About the Journal

The Philippine Journal of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery (PJOHNS), official refereed journal of the Philippine Society of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, is a free and open-access, English-language journal that follows the “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals” of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (www.icmje.org), and is listed as such: https://www.icmje.org/journals-following-the-icmje-recommendations/ - P

Aims and Scope

PJOHNS aims to provide local and overseas otolaryngologists, other surgeons and physicians, health and allied medical professionals, academicians and scientists from other disciplines, with a scholarly forum for the exchange of ideas and information in the discipline of otolaryngology - head and neck medicine and surgery and related fields that are especially relevant to health professionals in the Philippine and Asia Pacific context. It publishes peer-reviewed original articles (including clinical trials, laboratory investigations, effectiveness of diagnostic or therapeutic techniques); evidence-based medicine (including clinical practice guidelines, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, evaluations of current practices and commentaries); case reports with discussions; surgical and instrumentation innovations and illustrations of new techniques; review articles; imaging and histopathology cases; lectures and symposia; brief reports and abstracts; correspondence and guest editorials and studies relating to behavioral, epidemiological, educational or controversial issues in otolaryngology - head and neck medicine and surgery and related fields. We are particularly committed to publishing research and innovations for health that are relevant in low and middle-income countries.

Notice to Readers and Contributors

Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted via the editorial online submission and peer-review system available at https://pjohns.pso-hns.org/index.php/pjohns/about/submissions. Authors must first register to use the site. There are NO article processing charges or fees for submission, editing, review, and publication.

Authors must submit, along with the manuscript, scanned duly-accomplished authorship statements, disclosure statements and copyright transfer forms explained under the “Instructions to Authors” section of the journal, available in print with each issue, or online from http://journal.pso-hns.org/author-forms/ No manuscript will be reviewed until the signed authorship and disclosure statements and copyright transfer forms are received.

Manuscripts are subjected to iThenticate® plagiarism detection software and reviewed by editors and other experts in the field and may be proofread, content- and form- edited and returned for revision. Manuscripts are subjected to a double anonymized external peer-review process, guided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) ethical guidelines for peer reviewers, available from: https://publicationethics.org/node/19886 . Reviewers must maintain confidentiality about the manuscripts and should not use data from such manuscripts or share such data with colleagues before they are published. Reviewers must not reproduce the manuscript for any purpose or use the peer review process as a means to further their own research aims, by requiring authors to respond to questions that are of interest to the reviewer but are not questions the study was designed to answer. Reviewers should refrain from suggesting their own published work be referenced.

Subscription

The Journal is published semiannually in paid print and free open access electronic versions; subscribers will receive two printed issues per year plus supplements on special topics. PSOHNS Fellows in good standing are automatically enrolled subscribers with no additional fees except for the supplements. Non-fellows may subscribe to print copies at the following rates, which include delivery fees. Institutional (multiple-reader rates) apply to libraries, schools, hospitals, and government, commercial and private institutions and organizations. Individual subscriptions must be in the name of, billed to, and paid by individuals. Forms are available in each issue or from http://journal.pso-hns.org/order-form/

Individual

Local PhP 1,200.00

Overseas USD 40.00

Institutional

Local PhP 1,500.00

Overseas USD 50.00

Particular print Issues and Supplements may be purchased at the following rates per copy subject to availability:

Individual

Local PhP 600.00

Overseas USD 20.00

Institutional

Local PhP 750.00

Overseas USD 25.00

Disclaimer

Statements and opinions expressed in the articles, contributions and communications herein are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Editor(s) or the Publisher (Philippine Society of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery). The Editors and the PSOHNS assume no responsibility for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of product liability or negligence or which otherwise arise from use or operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas cited or discussed in any article, contribution or communication in this Journal.

Although all advertising materials are expected to conform to medical ethical standards, the appearance of advertising in the PJOHNS does not constitute a guarantee or endorsement by the PJOHNS or the PSOHNS of the quality or value of such product or the claims made for it by its manufacturer.

Reprints/Advertising

Reprint requests (unless available from corresponding authors) and advertising inquiries may be addressed to the Managing Editor, Philippine Journal of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, No. 27 Manga Road, Barangay Kaunlaran, Quezon City 1111, Philippines

Open Access Policy

This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author, as long as the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license are met. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.

Publication Frequency

Published semiannually in May and November, Number One of Volume One is dated January – December 1981. It is also published electronically, available from http://journal.pso-hns.org/ Journal International Standard Serial Number: p-ISSN 1908 4889; e-ISSN 2094 1501.

Implementing Guidelines

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check their submission’s compliance with all of the following items, and submissions that do not adhere to these guidelines will be rejected. In addition, compliance with guidelines for certain types of articles must be checked using the appropriate checklist (CONSORT, PRISMA, etc.)

1. Accomplished author statements, signed by ALL authors, with:

• A list of authors’ names in the correct order of listing.
• A full statement that the manuscript is original material that is not being considered for publication or has not been published or accepted for publication elsewhere, in full or in part, in print or electronic media;
• A statement that the manuscript has been read and approved by all the authors, that all four criteria for authorship have been met by each author;
• A disclosure statement of financial or other relationships, intellectual passion, political or religious beliefs, and institutional affiliations that might lead to a conflict of interest;
• A copyright transfer form signed by all authors; and
• Acknowledgement by the corresponding author that IRB or ERB approval and informed consent (and assent) have been obtained, that clinical trial registry has been complied with, that copies of permission to reproduce published material, to use illustrations or report information about identifiable people, to name people for their contributions have been secured, and that all manuscript data is complete, valid and reliable.

2. Manuscripts are neatly prepared in correct U.S. English using Microsoft Word, RTF or Word-Perfect software on A4 format in Times New Roman font size 12, double spaced, with a 1-inch margin on all sides. If the MS Word “Track Changes” tool has been used in manuscript preparation, all changes in the document have been accepted and the “Track Changes” feature has been turned off before submission. Citations and references are typed manually (i.e., do NOT use automatic numbering or tools such as EndNote).
3. Manuscripts are correctly ordered as follows: (1) title page (2) abstract including keywords and laymanized version (3) text – introduction, methods, results, discussion (4) acknowledgements (5) references (6) tables (7) figure legends and (8) individual figures (each attached separately in .jpeg format). The pages of the manuscript are numbered consecutively, beginning with the title page as page one.
4. Submission Metadata matches elements from part (1) title, authors and affiliations, and (2) abstract and keywords – in Step 2 (Entering the Submission’s Metadata) of the 5-step online submission process. Following this, Parts (1) to (7) have been fully uploaded under Step 3 (Upload Submission) portion. Each figure (8) has been uploaded separately as a supplementary file. The author statement forms have also been uploaded separately as supplementary files.
5. Instructions to Authors detailed in this section have been fully complied with.

Copyright Transfer Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 LICENSE

1. Copyright transfer ensures maximum international protection and facilitates efficient processing of requests for reprints. It includes inclusion in document delivery services, electronic journal databases and online journal versions.
2. A Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license is granted, which means that readers are free to share (copy and redistribute) the material in any medium or format under the following terms:

 Attribution – they must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. They may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in a way that suggests the licensor endorses them or their use.

NonCommercial – they may not use the material for commercial purposes.

NoDerivatives – if they remix, transform or build upon the material, they may not distribute the modified material.

3. Each author retains moral rights to his/her/their article(s), including the right to be identified as the author(s) whenever or wherever the article is cited or published.
4. Assigning the copyright does not forfeit author(s)’ rights to reprint their article(s) or contribute them elsewhere after obtaining written permission from the editors, or without such permission as long as the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license are met, provided that the PJOHNS is acknowledged as the original source.
5. Where in special cases, a contributor’s employer (such as the government) holds the copyright to an article, written non-exclusive permission to deal with reprint requests from third parties should be provided the editors.
6. By signing the author form, authors certify that the submitted article is their original work, that it has not been previously published nor is it being considered for publication elsewhere; that they have obtained permission for and acknowledged the source(s) of quoted excerpts or paraphrased references in the text, tables, figures and algorithms. Further, authors certify that to the best of their knowledge, their article is free of libelous, unlawful or actionable contents.

Data Availability and Sharing

For purposes of transparency and scientific integrity, authors must provide a statement in the manuscript submission on the availability of data. One of the following data availability and sharing statements may be selected:

• Datasets generated and analyzed are included in the published article.
• No datasets were generated or analyzed for this study.
• Datasets for the study are publicly available in the data repositories* listed.
• Datasets are not publicly available because participants did not give written consent for their data to be shared.
• Datasets analyzed in the study are under license and not publicly available for sharing.

If none of the above statements are appropriate, the authors are asked to contact the Editorial Assistant at pjohns@pso-hns.org.

Repositories for deposit of datasets may include institutional repositories or third-party repositories, such as (but not limited to):

• Figshare [https://figshare.com/]
• Dryad [https:// datadryad.org/]
• Zenodo [ https://zenodo.org ]
• Open Science Framework [https://osf.io/]
• Dataverse [https://dataverse.harvard.edu]

NOTE: Deposited datasets should bear a persistent identifier (e.g., Digital Object Identifier or DOI; or accession number) and be publicly available through a license (at least CC-BY 4.0).

Use of Artificial Intelligence

Authors must disclose whether they used artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technologies (such as Large Language Models [LLMs], chatbots, or image creators) in the production of submitted work. Authors who use such technology should describe, in both the cover letter and the submitted work, how they used it. When an AI tool such as a chatbot is used to carry out or generate analytical work, help report results (e.g., generating tables or figures), or write computer codes, such use must be described in both the Abstract and Methods section. The full prompt used to generate the research results, the time and date of query, and the AI tool used and its version, should be provided.

Humans are responsible for any submitted material that included the use of AI-assisted technologies (including the accuracy of what is presented and the absence of plagiarism) and for appropriate attribution of all sources (including original sources for material generated by the chatbot). Authors should carefully review and edit the manuscript because AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete, or biased. It is the author’s responsibility to ensure that the content reflects the author’s data and ideas, and is not plagiarism, fabrication, or falsification.

Artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technologies (such as Large Language Models [LLMs], chatbots, or image creators) should not be listed or be cited as authors, because they cannot be responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the work, and these responsibilities are required for authorship. References listing AI as authors should not be cited for the same reasons. Humans must ensure there is appropriate attribution of all quoted material, including full citations.

Artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technologies (such as Large Language Models [LLMs], chatbots, or image creators) should not be used by editors and reviewers to evaluate or review submissions, because such use potentially breaches confidentiality of the submitted manuscript. Editors and peer reviewers should specify, to authors and to each other, any use of chatbots in the generation of correspondence and communications with authors and each other, and explain how they were used.

Review Procedure

Manuscripts are subjected to iThenticate® plagiarism detection software and reviewed by editors and other experts in the field and may be proofread, content- and form- edited and returned for revision. Manuscripts are subjected to a double blinded external peer-review process, guided by the “Responsibilities and Rights of Peer Reviewers” contained in the Editorial Policy Statements Approved by the Council of Science Editors Board of Directors available from: https://www. councilscienceeditors.org/. Reviewers must maintain confidentiality about the manuscripts and should not use data from such manuscripts or share such data with colleagues before they are published. Reviewers must not reproduce the manuscript for any purpose or use the peer review process as a means to further their own research aims, by requiring authors to respond to questions that are of interest to the reviewer but are not questions the study was designed to answer. Reviewers should refrain from suggesting their own published work be referenced.

Appeals

The editorial team of the Philipp J Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg recognizes authors' rights to appeal editorial decisions at any stage. Authors who wish to submit appeals of manuscripts that have been rejected should first consult the list of reasons for rejection to make sure that they have a good case for making an appeal. If you wish to appeal the rejection of your paper, please write a detailed letter explaining why we should reconsider, with a point-by-point rebuttal of any reviewer's criticisms provided, and send it to pjohns@pso-hns.org. This appeal request will be considered by the editor who originally handled your paper, and may be discussed at an editorial meeting, to decide upon one of two potential courses of action:

1. Your appeal is upheld, and we will resume processing your manuscript, including external review or further review (when necessary) and requiring your revisions. Please note that a final decision will not have been made at this point regarding possible publication, but your paper is back in the workflow for consideration.
2. Your appeal is rejected, and we will write you a letter explaining the reasons for this decision.

We will only consider one appeal per paper, and you can increase your chances having your appeal upheld by supplying as much detail as possible in your request. We aim to let you know whether your appeal will be upheld or not, within eight weeks of receipt of your letter.

Top 10 reasons for rejecting a manuscript

1. Content of the paper not suitable for the journal.
2. Lack of novelty and or timeliness.
3. Lack of either or both ethical committee approval and informed consent.
4. Design of the study not appropriate for the research question.
5. Lack of an appropriate, replicable methodology.
6. Insufficient sample size or inappropriate data analysis.
7. Conclusions not justified by the results.
8. Submission preparation checklist incomplete.
9. Instructions to authors not followed.
10. Evidence of misconduct (e.g., fabrication, falsification, manipulation, plagiarism).

Ethical Guidelines

The academic editors of the Philippine Journal of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery are committed to fair and professional dealing in all aspects of our publishing operations. Our role is to publish original work of value to the intellectual community in the best possible form and to the highest possible standards. We expect similar standards from our reviewers and authors. Honesty, originality and fair dealing on the part of authors, and fairness, objectivity and confidentiality on the part of editors and reviewers are among the critical values that enable us to achieve our aim. The PJOHNS endorses and behaves in accordance with the codes of conduct and international standards established by the Committee on Publication Ethics guidelines https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines.

Conflicts of Interest

The Philippine Journal of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery follows the “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals” of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (www.icmje.org), and is listed as such: https://www.icmje.org/journals-following-the-icmje-recommendations/ - P

Its academic editors are committed to fair and professional dealing in all aspects of our publishing operations. Their affiliations are listed on this website, and they additionally disclose other potential conflicts of interest when needed. Our role is to publish original work of value to the intellectual community in the best possible form and to the highest possible standards. We expect similar standards from our reviewers and authors. Honesty, originality and fair dealing on the part of authors, and fairness, objectivity and confidentiality on the part of editors and reviewers are among the critical values that enable us to achieve our aim. 

The PJOHNS endorses and behaves in accordance with the codes of conduct and international standards established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) in their joint statement on the Principles of Transparency & Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, available at https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.1.12.

Conflict of interest has been defined as a set of conditions in which professional judgment concerning a primary interest (such as validity of research) can be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain). Conflict of interest (COI) exists when there is a divergence between an individual’s private interests (competing interests) and his or her responsibilities to scientific and publishing activities such that a reasonable observer might wonder if the individual’s behavior or judgment was motivated by considerations of his or her competing interests. COI in medical publishing affects everyone with a stake in research integrity including journals, research/academic institutions, funding agencies, the popular media, and the public. The Philipp J Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg is interested in COI as it relates to specific manuscripts.

Everyone has COIs of some sort. Having a competing interest does not, in itself, imply wrongdoing. However, it constitutes a problem when competing interests could unduly influence (or be reasonably seen to influence) one’s responsibilities in the publication process. If COI is not managed effectively, it can cause authors, reviewers, and editors to make decisions that, consciously or unconsciously, tend to serve their competing interests at the expense of their responsibilities in the publication process, thereby distorting the scientific enterprise. This consequence of COI is especially dangerous when it is not immediately apparent to others. In addition, the appearance of COI, even where none actually exists, can also erode trust in a journal by damaging its reputation and credibility.

Authors

To prevent information on potential conflict of interest for authors from being overlooked or misplaced, it is necessary for that information to be part of the manuscript. Each author is expected to disclose any type of financial or proprietary interest related to the manuscript, including (but not limited to) stock in or ownership of an entity connected to a product described in the paper, consultancy for the company or competing companies, honoraria, travel support or patent rights to a drug, instrument or equipment, or benefits derived from the use thereof. Conflict of Interest also includes “intellectual passion,” (the tendency to favor positions that one has already espoused or perhaps even established); personal relationships (the tendency to judge the works of friends/colleagues or competitors/foes differently because of the relationship); political or religious beliefs (the tendency to favor or reject positions because it affirms or challenges one’s political or religious beliefs); and institutional affiliations (the tendency to favor or reject results of research because of one’s institutional affiliations). Where no conflict of interest exists, a written statement should be made to that effect.

Reviewers

Reviewers should preview a manuscript that they have been asked to review to see if they have conflicts of interest that could complicate their review. Reviewers must disclose to editors any conflicts of interest that could bias their opinions of the manuscript and should recuse themselves from reviewing specific manuscripts if the potential for bias exists. Reviewers are guided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) ethical guidelines for peer reviewers, available from: https://publicationethics.org/node/19886. Reviewers must maintain confidentiality about manuscripts and should not use data from such manuscripts or share such data with colleagues before they are published. Reviewers must not use knowledge of the work they are reviewing before its publication to further their own interests. Reviewers must not reproduce the manuscript for any purpose or use the peer review process as a means to further their own research aims, by requiring authors to respond to questions that are of interest to the reviewer but are not questions the study was designed to answer. Reviewers should refrain from suggesting their own published work be referenced.

Editors

Editors and Associate Editors who make final decisions about manuscripts should recuse themselves from editorial decisions if they have conflicts of interest or relationships that pose potential conflicts related to articles under consideration. Editorial team members who participate in editorial decisions must provide a current description of their financial interests or other conflicts (as they might relate to editorial judgments) and recluse themselves from any decisions in which a potential conflict of interest exists. Editors should publish disclosure statements about potential conflicts of interest related to any manuscript handled. Guest editors should follow these same procedures.

Editorial Independence

Our views on Editorial Independence are reflected in the Distinguished Editors Series by Lapeña JF on “Editorial independence and the editor-owner relationship: good editors never die, they just cross the line.” (Singapore Med J. 2009 Dec;50(12):1120-2. PMID: 20087545). We ensure that the editorial decision-making processes of the Philippine Journal of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery are completely independent from influence by the owner-publisher, the Philippine Society of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery.

To this end, the Editor-in-Chief of the PJOHNS is appointed by the Board of Trustees of the PSO-HNS for three-year terms, renewable every three years, while the appointing body (Board of Trustees) only have one-year terms of office. In this manner, Editors-in-Chief of the PJOHNS are never co-terminus with the President and officers of the PSO-HNS. Associate Editors are appointed solely by the Editor-in-Chief, while the Managing Editor is appointed by the Editor-in-Chief in consultation with the Owner-Publisher. The Editorial Assistant is employed by the PSOHNS with the approval of the Editor-in-Chief. No one on the executive or commercial side of the PSOHNS can get involved in, interfere, or even comment on editorial decisions under any circumstances. This includes the decision to print advertisements (or to refuse such printing).

All editorial decisions are made within the editorial structures of the PJOHNS, by the Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editors, and Managing Editor, in consultation with the Editorial Advisory Board if needed. Where any member of the editorial board (including the Editor-in-Chief) submits an article where they have an authorship role, they recuse themselves from the editorial decision-making process, with another editor assigned as handling editor.

Complaints About Publication Ethics

The editorial team of the Philipp J Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg follows guidelines published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (https://publicationethics.org/guidance) and complaints about researchers, authors, reviewers, or handling editors should be addressed to the Editor-in-Chief (pjohns@pso-hns.org). The Editor-in-Chief may consult the Editorial Team of the Philippine Journal of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery and/or the Philippine Society of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, as well as the Philippine Association of Medical Journal Editors (PAMJE), Asia Pacific Association of Medical Journal Editors (APAME), World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), or Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) for advice on difficult or complicated cases. For complaints about researchers, authors, reviewers, or another editor, the Editor-in-Chief decides on a course of action and provides feedback to the complainant. Complaints about the Editor-in-Chief may be addressed directly to the Board of Trustees of the Philippine Society of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery (psohns@pso-hns.org). If the complainant remains dissatisfied with the handling of their complaint, they can submit the complaint to the Committee on Publication Ethics. 

Article Withdrawal, Corrections and Retraction

Article Withdrawal
Manuscripts submitted to the journal are edited and reviewed in good faith, utilizing editorial office and editorial and reviewer manpower resources without any processing fees. Thus, accomplished author forms are required prior to processing, which include duly signed copyright transfer statements. Despite this contract, authors who are compelled to withdraw their manuscript at any time during the editing and review period, before the final version of the manuscript has been approved by the authors, must provide a reasonable explanation in a formal written request addressed to the Editor-in-Chief and the President of the Philippine Society of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery (as publisher and copyright owner).

Article Corrections
Galley Proofs with the final version of the manuscript to be published are corrected (if needed) and approved by all co-authors, with their signatures affixed to each page of the approved Galley Proof. Hence, corrections to the published article are very rarely entertained, unless a subsequent development that affects the soundness of the science necessitates such a correction (i.e., errors in analysis or computations, that may subsequently be pointed out by readers). A corrigendum may be published in a succeeding issue of the journal, while a notation identifying such a corrigendum may be affixed to the electronic version. The originally-published article will remain published as is, with the corrections appended to it. Where serious errors in the published version (such as plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, image manipulation, duplicate publication) invalidate the results and conclusion of the article, the article will be retracted instead of merely corrected.

For all corrections:
• A correction notice/erratum signed by all authors shall be published as the cover page of the corrected PDF version.
• The corrected article version shall include details of the changes from the original version and the dates on which the changes were made.
• The previous published version of the article shall remain published, but the original online version will clearly state that a corrected version exists, with links to that version.
• New citations shall be ascribed to the corrected version, in addition to the original DOI for the initially published version.

Article Retraction
Retraction is a very serious matter, that is made by the Philippine Journal of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery through its Editor-in-Chief or Editorial Board, in case a published article is found to have serious errors, or to have involved misconduct (such as plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, image manipulation, duplicate publication) that invalidate the results and conclusion of the article.

For all retractions:
• A retraction notice signed by all authors shall be published as the cover page of the PDF version.
• The original article shall remain in the database and published issue but a notation shall be made indicating that the article has been retracted, following the convention: “RETRACTION: [Title].”
• The HTML version shall be removed and the link button to the HTML version disabled.
• A watermark indicating that the work is retracted shall be placed on each page of the original article published and shall be uploaded to replace the PDF version.

Archiving Policy

The Philippine Journal of Otolaryngology Head and Nek Surgery uses LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) system to store and distribute journal content at participating libraries via a LOCKSS Publisher Manifest page.

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