REVIEW PROCESS & POLICIES

An author accepts the responsibility of preparing the research paper for evaluation by independent reviewers. The responsibility includes subjecting the manuscript to evaluation by peers and revising it prior to submission. The review process is not to be used as a means of obtaining feedback at early stages of developing the research paper. Reviewers and editors are responsible for providing constructive and prompt evaluation of submitted research papers based on the significance of their contribution and on the rigors of analysis and presentation.

The manuscripts will be reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that they are being submitted to one journal at a time and have not been published, simultaneously submitted, or already accepted for publication elsewhere.

All submitted papers in APJMR are being processed in Plagiarism Detection Software using Turnitin with allowable similarity index of less than 15% with zero (0) percent plagiarism. All submitted papers failed to meet this initial requirement of the journal are not being accepted to undergo the review process.

The Editors review all submitted manuscripts initially. Manuscripts with insufficient originality, serious scientific flaws, or absence of importance of message are rejected. All manuscripts received are duly acknowledged. The journal will not return the unaccepted manuscripts. Other manuscripts are sent to two or more expert reviewers following the double-blind review process. Each manuscript is also assigned to a member of the editorial team, who based on the comments from the reviewers takes a final decision on the manuscript. Within a period of 2 to 3 weeks, the contributors will be informed about the reviewers’ comments and acceptance/rejection of manuscript.

Articles accepted would be copy edited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format. Page proofs will be sent to the first contributor, which has to be returned within three days. Correction received after that period may not be included.

Policy on Publication Ethics

Purpose

Asia Pacific Journal of Multidisciplinary Research (APJMR) in cooperation with Lyceum of the Philippines University (LPU) – Batangas aims to disseminate latest research findings and innovation in various fields of studies through online and print journal. It ensures the quality of manuscript for publication through confirming and verifying its academic integrity and adherence to the standards and policies of responsible conduct of research. This policy is also established to emphasize the importance of meeting and maintaining the highest quality of ethical standards and scientific validity. It encourages authors to commit themselves with competence in practicing credibility and professionalism gearing towards the culture of excellence through collaboration with the international research community in publication.

Publication Practice

Authors should submit their research articles in accordance with the author guidelines as prescribed by the journal. Research articles to be submitted for publication should not be previously published nor considered to another publication elsewhere. The author should clearly declare the originality of the research work which had never been accepted for other journals. If modifications had been made already on the research article with enhancement on the synthesis and analysis of findings, an overlap of about 10 per cent is considered acceptable between such journals.

Copying of another’s research work without citing the original source and considering it as one’s own work is an unethical practice and in the field of research and professional practice, this is completely unacceptable. Plagiarism takes place in five types: copy & paste plagiarism, word switch plagiarism, style plagiarism, metaphor plagiarism and idea plagiarism.

Authorship Practice

Authorship credit must be based on the major contribution of each author on the conceptualization and design of the study; revision of the paper that provides substantial insights and implications to findings, collection, analysis and interpretation of data until the completion of research in drawing conclusions and recommendations with action plan or program. No one among the primary authors who met these criteria would be omitted from the authorship. People without any considerable involvement or substantial intellectual participation in the research process would not be considered as one of the authors like those who obtain funds for the research, collect important data and materials, or coordinate with the publication are considered significant but do not qualify for authorship as well as the inclusion of ‘ghost author’ is highly discouraged. The source of funding may be included in the acknowledgement as well as those people who became part either directly or indirectly in the completion of the research paper.

The corresponding author shall be responsible in communicating with the Editor to accomplish the copyright form and inform the co-authors regarding the status of the research article submitted and accepted to APJMR to avoid multiple submission of paper to other journals at the same time. If the paper is rejected for publication to APJMR that is the right time to submit the research article to other journals. The corresponding author is also responsible in the accuracy of the content of the paper particularly the complete list of the names of the co-authors, updated affiliations and email addresses.

Peer Review System

The journal exercises double-blind peer review process to ensure anonymity from the reviewer and the author of the research article to avoid any partiality or any limitation from the review process in case of familiarity between both parties. It is the responsibility of the reviewer to provide substantial comments and suggestions for the improvement of the paper to maintain the quality of the research article to be published in the journal. The reviewer shall take the evaluation of the general content in terms of academic significance of the research paper, its contribution to the community, technical novelty, quality of information and language usage. In terms of specific content, the reviewer provides evaluation in terms of the accuracy and unity of information in the abstract, relevance of introduction, literature and studies to the topic as well as the coherence of the objectives; preciseness of materials and methods used, completeness of results and discussion and comprehensiveness of drawing conclusion out of the salient findings and the thoroughness of the reference list.

The research article will be sent to two (2) reviewers and they will decide to publish the paper unaltered, accept after revision suggested in the review, review again after major changes or reject. If one of them decides to reject the paper and the other one decides to accept, this is the only time the paper will undergo another review and will be sent to the third reviewer.

Editorial Responsibilities

Submitted papers will be evaluated based on its scientific and systematic research method and not through lack of technical novelty. Fair decision will be observed by the editorial board irrespective of race, culture, origin, gender or citizenship of the author. Situations that may lead to conflicts of interest should be avoided.

Confidential Process

Since double-blind peer review process is being observed by the journal, the anonymity of both parties (author and reviewer) will remain confidential. The communication between the corresponding author and the Editor should not be posted on any website or social media as well as the result of the Reviewer’s Report or Evaluation and any confidential materials without prior permission from the Editor whether or not the submission is eventually published.

Corrections and Retraction Policy

Article retraction may be done in the case of stating unreliable findings in the conclusion, infringements of professional ethical codes such as plagiarism, multiple submissions to other journals or publication, fraudulent use of data or information and the like.

Article replacement may be done if the article might cause serious health risk if acted upon from false or inaccurate information, the author/s will be asked to retract and replace the original article with the corrected version of the paper. A link for the notice of retraction will be provided to the corrected article.

Erratum may be done for corrections in article that might have missed during the editing resulting from errors or omissions of significant information. This is made accessible to the readers with link to the corrected version.

Within one year after the publication date of the paper will only be allowed the authors to remove or replace papers with corrected article.

DISCLAIMER

Authors are responsible for obtaining from the copyright holder permission to reproduce any figures for which copyright exists. By submitting the manuscript, it is believed that the author(s) will be responsible of any disputed content in the respective paper/article and author(s) provide formal consent to APJMR/publisher and transfer of copyright. The Publisher, Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editors, Peer-reviewers and Editorial Board Members of the journal cannot be held responsible for any errors, controversies or any consequences from the use of information contained in the journal . It is also be accepted by the manuscript submitted that he/she shall never challenge the Editors/Publisher in any court of law for any issue. The concepts and views expressed in the research papers/articles in the journal do not essentially correspond to the views of the publisher/editor. The publisher/editor of the journal is not liable for errors or any consequences arising from the exercise of information contained in it.