Edward James R. Gorgon

Introduction. The Philippine Journal of Physical Therapy began publication in 2021. The editorial board identified as a high-priority project to undertake a detailed analysis of current publishing practice among physical therapy researchers in the Philippines. Methods. This study systematically mined publications from Web of Science, Scopus and PubMed using the keywords “physical therapy” OR “physiotherapy” OR “physical therapist” OR “physiotherapist.” Results were further refined to only include English publications by authors from the Philippines. Publication, citation, collaboration, and text-co-occurrence network analysis were done using RStudio and VOSViewer. Results. A total of 122 publications from 1987 to 2022 were identified. Majority of the literature was primary studies (70.49%), secondary or review articles (13.93%) and proceedings of national and/or international conferences (10.65%). The most common and earliest collaborators of Filipino authors were from Australia, United States of America and Hong Kong. Five clusters of co-occurring keywords were identified: (1) case report, validity, function, mobility; (2) meta-analysis, systematic review, database, search; (3) perception, qualitative, barrier, value; (4) Evidence-based practice, attitude, need, confidence; and (5) COVID-19, pandemic, Filipino, cross-sectional. Discussion. This study provides an overview and valuable guidance for physical therapy researchers, practitioners, educators, and policymakers to plan for the future direction of physical therapy research in the country. Stakeholders should consider the results of the study in identifying future projects to build capacity, develop research agendas and policy guidelines, and create collaborative opportunities to further improve physical therapy research productivity in the country.