Publishing ethics
Publishing ethics and editorial statement of good editorial practices
Publication decision: The editor of the Colombian Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation has full responsibility and authority to reject/accept an article. He/she must be guided by the policies of the Editorial Committee and the Scientific Committee of the Journal and must keep in mind the existing legal aspects regarding defamation, copyright and plagiarism.
Duties of the Editorial Committee: The Editorial Committee must treat all authors equitably, in order to accomplish the editorial process in full compliance with the ethical guidelines contained in this declaration.
Fair play: given the requirement of originality of the articles sent to the Colombian Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, the editor makes an initial evaluation to confirm that it is an original publication that has not been published previously and that the text does not contain plagiarism, using for this purpose different software available for free:
In case that plagiarism is detected, the Journal follows the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines.
Confidentiality: The editor and the entire editorial team must not reveal any type of information about any manuscript that has been sent to the Journal for review. The only ones with whom information may be exchanged will be the author, the reviewers, the editorial advisors and the members of the Editorial Committee as long as it is pertinent.
Conflict of interest and funding: The unpublished material sent by the author to the Journal through the manuscript should not be used in the research processes of the editors without the express consent of the main author. Authors who submit a manuscript, whether an article or a letter, are responsible for disclosing all financial entities and personal relationships that could bias their work. To avoid any ambiguity, authors should explicitly declare if they have potential conflicts or if they do not exist. The authors must state the foregoing in the manuscript, in a page of notification of conflict of interest following the title page, providing additional details, and if necessary, in a letter accompanying the manuscript. The evaluators must point out the conflicts that may arise from the fact of not having sufficient knowledge of the subject of the research or for having been a close collaborator of the author evaluated.
Duties of the reviewers
Contribution to editorial decisions: the reviewer will assist the editor when making any editorial decision and through editorial communications with the author, he/she may assist the author in improving the content of the article.
Promptness: Any evaluator who feels unqualified to review any article or who is aware that it will be impossible for him/her to comply with the urgency required to pass judgment, will justify his/her excuse from the reviewing process by notifying the editor as soon as possible.
Confidentiality: Any manuscript received for review will be treated with the utmost confidentiality.
Standards of objectivity: Reviews should be conducted objectively, following the guidelines contained in the evaluation protocol. The referees must express their points of view with arguments that support their assessments and their recommendations for publication. The evaluators should not express personal judgments.
Acknowledgements of sources: The reviewers should be aware of relevant published works that have not been cited by the authors. Any statement of an observation, derivation or argument that had been used previously must be expressed with its corresponding citation. The reviewer must also notify the editor if he/she has evidence that any similarity of overlapping action between a manuscript under review and other works already published previously could occur.
Disclosure and conflict of interest: The reviewer must keep confidential any privileged information or idea obtained through a manuscript in the arbitration process, not being able to make use of that information for personal benefit in any case. Reviewers should not consider to arbitrate manuscripts that could enter into a conflict of interest with their own work or processes of competition, collaboration with other authors with whom they have a business or institutional connection.
Duties of the authors
Standards: The authors of original research papers must present a precise description of the work carried out, as well as an objective exposition of its meaning. The underlying data must be accurately represented in the paper. A document should have enough details, references, and citations to allow others to replicate the paper. Fraudulent or deliberately inaccurate statements constitute unethical and unacceptable behavior. When submitting his/her paper, the main author must also sign the declaration of originality and conflict of interest.
Access to information and retention: authors are requested to provide information in connection with the article under review, whose information, which should be publicly accessible if possible, and should in any case be prepared to keep such information within a reasonable period of time after its publication.
Originality and plagiarism
The authors must express that they have written a completely original work, and if they have used information from others, they must be appropriately cited and referenced.
Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication: the author should not publish in more than one journal or publication manuscripts that essentially describe the same research. The submission of the same manuscript to more than one journal constitutes unethical behavior and is unacceptable from an editorial point of view.
Acknowledgment of sources: the deserved recognition of the work of others must always be considered. The authors must cite and reference the publications that have had influence in the elaboration of their own work.
Authorship: Authorship should be limited to those people who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution and interpretation of the development of the work presented. All those who made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. When there are others who have participated in certain specific aspects of the project, they must be recognized or listed as collaborators, as well as in the acknowledgments. The main author must make sure that all co-authors and collaborators have been pertinently included and listed in the manuscript; in addition to that all have approved the final version of the manuscript and agree to submit it for publication.
Disclosure and conflict of interest: All authors must disclose in the manuscript any conflict of interest that could be significant in its interpretation. All sources of financial support for the project must be disclosed.
Errors in published papers: when an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in the publication of his own work, he will have the obligation to notify the editor of the Journal or the Editorial Committee as soon as possible and help them to correct it or, if necessary, remove his/her publication.
Manifestation of originality: When sending the manuscript, the author must accept through signed written communication that the document is an original work and has not been published by any means, nor is it being evaluated by another printed or electronic publication, according to the format available on the website of the Journal: Letter of originality and assignment of rights.
Informed consent: The authors should mention in the methods section that the procedures used on the participants in the study have been performed after adequate informed consent was obtained. If photographs or patient data are reproduced, the authors are responsible for obtaining written consent, authorizing their publication, reproduction and dissemination in printed and electronic format. Confidentiality of the identity of individuals must always be maintained.
