The Development Education Journal (DEJ) of Multidisciplinary Research is published by La Consolacion College Bacolod in the Philippines. DEJ is open to the community of scholars who wish to have their original research articles published in a peer-reviewed journal. The content of the journal covers an array of disciplines from education, natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, business, technology and other fields which are contributory to human well being and societal development.

          Publication Frequency. Regular issues are published twice a year (January and June). Special issues may be published separately in a particular year depending on the volume and field of discipline of articles received from contributors.

          Contributions/Submissions. Manuscripts should be sent to the Research and Accreditation Office of La Consolacion College Bacolod.  Submissions should be accompanied by a letter to the editor indicating that the submitted manuscript has neither been published nor submitted for publication elsewhere.  The Research Office of La Consolacion College Bacolod shall write the authors acknowledging the receipt of the manuscript submitted.  However, this acknowledgment does not imply their acceptance for publication. If accepted (as decided by the editorial board), the author shall be informed that the manuscript shall undergo the double-blind review process.  The efficiency and timeliness of the editorial review process are fully dependent upon the actions of the authors, editors, and reviewers.

          Quality Assurance. The DEJ is ultimately responsible for editorial quality standards.  Reviewers and editors are responsible for providing constructive and prompt evaluation of submitted research papers based on the significance of their contribution and on the rigors of analysis and presentation.

          Editors’ Responsibilities. Manuscripts are evaluated by the editors in consultation with peer referees. Authors may suggest potential reviewers. However, authors are not bound by these suggestions.  Referees’ objective and comprehensive evaluation are sought with editorial guarantees of anonymity. Referees may, however, waive anonymity. Editors have responsibility for all final decisions regarding acceptance or rejection of manuscripts. Authors shall then be informed once a decision is reached to accept or reject the manuscript. On the condition that revisions shall be fully undertaken, manuscripts may be ‘accepted conditionally’. Rejection of the manuscript may be done outright or with the possibility of reconsideration after revision, which may entail another round of evaluations.

          Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice. The Development Education Journal of Multidisciplinary Research is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and takes all possible measures against any publication malpractices. All authors submitting their works to the Development Education Journal of Multidisciplinary Research for publication as original articles attest that the submitted works represent their authors’ contributions and have not been copied or plagiarized in whole or in part from other works. The authors acknowledge that they have disclosed all and any actual or potential conflicts of interest with their work or partial benefits associated with it. In the same manner, the Development Education Journal of Multidisciplinary Research is committed to objective and fair double-blind peer-review of the submitted for publication works and to preventing any actual or potential conflict of interests between the editorial and review personnel and the reviewed material. Any departures from the above-defined rules should be reported directly to the Editor-in-Chief who is unequivocally committed to providing swift resolutions to any of such type of problems.

The Peer Review System

          Type. The double-blind review process is adopted for the journal. The reviewer/s and the author/s do not know each other’s identity, that is, authors are not told who reviewed their paper and reviewers are not told who wrote the paper. Peer reviewers are informed of the identity of the author after the manuscript is either accepted or rejected.  After a decision is reached, a reviewer is free to contact authors privately about the manuscript.

          Recruiting Referees. Reviewers are carefully chosen by the editorial board. Scholars or other experts in the field are requested to comprehensively and objectively review the manuscript . In some cases, the authors may suggest the referees’ names subject to the Editorial Board’s approval. The referees must have an excellent track record as researchers in the field as evidenced by research publication in refereed journals, research-related awards, and an experience in peer review. Referees are not selected from among the author’s close colleagues, students, or friends. Referees are to inform the editor of any conflict of interests that may arise. The Editorial Board often invites research author to name people whom they considered qualified to referee their work. The author’s input in selecting referees is solicited because academic writing typically is very specialized. The identities of the referees selected by the Editorial Board are kept unknown to research authors. However, the reviewer’s identity can be disclosed under some special circumstances.

          Peer Review Process. The Editorial Board sends advance copies of an author’s work to experts in the field (known as “referees” or “reviewers”) through e-mail or a Web-based manuscript processing system. There are two or three referees for a given article. Two are experts of the topic of research and one is an expert in research and statistics who shall review the technical components of the research whenever applicable. These referees return to the board the evaluation of the work that indicates the observed weaknesses or problems along with suggestions for improvement. The board then evaluates the referees’ comments and notes opinion of the manuscript before passing the decision with the referees’ comments back to the author(s).

          Guidelines for Reviewers. Reviewers must agree to review, read the assigned manuscript and submit their review or evaluation of the manuscripts.  The reviewer shall submit to the managing editor the following:  [a]  a letter to the editor providing a brief description or summary of your opinion on the paper;  [b]  rating sheet and recommendation whether to accept, reject, or request revision of the manuscript; and,  [c]  comments for the author.  At anytime, the reviewer may contact the Research and Accreditation Office of La Consolacion College Bacolod for clarification, request for an extension and other assistance needed during the review process.

          Criteria for Acceptance and Rejection. A manuscript is accepted when (1) it is endorsed for publication by 2 or 3 referees, (2) the instructions of the reviewers are substantially complied; (3) ethical standards and protocols are complied for studies involving humans and animals; and (4) the manuscript passed the plagiarism detection test with a score of at least 80 for originality, otherwise the manuscript is rejected. The referees’ evaluations include an explicit recommendation of what to do with the manuscript, chosen from options provided by the journal. Most recommendations are along the following lines:

• Unconditional acceptance
• Acceptance with revision based on the referee’s recommendations
• Rejection with invitation to resubmit upon major revision based on the referees’ and editorial board’s recommendations
• Outright rejection

          In situations where the referees disagree substantially about the quality of an article, there are some strategies for reaching a decision. When the editor receives very positive and very negative reviews for the same manuscript, the board will solicit one or more additional reviews as a tie-breaker. In the case of ties, the editorial board may invite authors to reply to a referee’s criticisms and permit a compelling rebuttal to break the tie. If the editor does not feel confident to weigh the persuasiveness of a rebuttal, the board may solicit a response from the referee who made the original criticism. In rare instances, the board will convey communications back and forth between an author and a referee, in effect allowing them to debate on a point. Even in such a case, however, the board does not allow referees to confer with each other, and the goal of the process is explicitly not to reach a consensus or to convince anyone to change his/her opinions.

          Comments. The Development Education Journal welcomes the submission of comments on previous articles. Comments on articles previously published in the journal will be reviewed by two reviewers, usually an author of the original article (to assist the editor in evaluating whether the submitted comment represents the prior article’s accuracy) and an independent reviewer. If a comment is accepted for publication, the original author will be invited to reply. All other editorial requirements, as enumerated above, apply to proposed comments.

          Open access and copyright policy. The DEJ of Multidisciplinary Research is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.

         The Philippine Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management (PJHTM)  is published by La Consolacion College Bacolod in the Philippines.  PJHTM is open to the community of scholars who wish to have their original research articles published in a peer-reviewed journal. The content of the journal covers specifically the hospitality and tourism management and are contributory to the industry.

         Publication Frequency. Regular issues are published twice a year (May and November). Special issues may be published separately in a particular year depending on the volume of articles received from contributors.

         Contributions/Submissions. Manuscripts should be sent to the Research Office of La Consolacion College Bacolod.  Submissions should be accompanied by a letter to the editor indicating that the submitted manuscript has neither been published nor submitted for publication elsewhere.  The Research Office of La Consolacion College Bacolod shall write the author/s acknowledging the receipt of the manuscript submitted.  However, this acknowledgment does not imply their acceptance for publication. If accepted (as decided by the editorial board), the author/s shall be informed that the manuscript shall undergo the double-blind review process.  The efficiency and timeliness of the editorial review process are fully dependent upon the actions of the authors, editors, and reviewers.

         Quality Assurance. The PJHTM is ultimately responsible for editorial quality standards.  Reviewers and editors are responsible for providing constructive and prompt evaluation of submitted research papers based on the significance of their contribution and on the rigors of analysis and presentation.

         Editors’ Responsibilities. Manuscripts are evaluated by the editors in consultation with peer referees. Authors may suggest potential reviewers. However, authors are not bound by these suggestions.  Referees’ objective and comprehensive evaluation are sought with editorial guarantees of anonymity. Referees may, however, waive anonymity. Editors have responsibility for all final decisions regarding acceptance or rejection of manuscripts. Authors shall then be informed once a decision is reached to accept or reject the manuscript. On the condition that revisions shall be fully undertaken, manuscripts may be ‘accepted conditionally’. Rejection of the manuscript may be done outright or with the possibility of reconsideration after revision, which may entail another round of evaluations.

         Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice. The Philippine Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and takes all possible measures against any publication malpractices. All authors submitting their works to the PJHTM for publication as original articles attest that the submitted works represent their authors’ contributions and have not been copied or plagiarized in whole or in part from other works. The authors acknowledge that they have disclosed all and any actual or potential conflicts of interest with their work or partial benefits associated with it. In the same manner, the PJHTM is committed to objective and fair double-blind peer-review of the submitted for publication works and to preventing any actual or potential conflict of interests between the editorial and review personnel and the reviewed material. Any departures from the above-defined rules should be reported directly to the Editor-in-Chief who is unequivocally committed to providing swift resolutions to any of such type of problems.

The Peer Review System

         Type. The double-blind review process is adopted for the journal. The reviewer/s and the author/s do not know each other’s identity, that is, authors are not told who reviewed their paper and reviewers are not told who wrote the paper. Peer reviewers are informed of the identity of the author after the manuscript is either accepted or rejected.  After a decision is reached, a reviewer is free to contact authors privately about the manuscript.

         Recruiting Referees. Reviewers are carefully chosen by the editorial board. Scholars or other experts in the field are requested to comprehensively and objectively review the manuscript. In some cases, the authors may suggest the referees’ names subject to the Editorial Board’s approval. The referees must have an excellent track record as researchers in the field as evidenced by research publication in refereed journals, research-related awards, and an experience in peer review. Referees are not selected from among the author’s close colleagues, students, or friends. Referees are to inform the editor of any conflict of interests that may arise.   The Editorial Board often invites research author to name people whom they considered qualified to referee their work. The author’s input in selecting referees is solicited because academic writing typically is very specialized. The identities of the referees selected by the Editorial Board are kept unknown to research authors. However, the reviewer’s identity can be disclosed under some special circumstances.

         Peer Review Process. The Editorial Board sends advance copies of an author’s work to experts in the field (known as “referees” or “reviewers”) through e-mail or a Web-based manuscript processing system. There are two or three referees for a given article. Two are experts of the topic of research and one is an expert in research and statistics who shall review the technical components of the research whenever applicable. These referees return to the board the evaluation of the work that indicates the observed weaknesses or problems along with suggestions for improvement. The board then evaluates the referees’ comments and notes opinion of the manuscript before passing the decision with the referees’ comments back to the author(s).

         Guidelines for Reviewers.    Reviewers must agree to review, read the assigned manuscript and submit their review or evaluation of the manuscripts.  The reviewer shall submit to the managing editor the following:  [a]  a letter to the editor providing a brief description or summary of your opinion on the paper;  [b]  rating sheet and recommendation whether to accept, reject, or request revision of the manuscript; and,  [c]  comments for the author.  At any time, the reviewer may contact the Research Office of La Consolacion College Bacolod for clarification, request for an extension and other assistance needed during the review process.

         Criteria for Acceptance and Rejection. A manuscript is accepted when (1) it is endorsed for publication by 2 or 3 referees, (2) the instructions of the reviewers are substantially complied; (3) ethical standards and protocols are complied for studies involving humans and animals; and (4) the manuscript passed the plagiarism detection test with a score of at least 80 for originality, otherwise the manuscript is rejected. The referees’ evaluations include an explicit recommendation of what to do with the manuscript, chosen from options provided by the journal. Most recommendations are along the following lines:

• Unconditional acceptance
• Acceptance with revision based on the referee’s recommendations
• Rejection with invitation to resubmit upon major revision based on the referees’ and
• Editorial board’s recommendations
• Outright rejection

         In situations where the referees disagree substantially about the quality of an article, there are some strategies for reaching a decision. When the editor receives very positive and very negative reviews for the same manuscript, the board will solicit one or more additional reviews as a tie-breaker. In the case of ties, the editorial board may invite authors to reply to a referee’s criticisms and permit a compelling rebuttal to break the tie. If the editor does not feel confident to weigh the persuasiveness of a rebuttal, the board may solicit a response from the referee who made the original criticism. In rare instances, the board will convey communications back and forth between an author and a referee, in effect allowing them to debate on a point. Even in such a case, however, the board does not allow referees to confer with each other, and the goal of the process is explicitly not to reach a consensus or to convince anyone to change his/her opinions.

         Comments.  The PJHTM welcomes the submission of comments on previous articles. Comments on articles previously published in the journal will be reviewed by two reviewers, usually an author of the original article (to assist the editor in evaluating whether the submitted comment represents the prior article’s accuracy) and an independent reviewer. If a comment is accepted for publication, the original author will be invited to reply. All other editorial requirements, as enumerated above, apply to proposed comments.

         Open access and copyright policy.  The PJHTM is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.

Authors’ Responsibilities  

Authors, not DEJ/PJHTM, are responsible for their papers’ content, for the accuracy of quotations and their correct attribution, for the legal right to publish any material submitted, and the appropriate handling issues of co-authorship for submitting their manuscripts in proper form for publication.  Authors must submit written permission from anyone whose unpublished works are cited or used.  A manuscript submitted to DEJ/PJHTM must not be under consideration by any other journal or publication medium at the same time or have been published elsewhere.  After a manuscript has been accepted and before it is published, the authors or authors (in cases where papers are coauthored or jointly authored) will be asked to sign copyright-release forms, which must be received before actual publication takes place.  Final submission of a manuscript automatically grants DEJ/PJHTM the right to use any figure (or picture) therein on the cover of the journal in which it appears.

Manuscript Preparation

1. Organize the paper following these major headings: Title, Author(s) and email address(es), Affiliation, Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods for experimental study or Methodology for non-experimental study, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgment, and Literature Cited. The Literature Cited should substantially consist of articles published in current content-covered or peer-reviewed journals.
2. Type the entire manuscript double-spaced on a short white bond paper (8.5 x 11 in) on one side only with 2.5 cm margins all around using an Arial font size of 12.  References, Acknowledgments, Table Titles, and Figure Legends should be typed double-spaced or numbered consecutively on all pages, including the title page, figures, and tables.
3. Leave two spaces before and after the major headings and two spaces before and after the sub-headings. Do not use footnotes; rather, use endnotes if required by the discipline.
4. Spell out acronyms or unfamiliar abbreviations when these are mentioned for the first time in the text.
5. Write the scientific names of species completely with author(s) when it is first mentioned in the text and without the author in succeeding references. Scientific names should be written in italics.
6. Do not spell out numbers unless they are used to start a sentence.
7. Use the metric system only or the International System of Units. Use abbreviations of units only beside numerals (e.g., 6 m); otherwise, spell out the units (e.g., kilometers from here). Do not use plural forms or periods for abbreviations of units. Use the bar for compound units (e.g., 1 kg/ha/yr). Place a zero before the decimal in numbers less than 1 (e.g., 0.25)
8. When preparing Tables and Figures, consider the journal’s printed page of 5.75 in x 8.5 in and the reduction that will be necessary. Titles of Tables and Captions of Figures should be as short as possible and understandable without referring to the text. Captions of Figures should be typed double-spaced on a separate sheet. Figures should consist of simple line drawings, computer-generated graphics, or good quality black and white photographs. Photographs should be original figures that are not electronically enhanced and submitted in a jpeg or png file. The label of Figures should be of such a size so that these are still legible even after reducing the size by as much as 50%. Use Adobe Photoshop CS, Adobe Indesign CS, and or PDF computer-generated graphics preferably.
9. Cite references in the text as (author, year). Writing of et al. in the list of references/ literature cited is discouraged. Instead, all the authors’ names are mentioned; references in press as (author, in press) and unpublished reference as (author, unpubl. data or author, pers. comm.). If two or more references are cited, arrange them by year (from the most recent to the oldest).
10. The manuscript should be as concise as the subject and research method permit, generally not to exceed 4,000 words, single-space.
11. To promote anonymous review, authors should not identify themselves directly or indirectly in their papers or experimental test instruments included in the submission. Single authors should not use the editorial “we.”
12. A cover page should show the title of the paper, all authors’ names, titles, and affiliations, as well as email addresses.

Pagination: All pages, including tables, appendices, and references, should be serially numbered. Major sections should be numbered in Roman numerals. Subsections should not be numbered.

Numbers: Spell out numbers from one to ten, except when used in tables and lists, and when used with mathematical, statistical, scientific, or technical units and quantities, such as distances, weights, and measures.

Percentage and Decimal Fractions: In nontechnical copy, use the word percent in the text.

Hyphens: Use a hyphen to join unit modifiers or to clarify usage. For example: a cross-sectional-equation; re-form. See Webster’s for correct usage.

Keywords: At least five keywords must follow the abstract to assist in indexing the paper and identifying qualified reviewers. The keyword should include the following:  discipline, topic, design, geography.

Abstract/ Introduction.  An abstract of about 200 words should be presented on a separate page immediately preceding the text. The Abstract should concisely inform the reader of the manuscript’s topic, its methods, and its findings. Keywords and the Data Availability statements should follow the Abstract. The paper’s text should start with a section labeled “Introduction,” which provides more details about the paper’s purpose, motivation, methodology, and findings. Both the Abstract and the Introduction should be relatively nontechnical yet clear enough for an informed reader to understand the manuscript’s contribution. The manuscript’s title but neither the author’s name nor other identification designations should appear on the Abstract page.

Documentation

Citations: In-text citations are made using an author-year format. Cited works must correspond to the list of works listed in the “Literature Cited” section.

1. In the text, works are cited as follows: author’s last name and year, without a comma, in parentheses.
2. For cited works that include more than one work by an author (or the same co-authors) published in the same year, the suffix a, b, etc., is to follow the date in the within-text citations the “Literature Cited” section.
3. When the author’s name is mentioned in the text, it need not be repeated in the citation.
4. Citations to institutional works should use acronyms or short titles where practicable.
5. If the paper refers to statutes, legal treatises, or court cases, citations acceptable in law reviews should be used.

Conclusions.  Conclusions should briefly answer the objectives of the study. They are not repetitions of the discussions but are judgments of the results obtained.

References.  Every manuscript must include a “References” section that contains only those works cited within the text. Each entry should contain all information necessary or unambiguous identification of the published work.