The Hong Kong Physiotherapy Journal (HKPJ) is the official journal of the Hong Kong Physiotherapy Association Limited (HKPA Ltd) that contributes to and documents the advancement of the principles and practice of physiotherapy.

• Manuscripts submitted to the HKPJ should address issues of relevance to physiotherapy. The Editor will consider for review papers which fit into one of the manuscript types listed below and which conform to the submission guidelines. The Editor reserves the right to reject, without review, any manuscript that does not fit these criteria. All contributions submitted for publication are understood to be offered to the HKPJ alone.

• Two independent referees blinded to the identities of the authors will be appointed by the Editor to review a paper on the basis of their expertise. The identities of reviewers will be kept confidential from authors under all circumstances.

• Most manuscripts require some revision after review. In these cases, both the manuscript and reviewers' comments will be returned to the authors for consideration.

• Authors should include the following declaration in the cover letter:

By submitting the work to the Hong Kong Physiotherapy Journal, we, the authors, agree to assign copyright ownership to the Publisher, Elsevier (Singapore) Pte Ltd, in the event that our work is published in the Journal, and the work may not be published elsewhere, in whole or in part, without the written permission of the Publisher.

Authors are also understood to have given the Publishing Editor the rights to edit, revise, abridge, condense and translate their work.

• Also in the cover letter, authors should disclose any conflicts of interest. All authors are therefore required to sign and submit the following financial disclosure statement at the time of manuscript submission:

I certify that all my affiliations with or financial involvement in, within the past 5 years and foreseeable future, any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript are completely disclosed (e.g. employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, royalties).

Authors who have no relevant financial interests should provide a statement indicating that they have no financial interests related to the material in the manuscript.

Types of Manuscripts

• Research Report: a report of an original research study of any nature (clinical, scientific, professional or educational) using an acceptable method or design to address a research question or test a hypothesis.

• Treatment Report: a report on the clinical management of a patient or a series of patients that provides new insights into the treatment or natural history of a clinical condition.

• Technical Report: an original report that describes the specifications, mechanical or technological aspects and evaluation of device(s) used in assessment, treatment, management or education.

• Literature Review: a critical appraisal of literature on a specific topic which may further the viewpoint or theoretical approach to that topic. References should be sufficient to support opinions but not excessive. These reviews are normally written by acknowledged experts and usually by invitation. Potential authors may nominate themselves through communication with the Editor-in-Chief. Invited reviews will also go through the usual review process.

• Letters to the Editor: correspondence relating to matters published in the Journal is especially welcome, as are other communications which will stimulate discussion of relevant subjects. Decisions regarding publication of letters are made by the Editor-in-Chief.

Manuscript Preparation

Manuscripts should be typed on one side of A4 paper (210mm x 297 mm), using font size 12, Times New Roman, with double spacing, 2.5 cm margins all around, and the pages numbered consecutively, beginning with the title page. A cover letter signed by all authors and three copies of the manuscript must be provided.

• Page 1 should contain:
date of submission.
title of the article.
name(s) of author(s) with their highest academic qualification, current position and affiliated institutions.
name, address, e-mail, fax and telephone numbers of the corresponding author.
details in the footnote if the work was supported by a grant or other funding source or if the paper was adapted from a conference presentation.

• Page 2 should be a blank title page containing the title only and no names or details of authors.

• Page 3 should contain an abstract of no more than 200 words, with up to five key words for indexing.

• Page 4 and onwards should contain the main text. The manuscript should be well organized and written in simple and correct English under appropriate headings. For research reports, the IMRAD format is recommended. The main text (from introduction to conclusion) should not exceed 5,000 words.

• Acknowledgements of important contributors and funding agencies should be placed on a separate page at the end of the text.

Ethical approval of studies and informed consent

For human or animal experimental investigations, appropriate institutional review board or ethics committee approval is required, and such approval should be stated in the methods section of the manuscript. For those investigators who do not have formal ethics review committees, the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki should be followed (World Medical Association. Declaration of Helsinki: ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. Available at: http://www.wma.net/e/policy/pdf/17c.pdf ).

For investigations of human subjects, state explicitly in the methods section of the manuscript that informed consent was obtained from all participating adult subjects and from parents or legal guardians for minors or incapacitated adults, together with the manner in which informed consent was obtained (i.e. oral or written).

Identification of patients in descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees A signed statement of informed consent to publish (in print and online) patient descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees should be obtained from all persons (parents or legal guardians for minors) who can be identified (including by the patients themselves) in such written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees, and should be submitted with the manuscript. Such persons should be shown the manuscript before its submission. Omitting data or making data less specific to deidentify patients is acceptable, but changing any such data is not acceptable.

Funding/support and conflicts of interest

All financial and material support for the research and the work should be clearly and completely identified in an Acknowledgements in the manuscript. Ensure that any conflicts of interest are explicitly declared.

Personal communications and unpublished data

A signed statement of permission should be included from each individual identified as a source of information in a personal communication or as a source for unpublished data; the date of communication and whether the communication was written or oral should be specified.

References

• References in the text should be placed where relevant, be in consecutive Arabic numbers, and set in square brackets.

• References should be double-spaced and in consecutive order as they appear in the text.

• References should include the authors, article title, journal name, year, volume number, and first and last page numbers. References with more than three authors should list only the first three authors followed by et al .

• References to books should include the authors, chapter title, names of the book's editors, book title, city of publication, publisher, year of publication, and inclusive page numbers. Volume and edition numbers should be included when appropriate.

• If the reference article cited is in a language that does not use the Roman alphabet, the article title should be translated into English, and the language of the original should appear in parentheses following the citation of the reference. If previously translated, the translated article may be cited.

• Abbreviations as used in Index Medicus should be used for all journal titles.

Examples are shown below.

Journals
1. Lee SCK, Gerdom ML, Binder-Macleod SA. Effects of length on the catchlike property of human quadriceps femoris muscle. Phys Ther 1999;79:738 48.
2. Pountney TE, Cheek L, Green E, et al. Content and criterion validation of the Chailey Levels of Ability. Physiotherapy 1999;85:410 6.
3. Dawson RT. Drug testing. Br J Sports Med 1999;33:219.
[Letter]
4. Foray J. Mountain frostbite. Current trends in prognosis and treatment (from results concerning 1261 cases). Int J Sports Med 1992;13(Suppl 1):S193 6.

Books
1. Meyers CR, Blesh TE. Measurement in Physical Education, 2nd edition. New York, NY: The Ronald Press Co., 1972; 19 33.
2. Oakes BW. Tendon-ligament basic science. In: Harris M, Williams C, Stanish WD, et al, eds. Oxford Textbook of Sports Medicine. Tokyo: Oxford Medical Publications, 1994; 494 511.

Proceedings and other publications

1. Adams JH. Central pontine myelinolysis. In: Proceedings of the 4^th International Congress of Neuropathology, 1961, Munich, Vol 3. Stuttgart: Thieme, 1962;303 8.
2. Hung TP, Chiang TR. Multiple sclerosis in Taiwan: Clinical, electrophysiological and epidemiological studies. 6^th Asian and Oceanian Congress of Neurology, 1983, Taipei. Hong Kong: Excerpta Medica, Asia Pacific Congress Series No 22, 1983;28. [Abstract]
3. Allen N, Burkholder JD, Molinari GF, et al. Clinical criteria of brain death. NINCDS Monograph No 24, NIH Publ No 81-2286. Bethesda: National Institutes of Health, 1980;77 147.

4. Cairns RB. Infrared Spectroscopic Studies of Solid Oxygen. Berkeley, California: University of California, 1965;156.
[Dissertation]
5. Eastman Kodak Company. Eastman organic chemicals. Rochester NY, Catalog No 49,1977;187.

Tables and figures

• Tables should be numbered consecutively as they are referred to in the text and placed on separate pages after the references.

• Figures should be numbered consecutively as they are referred to in the text. Provide one set of original figures with the legends on a separate page.

• Line drawings, graphs and charts should be produced in black ink, be of high quality and be in a camera-ready form.

• Photographs should be black and white glossy prints (175mm x 125 mm), in sharp focus and with good contrast. They should be labelled clearly on the back with the figure number and with an arrow indicating the top of the figure, and mailed between two stiff pieces of cardboard for protection.

Units

Please use Syst?me International (SI) units, with the exception of blood pressure values which are to be reported in mmHg. Please use the metric system for the expression of length, area, mass, and volume. Temperatures are to be given in degrees Celsius.

Other information

Written permission is required for reproduction of figures previously published elsewhere. Appendices, consecutively numbered, may be placed after the figures for materials that are not suitable to be included in the main text but essential to the understanding of the paper. The number of tables, figures or appendices should be kept to a minimum. The Journal reserves the right to charge authors the extra cost of printing for these attachments.

On Acceptance

When a paper is accepted, authors are required to submit:

• The final accepted version of their manuscript (saved as a Rich Text Format [RTF] file or a Microsoft Word [doc] file). The manuscript can be sent by email or posted on a virusfree CD-ROM to the Editor-in-Chief. The Journal does not assume responsibility for errors in conversion of customized software, newly released software and special characters.

• One hard copy of the manuscript that matches the electronic file exactly.

• Hard copies of any figures/photographs. If figures are submitted only as electronic files, they must be of at least 600 dpi resolution to guarantee clear reproduction on publication.

All submissions should be sent to:

Priscillia Lam Lam
Editor-in-Chief
Hong Kong Physiotherapy Journal
c/o Physiotherapy Department
2/F, David Trench Rehabilitation Centre
9B Bonham Road, Hong Kong SAR, China
E-mail: plamlam@netvigator.com
or plamlam@hongkongpa.com.hk
Tel: (852) 2517-8105; Fax: (852) 2857-6415