Editorial Policies

The call for papers is year-round so voluntary submissions are always welcome.

Editorial decisions to publish or not to publish an article are made at the discretion of PJPP and are based on the following factors:

Relevance towards building or extending knowledge in any particular paradigm of development;
Interest to the reading public; and
Quality of academic writing.

Manuscripts should be complete with exclusive content not published elsewhere (e.g., websites, blogs, newsletters, magazines, books, etc.).

All members of the PJPP publications unit abide by the Code of Conduct prescribed by the Committee on Publications Ethics (COPE).

All submissions will undergo a technical check to ensure compliance to the Submission Guidelines.

02 Authorship

Based on the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), “authorship credit should be based on:

Substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data;
Drafting of the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
Final approval of the version to be published; and,
Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.”

The corresponding author is responsible for the inclusion of all appropriate co-authors in the paper. He/She should ensure that all co-authors have approved the final version of the paper and agreed to its submission for publication.

The authors are expected to list the order of authors after careful consideration. The list of authors and the way they are ordered should be definitive at the time of the original submission.

Authors take collective responsibility for the work. Authors are accountable for ensuring that questions on the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are properly investigated and resolved.

Only the corresponding authors can make requests for change in authorship. Any addition, deletion, or rearrangement of authors after manuscript submission should be filed as a formal request to the Editor. The Editor will consider requests only in exceptional circumstances.

03 Review Process

To maintain academic rigor, scholars affiliated with globally renowned institutions from various disciplines serve as its peer reviewers, as needed.

04 Acknowledgment of Support and Funding

Individuals who participated in the development of the manuscript but do not qualify as authors should be acknowledged (as, say, assistance in research or in illustration of figures). Organizations that provided funding and other resources should also be acknowledged.

05 Conflict of Interest (COI)

“Conflict of interest (COI) exists when there is a divergence between an individual’s private interests (competing interests) and his or her responsibilities to scientific and publishing activities such that a reasonable observer might wonder if the individual’s behavior or judgment was motivated by considerations of his or her competing interests” World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

All financial interests and other relevant interests that may have influenced the development of the manuscript must be disclosed by the author.

Reviewers also need to disclose conflict of interest. A reviewer may decline any manuscript if they in case there is conflict of interest.

Editors should also decline manuscripts that may have conflict of interest. These manuscripts will be reassigned to other editors.

06 Confidentiality

Submitted manuscripts are considered confidential. Only individuals involved in the processing and preparation of the manuscript for publication (if accepted) are privy to the submitted manuscripts. These include editors, editorial staff, corresponding authors, potential reviewers, and actual reviewers.

In case there are suspected cases of misconduct, a manuscript may be revealed to institutions or organizations that may require it for the resolution of misconduct.

07 Misconduct

Misconduct is a violation of the editorial policy, journal policies, publication ethics or any applicable guidelines/policies specified by COPE.

Activities that compromise the integrity of the publication process are potential acts of misconduct. Potential cases of misconduct will be investigated according to COPE Guidelines.

08 Plagiarism

Plagiarism is defined as “stealing and passing off the ideas or words of another as one’s own,” “using another’s production without crediting source,” or “presenting as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.” PJPP does not tolerate plagiarism.

09 Correction and Retraction of Articles

The editor of the journal is authorized to make corrections to a published article but the editors will decide on the extent of the corrections.

Minor corrections are made directly to the article.

For major corrections, the corrected version will be published and this will be linked to the original article which will remain unchanged. The reason for the major change to the article needs to be published.

Retraction should be done according to COPE Retraction Guidelines.

10 References

“Editorial Policies, Procedures and Author Guidelines,” American Marketing Association, Copyright 2017, https://www.ama.org/publications/MarketingHealthServices/Pages/marketing-health-services-editorial-policies-procedures-author-guidelines.aspx

“Flowcharts,” Committee on Publication Ethics, 2018, https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts

“Retraction Guidelines,” Committee on Publication Ethics, September 2009, https://publicationethics.org/files/retraction%20guidelines.pdf