Physiotherapy Students submissions

Undergraduate physiotherapy students submissions

We welcome scholarly papers from undergraduate physiotherapy students who have written up their dissertation as a journal article following the CPPE instructions. To expedite the reviewing process all manuscripts are subject to a screening process by one of the Editors as manuscripts would have been assessed and moderated as part of a dissertation module.

Those judged to be of sufficient interest and methodologically robust will be published in CPPE. Priority will be given to clinically relevant papers. Generally, the journal will not publish papers that are merely confirmatory of earlier work or that describe relatively minor modifications of existing techniques or methods. Students should discuss the manuscript submission with their supervisor in advance. 

Submission of a manuscript is limited to original work not previously published, nor being considered simultaneously elsewhere for publication. If accepted for publication it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in any language, without the consent of the editor and once published is expected to conform to the usual ethical aspects of investigation and copyright.

Your main document file should include:

  • A short informative title containing the major key words. The title should not contain abbreviations
  • The full names of the author and their supervisor with institutional affiliations where the work was conducted
  • Acknowledgements;
  • Abstract structured (background and purpose/methods/results/discussion)
  • Up to four keywords;
  • Main body: formatted as abstract, introduction, methods, results/findings, discussion;
  • References;
  • Tables (each table complete with title and footnotes);
  • Figures: Figure legends must be added beneath each individual image during upload AND as a complete list in the text.

Quantitative studies

Introduction

The Background section should explain the background to the study, its aims, a summary of the existing literature and why this study was necessary or its contribution to the field.

Methods
-Please provide a brief overview of the tests or experiments used to answer the research question(s).
-Outline the recruitment procedures and the inclusion and exclusion criteria for their eligibility. Include details of any drop outs or missing data.
-Indicate any materials used for the research including their validity and reliability. Provide manufacturer and manufacturers address for any equipment as necessary.
-Put as much detail as possible to allow others to evaluate or reproduce the test/experiments. Include outcome measures stating the impairment or activity or limitation or participation restriction being collected and its measurement with units. Mention any power analysis carried out to determine the number of subjects needed for the study.
-Explain how the research question(s) has been answered by the interpretive results (include details of statistical analysis). Include details of any statistical packages used.

Results
Main results should be reported; results that help answer the question. Present the data in figures or tables within the body of the text. Do not duplicate data in tables and figures. Only report a meaningful number of decimal places. All data reported as means should also be accompanied by the standard deviation (in brackets).  Avoid using abbreviations and reporting overly detailed statistics.

Discussion
This should initially summarise the main results and answer the research question asked in the introduction, if relevant. Emphasise the new and important aspects of the study. Data already presented in the Method and Results should not be repeated. The length of the Discussion should relate to the number of important findings.


Qualitative Studies


Qualitative studies explore complex phenomena and are less appropriate for strict guidance on reporting. However authors are advised to prepare manuscripts with attention to the following headings; Introduction: Method (including study design; setting; sampling and recruitment; data collection, data analysis e.g. software was used, data coding, participant checking; and reflexivity, ethical considerations. Findings (quotes can be added on tables) Discussion- should include clarity and derivation of major and minor themes and identification of quotes (participant numbers).

Survey design should include:

Introduction with study objective(s), design, Methods including data collection methods and source of subjects with selection methods and justifications. Indicate study procedure, data analysis and statistical methods used with appropriate references, Main results should be presented with confidence intervals, Discussion Indicate any study limitations. 

Systematised Reviews

Systematised Reviews include a review of a clearly formulated question that uses systematic and explicit methods to identify, select, and critically appraise relevant research, and to collect and analyze data from the studies will be considered for publication.  Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Limitations are appropriate titles to use. 

In the Introduction a review of relevant literature and the aim and goal for the review should be presented. Method section. A clear description of the design and methods used is needed. The Discussion section could be structured along the lines for an original report being aware to discuss the limitation and its clinical message.

Make a new submission to the Undergraduate physiotherapy students submissions section.