Authorship

Only those who contributed to the research and writing of the paper should be included in the list of authors. More specifically, those listed as authors qualify for authorship according to the following criteria by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICME):

1. They have contributed substantially to conception and design, data acquisition, analysis, and interpretation. They have also been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
2. They have given final approval for the version to be published. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.
3. They agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work to ensure that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. ATR requires a statement at the end of the manuscript describing the role of each author in designing and implementing the research and in writing the paper. Contributions from anyone who does not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section to recognize contributions from people who provided technical help, collation of data, writing assistance, acquisition of funding, or a department chairperson who provided general support. It is assumed that prior to submitting the manuscript, all authors agree on the order of their names in the paper. In the case of joint first authorship, a footnote should be added to the author listing (e.g., Authors A and B should be considered joint first authors). Editors and editorial team members are excluded from publication decisions when they are authors or have contributed to a manuscript.

Studies Involving Humans

For studies that involve human participants, ATR requires a statement identifying the ethics committee that approved the study and that the study conforms to recognized standards, following the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki. Images (i.e., photographs) and information from individual participants will be published only when the authors have obtained the individual’s prior informed consent. For studies involving minors (i.e., children and infants), authors should confirm that written informed consent from legally authorized representatives—parents or guardians—was obtained and is available upon request. If verbal informed consent was obtained, reasons for obtaining the verbal consent must be provided.

Studies Involving Animals

For studies involving animals, ATR requires a statement indicating the protocol and procedures applied and that these were reviewed and approved by an appropriate animal ethics committee or the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. This information must be included in the Methods section of the manuscript. ATR encourages authors to adhere to animal research reporting standards (e.g., ARRIVE Guidelines) for reporting study design and statistical analysis, experimental procedures, and basic protocols involved in housing, husbandry, and health management of experimental animals.

Conflict of Interest

ATR requires that all authors disclose potential sources of conflict of interest or competing interest. Potential sources of conflict of interest may be financial or non-financial in nature that may influence an author’s objectivity. These potential sources of conflict of interest include but are not limited to patent or stock ownership, employment or membership in an organization’s board of directors, membership of an advisory board or committee of an organization, and consultancy for or receipt of honoraria from an organization, or any interest and relationship that might be perceived as inappropriately influencing an author’s objectivity. Conflict of interest may also arise from personal relationships with research participants or with the leadership of the subject organization. It is a must that authors disclose with the submission all pertinent commercial and other relationships that can constitute a conflict of interest.

The existence of a conflict of interest does not preclude publication. ATR requires that all authors review this policy and disclose with the submission of all pertinent commercial and other relationships. If there is no disclosure, authors must say so, and ATR will indicate “No potential competing interest was reported by the authors” under the section, Conflict of Interest.

Funding

Authors should list all funding sources. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their funder designation.

Adding Authors After Review

ATR does not allow adding new co-authors after the review. A request to add new co-authors is grounds for rejection of the manuscript. The list of authors must be complete before submitting the manuscript.

Plagiarism

Prior to the review, ATR subjects the submission to the Turnitin plagiarism software. Only submissions with a similarity score of 4% or less will be subjected to a peer review. Articles that do not reach the acceptable similarity index will be returned to the authors for revision or may result in outright rejection.

Use of Published Materials

If any or all parts of previously published illustrations, tables, etc., are utilized, it is imperative to obtain permission from the respective copyright holder. The responsibility falls on the author to secure this permission in writing and furnish copies to the Publishers.

Research Fraud

ATR considers research fraud a serious offense. Research fraud is the act of publishing research results and generating conclusions from fabricated data and falsification. Fabrication involves reporting research data not generated by experiments or observations, while falsification includes manipulating research data, materials, processes, and images. Both fabrication and falsification are serious forms of violations of ethical standards in publication. Thus, ATR rejects and retracts articles proven to be derived from fraudulent research.

Retraction

ATR reserves the right to retract articles reporting research that are fraudulent and have breached scientific ethics. Articles in the ATR may be retracted based on the following:

1. The research is fraudulent – the research findings and conclusions reported in the paper are from fabricated and falsified data. ATR also retracts papers with manipulated images and miscalculations or an experimental error;
2. The research reported does not follow ethical standards, and
3. The paper is a redundant publication; that is, the findings reported have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross-referencing, permission, or justification. In submitting the paper, ATR requires that the cover letter explicitly state the following: 1) the paper is original, 2) no part of the manuscript has been published previously in a peer-reviewed publication, and 3) the manuscript is not under consideration by other journals.

Appeal on Paper Rejection

The Editor-in-Chief will carefully assess the authors’ rationale and the reviewer’s feedback to determine whether the decision to reject the submission should be upheld, if an additional independent evaluation is warranted, and if the appeal merits consideration. The individual raising the concern will receive notification of the decision and an explanation if necessary. Please note that decisions on appeals are final, and new submissions will be given priority over appeals.

Complaint on Publication Ethics

ATR follows the guidelines published by the Committee on Publication Ethics. Complaints should be sent directly to the official email addresses of the journals (atr@vsu.edu.ph). Upon receiving a complaint, the relevant member of the editorial team will handle the matter confidentially, ensuring that all concerns are addressed appropriately.

Peer Reviewers Ethical Guidelines

ATR adheres to COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers, which outline the following expectations for peer reviewers:

• Review only those manuscripts within their expertise and assess them promptly.
• Maintain the confidentiality of the peer review process and refrain from disclosing any manuscript details beyond what is permitted by the journal.
• Avoid using information from the peer review process for personal gain or to the detriment of others.
• Disclose any potential conflicts of interest and seek guidance from the journal if unsure about relevant interests.
• Refrain from letting the origin of a manuscript, the authors’ characteristics, or commercial factors influence their reviews.
• Provide objective and constructive feedback, refraining from hostility, inflammatory remarks, or personal attacks.
• Acknowledge that peer review is a reciprocal effort and commit to completing reviews promptly and fairly.
• Provide accurate and truthful personal and professional information to journals.
• Understand that impersonating another individual during the review process constitutes serious misconduct.

Data Storage and Documentation

ATR encourages authors to make their data, transcripts, and other artifacts used to generate the analyses presented in the paper available via a publicly available data repository. The journal, however, respects the privacy, confidentiality, and ethical considerations of the data. For papers that include original data, at least one author should confirm that he or she has full access to all data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the analysis.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses of the authors will be utilized solely for the purpose of the journal and will not be disclosed for any other use or to any other party.