About OFP

Osteopathic Family Physician (OFP), the official journal of the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians, is a peer-reviewed publication whose purpose is to deliver information that helps osteopathic family physicians care for their patients, improve their practices, and better understand the activities ACOFP is taking on their behalf. OFP is published 4 times per year.

The content of the journal reflects the interests of association members on topics such as preventive medicine, managed care, osteopathic principles and practices, pain management, public health, medical education, and practice management.

OFP provides a forum for careful systematic reviews of primary care. As the official journal of ACOFP, OFP also publishes policy statements, communications from the Board of Governors, and notices of important Committee and Special Interest Group projects.

All opinions in OFP are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the editors, ACOFP, or the institution with which the authors are affiliated unless expressly stated. No part of OFP may be reprinted or reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher.

At the time of submission, authors must disclose in the cover letter accompanying their manuscript the use of any artificial intelligence (AI) writing or research tools. Included should be a description of how such AI tools were employed in their work and which specific tools were used. AI tools cannot be listed as authors; all authors are responsible for a manuscript’s content, including any part produced by AI.

An author is an individual who has significantly contributed to the development of a manuscript.  ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following four criteria:

  1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
  2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
  3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND
  4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

If there is a need to make changes in the authorship of a manuscript or a published article, the changes will be implemented according to COPE specification. Only corresponding authors can make request for a change in authorship.

Individuals who participated in the development of a manuscript but do not qualify as an author should be acknowledged. Organizations that provided support in terms of funding and/or other resources should also be acknowledged. 

There are no fees or charges required for manuscript processing and/or publishing materials in Osteopathic Family Physician.

A submitted manuscript is considered confidential material. OFP will not disclose submitted manuscripts to anyone except those involved in the processing and preparation of the manuscript for publication (if accepted). These individuals include editorial staff, corresponding authors, potential reviewers, actual reviewers, and editors. However, in suspected cases of misconduct, a manuscript may be revealed to members of ACOFP's ethics committee and institutions/organizations that may require it for the resolution of the misconduct. OFP shall follow the appropriate COPE flowcharts when necessary.

The OFP requires all participants in the peer review and publication process to disclose all relationships that could be viewed as potential conflicts of interest. Editors may use information disclosed in conflict of interest and financial interest statements as a basis for editorial decisions.

Please refer to the OFP Policy Statement on Duality of Interest and submit the relevant conflict of interest statements with OFP’s mandatory Manuscript Submission Form.

In addition, for all manuscript submissions, regardless of article type, all authors should include conflict of interest statements in both the comments to the editors at the time of submission and within the Acknowledgments section of the manuscript itself. If authors have no relevant conflicts of interest to disclose, this should also be indicated in both sections. Examples of potential conflict of interest include:

  • Employment, membership on the board of directors, or any fiduciary relationship with a third party entity engaged in the development, manufacture, or sale of pharmaceutical or medical devices, supplies, or information;
  • Ownership of stock or receipt of honoraria, travel or meeting expenses, or consulting or review fees from a third-party entity, as described above;
  • Holding patents or receiving royalties related to the development of pharmaceutical or medical devices, supplies, or information;
  • Receipt of writing assistance, medicines, equipment, or administrative support from a third-party entity, as described above;
  • Membership on a scientific advisory panel or other standing scientific/medical committee; or
  • Receipt of payment or honoraria for author contributions or author designation.
  • Any relationship with a company whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients within the prior 24 months.
  • Any other relationships that readers could perceive to have influenced, or that give the appearance of potentially influencing, the content of the submitted work.

Investigators must disclose potential conflicts of interest to study participants and should state in the manuscript whether they have done so.

If the study was sponsored by a third party, authors should describe the role of the study sponsor in study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; writing the report; and the decision to submit the report for publication. If the supporting source had no such involvement, the authors should so state. At the time of submission, OFP requires that the submitting author of a study funded by an agency with a proprietary or financial interest indicate that she/he had full access to all of the data in the study and takes complete responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. This author, unless otherwise specified, will be listed in the published version of the article as the "guarantor" of the study.

Please note that the editors may request a statistical analysis of all data by an independent biostatistician, and will decline to consider an article if a sponsor has asserted control over the authors’ right to publish.

Peer reviewers for OFP publications are required to disclose to editors any conflicts of interest that could bias their opinions of the manuscript. Likewise, the Editor and Associate Editors are required to recuse themselves of any final decision on manuscripts for which they may have personal or professional biases. In such cases, a different member of the Editorial Team, or an "Ad Hoc Editor" (for example, a previous Editor-in-Chief of the journal), will be appointed to adjudicate the review of the manuscript and render a decision on the manuscript.

Authors are encouraged to provide editors with the names of people they feel should not be asked to review a manuscript because of potential conflicts of interest. Authors should explain their concerns in their comments to the editor at the time of submission; the editors will consider this information when determining who to invite to review the manuscript.

Corrections may be made to a published article with the authorization of the journal editor. Editors will decide the magnitude of the corrections. Minor corrections are made directly to the original article. However, in cases of major corrections, the original article will remain unchanged, while the corrected version will also be published. Both the original and corrected version will be linked to each other. A statement indicating the reason for the major change to the article will also be published.

OFP encourages authors to share the data and other artifacts supporting the results in the paper by archiving it in an appropriate public repository. If you have shared data, please provide a data availability statement to be published with your paper. This statement should describe how the data can be accessed and include a persistent identifier (e.g., a DOI for the data, or an accession number) from the repository where you shared the data.

OFP expects authors of accepted manuscripts to retain all data and materials for a minimum of 5 years.

Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission from publishers and authors to adapt or reprint previously published tables, illustrations, and other graphic elements. Authors must specifically obtain permission to reprint or adapt graphic elements for both the OFP's print and online versions.

Authors must submit signed permissions from publishers, authors, and patients once their manuscripts are accepted for publication in the OFP. Likewise, authors must submit signed permission from anyone explicitly named in their studies, including named sources for unpublished data and individuals listed in the acknowledgments.

Authors serving in the US military must obtain armed forces' approval for their manuscripts and provide military or institutional disclaimers when submitting manuscripts.

Failure to submit appropriate permission forms may delay publication.

See also "Research Ethics."

Authors must obtain written permission from patients to use their photographic images shown in still or moving images in submitted manuscripts. If a patient is younger than 18 years, authors must obtain permission from one of the patient's parents or guardians. Authors are encouraged to use the OFP's patient-model release form for this purpose.

Research involving animals should be conducted with the same rigor as research in humans. Authors are encouraged to adhere to animal research reporting standards, such as the ARRIVE reporting guidelines. Authors should state whether experiments were performed in accordance with relevant institutional and national guidelines and regulations, citing compliance with the US National Research Council's "Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals," the US Public Health Service's "Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals," and "Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals."

NEXT STEPS

Author Guidelines

To maintain editorial and quality standards, all OFP submitted articles are subjected to a rigorous peer review and editing process.

Manuscript Format

To ensure that the OFP Journal maintains the highest quality submissions, all manuscripts must adhere to our formatting requirements.

Submission Process

Take a look at the steps involved in submitting original content to the OFP Journal, including a checklist of requirements.