PUPJST adheres to the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

1) Submitting a manuscript to PUPJST signifies that all authors have reviewed and approved its
content and that the manuscript complies with the journal’s policies.
2) Intending authors should submit only original manuscripts that are free of plagiarism, including
self-plagiarism, and are not under consideration elsewhere. Manuscripts submitted to PUPJST are considered exclusive during the review process. Submission to other publications is
prohibited unless the manuscript is formally declined by one of our journals following peer review.
3) PUPJST, through the Managing Editors (ME), reserves the right to accept or reject any
submitted material.
4) Works in our journals do not reflect the views of the editors.
5) PUPJST has the right to retract works that breach research and publication ethics after
publication.

Submission Preparation Checklist

Manuscripts should be accompanied by a cover letter which should include the following information:
• A full statement to the editor about all submissions and previous reports that might be regarded
as redundant publications of the same or very similar work. Any such work should be referred to
specifically and referenced in the new paper. Copies of such material should be included with the
submitted paper to help the editor address the situation. See also Section III.D.2
https://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf.
• A statement of financial or other relationships and activities that might lead to a conflict of interest,
if that information is not included in the manuscript itself or in an author’s form. See also Section
II.B.
• A statement on authorship. Journals that do not use contribution declarations for all authors may
require that the submission letter includes a statement that the manuscript has been read and
approved by all the authors, that the requirements for authorship as stated earlier in this
document have been met, and that each author believes that the manuscript represents honest
work if that information is not provided in another form. See also Section II.A.
• Contact information of all the authors (email and affiliations). Specify the corresponding author
who will be responsible for communicating with other authors about revisions and final approval
of the proofs, if that information is not included in the manuscript itself.
• The letter or form should inform editors if concerns have been raised (e.g., via institutional and/or
regulatory bodies) regarding the conduct of the research or if corrective action has been
recommended. The letter or form should give any additional information that may be helpful to the
editor, such as the type or format of the article in the particular journal that the manuscript
represents. If the manuscript has been submitted previously to another journal, it is helpful to
include the previous editors' and reviewers’ comments with the submitted manuscript, along with
the authors’ responses to those comments. Editors encourage authors to submit these previous
communications. Doing so may expedite the review process and encourage transparency and
sharing of expertise.

• The manuscript must be accompanied by permission to reproduce previously published material,
use previously published illustrations, report information about identifiable people, or
acknowledge people for their contributions.
• Authors should obtain permission from authors for copyright figures and tables before submitting
to PUPJST

As part of the submission process, authors must confirm that their submission complies with all the
following requirements. Submissions that do not meet these guidelines may be returned for revisions.
Affiliation
✓ Authors must list all relevant affiliations where the research was approved, supported, and
conducted, including your current affiliation.
✓ If you move to a different institution before publication, list the affiliation where the work was
completed.
✓ If you do not have a current relevant institutional affiliation, state your independent status.

Manuscript template: Click here

Writing Rules:

Below are the mandatory criteria to be considered in manuscript submission to PUPJST. Failure to
adhere to these criteria will result in rejection of the article by the editorial team.
• The article adheres to the submission preparation checklist.
• Article should be in Microsoft Word format only.
• Articles should be written in single-column format, using Arial font, 11-point font size. Keep the
layout of the text as simple as possible.
• Equations and formulas should be readable, preferably written using equation editing software's
(E.g. Math Type). Alternatively, authors have to provide the fonts used for creating the
equations/formulae.
• All figures provided are of high resolution, minimum of 300dpi. The captions should be short
having 10-15 words in sentence case style. E.g. Figure 1. Percentage of detection rate vs.
number of nodes.
• All abbreviations should be defined on first use in the text along with the abbreviation in
parenthesis. E.g. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
• Symbols should be used while referring to alpha, beta, mu, etc (Ex: α, β, μ, etc). All units should
follow the International System of Units (SI units).
• File size should not exceed 20 MB.
• References and citations should be in APA style.

Citations:

All submissions, regardless of their nature (research articles or non-research articles), are expected to
adhere to rigorous citation practices.
• All claims within the manuscript must be supported by relevant, recent, and credible literature,
primarily from peer-reviewed sources.
• Avoid excessive self-citation or agreements to cite each other's work, as this is considered
citation manipulation. Refer to COPE (citation manipulation) guidance on this issue.

• For non-research articles, ensure that the cited references are relevant to the article's topic and
provide a balanced and unbiased overview of the current state of knowledge. Avoid displaying
any undue bias towards specific research groups, organizations, or journals.

In case of any difficulty with the manuscript submission process or concern regarding the suitability of
your files, please contact us at pupjst@pup.edu.ph.

Authorship of the paper

Authorship should be limited to those who have contributed significantly to the conception, design,
execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made substantial contributions
should be listed as co-authors.
Individuals who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the paper (e.g., language editing or
medical writing) should be recognized in the acknowledgments section.
The lead author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are
included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and
have agreed to its submission for publication.

See the Authorship Criteria.

Appeals and Complaints

PUPJST upholds the ethical guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) for appeals and
peer review management. We encourage legitimate appeals and post-publication concerns, which
should be formally submitted to the Editor-in-Chief (EIC) through the Managing Editor. The EIC will
conduct a thorough investigation by gathering information from all relevant parties and propose a
resolution aligned with academic integrity principles. Review or publication processes may be temporarily
halted during the investigation to ensure a fair and just resolution. In cases where the EIC is directly
involved in the complaint, the Editorial Board, under the guidance of its senior member, will assume
responsibility for the investigation and resolution.

Reporting Standards

Authors of research reports should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an
objective discussion of its significance. The underlying data should be represented accurately in the
paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work.
Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.
Review and professional publication articles should also be accurate and objective, and editorial ‘opinion’
works should be clearly identified as such.

Multiple, Redundant, Or Concurrent Publication

An author should not generally publish manuscripts describing the same research in multiple journals or
primary publications. Submitting the same manuscript to multiple journals concurrently constitutes
unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

Competing Interests

All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial and personal relationships with other people
or organizations that could be viewed as inappropriately influencing (bias) their work.

All sources of financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article should be
disclosed, as should the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis, and
interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If
the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this should be stated.

Examples of potential conflicts of interest that should be disclosed include employment, consultancies,
stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other
funding. Potential conflicts of interest should be disclosed at the earliest possible stage.

Funding

All authors should disclose all sources of financial support received for their research. This disclosure
requirement encompasses:
• Financial support originating from internal sources such as institutional funds, grants, and support
from the authors' employers or affiliated organizations
• Financial support received from external sources, including but not limited to charities, private
foundations, for-profit entities (e.g., technology companies, pharmaceutical companies), think
tanks, political groups, trade associations, research organizations, and government agencies
• External funds from charities, private foundations, for-profit companies (like tech or
pharmaceutical companies), think tanks, political groups, trade associations, research
organizations, and government agencies.

Corrections, Expressions of Concerns, and Retractions

Corrections to a published article require the approval of the Editor-in-Chief. Minor corrections are made
directly to the original article, with a post-publication notice (erratum) added to the journal issue. For major
corrections, the original article remains unchanged, and a corrected version is published. Both versions
will be linked, and a statement explaining the major change will be included. A correction notice should be
written and approved by all the original article’s authors whenever possible. In rare cases, the journal
might need to issue a correction without the authors’ direct input. If this happens, the journal will try to
notify the authors. Articles may be retracted following COPE retraction guidelines, if necessary. These
corrections ensure the journal’s integrity and are not meant to punish authors.

Misconduct including fabrication and falsification

PUPJST takes misconduct seriously and will act according to COPE guidelines to protect the integrity of
scholarly work. Examples of misconduct include (but are not limited to):
• Affiliation misrepresentation
• Breaches in copyright/use of third-party material without appropriate permissions
• Citation manipulation
• Duplicate submission/publication
• “Ethics dumping”
• Image or data manipulation/fabrication
• Peer review manipulation
• Plagiarism
• Text-recycling/self-plagiarism
• Undisclosed competing interests
• Unethical research

Acknowledgments

People who contributed to the work but do not fit the criteria for authors should be listed in the
Acknowledgments, along with their contributions. Authors are requested to ensure that anyone named in
the Acknowledgments agrees to being so named.