Philippine Journal of Science: Scopus, Scope, Submission and Publication Guide

Quick Answer: What Is the Philippine Journal of Science?

The Philippine Journal of Science is a multidisciplinary research journal of the Philippine government’s Department of Science and Technology. The official journal website states that it is open access, uses single-blind peer review, publishes in English, and covers natural sciences, engineering, mathematics, and social sciences. Regular issues are released bimonthly in February, April, June, August, October, and December.

The supplied Scopus record identifies the journal under Scopus Source ID 19700175735 and ISSN 0031-7683. Researchers whose universities require Scopus-listed publications should still open the live Scopus source profile before submission because coverage status, CiteScore, percentiles, quartiles, SJR, SNIP, and category positions can change by reporting year.

PJS may be a reasonable candidate for a manuscript that makes a clearly defined original contribution within its broad disciplinary remit. However, broad scope does not mean automatic fit. The strongest pre-submission test is to compare the manuscript with recent PJS papers in the same discipline and then follow the official author instructions exactly.

Key Takeaways

• Publisher: Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Philippines; journal management is handled by STII.
• Journal type: English-language, multidisciplinary, open-access, peer-reviewed journal.
• Scopus identity: Source ID 19700175735 is supplied for the journal; verify current live indexing and annual metrics in Scopus before relying on them for institutional decisions.
• Frequency: Regular issues are published every two months: February, April, June, August, October, and December.
• Article types: Regular Articles and Research Notes are standard routes; Reviews, Viewpoints, and Perspectives are generally invitation-led, although proposals can be considered.
• Peer review: Single-blind review normally involves two to three expert referees.
• Fees: The official journal site states that no article processing charges are levied, and the author guide states there are no page charges for accepted manuscripts.
• Submission: The current author guide instructs authors to submit by email with a cover letter, full manuscript in DOC and PDF, five possible reviewers, and an authorship-contribution sheet.

Journal Information at a Glance

What This Page Covers

• What PJS is and who publishes it
• Its multidisciplinary aims, scope, and recent research themes
• Scopus identity and how to interpret changing journal metrics
• Article types and who should consider submitting
• Required submission files, manuscript format, and reference preparation
• Single-blind peer review and post-submission decisions
• Open-access status, fees, copyright, and publication timing
• Ethics requirements for human, animal, and biodiversity research
• A practical journal-fit and publication-readiness checklist
• How Contentxprtz may support ethical manuscript preparation without guaranteeing acceptance

Methodology and Sources

This profile was prepared from the journal’s current official website, the official About PJS page, the Guide to Authors, the current Editorial Board page, recent issue pages, the supplied Scopus source record, and the ISSN record. Journal policies, editorial teams, database coverage, and metrics can change, so authors should reconfirm time-sensitive details immediately before submission.

What Kind of Journal Is PJS?

PJS is unusual in breadth. Rather than serving one narrow discipline, it publishes research spanning agriculture and forestry, biology, chemistry, earth and environmental sciences, engineering, mathematics and statistics, medicine and health sciences, nutrition and food science, physics, public administration, and social sciences. That breadth reflects the journal’s role as a national science publication rather than a specialist society title.

The journal’s official About page describes it as open access and notes that DOST publishes it while STII manages it. The first issue appeared in 1906. The long publication history matters as institutional context, but age alone should never be treated as a quality metric; researchers should evaluate current editorial standards, indexing, scope, and recent content.

The current 2026 editorial-board page lists Caesar A. Saloma, PhD as Editor-in-Chief for the 2026–2028 board. Editorial appointments are time-sensitive, so this should be checked again if the article is being used much later than its publication date.

Journal Aims, Scope, and Subject Coverage

The official author guide states that PJS publishes original, novel, and significant research results in the natural and applied sciences, engineering and technology, mathematics, and social sciences. In practical terms, this makes the journal multidisciplinary but still research-led: a manuscript needs a credible scientific or scholarly contribution, not merely a broad connection to “science.”

Research areas visible in recent issues

Recent 2025–2026 papers and issue descriptions show work on biodiversity, aquaculture, food science, environmental pollution, agriculture, genomics, mathematics, health, materials, and applied technology. This is useful evidence of breadth, but it should not be treated as a closed list. A prospective author should examine the latest two or three issues for work using comparable methods and addressing a similar research community.

Where fit can become weak

A paper may fall outside practical fit if its main contribution is not sufficiently research-oriented, if the novelty or significance is unclear, if it belongs to a highly specialised field not represented in recent issues, or if required ethical and legal permissions are missing. Broad disciplinary coverage does not remove the need for a clear PJS-specific rationale in the cover letter.

What Does the Journal Publish?

The current author guide identifies Regular Articles and Research Notes as core formats. It also says the journal publishes Reviews and Viewpoints on timely subjects and refers to Perspectives. Reviews, Viewpoints, and Perspectives are generally written or submitted by invitation, although the editors welcome suggestions and may evaluate unsolicited review proposals before a full manuscript is prepared.

Regular research articles are expected to present novel and interesting results that answer definite research questions. The guide states that, excluding appendices, a research article should generally be limited to 30 manuscript pages and 15 printed pages; longer work requires justification and approval by the Editor-in-Chief. Research letters/notes are much shorter: the guide limits them to four pages, 800 words, four combined figures/tables, and ten references.

For manuscript planning, the distinction matters. Compressing a full-scale study into a Research Note merely to shorten review time would be a poor strategy; the article type should reflect the scientific contribution and the amount of evidence needed to support it.

Scopus Indexing and Journal Metrics: What Researchers Should Verify

The input record supplied for this article identifies PJS as Scopus Source ID 19700175735. That source identifier is the most useful way to avoid confusing the journal with similarly named titles. Researchers can use the linked Scopus profile to check current coverage, CiteScore, percentile, subject category, quartile, SJR, SNIP, and source status.

These metrics are deliberately not copied as timeless facts in this guide because annual values can change, category assignments can shift, and institutional requirements may refer to a specific reporting year. If a doctoral programme says “Q1 or Q2 only,” the relevant question is not simply “What quartile is PJS?” but “What quartile is PJS in the database, category, and reporting year recognised by my institution?”

The same caution applies to Journal Impact Factor. A CiteScore or third-party “impact score” must not be presented as a Clarivate Journal Impact Factor. Before using any metric in a thesis progress report, promotion file, funding application, or university journal list, verify the current value in the original database.

Open Access, Publication Charges, and Copyright

The official About page states that PJS is open access and that no article processing charges are levied on authors who submit manuscripts for peer review and possible publication. The author guide also states that accepted manuscripts have no page charges.

The author guide says accepted authors are asked to sign a copyright transfer form. Authors should therefore read the current form and any reuse terms before signing, especially when a funder or institution requires a particular open-access licence or rights-retention condition. “Open access” describes reader access; it does not by itself tell an author which Creative Commons or copyright arrangement applies to every article.

Is the Philippine Journal of Science a Good Match for Your Research?

A strong fit usually has three layers. First, the subject belongs within the journal’s natural science, applied science, engineering, mathematics, or social-science remit. Second, the paper contributes original and significant evidence rather than merely describing a local situation without a research question. Third, the article can be framed for PJS readers, with methods and implications that are understandable beyond one narrow institutional context.

Examples of potentially aligned manuscripts

• A biodiversity study with appropriate collection permits and a clear contribution to taxonomy, ecology, or conservation.
• An agricultural or food-science experiment that tests a defined hypothesis and reports reproducible methods.
• An engineering or technology paper presenting validated performance data rather than a purely conceptual design.
• A mathematical, statistical, or computational study with a clear methodological or applied contribution.
• A health, public-administration, or social-science study that uses rigorous methods and sits credibly within the journal’s multidisciplinary research profile.

As a practical publication-readiness step, compare your abstract, keywords, methods, and discussion with several recent PJS papers. If you cannot explain in two or three sentences why the manuscript belongs beside those papers, the journal-selection decision needs more work.

Preparing and Submitting a Manuscript

Required submission package

The current author guide requires submissions to include a PDF cover letter explaining how the paper meets the journal’s originality, merit, scientific novelty, and significance criteria; the email addresses of all contributing authors; a declaration that the work has not appeared before and is not under consideration elsewhere; the full manuscript in DOC and PDF formats; a PDF list of five possible reviewers with full contact details; and a completed authorship sheet describing each author’s contributions.

The suggested reviewers must not come from the authors’ current institution and should have relevant expertise and publications connected to the manuscript topic. The journal states that incomplete submissions will not be reviewed.

Core manuscript format

The guide asks for double spacing throughout and prefers Arial 12-point type. Pages should be numbered consecutively at the top right, with margins of at least 2.5 cm. The title page should include the title, running head, authors, addresses, and up to six alphabetically arranged keywords.

The title should stay within the journal’s stated 250-character limit and avoid active verbs, abbreviations, punctuation, waste phrases such as “Studies on,” and certain title constructions the guide rejects. The running head should be no more than 50 characters including spaces.

References, tables, and figures

PJS provides its own examples for reference formatting and asks authors to list only published papers in the reference list. Tables and figures should be self-explanatory, non-duplicative, and prepared so readers can understand them without repeatedly returning to the main text. Because formatting rules can be updated, authors should use the latest downloadable manuscript file and a recent issue as their final style references.

Ethics and Legal Requirements That Can Affect Peer Review

The author guide makes research permissions a substantive submission issue. Studies involving animals or human participants require prior approval from the appropriate Animal Care and Use Committee or equivalent ethics committee. The committee name and complete permit numbers must be provided as a prerequisite for peer review.

For biodiversity work involving collection of biological specimens, byproducts, or derivatives, the journal requires the relevant gratuitous permit under Republic Act No. 9147 or an equivalent permit outside the Philippines. The journal also points to Philippine laws affecting animal welfare, wildlife resources, and related research governance and may require certified copies of ethics or permit documents.

These are not clerical extras. A scientifically strong paper can still be unreviewable if the legal or ethical approvals required for the underlying study are absent. Researchers should therefore audit permits before writing the submission cover letter, not after a reviewer asks for them.

What Happens After You Submit?

PJS states that it uses a single-blind peer-review system. The journal invites two to three experts to assess each submitted manuscript for scientific merit, originality, novelty, coherence, and clarity. Reviewers know the authors’ names and affiliations; reviewer identities are not routinely disclosed to the authors.

Authors may be invited to revise the manuscript in response to referee comments. The Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision on acceptability using referee recommendations and, where needed, input from Editorial Board members. The policy also states that the review process can be closed if none of the referees recommends acceptance or further revision, allowing authors to decide whether to pursue another evaluation or submit elsewhere.

The journal publishes historical review-duration statistics on its About page. For calendar year 2023, the page reports an average review duration of 2.20 months (about 9.45 weeks or 66.13 days). That is historical journal data, not a promise for a manuscript submitted in 2026. The current author guide does not promise a guaranteed review or publication timeline.

Publication Frequency and the Difference Between Acceptance and Issue Placement

Regular issues are published bimonthly. The author guide explains that, because of page limitations, accepted papers are normally placed into issues according to the order in which they were accepted, except in rare cases where an article is judged suitable for rapid publication.

This distinction matters when planning graduation, appraisal, or funding deadlines. “Accepted” and “published in an issue” are different milestones. Authors with a hard institutional deadline should ask their university which milestone counts and should not assume that a positive editorial decision guarantees immediate issue placement.

Common Reasons a Manuscript May Be Unsuitable

• The research question or contribution does not align convincingly with PJS’s multidisciplinary science remit.
• The work lacks originality, scientific novelty, or significance as framed in the journal’s publication criteria.
• The submission package is incomplete, especially the cover letter, reviewer list, authorship sheet, or required manuscript formats.
• Human, animal, or biodiversity research lacks required ethics or legal permissions.
• The article type is inappropriate for the length and evidence presented.
• The manuscript does not follow the journal’s title-page, formatting, reference, table, or figure instructions.
• The paper has already been published or is simultaneously under consideration elsewhere.
• The English, structure, or reporting is unclear enough to obscure the scientific contribution.

Philippine Journal of Science Pre-Submission Checklist

How Contentxprtz Can Support Publication Readiness

Contentxprtz can support authors who have selected PJS by improving the manuscript’s clarity, organisation, language, formatting consistency, reference presentation, cover-letter wording, and response-to-reviewer communication. Support can also include journal-fit review, manuscript assessment, proofreading, and checks against the journal’s current author instructions.

The boundary is important: professional support cannot create missing ethics approvals, fabricate novelty, invent data or citations, manipulate peer review, or guarantee acceptance. Editorial decisions remain with the Philippine Journal of Science. Researchers remain responsible for the study, its data, its interpretations, authorship, disclosures, and final submission.

Summary

The Philippine Journal of Science is a long-established, DOST-published, open-access multidisciplinary journal with regular bimonthly issues and a single-blind review process. Its official guidance supports Regular Articles and Research Notes, with invitation-led or proposal-based routes for Reviews, Viewpoints, and Perspectives. The journal currently states that it levies no APC and no page charges.

For a researcher, the main selection question is not simply whether PJS is associated with a Scopus source record. The better decision combines live indexing verification, current institutional metric requirements, subject and methodological fit, complete ethical documentation, and exact compliance with the journal’s author instructions. A manuscript that fits the journal and is carefully prepared still goes through independent editorial and peer-review judgement.

Conclusion: Decide on PJS by Fit, Evidence, and Current Requirements

PJS may suit researchers whose work makes an original contribution across the journal’s broad science, engineering, mathematics, or social-science remit and who can meet its ethical and submission requirements. Its open-access model, DOST stewardship, bimonthly schedule, and defined single-blind review policy are useful considerations, but none substitutes for manuscript–journal fit.

Before submission, verify the live Scopus source record, review recent issues, download the current author instructions, confirm all ethics or biodiversity permits, and assemble every required file. If professional support is useful, it should strengthen clarity and compliance while leaving research ownership, claims, data, and final decisions with the authors.

At Contentxprtz, we don’t just edit; we help ideas reach their fullest potential.