General Information

TAPS is a journal for health professionals involved in the education of future practitioners. The journal publishes a wide range of articles in various categories – research papers, reviews and reports of innovations. TAPS focuses on papers relating to research in medical and health professional education, pedagogical innovations and educational leadership and management.

Editorial Policy

Standard peer review procedures are used for submissions. The editors may request for suggestions of reviewers from the authors. The Editors-in-Chief retain the sole right to make decisions on the review process.

Retraction and Correction

TAPS adheres to guidelines from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) when there are doubts on the academic integrity of literature published with TAPS, by issuing an expression of concern, correction or retraction, if deemed necessary.

TAPS’ journal policies on Retraction and Correction can be found here.

Peer Review Process and Policies

TAPS employs double-blind peer reviews. Upon receiving a new manuscript, TAPS Editorial Office will first conduct an editorial review followed by peer review.

Once the manuscript is perused by the Editorial Office for its relevance, compliance and alignment to the journal’s scope, it is then sent for double-blind peer review. The anonymised manuscript is assigned to two reviewers who are content experts.

The review comprises two parts:

Part 1 (For Editorial Board): Reviewers are required to give an outcome of the paper and provide any comments for the Editorial Board to make an informed decision.

Part 2 (For authors): Reviewers are required to give constructive feedback on how to improve the paper if revisions are recommended.

Reviewers will be asked to consider the following points:

1. Appropriateness of topic – Does the article contribute new knowledge or advance understanding of the topic?
2. Style & Content of paper – Is the study adequate and relevant? Does the abstract reflect the content of the paper including methods used (if appropriate), results and conclusions drawn? Are the references adequate and in the correct format? Are figures and tables clear and logical?
3. Recommendation – Accept/Minor Revision/Major Revision/Reject? Reviewers who recommend revisions are required to indicate if they would like to review a revision of this paper.

For more information, please download the guide on “How to Review a Medical Education Journal Paper”.

You may also download a copy of the TAPS’s Reviewer guidelines for your reference. 

Review Process

Note: The average review process will take up to 14 weeks in the event that reviewers both accepted and reviewed within the given stipulated deadline. However, in the event that the invited reviewer(s) declined or did not accept the review invitation on time, this review process might take longer. It should also be noted that delay(s) in author’s submission of revised manuscript and number of revision/review round(s) of a manuscript, do contribute to the length of the review duration. Kindly also note that the exact publication date an accepted manuscript is due on, depends on its assigned publication issue number.

The Editorial Board reserves the right to decide the issue in which the accepted manuscript will be published in. Authors will be notified only after their manuscripts have been published. Thank you for your understanding and patience.