Original articles that are submitted must contain the following sections: 1) TITLE PAGE, 2) ABSTRACT, 3) TEXT, 4) REFERENCES, 5) TABLES AND FIGURES
1) TITLE PAGE
- The title page should be in a separate page. It should contain the title of the article and the complete names of all the authors of the manuscript. Only the first word of the article title and words that normally begin with a capital letter (Ex. Proper nouns) are capitalized. The first author’s name must be listed first. The respective university/hospital/facility affiliations of the authors must also be placed in the title page, after the name of each author.
- The corresponding author, who may be the same as the first author, must be identified clearly by placing “(corresponding author)” after his/her name. His or her complete address, email address, and contact number must be indicated in the title page.
- Disclaimers, declaration of conflicts of interest, and sources of support (grants, medications, equipment, etc.) are placed in the title page whenever applicable.
2) ABSTRACT
The abstract is written in a page separate from the title page. It should contain the following sub-headings: OBJECTIVES, MATERIALS AND METHODS,RESULTS, CONCLUSION. The abstract must contain a total 250 words or less, excluding the sub-headings mentioned above. The OBJECTIVE must start with “To …” For example:
OBJECTIVES
To determine the efficacy of author guidelines in improving the compliance of authors with journal submission requirements
After the abstract, the authors must provide 3-5 key words that can be used by readers to search for their article. Key words must be taken from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) list of Index Medicus. If no suitable MeSH terms are available, especially for recently introduced terms, present terms may be used.
3) THE TEXT
The text should start in a page separate from the abstract. The text is the main part of the manuscript and is divided into: 1) INTRODUCTION, 2) MATERIALS AND METHODS, 3) RESULTS, 4) DISCUSSION, 5) CONCLUSION, and 6) ACKNOWLEGEMENTS.
a. INTRODUCTION
The introduction should state the purpose of the study and its significance. It should be as brief as possible. For guidance only, you may choose to follow the following format for your introduction: First paragraph – background of the problem or reason for the study; Second paragraph - previous studies that have addressed the same problem and their deficiencies; Third paragraph - aim and significance of your study.
b. MATERIALS AND METHODS
The materials and methods, whenever applicable, contains the research design, target population, sampling population, eligibility criteria, study procedure, definition of variables, sample size calculation, data management and methods of analysis. There is no need to place subheadings to delineate these parts in the materials and methods.
Specify the research design that you used (Ex. Descriptive versus analytic, Observational versus experimental). Describe your target population. Then specify your sampling population –the population where you got your samples. Specify the place where the study was conducted and the duration of the study. If your sampling population involves a disease, specify the criteria for making a diagnosis of the disease. Inclusion and exclusion criteria for study participants must be stated in the methodology. The inclusion criteria are the characteristics that the participants must possess in order for them to be included in the study while the exclusion criteria are the characteristics that disqualify prospective participants from being included in the study. Exclusion criteria are not the exact opposite of the inclusion criteria.
For experimental or interventional studies, describe the recruitment of participants, method of assignment to study groups, manner of data collection, technique used in randomization, blinding of the participants and observers, how treatment and control are given, name, frequency and duration of tests, frequency and duration of follow-up, method of dealing with complications, criteria for withdrawal of participants, and criteria for discontinuing the study.
For observational studies, describe the recruitment process, data collected and the data collection method, instruments used, laboratory tests done, follow-up of participants, whenever applicable.
For instruments, apparatus, programs, used in the study indicate the manufacturer’s name, and manufacturer’s address in parentheses. For example, SPSS (IBM, USA).
Operational definitions of variables must be done for only those variables that you collected. This should contain the manner in which the variables were measured or categorized.
Example: Biochemical recurrence was defined to be a rise in PSA level of more than 2 ng/dl two months after surgery.
The method of computing for the sample size is based on the objectives of the study. The assumptions used during sample size calculation must be stated in the Methods.
The manner in which data was collected and then encoded must be described. The statistical software used to analyze data mused be specified.
For data analysis, the statistical tests used to analyze each objective of the study must be specified. The level of significance must be stated clearly.
All studies must have been approved by and Ethics Review Board. This should be explicitly stated in the Methods. Studies that sample human populations, must indicate that the conduction of the study was in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 1983.
c. RESULTS
The results must contain the data after it has been analyzed. All tables, figures, illustrations that are submitted with the manuscript must be cited in the RESULTS portion. Results must be presented in a logical manner and the sequence in which the tables, figures and illustrations are cited in the REULTS determines the sequence in which these tables, figures and illustrations are numbered and presented. Do not repeat in the text all the data in the tables or illustrations; emphasize or summarize only important observations.
d. DISCUSSION
The discussion must tackle the important results of the study and the conclusions that can be made based on these data. The discussion should not repeat the details already presented in the results section. Include in the DISCUSSION the implications of study’s results, limitations of your study, and your recommendations for future research.
e. CONCLUSION
The conclusion is a logical deduction that can be made based on the results of your study. It should be brief and should not contain sweeping statements, but only statements that are supported by the results of your study.
f. ACKNOWLEGEMENTS
All contributors who did not meet the criteria for authorship shall be acknowledged (i.e., a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support.
4. REFERENCES
It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure that the list of references is properly formatted and accurate. References cited only in tables or figure legends should be numbered in accordance with the sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or figure.
The reference list is placed after the text, and should be placed on a new page. This list should include all the references contained in and were cited in the text. The cited references should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals and in the order in which they were first mentioned in the text.
The references format must conform to the Vancouver style of referencing. Author’s names are listed as the author's surname followed by no more than two initials. Each author name is separated by a comma followed by a space. If there are more than six (6) authors, list the first six authors followed by “et al”. Otherwise, all authors must be listed. Only the first word of the article title and words that normally begin with a capital letter (Ex. Proper nouns) are capitalized. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in the NLM catalog or the Index Medicus. Abbreviate months to their first 3 letters. The date is followed by a semi-colon. After the semi-colon, without using a space, place the volume number followed by the issue number in parentheses and then a colon. Abbreviate page numbers as follows: pages 123 to 127 is abbreviated as 123-27. Digital Object Identification (DOI) and URLs should be provided in the reference whenever it is available. Current electronic journal articles are displayed as permanent URL's and look like this - http://dx.doi.org/12.3456/a000001. Use the form as it appears in your source.
Avoid using abstracts published only in proceedings as references. If the authors wish to do so, these should be quoted within the text of the manuscript, in parentheses. References to papers accepted for publication but not yet published should be kept to a minimum and must designated as “in press.” The authors should obtain a written permission to cite such papers as well as provide verification that they have indeed been accepted for publication.
Avoid citing a “personal communication” unless it provides essential information not available from a public source, in which case the name of the person and date of communication should be cited in parentheses in the text. For scientific articles, authors should obtain written permission and confirmation of accuracy from the source of a personal communication.
References to unpublished work should be kept to a minimum and should be mentioned in parentheses in the text as unpublished work. These are not to be included in the reference list. The names of all contributors to the unpublished work should be given. Unpublished observations, personal communications are treated the same.
Examples of references:
1) Journal articles
- Six authors or less
Cruz AF, Santos RF, de Leon GH, San Jose TH. Biochemical recurrence in patients with high-grade cancer who underwent robot-assisted radical prostatectomy. Phil J Urol 2019 May;1(1):101-5. DOI: 01.2020/phil.j.urol.2020.05.01. - More than six authors
Cruz AF, Santos RF, de Leon GH, et al. Biochemical recurrence in patients with high-grade cancer who underwent robot-assisted radical prostatectomy. Phil J Urol 2019 May;1(1):101-5. http://dx.doi.org/12.3456/a000001.
2) Books/Electronic books
- Author/s. Title of book. Edition number (if it’s not the first edition). Place of Publication: Name of publisher; Year of publication. Pages.
Santos AF. Infectious urology. 2nd ed. Manila: Uropress; 2020. 221-30. - Author/s. Title of web page [Internet]. Place of Publication:
Website/publisher; Year of publication [date cited]. Pages. Available from: URL DOI.
3) Electronic journal articles
The word [Internet] in square brackets should be inserted after the abbreviated journal title. The date cited [in square brackets] must be included after the date of publication. The URL is placed at the end. When available, the DOI is placed after the URL.
Cruz AF, Santos RF. Biochemical recurrence in patients with high-grade cancer who underwent robot-assisted radical prostatectomy. Phil J Urol [Internet]. 2019 May [cited 2020 Feb 12];1(1):101-5. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/12.3456/a000001 DOI:01.2020/phil.j.urol.2020.05.01.
4) Government reports
Author/s. Title of the report. Place of publication: Publisher; Date of publication. Total number of pages. Report No.: __.
Del Cruz JP. Dengue infections 2019. Manila: Uropress. 2020. 25 p. Report No.: 6.
5) TABLES AND FIGURES
All tables and figures must be cited in the text. They should be numbered in the sequence that they are cited in the text. Tables must be appropriately labelled. They need not be double-spaced. A graph may be used as an alternative to a table, but should not be just a duplicate of the data contained in the table. A graph is labelled as a figure.
Please provide high-quality image files, preferably in jpeg format. Whenever possible, the colored version of the figure or illustration should be submitted. Figures or Tables borrowed from previous publications must have explicit permission from the original’s authors and must quote the original source.
Use a legend below the table, graph or figure to define statistical terms, abbreviations and symbols used. When using a picture to illustrate intra-operative findings, diagnostic images and the like, use arrows or pointers to specify the part/parts of the picture that you are referring to.