Instructions for Authors

Affirmation of Originality and Assignment of Copyright Form

A completed Affirmation of Originality and Assignment of Copyright Form should be signed by all authors and submitted with the manuscript data in PDF form. The signature must be written by each author’s own hand. Author should attach the document at the end of the submitted manuscript. The review process does not start until the Affirmation of Copyright Form with sufficient information is received by the editorial office.
Affirmation of Originality and Assignment of Copyright Form WORD/PDF

Authorship

Authors must understand and confirm that they meet the following criteria of contribution described by ICMJE in the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.
1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work.
2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
3. Final approval of the version to be published.
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

The corresponding author will take primary responsibility for communication with the journal during the manuscript submission, peer review, and publication process, and ensures that all the journal’s administrative requirements, such as providing details of authorship, ethics committee approval, clinical trial registration documentation, and gathering conflict of interest forms and statements, are properly completed. These duties may be delegated to one or more co-authors.

Contributors who meet fewer than all 4 of the aforementioned criteria should not be listed as authors, but they may be mentioned in the Acknowledgement.

Informed Consent and Ethics

Studies on human participants should comply with the ethical standards of the Declaration of Helsinki 1964 and per subsequent revisions (https://www.wma.net/).
Authors must specify that the ethical committee in the respective institution or hospital has approved the studies and that written informed consent has been obtained from each participant or patient. All experiments using animals should be done under the approval of the appropriate animal experimentation committee and this should be specified in the text. Write the name of the ethics committee and the given approval number. If not approved by an ethics committee, describe the ethical consideration.

Conflict of Interest and Funding Statement

Authors should refer to and comply with the policies described by ICMJE in the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals. Authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence or bias consideration or publication of a submitted manuscript. Authors must state the sources of funding that have supported their work. Authors must include the full, correct details of their funders and any relevant grant numbers.

TIDieR Checklist

We encourage submitting authors to complete the TIDieR (Template for Intervention Description and Replication) checklist at the time of submission of a manuscript that describes any study that involves the delivery of an intervention. Authors can download a copy of the TIDieR checklist here: http://www.equator-network.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/TIDieR-Checklist-PDF.pdf

Peer review

All articles published in Journal of Physical Therapy Science has been single-blind reviewed. Independent experts within the same field of research are responsible for critically reading, evaluating and providing authors with feedbacks to improve their work.

Open access

Journal of Physical Therapy Science is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without any charges.

Preprints

To widely disseminate research, JPTS permits authors to register their manuscripts on preprint servers officially approved by relevant research communities before or at the time of submitting these manuscripts to JPTS. This applies only to original-version manuscripts describing primary studies. Manuscripts revised based on reviewers’ comments, accepted for publication, or already published in JPTS cannot be registered on preprint servers. However, there is no restriction on the registration of links to published papers on preprint servers.

Copyright and Licensing

The copyright for any article appearing in the Journal of Physical Therapy Science is held by the Society of Physical Therapy Science, and the publishing rights by IPEC, Inc.
Journal of Physical Therapy Science is an Open Access Journal publishes articles distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd) License. (CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Publication Fee

If the corresponding author is not a member of the Society of Physical Therapy Science, the submission charge is as follows for each manuscript:
-Authors based in Japan 9,200 yen plus local consumption tax.
-Authors based outside of Japan 10,120 yen.
*A submission charge will not be levied for a member of the Society of Physical Therapy Science.

The article processing charge (APC) is as follows per page in published format:
-Authors based in Japan 18,000 yen plus local consumption tax.
-Authors based outside of Japan 19,800 yen.

The fees are to be paid when requested by the Society of Physical Therapy Science. We offer APC waivers to manuscripts whose corresponding authors are based in countries classified by the United Nations as least developed countries.

Manuscript Categories

Manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Physical Therapy Science must present original and unpublished materials and should not be under editorial consideration elsewhere. The Journal of Physical Therapy Science publishes four types of articles: Original Articles, Review Articles, Case Studies, and Technical Notes.
Original Articles are reports of original unpublished new findings, over which the author has proprietary rights.
Review articles are systematic summarizations of previously published articles in specific fields or research themes, which comment on the field or theme, or present research trends and prospects.
Case Studies summarize the results of single or multiple cases observed in clinical practice, discussing correlation and connection between causes and effects in depth, presenting new facts and events, or the occurrence of problems. Case Studies should present specific cases; they should not be a simple report.
Technical Notes are short reports introducing evaluation equipment and treatment devices, developed from new technology, or the development of measurement techniques.

Manuscript Preparation

• Download submission format (Word file),  follow all instructions and prepare manuscript.
• Manuscripts must be typed with 25-mm margins on both sides using 9.5-point type in Times New Roman font with 24 lines per page on A4-size (210 x 297 mm) paper. All lines of the text should be numbered serially in the left margin, and the entire manuscript should be paginated. The text should be divided into captioned sections, such as INTRODUCTION, PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS, RESULTS, DISCUSSION.
• The first page of the manuscript should include the title, author’s full name, affiliation, the complete mailing address, and e-mail address of the corresponding author.
• The second page should include an abstract not exceeding 200 words and key words (up to three). Abstract should be structured according to the following format: Purpose, Participant(s) and Methods, Results, Conclusion, and begin each section with new lines. Abbreviations and special symbols should not be used in the abstract. Use the active voice, when expressing ideas, opinions, or hypothesizing, etc., with a grammatical subject, such as: “we”, “the author(s)”, or the name of the citing author, or “he”, or “they”. Do not use Subject(s), instead, use Participant(s). Do not report p-values, or describe the statistical methods in the Abstract.
• The third page should start from INTRODUCTION. In the INTRODUCTION describe the background and purpose of the research. Write simply and describe the purpose accurately. Do not insert spaces at the beginning of new paragraphs. Do not insert lines between paragraphs. In PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS do not use subheadings. Terms sex and gender should be used appropriately. Sex should be used when reporting biological factors and gender should be used when reporting gender identity or psychosocial/cultural factors. Write the participants average age (years), weight (kg, not Kg), height (cm). Report SD to the first decimal place. Regarding ethics, if approved by an ethics committee, write the name of the ethics committee and the given approval number. If not approved by an ethics committee, describe the ethical considerations. Specify whether or not written informed consent was obtained from each participant. Describe the experimental plan and outcome measures. Give the product name and manufacturer of measuring devices. Describe the measurement procedures. Describe statistical methods and software used. p<0.05 must be written in lower case. In RESULTS do not use subheadings. Report results with leading zeroes and decimal points: e.g 0.05, not .05; and 2.34, not 2,34. Report results using the past tense, and specify the units of measure. Report numbers with no more than three significant figures, and use no more decimal places than necessary. In DISCUSSION write a summary of the conclusion. Discuss the interpretation, correctness of the measurements, limitations of the study, proof of hypothesis, further prospects, suggestions and challenges. Avoid dramatic interpretation. Finish with the conclusion.
•  If you have registered your manuscript on a preprint server prior to submission, this must be acknowledged upon submission. An information of the preprint document must be provided so that reviewers and editors can evaluate this and compare it with the submitted manuscript. The preprint information should give author name(s), title, preprint server name, posted date and doi, such as the example given below. Write this information after DISCUSSION under ‘Preprint publication’.
  Miyazaki T, Kawada M, Kiyama R, et al.: Validity of two-dimensional analyses for the assessment of dynamic foot alignment during walking. Research Square, Preprint posted online May 8, 2020. Doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-27020/v1
• If a part of your research was presented in a conference, write the name of the conference, volume and issue number of the abstract or the URL of the abstract page after Discussion.
• Authors must state all conflict of interest after Discussion. If the authors have no conflict of interest, please state that there are none.
• References should be listed in the order in which they appear in the article. Journal references should give author’s surname followed by forename initials, title of article, name of periodical, publication year, volume number, and the first and last page numbers. In the reference list, include all authors’ names for works with up to three authors, if there are four or more authors, list first three names followed by “et al.”. Book citations should give authors, book title, edition, city, publisher, year, and page numbers, if necessary.

  Journal

  1) Dunn JE, Rudberg MA, Furner SE, et al.: Mortality, disability, and falls in older persons: the role of underlying disease and disability. Am J Public Health, 1992, 82: 284–400.

  Book

  2) Gibson MJ: Falls in later life. In: Improving the health of older people: a world view. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990, pp 296–315.
  3) Schumway-Cook A, Woollacott M: Motor control: theory and practical applications. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1995.

  URL

  4) American Physical Therapy Association. Coalition for Patients’ Rights. http://www.apta.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=News_and_Info&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=31549 (Accessed Apr. 10, 2007)

• Each table should be typed on a separate sheet of paper, and should include a brief explanatory title above the table. Specify all units. Measurement results should be reported as the mean and standard deviation (SD), written as mean ± SD. Use no more decimal places than necessary. Lines in Tables must be kept to a minimum. Use lines only at the top and bottom of the Table. Do not include p values, t values, F values, or ANOVA etc. of statistical results in Tables. Use asterisks to denote significant results only (*p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001); do not write ‘ns’ for not significant.
• Tables should be created by Microsoft Excel® or Microsoft Word® and saved with extention “.xls” or “.doc” before submission. (Tables created by Microsoft PopwerPoint® will not be accepted.)
• Special attention to clarity should be paid to figures. A separate sheet of paper should be used for each figure legend. Do not include figures unless it is absolutely necessary. Do not include bar graphs, pie charts, line charts, correlation charts, etc. When including pictures of patients, make sure to blindfold their eyes. If permission has been obtained, note it in the Acknowledgment. Write as Fig. 1, Fig. 2 except at the beginning of the sentence.
• The approximate location of each table or figure in the text should be indicated in the margin.
• Supplementary files will be published online only. Supplementary files will not be edited by the publisher. Supplementary files should have a brief title.
• Movies should be prepared at the smallest file-size that will convey the essential scientific information. Include the titles and captions of all movies in your manuscript. Keep captions as short as possible and ensure that they explain what is being shown in the movies and any necessary details of how the movies was made. The movies should be numbered in a single series that reflects the order in which they are cited in the text, e.g. see Movie 1. Movie 2, etc. Please do not use alphabetical labelling, e.g. Movies 1A-C. The file format is MP4 (.mp4), but we also accept MOV (.mov). The size limit of 10 MB for all movie files. If your movies exceed this limit, please contact the editorial office before submission.
• All manuscripts should go through English proofreading before submission and the manuscript should be submitted with a certificate upon request.

Online Manuscript Submission

Submit manuscript online through ScholarOne Manuscripts at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jpts.
Upload Main text (doc, docx, pdf), Tables (doc, docx, xls, xlsx, pdf), Figures (doc, docx, tif, jpg, ppt, pptx). The total size of the uploaded files should be within 20 MB. Author must enter at least one preferred reviewer. The preferred reviewer must hold a PhD degree and hold a University lecturer position or higher. Submitted manuscripts should be accompanied by the Affirmation of Originality and Assignment of Copyright.
The form can be downloaded from the journal website. After the manuscript is successfully received, all manuscripts will be checked for plagiarism by Crossref Similarity Check powered by iThenticate plagiarism detection software. The author will be contacted if any valid concerns arise after the screening.

The authors who need assistance for online submission process, please contact Editorial Office:

Editorial Office of the Journal of Physical Therapy Science (JPTS)

1–24–12 Sugamo, Toshima-ku, Tokyo 170-0002, Japan. E-mail: jpts@ipec-pub.co.jp