Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association

Submission Policy

Original unpublished articles are considered for publication.

Articles submitted in French will be published in French. Abstracts are published in French and English.

Articles of a highly speculative nature, which are not adequately supported by the literature, or by usual methods of research may not be accepted for publication.

Papers submitted to the JCCA are reviewed by members of an international editorial board and/or other referees. Referees with special qualifications in the subject matter presented are consulted, and decisions are made by the Editor with due consideration of their evaluations.

Material appearing in the JCCA, may not be reproduced or reprinted for any purpose whatsoever, without the expressed written consent of the JCCA. Such consent may be obtained through the Journal.

Statements and/or opinions expressed directly, or implied, in articles or advertising, are those of the author or advertiser and not the CCA nor the Journal; publication herein does not necessarily mean that the CCA or the Journal, or the Editorial Board endorses such statement or opinion.

The Journal reserves the right through its Editor to refuse to publish or print any articles or advertisement which, in its opinion, may cast disrepute on any practice, product or individual in chiropractic or associated medical practices.

Any error or omission will be corrected in a subsequent issue of the Journal by notice to the Editor on terms and conditions determined by the Journal.  All papers published in the JCCA are freely accessible online immediately upon publication, without subscription charges.  Authors do not pay article-processing charges.

JCCA Ethical Standards

Authors, peer-reviewers, the JCCA Editors and Publisher are constituent elements in an ethical publication process.

As such, the JCCA is committed to ensuring an ethical publication process by:

  1. endorsing the industry standards and guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICJME), World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), and the Council of Science Editors (CSE), and
  2. holding authors, editors, peer-reviewers and the publisher to these expected ethical standards.

Editors undertake to follow a fair and rigorous peer review process, and accept manuscripts solely on their academic and scientific merit.

Reviewers undertake to objectively review manuscripts, free from bias, to declare potential conflicts of interest and to maintain confidentiality.

Authors undertake to comply with all laws respecting human and animal experimentation, to comply with all relevant academic institutional policies respecting research and publication, and to reporting all significant errors in their published works.

The Publisher undertakes to ensure the Editors adhere to industry publication standards.

Manuscript Requirements

All manuscripts should be sent to our manuscript submission site at  www.manuscriptmanager.net/jcca.  If this is your first time using this site, you will need to create a New Account and begin the submission process from there.  Any inquiries can be sent to Dr. Kent Stuber, the Editor-in-Chief, at kstuber@jcca.ca. (please see details  in the Online Submission section below). While the Journal will take all reasonable care, it will not be responsible for the loss of any manuscript, drawing, or photograph submitted. Please retain a copy for your own records.

This journal receives manuscripts in accordance with “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals” from the Internal Committee of Medical Journal Editors (www.icmje.org).  Authors should follow theses detailed requirements. In addition, authors should adhere to the guidance provided from COPE, the Committee on Publication Ethics (www.publicationethics.org) and CSE, the Council of Science Editors (www.councilscienceeditors.org).

Authors are advised that the JCCA endorses the CONSORT STATEMENT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials checklist) and encourages authors of randomized controlled trials to follow this format www.consort-statement.org

Additional reporting guidelines for various study designs are recommended including: PRISMA for systematic reviews; MOOSE for meta-analyses of observational studies; STARD for diagnostic accuracy studies; STROBE for observational studies in epidemiology and COREQ for qualitative research.

Cover Letter

All manuscripts submitted must be accompanied by a cover letter requesting consideration for publication, and should be signed by the author or any and all co-authors if any. In the absence of any statement to the contrary, the Journal assumes any article has not been published nor submitted for publication elsewhere. All authors must endorse the transfer of copyright agreement.

The cover letter should also include:

  • The title of the paper;
  • The names (given name and surname) of the authors;
  • Their academic degrees;
  • The name of the department or institution where the work was done;
  • The current affiliations of the authors; if different from (4);
  • The name, address, email address and telephone number of the corresponding responsible for negotiations concerning the manuscript;
  • Disclaimers, if any;
  • For case reports, the patient’s consent to publish the case; and
  • Sources of support in the form of grants, equipment or drugs.

Abstract

The Abstract should be 150 words or less. The abstract should give an overview or synopsis of the entire paper. It should not be a simple conclusion, which requires reading of the paper in its entirety in order to be understood.  Both structured and unstructured Abstracts are acceptable.

Article Requirements

The text should be appropriately divided, usually, but not necessarily into sections with the headings Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusions.   It is requested that authors submit manuscripts using Times New Roman double-spaced in size 12 font.  References should be indicated using a superscript.    Each table or Figure should appear on a separate page. Tables should be numbered consecutively and given a brief title.

When reporting on experiments using human subjects, researchers should indicate that procedures conformed to the ethical standards of the author’s institutional ethics review board, the Helsinki Declaration, or are in accord with Canada’s Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (CIHR/NSERC/SSHRC). If subjects are identified, permission must be obtained from the subject by the author. For experiments using animal subjects please indicate that procedures conformed to the Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC) guide for the use and care of laboratory animals (www.ccac.ca).

Authors must register their trials prior to submission in a publicly available clinical trials registry such as ClinicalTrials.gov run by the National Library of Medicine or the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform.  The trial registration number should be included in the manuscript.

All statistical techniques must be identified and, when appropriate, referenced. Levels of statistical significance must be stated. All individuals responsible for statistical evaluation must be identified.

Authors are expected to disclose any commercial associations that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article. All funding sources supporting the work should be acknowledged in a footnote on the title page. All affiliations with or financial involvement in any organization or entity with a direct financial interest in the subject matter or materials of the research discussed (eg, employment, consultancies, stock ownership or other equity interest, patent-licensing arrangements) should be cited in the cover letter. This information will be held in confidence by the Editor during the review process. If the manuscript is accepted, the Editor will discuss with the author(s) how best to disclose relevant information.

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgements should include only persons who have made substantive contributions to the study. Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission from those acknowledged because readers may infer their endorsement of the data and conclusions.

References

References must be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned and noted with a superscript in the manuscript. Journal references should include, in this order: Author’s last name and initials (no punctuation), period, title of article (capitalize on the first word, and proper nouns), period, journal name (abbreviation according to the style used by Index Medicus), year of publication, semi-colon, volume numbers, colon, page numbers, period. Carefully note the following examples:

(Journal article)
1. Gotlib A. The chiropractor and third party access to confidential patient health records. JCCA. 1984; 28: 327-30.

(Book)
2. Paul LW, Juhl JH. The essential of roentgen interpretation.2nd. ed. New York: Harper and Row, 1965: 310-12.

Authors are urged to submit manuscripts that conform to the aforementioned style.

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor are considered for publication (subject to editing and abridgment), provided that they are signed by all authors, and do not exceed 40 typewritten lines of manuscript text (excluding references). Submission of a letter constitutes permission for the Canadian Chiropractic Association, its licensees, and its assignees to use it in the Journal’s various editions (print, data base, and optical disk) in anthologies, revisions, and any other form or medium. Letters should not duplicate similar material being submitted or published elsewhere, and they should not contain abbreviations. Financial associations or other possible conflicts of interest should always be disclosed.

Letters referring to a recent Journal article must be received within six weeks of the article’s publication. We are unable to provide pre-publication proofs.

Online Submission

All manuscripts should be sent to our manuscript submission site at  www.manuscriptmanager.net/jcca. Please note that manuscripts should be prepared as Word documents, formatted as per the instructions above without any information that would identify the authors.  Please provide a cover letter as described above with the necessary information on all authors.  Any inquiries can be sent to Dr. Kent Stuber, the Editor-in-Chief, at kstuber@jcca.ca.

 Assignment of Copyright

To be considered for publication, each author must assign copyright to the JCCA by completing and remitting the Assignment of Copyright and Waiver of Moral Rights Form together with the manuscript .

Please download the form below, type in the required information, print and then sign the form before submitting it to the JCCA. Note that your information can not be saved in this form. You will need to print a copy for your records.

Please complete the JCCA’s Assignment of Copyright and Waiver of Moral Rights Form and e-mail it to Dr. Kent Stuber, Editor-in-Chief of the JCCA at kstuber@jcca.ca.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Dr. Stuber.