Digital Publishing Program

The University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences Library is now able to publish peer-reviewed, open access (OA) journals and open educational resources (OER) through its SOAR@USA Scholarship and Open Access Repository.

Faculty interested in launching and managing peer-reviewed journals are invited to submit proposals for evaluation and approval by the Academic Leadership Team. This guide outlines important information and requirements, links to important policy documents, and outlines the process for any new journal to be considered.

Basic proposal requirements include:

• Assembly of a qualified editorial board
• A detailed description of journal aims, scope, editorial board staff, and bylaws
• Commitment to established ethical practices
• Commitment to open access publication and author rights
• Cooperation with a librarian to register data, such as DOIs
• Ethical oversight from the Executive Leadership Committee

A librarian is available to answer all your questions and to help you develop your proposal; just contact us at soar@usa.edu.

Click the New Journal Proposals tab at the left for more information or to submit a new proposal.

Student Journal of
Occupational Therapy

The Student Journal of Occupational Therapy began publication in the fall of 2020 as a student-led publication allowing students to participate at all levels in the management, review, and production of professional-level, open-access journal publication. All articles published in the journal are reviewed under the double-blind method by both subject experts and student reviewers under the guidance of the university's scholarly communications librarian.

Philippine Journal of
Physical Therapy

The University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences Library has partnered with the Philippine Physical Therapy Association (PPTA) to publish the Philippine Journal of Physical Therapy (PhJPT). This journal is the official publication of the PPTA and is managed as a partnership between USA faculty and the leadership of the PPTA. The journal is currently in the final planning stages and should begin accepting submissions in the summer of 2021.

The University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences Library Digital Publishing Program accepts applications for new faculty-led journal publications on an ongoing basis. We are eager to approve complete, well-considered proposals, and we can assist you throughout the development of your journal project. To consult with a librarian about initiating a new project, just email soar@usa.edu.

The journal proposal application form is available as a pdf download or as an online form. Before submitting your formal proposal, you will need to: 

1. Discuss the project with your academic program director, and obtain their support of your leadership in your proposed journal project.
2. Assemble a qualified board of at least 3 leading editors to chart the course of your journal. 
3. Clearly define the aims and scope of your proposed journal.
4. Outline clear by-laws for the operation of the editorial board, including the process of appointment, terms of appointment, responsibilities, term limits, and conditions for removal for each position on the board.
5. Assemble all this documentation with CVs for your proposed editors
6. Complete the Journal Proposal Form, including supporting documentation of policies outlined above. 

An important element of your journal proposal is a statement of its aims & scope.

A clear aims and scope statement l will communicate the purpose and coverage of your journal concisely for readers and authors. It will allow readers to decide if the included articles meet their needs, and it will offer prospective authors a concise description of what types of articles the journal will consider for publication, It can also encapsulate the mission of the journal and any policies that are at its core.

Elements of Aims & Scope

Your statement should give attention to each of the following, though you may add additional information as needed. 

• Statement of journal mission in terms of its goals
• Description of the journal's intended audience and its value to readers
• Outline of topics of coverage or perspectives 
• Listing of article types that will be considered for publication (and those that will not be considered.
• Statement of the journal's peer-review policy
• Statement of any open access commitments

Language

In order to make your aims and scope statement clear and concise, consider the following recommendations for how to formulate your description.

• Avoid repeating ideas or paraphrasing in your statement
• Remove any unnecessary detail or wordy sentences
• Use accessible language for clarity to an international audience
• Do not exaggerate of use excessive superlative language

Examples

We include here a few examples of well-considered statements for reference.

• Autism Research
• Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication
• Physiotherapy
• Teaching in Higher Education

Transparency is a critical element for ensuring ethical practice and editorial accountability in scholarly publications. By sharing the bylaws under which a journal's board operates, It not only assures readers and potential authors of the unbiased composition of the board and its operational policies, it provides a guiding document to officers on journal operations and decision-making. It ensures accountability by outlining conditions for the removal of officers and demonstrates unbiased appointment processes. By clearly describing the roles, responsibilities, and terms of its officers, the bylaws for the editorial board 

The library's digital publishing program requires a clear description of the bylaws for your journal as part of your proposal. When writing the bylaws for your editorial board, please be sure to include, at a minimum, the following elements for each editorial role:

• Titles of board officers
• Processes for officer appointments (e.g., chosen by editor in chief, appointed by a majority vote of the board)
• Appointment service terms and term limitations (e.g., maximum of 2 consecutive terms)
• Processes for removal of officers
• Voting and decision-making procedures
• Process for amending bylaws

A librarian is available to consult with you as you develop your board bylaws by emailing soar@usa.edu. We have also provide a simple downloadable template on which you can adopt or use as a model in developing your own bylaws document.

Journal Proposal Form

This .docx file is the complete form required for submitting a new journal publishing proposal for consideration by Academic Leadership Committee. The form may be downloaded for viewing and for reference while preparing your application. A proposal may be submitted by emailing this document to soar@usa.edu or by using our online submission tool. 

This document lays out the basic commitments and responsibilities between the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences Library and the faculty and organizations working with us to publish electronic journals. 

Editorial Board Bylaws Template

This template is intended to provide a simplified document to facilitate the creation of your bylaws. While this document addresses one possible form for bylaws meeting the minimum requirements for a journal proposal, it is not required that this template may be used in its current form, adapted, added to or substituted with another bylaws document, as long as that document meets the requirements laid out in the Journal Proposal Form.

The University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences and the Library Digital Publishing Program are committed to transparency, ethical scholarly publication, and integrity in the scholarly record. Our program works with potential editors to educate and implement policies that adhere to established standards of scholarship, review, and publication. This p\age provides resources and documentation of the major standards upon which we rely.

COPE

The Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE) has established numerous guidelines and best practices for ethical behavior in scholarly publishing and offers a Forum for editors encountering situations requiring ethical advice. We require that journal editors follow established COPE core practices and that they investigate all reports of misconduct. Some of the key policy documents we look to are:

• Core practices. (2017). COPE: Committee on Publication Ethics. https://publicationethics.org/core-practices
• Rees, M., & Hoke, T. (2016). A short guide to ethical editing for new editors [COPE Guidelines]. COPE: Committee on Publication Ethics. https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.1.8
• Ethical guidelines for peer reviewers [COPE Guidelines]. (2013). COPE: Committee on Publication Ethics. https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.1.9
• Procedural flowcharts. (v.d.). COPE: Committee on Publication Ethics. https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Flowcharts

Our library publishing program requires that editors adhere to these practices and compliance is monitored by the university's Executive Leadership Committee. We also require that journal editors follow established COPE procedures for handling reports of ethical concerns

Web of Science Academy

The Web of Science Academy provides free online course content that supports research integrity and improves the quality of peer review in published research. We encourage editors and reviewers to utilize these training modules as a way to standardize structured peer review and to implement effective ethical practices at all levels of journal operations. 

Topics of coverage in Web of Science Academy include:

• awareness of unethical citation practices
• structuring your peer review effectively
• ethical review behavior
• emerging models of peer-review
• reviewing a science paper
• mentoring peer reviewers

The University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences Library is committed to advancing the open access publication infrastructure within scholarly research communication. As part of that commitment, we support Diamond Open Access and require the use of Creative Commons open licenses for all journals published under this program. All materials published under the USAHS Library Digital Publishing Program will be freely accessible, immediately and without charge in their final published form.

These licenses enable wider access for researchers everywhere and facilitate the productive reuse of materials for education and scholarship while protecting the rights of authors for future use of their work.

For more information on open licenses and Creative Commons visit https://creativecommons.org.