About the Journal

Focus and scope
Ethical aspects
Data and reproducibility
Management of the Journal
Post-publication discussions and corrections
Open access policy
Sponsors
Peer review process

Focus and scope

The Colombian Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (Rev Col Med Fis Rehab) created in 1983, is the official publication of the Colombian Association of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (ACMFR); it is a scientific, peer reviewed and open-access journal that focuses on the production and spreading of knowledge in the area of rehabilitation medicine and related fields.

In the health context, rehabilitation is understood as a collaborative, multimodal and person-centered process, which aims to optimize the functioning of the patients with health conditions that can cause some disability. This process includes interventions that are focused on the capabilities of each individual and address body structures, physical functions and activities, and contextual factors related to the performance of patients in their daily lives. 

The specialty in physical medicine and rehabilitation has been growing over time, and diagnostic areas which are very useful in medical practice, such as electrodiagnosis and musculoskeletal ultrasound, have been developed.

The Rev Col Med Fis Rehab publishes 2 issues per year and a special issue, it accepts original primary articles, such as controlled clinical trials and observational cohort, case-control and cross-sectional studies; it also publishes secondary studies such as systematic reviews, clinical practice guidelines, technology evaluations, and economic evaluations. Narrative reviews based on evidence and on topics that are important and relevant for the specialty; clinical cases that are unique and/or of not well known conditions that illustrate the tasks of physical medicine and rehabilitation; articles on ethics, bioethics, education, administration and reflection around topics of disability and rehabilitation are also accepted, as well as letters to the editor and comments. Some issues correspond to thematic specials in different areas of the specialty (monographic issues).

The Rev Col Med Fis Rehab is addressed to specialists in physical medicine and rehabilitation, specialties related to rehabilitation, postgraduate students and professionals who work in areas of rehabilitation, such as physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, psychologists, and social workers, among others.

The disciplines covered by the Rev Col Med Fis Rehab with greater emphasis are those related to disability and general rehabilitation of people at all stages of life, it also involves specialized areas such as cardiopulmonary, neurological, oncological, professional, pediatric, geriatric and musculoskeletal rehabilitation, and specific topics such as orthoses, prostheses, chronic pain, electrodiagnostic medicine and what refers to policies and programs for people with disabilities. In this sense, the Journal aims to integrate basic, clinical and applied sciences, and knowledge on devices and technologies.

This is an important publication for the Latin American context, since it is one of the few journals in the area of physical medicine and rehabilitation in the region and therefore it becomes a benchmark for the dissemination of research results on the subject that are becoming more and more relevant every day.

All the articles received are reviewed by the editorial committee, which evaluates accuracy, completeness, clarity, simplicity, contribution to the advancement of knowledge in the area, and interest for the Journal and for the academic and scientific community.

Ethical aspects

Adherence to the Committee on Publications Ethics

The Rev Col Med Fis Rehab adheres to the ethical principles and procedures established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), available at www.publicationethics.org, in order to guarantee the integrity of the editorial process in terms of transparency, veracity and compliance with each of the principles established in these guidelines.

Complaints of misconduct

As established by the COPE, the Rev Col Med Fis Rehab takes the accusations of misconduct before and after the publication seriously; therefore, in the case that a complaint of this type is received, the editors, general and associated, will analyze and discuss, together with the editorial committee, the specific case and in a maximum time of 10 business days they will decide whether the complaint will be accepted or not; in addition, in the following 20 business days they will decide if the article will be subject to retraction or not.

When an article is retracted, it is published with a watermark, in which it is made explicit that it has been subject to retraction. The authors of such article will have a maximum time of three business days to submit a reconsideration or appeal. In the event that a reason for sanction is not found, exoneration will be defined, so the article subject of the complaint will be published normally.

Authorship and contribution

The editorial policy of the Rev Col Med Fis Rehab indicates that all manuscripts sent to be evaluated for publication must be accompanied by a cover letter signed by hand or digitally by each of the authors registered in the manuscript, together with their institutional affiliation. In the event that evidence of unauthorized authorship changes is found, the defined process for misconduct complaints will be established.  

Originality

The Rev Col Med Fis Rehab only publishes original articles, that is, articles that have not been submitted, approved or published in any other journal of a similar nature. In this sense, the manuscript must be accompanied by a letter written by the main author, in which he/she states that he/she and all the authors have read and agree with the conditions of publication of the Rev Col Med Fis Rehab and that their article is original or unpublished and has never been published in another printed or digital journal or in any other written means or editorial body. In the event that evidence that the document has been already published is found, the general editor will present the case to the other members of the editorial committee in order to subject the article to an immediate retraction.

Copyright

The Rev Col Med Fis Rehab Journal will promote respect for the moral rights of all authors who publish therein; for this reason, it is of vital importance that the names of each of the authors who participated in the study be duly recorded and signed in the cover letter and in the manuscript; in addition, it must be defined in advance who is the main author and what is the order of presentation of the other authors.

If the manuscript is accepted and published in the Journal, the authors must send a letter in which they commit themselves to exclusively assign the rights of reproduction, distribution, translation and public communication (by any means or support including audible, audiovisual or electronic) thereof.

Grievances and appeals

In the event that any complaint addressed to the Rev Col Med Fis Rehab arises, the editorial committee has a mechanism by which it is received, analyzed and studied, and a response to the author or authors who set it up is defined within a maximum time of 20 business days.

In the case of a reconsideration or appeal, the members of the committee will inform the person who formulated the complaint of the final decision made based on the evidence presented. In the event that the person involved in the complaint is the editor or any member of the committee, this person must move away from the process and refrain from deciding.

Conflict of interest

For the Rev Col Med Fis Rehab it is essential that before the publication of the manuscript, the conflicts of interest of each of the authors who present the article are clearly registered. When missing conflicts of interest are discovered after the publication of the document, the general and/or associate editor will convene a meeting of the editorial committee to decide if it is necessary to make a correction of the publication or, in the event that it is a serious fault, subject the article to retraction.

Ethical supervision

The Rev Col Med Fis Rehab strictly monitors the correct participation of vulnerable populations in the published articles, since due to its editorial policy it publishes on many occasions manuscripts in which persons in situations of disability participate. This is how, whenever studies involving human participation are presented, the informed consent of those involved must be clearly recorded, as well as the management of confidentiality and the ethical implementation of the research. In the event that animal studies are conducted, it must be demonstrated that the protocols used strictly adhered to the ethical principles of research on animals.

Intellectual property

The Rev Col Med Fis Rehab, being an open access journal through the Open Journal System (OJS) platform, does not charge authors for the process of submission, analysis and publication of the manuscript. For this reason, the copyright belongs to the person or persons who submitted the manuscript according to the guidelines mentioned here, which imply that all the authors are aware of and agree on the publication process to which the manuscript is subjected.

On the other hand, the Journal performs an anti-plagiarism check using special software in order to prevent redundant/overlapping publications or plagiarism. In the event that plagiarism is proven before publication, the general editor is obliged to report it to the institution or institutions where the person or persons who submitted the manuscript work and, therefore, suspend the publication process. In the event that plagiarism is proven after the article has already been published, an immediate retraction and specific complaint to the institutions of which the authors are part will be made.

Data and reproducibility

For the Rev Col Med Fis Rehab, it is essential that the data shown in the results, mainly in the tables and figures, be complete and allow to verify the statistical analyses and the interpretations derived therein. 

The journal performs an anti-plagiarism chek using special Ithenticake software in order to prevent redundant/over or plagiarism.

Management of the Journal

The Rev Col Med Fis Rehab has an adequate infrastructure for its operation, as well as the financial support of the ACMFR, which allows it to function efficiently and independently. The submission and publication process is carried out on the OJS platform; therefore, the members of the editorial committee are continuously trained in its use and management. The process of acceptance of proposed manuscripts and peer review is clearly established.

Post-publication discussions and corrections

The Rev Col Med Fis Rehab has feedback mechanisms to respond to the debates that may arise after the publication of the manuscripts; these mechanisms correspond to the sections of letters to the editor or comments.

In the event that it is necessary for the Journal to make corrections, revisions or adaptations of the published articles, these will be done by the general or associate editor. The same criteria apply in the event of any retraction.

Open access policy

The Journal is distributed with Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International to articles in order to contribute to the visibility, access and dissemination of scientific production.

Sponsors

The Rev Col Med Fis Rehab is fully funded by the ACMFR.

Peer review process

To be accepted by the Rev Col Med Fis Rehab, the articles must meet all the requirements mentioned in the indications to the authors (https://revistacmfr.org/index.php/rcmfr/about/submissions). Likewise, the articles will be evaluated in the first instance by the editor and the editorial committee of the Journal, a process that will have a maximum duration of 10 days.

For the original primary, secondary or review articles, two external reviewers who are experts in the subject matter of the article and in methodological aspects will be invited, and they will participate in the evaluation process through the OJS platform. In this system, the reviewers will have access to the article, make the evaluation and include their recommendations anonymously, a process that will last a maximum of 30 days. The editor will inform each one of the authors about the progress of their work in the evaluation process.

Once the article has been analyzed by the academic peers, they will send the completed format through the OJS platform, in which they can adopt three of the following options: a) accept submission, b) publishable with modifications and c) resubmit for review, d) resubmit for another publication, e) not publishable. In case of disagreement between the pairs, the original will be sent to a third evaluator; the editor will also be able to make the decision.   

In any of the three options, the author will be informed through the platform. If it is accepted with corrections, the author must make the corresponding modifications in the manuscript, indicating the changes in yellow and send it within the following 30 days; in addition, the author must send a document in Microsoft Word in which he/she responds to all the observations made by the evaluators, item by item.

The article will not be considered for publication when the author(s) take more than 30 days to respond to the suggestions of the evaluators. In case that this deadline is exceeded, it will be understood that they withdraw the work in its current form and it will be archived in the platform of the Journal; if it is sent again, the editorial committee may consider it as a new work. Reminders will be sent to authors fortnightly until 45 days have elapsed, date on which the article would be archived.

The accepted articles are the property of the Rev Col Med Fis Rehab and may be totally or partially reproduced by it; however, the Journal is not responsible for the scientific content, or for the legal implications of the published manuscripts.

After the articles go through the editing and style correction processes, the authors will receive the galleys of the article, which must be carefully reviewed and returned to the editor within a maximum term of 48 hours.

The names and email addresses of the authors provided to the Journal will be used exclusively for the stated purposes and will not be made available to any other person or institution.