Publication Ethics and Editorial Policies
The Journal of Pelvic Obstetric and Gynaecological Physiotherapy (JPOGP) publishes two editions per year in both paper and online format. JPOGP started in 1956 as a small volunteer driven journal and grew in substantially over the years. In 2004 the twice yearly peer reviewed journal began indexing in CINAHL and AMED where it continues to be indexed to this day. All submissions should uniquely be considered for publication within the JPOGP and not submitted to multiple journals or previously published in another language. The following is an overview of the Publication Ethics and Editorial Policies of JPOGP. Please also refer to further detail on policy relevant to preparing your manuscript and submission e.g. ethics, consent, described here. The journals publication ethics and editorial policies are based on policies outlined by COPE et al. (2022) Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholary Publishing1.
CONFIDENTIALITY
Communication between the authors and the editorial JPOGP team handling peer-review reporting should be treated with confidentiality.
RESEARCH ETHICS POLICY
It is important that all articles published in the Journal of Pelvic, Obstetric and Gynaecological Physiotherapy (JPOGP) are morally acceptable, and representative of research ethics and reporting.
Authors are expected to conduct research with the highest level of integrity from formulating the research question to conducting, analysing and sharing their data. Approriate ethical board approval for conducting research on humans and animals should be gained prior to the start of the study e.g., from higher research authorities, associated educational institutions and relevant research ethics committees. Authors are obliged to include their ethics policy registration number in their manuscript; however, the editors reserve the right to request that the documents are presented to them for further verification.
DATA AND CITATION INTEGRITY
Submitted manuscripts should both present data and interpret findings in a transparent and professional scientific manner. Data splicing will not be tolerated within the journal. This refers to data sets being split up to publish multiple papers out of the one data set that was designed and intended as one research output. Plagiarism and misinterpretation of data, results or any other findings is strictly forbidden, and when detected, the manuscript will be rejected and or withdrawn. Citations, verbatim quotations, and reporting of other researchers’ work, results and interpretations must be cited to avoid the risk of potential plagiarism. This is particularly screened by the editorial team when non-research articles are submitted, such as clinical commentaries, and conference and opinion papers, and additionally, by peer reviewers in the cases of clinical papers and literature reviews.
The editorial team may check for potential plagiarism, and may ask for supporting evidence of findings, including raw data. Authors should be prepared to send the raw data on request while protecting the anonymity and confidentiality of the subjects.
Citation manipulation and inappropriate research group self-citation will not be tolerated.
ETHICAL APPROVAL AND INFORMED CONSENT
The policy is based on the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Where relevant, statements about ethical approval and informed consent must be included in research reports. Our policy is that appropriate statements on the following matters must be included:
(1) scrutiny and acceptance by an ethics committee or institutional review board; and
(2) informed consent for inclusion, collection and use of data or samples, and/or publication, as applicable.
(3) submissions of research involving human participants should follow the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki.
(1) Ethical approval
To find out which ethics committee your study will need to obtain approval from, enquire within the research and development department of your organisational trust or authority. Do not be tempted to call your investigation something that it is not just to avoid the need for approval; this will prevent your work being published and compromise your professional integrity.
(2) Informed consent
It is necessary for all authors to obtain informed written or verbal, freely given consent from participants included in studies, as well as consent to publishing their data and images. For example, authors, should include an informed consent declaration: “Informed written consent was obtained from all participants taking part in the study”; or “Informed verbal consent was obtained prior to the interview.”
Protecting participants’ anonymity is of upmost importance, and therefore, unless otherwise approved, submitted data should not include participants’ names, birth dates and biometrics, or other identifiable data. The participants have the right to decide what happens to any personal, identifiable data that may be detected (e.g. in sections of research interviews, photographs and scanning images), and therefore, authors need to obtain separate informed written consent to publish any such data. Therefore, authors should include a declaration of consent to publication; for example: “The participant has freely signed a consent form allowing submission of the case report”; or, “Written, informed consent for publishing their data and images was gained from all participants who took part in the study.” Failing to obtain written consent for publishing a participant’s data will result in rejection of the paper, and in cases where the consent is not gained for publishing photographs and images, this will result in removing these from the published version.
Exceptions for publishing without informed consent include various imaging scans such as radiology and ultrasound images, and videos without identifiable data or voice recordings on them. Authors who would like to submit and publish material such as videos via QR code must consider and follow these steps to ensure anonymity. See Video and supplementary material for more info.
Authors take responsibility for the correctness of these declarations.
Please note that the editorial team reserves the right to reject submissions that fail to follow the above guidelines.
PATIENT AND PARTICIPANT ANONYMINITY
Please refer to our ethics in publishing, and ethical approval and informed consent sections above. Studies involving human beings (i.e. patients or volunteers) require ethical approval and informed consent, and this should be clearly documented in the manuscript, as illustrated in the above-mentioned sections. Authors must make sure that their manuscript is submitted without any identifiable personal details of participants being included in any part of the study, which includes identifiable data within tables, images, videos, imaging or supplementary material. Exceptional circumstances may present whereby participants waive their right to anonymity and consent to sharing of their identifiable details. In such circumstances, a letter of consent from the participant must be obtrained.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST AND AUTHOR DECLARATIONS
All authors must disclose any relationships that could be seen as prejudicial to their results, or may represent a potential conflict of interest. This could constititute any funding, financial or personal relationships that could inappropriately bias their work and results. Authors must disclose any such involvement in the manuscript under the subtitle “Declaration of interest”.
If the authors have no interests to declare, this should be noted at the end of the manuscript and before references as: “Declaration of interest: none.”
SUBMISSION AND DECLARATION VERIFICATION
All work submitted to the journal should not have been previously published elsewhere other than in the form of a poster or abstract, lecture, or thesis. Furthermore, all submissions should uniquely be considered for publication within the journal, and not simultaneously submitted to multiple journals or previously have been published in another language. The editorial team will check for the originality and duplication of work using Crossref Similarity Check software.
LINGUISTIC INCLUSIVENESS
Authors should be free of assumptions or prejudice about someone’s beliefs, cultural background, sexual orientation, gender, race, ethnicity, age, disability or health conditions. Equally, their manuscripts should be free of any personal bias, and hierarchical assumptions and references. This is an important aspect of promoting equal opportunities.
SEX AND GENDER EQUITY IN RESEARCH
Although there is no internationally agreed guideline on defining sex and gender, authors should address such matters in their manuscript in order to enhance the precision and rigour of scientific reporting. In cases where this is not possible, they should indicate this as a limitation in their manuscript. For more information, authors can refer to Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) Guidelines (https://ease.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/EASE-SAGER-Checklist-2022.pdf.pagespeed.ce.Ni8gG8fm0D.pdf).
AUTHORSHIP AND CONTRIBUTIONS
All named and listed authors should have contributed to the paper by involvement in its conception or design, or in the interpretation of the data or writing of the report. A statement describing each author’s contribution should be included at the end of the article.
CHANGES TO AUTHORSHIP
The list and order of authors should be carefully considered prior to submission. Any addition, deletion or change to the order of authors should be made prior to acceptance, and will need to be agreed by the editorial team.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Individuals who have provided technical or other support, but are not included as authors should be recognised as contributors to the work and listed in the acknowledgements.
COPYRIGHT
Accepted submissions will need to complete a journal publishing agreement. The editor managing your submission will send this to you or you can email journal@thepogp.co.uk to request one.
DOUBLE-BLIND REVIEW
We operate a double-blind peer review system, which means that neither the authors nor the reviewers are revealed during the review process. In order to comply with this, we ask that you anonymize your work before submission, and provide your title page and author details as a separate document. Please remove any identifying information, such as names or affiliations, from the main body of the text (including any figures, tables and appendices). Your article will then be allocated to at minimum of two of our peer reviewers for their consideration. While we aim for a three- to four-week turnaround, all of our peer reviewers and the majority of our team are volunteers, and at times, there may be a short delay as a result of work pressures.
POST-PUBLICATION DISCUSSION
Authors have the opportunity to submit a video abstract to enhance dissemination of their work. JPOGP will utilise this and snippets of published outputs across social media platforms to help bring awareness and raise discussion about the article. The POGP Newsletter will also feature the highlights of key publications.
ERRATUM / CORRECTIONS
In case of the detected misconduct and/or unethical behaviour, the JPOGP Editorial team will place a correction in Editorial letter and express their concern if articles were already published.
For any errors identified in a published paper which were not associated with misconduct - an appropriate Editorial letter will be published in the subsequent issue to highlight the edit being made to a previously published paper and why. The updated paper will have a correction notice at the top of it with a date of correction clearly listed.
RETRACTIONS, COMPLAINTS AND APPEALS
Retractions may happen in some cases of misconduct and Authors institutions will be informed. Complaints or concerns about any published research in JPOGP should be emailed to journal@thepogp.co.uk will be given full consideration by the Editorial Committee. Where necessary, complaints will be escalated to the Pelvic, Obstetric and Gynaecological Board of Trustees for discussion and outcome. Authors will be informed about any complaints or concerns and received offical communication about the evaluation and outcome of the complaints. Authors have the opportuity to appeal and contest any complaint to justify their position or any misinterpretation. Decisions will always be made on the basis on maintaining the highest research integrity.
COPYRIGHT AND PERMISSIONS
A copyright assignment form should be completed for use of any images or illustrations within your sumbitted manuscript. This form will be sent to you by the editor managing your submission or it can be requested by emailing journal@thepogp.co.uk
As an author you may wish to post your article in an institutional or subject repository, or on a scientific social sharing network. You may also link your published article to your preprint (if applicable).
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Published research becomes the intellec
SUBMISSION FEES
Currently, the journal is free to submit to. Successful submissions are published via closed access for three years (after which they become open access) with available options for POGP members and registered institutions to gain access. For each issue, the Editor-in-Chief selects an Open Access Editors Choice article.
JOURNAL ARCHIVE
The journal is archived by retention of a printed copy of each journal by POGP and the British Library.
Page reference
1COPE DOAJ OASPA WAME. Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing - English https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.1.12