About the Journal

The Philippine Journal of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (PJAAI) is an online, open access, English-language, medical and health science journal that is published two times a year by the Philippine Society of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (PSAAI).  

The editors follow the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals” in the management of the journal’s operations. In resolving ethical issues, the editors are guided by the best practices and guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).  

FOCUS AND SCOPE

The PJAAI publishes original articles, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, case reports/case series, and clinical practice guidelines in the field of allergy, asthma, and clinical immunology, as relevant to the practice in the Philippines.

The journal’s target audience are local and international practitioners, clinicians, allied healthcare professionals, scientists, and researchers. PJAAI may receive manuscript submissions from consultants, fellows, residents, and other allied medical professions and specialties in the Philippines so long as these are based on ethical research, are within the journal’s scope, and follow the journal’s instructions and guidelines.

EDITORIAL INDEPENDENCE

All editorial decisions made by the editors of the PJAAI are solely based on the journal’s scientific merit and compliance to international standards for scholarly publication.  Decisions are made independent of its mother society, the PSAAI, as well as any financial, commercial, political, and other competing interests. 

PUBLICATION FREQUENCY

Each issue of the PJAAI is published semi-annually (June and December) by the PSAAI.

OPEN ACCESS POLICY

The PJAAI is 100% Open Access to facilitate dissemination and sharing of scientific findings. There shall be no charges for article processing, downloads, or subscriptions. 

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 PJAAI through a Creative Commons License.  The PJAAI is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Non Derivative 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) which enables reusers to “copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for non-commercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given” to the author and the journal. 

PUBLICATION ETHICS

Editor and Reviewer obligations

The editors shall serve as the stewards of the journal’s commitment to scientific integrity and ethical publication.  The editors of PJAAI shall conduct the necessary investigation and deliberation, to include official coordination with the authors’ institution, in order to address complaints or allegations of publication misconduct.

All editors and reviewers are required to declare any competing interests within the last 5 years if any exists.  A competing or potential conflict of interest pertains to anything that may impede with, or could be perceived as impeding with editorial decisions, peer review, or publication of the manuscript under consideration. This may be personal or professional, financial or non-financial in nature.  This may also be seen in the editors’ or reviewers’ relationship with any of the authors or the authors’ institution.   

If there are conflicts of interest identified, the editors and/or reviewers shall declare this and inhibit themselves from their assigned role. Should there be publication ethics issues, the Editorial Board shall be guided by the COPE guidelines. Declaration of competing interests ensures transparency, integrity, and objectiveness of the editorial process. 

All editors and reviewers are likewise bound by confidentiality and non-disclosure for all manuscripts, data sets, and other materials undergoing review and deliberation.

Author obligations
All authors shall be required to accomplish and submit the PJAAI Author Form.  This form includes: 

  • (1) an attestation on the fulfillment of authorship criteria for all authors; 
  • (2) a declaration of conformity to ethical standards for studies on human/animal subjects and requisite approval by appropriate ethics committees; 
  • (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 (NOTE: 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);
  • (4) a data availability statement to ensure that the authors shall provide access to data sets in order to facilitate replication of study findings.   

Authors are likewise expected to comply with standard reporting guidelines based on study design as recommended by the EQuaTOR NETWORK.  

  • Clinical trial reports (randomized controlled trials) must comply with the CONSORT reporting guidelines.
  • Reports of systematic reviews and meta-analyses must adhere to the PRISMA statement.
  • Case Reports should conform with the CARE guidelines. 
  • Reports of studies of diagnostic accuracy should conform to the STARD guidelines.
  • Reports of epidemiological studies should comply with the STROBE guidelines.

EDITORIAL PROCESS

All submissions shall be made through the PJAAI’s Open Journal System platform.  

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. Once reviewed to be complete, manuscript will undergo similarity check. 

An Associate Editor shall be assigned by the Editor-in-Chief to oversee and facilitate the peer review process.  Based on the recommendations of the Associate Editor after peer review, the Editor-in-Chief shall make the final decision on the manuscript.

The PJAAI implements a double-blind peer review policy (i.e., both the author and reviewer are anonymous). The Associate Editor shall send the manuscript to two (2) peer reviewers simultaneously.  A third reviewer may be asked if the first two reviews have differing or opposing recommendations.  Additional reviewers may be invited depending on the judgment of the Associate Editor. 

For manuscripts that undergo 1 round of peer review, authors can expect an editorial decision within sixty (60) calendar days.  Should peer reviews and editorial deliberations take longer, the Editorial coordinator shall update the authors accordingly. 

Editorial decisions may be one of the following:

  • (1) Acceptance without further revision,
  • (2) Acceptance with minor revisions required,
  • (3) Acceptance with major revisions required, or
  • (4) Manuscript rejection

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

WITHDRAWAL OF SUBMISSIONS

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 identified to violate publication ethics (such as plagiarism, multiple submissions, falsification and fabrication 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 be maintained as part of the journal’s archive and replace the original published article.

CORRECTIONS

Minor errors do not invalidate the findings in the manuscript and cover spelling, abbreviations, labeling, numbering, article classification, dates, digital object identifiers, and other similar mistakes.  PJAAI shall issue an Erratum to correct these minor errors.  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 PJAAI Editor-in-Chief (see Contact information).

DISCLAIMERS

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 PJAAI or its publisher, PSAAI.

ADVERTISEMENTS AND PROMOTIONS

As a scientific and academic endeavor, the PJAAI shall neither accept nor solicit paid advertisements and commercial promotions.