipulating that the material is not currently under review at another journal (electronic or print) and that he or she will not submit the material to another journal (electronic or print) until the completion of the editorial decision process at AJPT. If you have concerns about the submission terms for AJPT, please email the Editor-in-Chief.

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Formatting Requirements

Asian Journal of Physical Therapy allows format-free submissions - no general rules about the formatting of articles upon initial submission. We also accept any reference style of your choice. Manuscripts will be accepted for submission as long as it is organized, succinct, professional, and follows the basic scientific text in writing and reporting, such as IMRaD. In addition, tables and figures may be placed within the manuscript as referenced in the text. As long as it is appropriately labeled, there is no need to put it at the end or send a separate file, etc.

There are, however, rules governing the formatting of the final manuscript version after your manuscript has been accepted. See Final Manuscript Preparation Guidelines for details. Although AJPT (through Digital Commons) can provide limited technical support, it is ultimately the author's responsibility to produce an electronic version of the article as a Microsoft Word file.

It is understood that the current state of technology of Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) is such that there are no, and can be no, guarantees that documents in PDF will work perfectly with all possible hardware and software configurations that readers may have.

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Peer-Review Statement

Many desk-level rejections come from misunderstandings in suitability. To mitigate that and not waste valuable time between the authors and the editorial team, authors are encouraged to send the manuscript abstract first. The Editor-in-Chief or the Associate Editor will perform an initial appraisal for appropriateness to the journal to help authors decide if they want to continue with the submission.

Once your paper has been assessed for suitability, it will undergo rigorous editorial screening and assessment in different stages, including initial quality checks for ethical or professional issues, editorial assignment, double-blind peer review by independent, anonymous expert referees, and finally, an editorial decision.

Start your journey with AJPT by emailing the Editor-in-Chief. Use the title of your article as the subject and the manuscript abstract as the body of the email.

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Publishing Statement

To promote scientific advancement, we adopt the following statements in publishing:

  • Rolling Publication – We publish articles individually as we make manuscript decisions. Publishing on a rolling basis helps disseminate research in the shortest time possible.
  • Promotion Outside AJPT – We simultaneously promote every article we publish on all possible social media outlets. For scientific information to be truly consumed freely, not only does it has to be free to use, but it should also be easily accessible by anyone.
  • Article-Level Metrics – We support the DORA statement (Declaration on Research Assessment) by utilizing article-level metrics or Altmetric to measure overall societal impact (scientific and public) on individual articles (e.g., Altmetric and Plum Metrics badges). Compared to journal-level metrics like Journal Impact Factor, Altmetric includes views, downloads, comments, bookmarks, mentions, and readership from the web and social media.

    • In addition, we respect everyone's time and effort, especially the authors, by minimizing the burden of preparing manuscripts for submission by implementing the following:

  • Any Article Types - There are no restrictions on the types of articles - from original research to student case studies and opinions to book reviews. For clarifications and inquiries on acceptable papers, please email the Editor-in-Chief.
  • No Word Limit - We are more interested in the content of your manuscript, not the format or the number of words.

    • We only accept and publish manuscripts written in English to fit public consumption worldwide. We recognize that some authors will not have English as their first language. In such a case, please be sure that an English-speaking author has reviewed the manuscript for proper spelling, grammar, and overall writing style before submission. Doing so will tremendously help expedite the review process, therefore, decisions. Check our Writing Assistance statement below for more details.

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    Writing Assistance

    To support aspiring authors, we aid inexperienced authors on a limited case-by-case basis in improving their work towards successful publication. For inquiries, please email the Editor-in-Chief.

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    Open Access, Author Rights, Copyright, Attribution, and Usage Statement

    In support of publications free of restrictions, Asian Journal of Physical Therapy applies open access to all our publications by using Creative Commons for open access policies and choosing the most unrestricted license, CC-BY 4.0. Under this license, authors agree to make articles legally available for reuse, without permission or fees, for virtually any purpose. Anyone may copy, distribute, or reuse any published articles as long as the author and original source are properly cited.

    See the open access definition from the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing.

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    Responsibilities in the Submission and Peer-Review Process

    Asian Journal of Physical Therapy follows the ICMJE Guidelines on the submission and peer-review process responsibilities.

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    Confidentiality Statement

    Asian Journal of Physical Therapy follows the ICMJE Guidelines on the author's statement of confidentiality.

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    Archival Policy

    Asian Journal of Physical Therapy follows the LMU Institutional Repository on the digital archival, preservation, and perpetual retrieval and access of all published articles.

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    Corrections and Retractions

    Asian Journal of Physical Therapy follows the ICMJE Guidelines on publication corrections or, in serious cases, retractions.

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    Appeals Policy

    Authors of rejected submissions may submit a formal appeal in writing to AJPT within thirty consecutive days from the date of rejection. Use the word “appeal” followed by the original manuscript number assigned during the submission. Authors must provide detailed reasons for the appeal and point-by-point responses to the reviewers' comments. JPT will have five business days to acknowledge the receipt of the appeal. The ME will evaluate the merit of the appeal following the COPE Guidelines. The author will be advised of the outcome in writing within four weeks or less. Depending on the nature of the concern, it may take more than four weeks to complete a decision. Regardless, the author will be notified of the status within four weeks and every other week until a decision has been reached. Decisions on appeals are final without exception. Priority is given to new submissions.

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