Author Guidelines
Public Health Reviews (PHR) is an independent society journal of the non-profit Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+) Zurich, Switzerland and is published by Frontiers, Lausanne, Switzerland. It publishes Open Access with Frontiers as of January 2021. American English is the official language of PHR, and submissions must be made in English.
Please ensure that any manuscript you submit to PHR fully conforms with the author guidelines detailed below. We encourage authors to refer to the reporting guidelines for health research hosted by the EQUATOR network when preparing their manuscript.
Your manuscript should also comply with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations for ethics.
For general information about publication ethics, please visit the "Publication Ethics" page.
1. General Information
Public Health Reviews (PHR) is an independent society journal of the non-profit Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), Zurich, Switzerland and is published by Frontiers, Lausanne, Switzerland. It publishes Open Access with Frontiers as of January 2021. American English is the official language of PHR, and submissions must be made in English.
Due to the amount of interest, the PHR editors cannot advise interested authors on the suitability of a manuscript before submission. In section 4 you can find helpful information.
1.1 Contacts
For inquiries related to the submission platform and process, and calls for papers, please contact the PHR Development Office: phr.publishers.office@ssph-journal.org
For inquiries related to the progress of peer review, please contact the PHR Operations Office: phr@ssph-journal.org
For inquiries related to accepted and published papers, please contact the PHR Production Office: production@ssph-journal.org
For all other queries, and if you would like to feature your accepted article in the IJPH blog or social media channels, please contact the PHR Editorial Office: phr@swisstph.ch
1.2 Article Processing Charges (APC)
PHR publishes all accepted articles Open Access. This incurs an Article Processing Charge (APC). APC comprise the production costs of the publisher and the editorial costs of the owner, the Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+). SSPH+ discounts the editorial costs for first authors from low- and middle-income countries according to the research4life country classification (group A and B countries). APC support requests must be submitted directly after manuscript submission. APCs may be subject to periodic revision. The invoiced APC is the one valid at the time of manuscript submission. Please find the APC and all discount options on the journal website.
1.3. Licensing
All articles are published under a CC-BY 4.0 license. Authors hold the copyright of the article published. Authors who are not allowed to hold the copyright (for example, authors affiliated with the US government or Commonwealth governments, or WHO), should contact the PHR Publisher Office (phr@ssph-journal.org) for amendments to copyright during or immediately after submission of the article. No changes to the copyright are possible after the publication of an article. Authors should check that their employers have the legal right to grant the CC-BY license.
1.4. Open Data Policy
PHR encourages authors to make their datasets on which the conclusions of the paper rely available to readers as Supplementary Material or in publicly available repositories. The publisher, Frontiers, provides general information, please see the links below:
2. Article Types
Manuscripts should be written with a view to submit as a specific article type. All PHR format requirements detailed in this section and in sections 3 and 4 should be fully adopted. We encourage authors to refer to the reporting guidelines for health research hosted by the EQUATOR network when preparing their manuscript. Checklists are available for a number of study designs here: https://www.equator-network.org/.
2.1. Peer Reviewed
Policy Brief
Policy Briefs are short reports to support decision-makers in understanding and addressing a relevant public health issue. Policy Briefs begin with an outline of the specific issue and should highlight the importance of policy action (Background). They further provide an examination and summary of the available (local and global) evidence related to the issue, and current policy approaches (Analysis). The central section of a Policy Brief is a critical assessment of potential policy options to address the issue, their likely impacts, potential barriers, and facilitators to their implementation (Policy Options). Finally, Policy Briefs end by summarizing primary insights and presented options (Conclusion). Policy Briefs have the following format:
Title: Short and concise.
Abstract: 180 words max, structured: Background, Analysis, Policy Options, Conclusion.
Article Structure: Background: Introduction to the public health issue and the importance for policy action.
Analysis: Examination and summary of evidence, and current policy approaches. Policy Options: Critical assessment of potential policy options, expected outcomes, and factors influencing their implementation. Conclusion: Summary of primary insights and policy options.
Main text: 2’500 words max (abstract, reference list excluded).
References: up to 30 references.
Figures and Tables: A maximum of 4 figures and tables are allowed. The captions of figures and tables should contain the source and date of the presented data. Figures and tables and their captions should be fully self-explanatory.
Systematic Review
Systematic Reviews present a synthesis of previous research on a given topic that uses systematic and clearly defined methods to identify, categorize, analyze and report aggregated evidence on a specific topic. Included in this article type are meta-synthesis, meta-analysis, systematic review, and systematic review with a meta-analysis. Systematic reviews should clearly define the research question in terms of population, interventions, comparators, outcomes and study designs (PICOS). They should state which reporting guidelines were used in the study for design and reporting (e.g., PRISMA, Cochrane, Campbell), include the PRISMA flow diagram, include funding information (if no specific funding to carry out the research, please state so). Systematic Reviews have the following format:
The title should include the words systematic review/meta-synthesis/meta-analysis, as appropriate. No abbreviations.
Abstract: 180 words max. Structure: Objectives, Methods, Results, Conclusions.
Main text: 4’500 words max (abstract, reference list, figure and table captions excluded).
Structure: Introduction, Methods (including systematic review protocol; search strategy; data sources; studies sections and data extraction; analysis), Results (including a flow diagram of the studies retrieved for the review; study selection and characteristics; synthesized findings; assessment of risk of bias), Discussion (including summary of main findings, limitations, conclusions).
Figures and tables: up to 6 (total).
Review (all formats except for Systematic Review and Mini-Review)
Research Reviews should concentrate on the most recent developments in the field. Authors should confirm during submission in the “Contribution to the Field” section (appearing during online submission process) that the topic was not covered in a recently published review in PHR or other journals. Literature searches for all Reviews should follow a defined systematic protocol and should be comprehensive. Review articles have the following format:
Abstract: 180 words max. Structure: Objectives, Methods, Results, Conclusions.
Main text: 4’500 words max (abstract, reference list, figure and table captions excluded).
Structure: Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion (including limitations and conclusions). Reviews should reference all included studies.
Figures and tables: up to 6 (total).
1. Narrative Review
PHR considers well-constructed Narrative Reviews that provide an up-to-date overview and interpretation of a specific topic or field. Narrative reviews do not necessarily include a methods section but should identify the theoretical framework or model used as starting point. Additionally, the authors must clearly describe why they chose a narrative review approach over a reproducible review type. The title of the manuscript should contain the term “Narrative Review” (or the specific type of Narrative Review used). The authors should confirm during submission in the “Contribution to the Field” section (appearing during the online submission process) that the topic was not covered in a recently published review in PHR or other journals. Narrative Review articles should adopt the following format:
Abstract: Usually unstructured; 180 words max.
Text body: 4’500 words max (abstract, reference list, figure and table captions excluded); Structure: Introduction; Main Text Body (broken into subsections with short descriptive headings); Discussion (including Conclusions).
All included studies should be referenced.
Figures and tables: up to 6 (total).
2. Mini Review
Mini Review articles cover focused aspects of a current area of investigation and its recent developments. They offer a succinct and clear summary of the topic, allowing readers to get up-to-date on new developments and/or emerging concepts, as well as discuss the following: 1) Differences between studies (e.g. in methods), schools of thought or controversies, 2) Current research gaps, 3) Potential future developments in the field. Mini Review articles must not include unpublished material (unpublished/original data, submitted manuscripts, or personal communications) and may be rejected or reclassified, at a significant delay, if found to include such content. Mini Reviews have the following format:
Abstract: 120 words max.
Main text: 2’500 words max (abstract, reference list and captions excluded).
Structure: Introduction, Methods, Results, Conclusions.
Figures and tables: up to 2 (total).
Guidance
This new article type provides guidance to public-health scientists and practitioners on best practices, techniques, and methodologies that enhance the quality of synthesis research as reported in systematic reviews, scoping reviews, meta-analyses and policy briefs. Topics can encompass (but are not limited to) outlining and critically discussing the following:
Systematic Reviews: Steps and practices for conducting comprehensive and unbiased reviews.
Scoping Reviews: Methods to map out existing literature or evidence in a specific field.
Meta-Analysis: Statistical techniques and best practices for contrasting and combining results from different studies.
Policy Briefs: Methods or guidelines on distilling research findings for concise summaries to inform or validate policy decisions and policy recommendations.
Guidance has the following format:
Abstract: 180 words max.
Main text: 4’500 words max (abstract, reference list, and figure & table captions excluded).
Structure: Background, Discussion, Conclusions.
Figures and tables: up to 5 combined figures and tables in total. The captions of figures and tables should contain the source and date of the presented data.
2.2. Not Peer Reviewed
Editorial
Editorials express the author’s viewpoint, or they explain journal policies. Editorials are usually invited by the editors. These should have:
800 words max (reference list excluded), up to 10 references.
A short and attractive title.
Commentary
Commentary articles are invited as more in-depth opinion pieces. Commentary articles have a maximum word count of 1’200 words, up to a maximum of two figures, and 10 references. They should not contain unpublished or original data.
Letter to the Editor
Letters are reactions relating to recently published articles in PHR. Letters should be submitted no later than 3 months after publication of the article. Usually, the authors of the published article are invited to respond to the Letter.
Society Statement
Society Statements are produced or commissioned by Presidents and Executive Boards of Schools of Public Health or Public Health Associations. The submitting author ensures that the main manuscript file presents the following line after the author affiliations: “Statement of the <FULL NAME OF SOCIETY (abbreviation of the society name-if any)>”. These should be:
1’200 words max (reference list excluded), up to 10 references.
2.3. Correction of errors in published articles
Correction/Addendum: Should authors notice errors that affect the scholarly record or the integrity of the paper, authors are encouraged to submit a correction online. The correction must detail the reason(s) for the error(s) and include only the elements (e.g. sections, sentence, figure) of the manuscript being revised or corrected. All authors of the original paper need to agree to the request for changes. The Authors’ Contribution statement should be used to clearly state the reason for the Correction. Depending on the extent of the correction required, corrections may require peer review. Authors are informed that requests for changes beyond those described here may not be accepted for publication.
3. Submission – General Information
When considering submitting your work to PHR, please first make sure your article fits the scope of the journal. You may also look up the PHR archive for related articles and find out more about the suitability of your article for PHR.
When preparing the manuscript for submission, please exactly follow the structure, length and format rules for the article type. All rules are detailed in this document in the sections Article Types and Manuscript Formatting Guidelines, and on the PHR website (for Authors /Article types).
ATTENTION: If the main text and abstract of the manuscript deviate from the requested structure and length, the publisher office will send back the article and request to correct format/length and resubmit before sending it to the Editors-in-Chief for the prescreen. This will delay the processing of your manuscript.
3.1. Types of papers
Public Health Reviews publishes Reviews (all formats), Policy Briefs and editorial material. Please see the section Article Types in this document and on the PHR website. PHR does not publish original research or opinion articles. Editorials and Commentaries are invited.
The link for submission and a submission checklist are provided on the PHR website.
4. Manuscript Formatting Guidelines
4.1. Article Type
PHR requires authors to carefully select the appropriate article type for their manuscript and to comply with the article type descriptions given here and in the “Article Types” page of the journal website.
We encourage authors to refer to the minimum reporting guidelines for health research hosted by the EQUATOR network when preparing their manuscript. Checklists are available for Systematic Reviews and other review formats.
4.2. Manuscript Length
Authors should follow the article word count lengths given in the “Article Types” section above or on the website. The manuscript length includes only the main body of the text and all citations within it, and excludes the abstract, figure and table captions, funding statement, acknowledgments, and references in the reference list. The Abstract length refers only to the Abstract, manuscript title and keywords excluded.
Please indicate the number of words and the number of figures and tables included in your manuscript on the first page.
4.3. Language Style
The default language style at PHR is American English. For any questions regarding style, PHR recommends authors to consult the Chicago Manual of Style.
4.4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
There are a few simple ways to maximize your article’s discoverability. Follow the steps below to improve search results of your article:
Include a few of your article’s keywords in the title of the article.
Do not use long article titles.
Pick 5 to 8 keywords using a mix of generic and more specific terms on the article subject(s).
Use the maximum amount of keywords in the first 2 sentences of the abstract.
Use some of the keywords in level 1 headings.
4.5. CrossMark Policy
CrossMark is a multi-publisher initiative to provide a standard way for readers to locate the current version of a piece of content. By applying the CrossMark logo PHR is committed to maintaining the content it publishes and to alerting readers to changes if and when they occur. Clicking on the CrossMark logo will tell you the current status of a document and may also give you additional publication record information about the document.
4.6. Title
The title should be concise, avoid repetitive words abbreviations and terms that are implicit. The title should (where possible) be a statement of the main result or conclusion presented in the manuscript. The title should not contain any abbreviations. The study name and the acronym of the study should not be part of the title but should be presented as keywords. Consider if a title meant to be thought-provoking might be misinterpreted as offensive or alarming. Authors should try to avoid, if possible:
Titles that are a mere question without giving the answer.
Unambitious titles, for example starting with “Towards,” “A description of,” “A characterization of,” “Preliminary study on;”.
Vague titles, for example starting with “Role of…,” “Link between…,” “Effect of…” that do not specify the role, link, or effect.
For corrections of published articles, the title of the submitted correction should have the following format: “Corrigendum: Title of Original Article”.
The running title should be a maximum of 5 words in length.
Author information should not be included in any submitted files due to the PHR double anonymized peer review. Author information should be provided only as online data during the submission process:
Corresponding author name, affiliation and email address.
Co-authors (if any - names and affiliation).
Order of authors.
Authorship should be clarified thoroughly before submission. Please follow the authorship guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (http://www.icmje.org/ ). The authors, co-authors and the order of authors should not be altered once the manuscript was submitted. Please follow the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (http://www.icmje.org/ ) and include all authors qualifying for authorship, and acknowledge other contributors provided they have agreed.
Provide exact and correct author names separated by commas, as these will be indexed in official archives. Affiliations should be keyed to the author’s name with superscript numbers and be listed as follows: Laboratory, Institute, Department, Organization, City, State abbreviation (only for United States, Canada, and Australia), and Country (without detailed address information such as city zip codes or street names).
Example: Maxine Meyer1
1 Department of Excellence, International University of Science, New York, NY, United States.
4.8.1. Correspondence
The Corresponding Author(s) should be marked with an asterisk in the author list. Provide the exact contact email address of the corresponding author(s) in a separate section.
Example: Max Maximusmaximus@iuscience.edu
If any authors wish to include a change of address, list the present address(es) below the correspondence details using a unique superscript symbol keyed to the author(s) in the author list.
4.8.2. Equal contributions
The authors who have contributed equally should be marked with a symbol (†) in the author list of the doc/latex and pdf files of the manuscript uploaded at submission.
Standard statements to include in the author list:
Contribution Type | Standard Statement |
Equal contribution | These authors have contributed equally to this work |
First authorship | These authors share first authorship |
Senior authorship | These authors share senior authorship |
Last authorship | These authors share last authorship |
Equal contribution & First authorship | These authors have contributed equally to this work and share first authorship |
Equal contribution & Senior authorship | These authors have contributed equally to this work and share senior authorship |
Equal contribution & Last authorship | These authors have contributed equally to this work and share last authorship |
Consortium/group authorship should be listed in the manuscript with the other author(s).
In cases where authorship is retained by the consortium/group, the consortium/group should be listed as an author separated by “,” or “and,”. The consortium/group name will appear in the author list, in the citation, and in the copyright. If provided, the consortium/group members will be listed in a separate section at the end of the article.
For the collaborators of the consortium/group to be indexed in PubMed, they do not have to be inserted in the submission system individually. However, in the manuscript itself, provide a section with the name of the consortium/group as the heading followed by the list of collaborators, so they can be tagged accordingly and indexed properly. Please note all listed authors (including consortium/group) require an email address associated with them. The consortium/group may be listed as the corresponding author as long as an actively checked email address is provided.
Example: John Smith, Barbara Smith and The Collaborative Working Group.
In cases where work is presented by the author(s) on behalf of a consortium/group, it should be included in the author list separated with the wording “for” or “on behalf of.” The consortium/group will not retain authorship and will only appear in the author list.
Example: John Smith and Barbara Smith on behalf of The Collaborative Working Group.
4.9. Abstract
As a primary goal, the abstract should render the general significance and conceptual advance of the work clearly accessible to a broad readership. In the abstract, do not use unexplained abbreviations and do not cite references, figures or tables. Please find the detailed information on word count and structure in the section above about Article Types.
4.10. Keywords
All article types require a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 8 keywords.
4.11. Text
The entire document should be single-spaced and must contain page and line numbers in order to facilitate the review process. The manuscript should be written using either Word or LaTeX. All files must be anonymized. An anonymized manuscript should be free from any information that allows the reviewers to identify the authors.
4.12. Nomenclature
The use of abbreviations should be kept to a minimum. Non-standard abbreviations should be avoided unless they appear at least four times and defined upon first use in the main text. Consider also giving a list of non-standard abbreviations at the end, immediately before the Acknowledgments.
Equations should be inserted in editable format from the equation editor.
We encourage the use of Standard International Units.
Chemical compounds and biomolecules should be referred to using systematic nomenclature, preferably using the recommendations by IUPAC.
4.13. Sections
The manuscript is organized by headings and subheadings. The section headings are pre- determined for each article type, please see the journal website for the correct headings (under For Authors/Article types).
4.14. Acknowledgments
This is a short text to acknowledge the contributions of specific funds, colleagues, institutions, or agencies that aided the efforts of the authors. Please omit author names and affiliations from the Acknowledgements. The names of the funding organizations should be written in full (not abbreviated).
4.15. Contribution to the Field Statement
When you submit your manuscript, you will be required to briefly summarize in 200 words your manuscript’s contribution to, and position in, the existing literature in your field. This should be written avoiding any technical language or non-standard acronyms. The aim should be to convey the meaning and importance of this research to a non-expert.
Your statement should frame the question(s) you have addressed in your work in the context of the current body of knowledge, providing evidence that the findings - whether positive or negative - contribute to progress in your research discipline. This will assist the Editors-in-Chief to determine whether your manuscript fits within the scope of a specialty as defined in its mission statement; a detailed statement will also facilitate the identification of the editors and reviewers most appropriate to evaluate your work, ultimately expediting your manuscript’s initial consideration.
4.16. CC-BY License
All figures, tables, and images will be published under a Creative Commons CC-BY license, and permission must be obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including re- published/adapted/modified/partial figures and images from the internet). It is the responsibility of the authors to acquire the licenses, follow any citation instructions requested by third-party rights holders, and cover any supplementary charges.
4.17. Figure Requirements and Style Guidelines
PHR requires figures to be submitted individually (anonymized), in the same order as they are referred to in the manuscript; the figures will then be automatically embedded at the end of the submitted manuscript. Kindly ensure that each figure is mentioned in the text and in numerical order.
For figures with more than one panel, panels should be clearly indicated using labels (A), (B), ©, (D), etc. However, do not embed the part labels over any part of the image, these labels will be replaced during typesetting according to the journal style. For graphs, there must be a self-explanatory label (including units) along each axis.
For LaTeX files, figures should be included in the provided PDF. In case of acceptance, our Production Office might require high-resolution files of the figures included in the manuscript in EPS, JPEG or TIF/TIFF format.
In order to be able to upload more than one figure at a time, save the figures (labeled in order of appearance in the manuscript) in a zip file and upload them as ‘Supplementary Material Presentation’.
Please note that figures not in accordance with the guidelines will cause substantial delay during the production process.
4.17.1. Captions
Captions should be preceded by the appropriate label, for example “Figure 1.” Figure captions should be placed at the end of the manuscript. Figure panels are referred to by bold capital letters in brackets: (A), (B), ©, (D), etc.
Captions should be free from abbreviations. At the end of each caption should appear the study type, countries or region and the years of the study. Example: Risk of bias graph Community-based interventions for cardiovascular disease prevention in low- and middle-income countries (systematic review, low- and middle-income countries, 2000–2019).
4.17.2 Image Size and Resolution Requirements
Figures should be prepared with the PDF layout in mind. Individual figures should not be longer than one page and with a width that corresponds to 1 column (85 mm) or 2 columns (180 mm).
All images must have a resolution of 300 dpi at final size. Check the resolution of your figure by enlarging it to 150%. If the image appears blurry, jagged or has a stair-stepped effect, the resolution is too low.
The text should be legible and of high quality. The smallest visible text should be no less than 8 points in height when viewed at actual size.
Solid lines should not be broken up. Any lines in the graphic should be no smaller than 2 points wide.
Please note that saving a figure directly as an image file (JPEG, TIF) can greatly affect the resolution of your image. To avoid this, one option is to export the file as PDF, then convert into TIFF or EPS using a graphics software.
4.17.3. Format and Color Image Mode
The following formats are accepted: TIF/TIFF (.tif/.tiff), JPEG (.jpg), and EPS (.eps) (upon acceptance).
Images must be submitted in the color mode RGB.
4.18. Chemical Structures
Chemical structures should be prepared using ChemDraw or a similar program. If working with another program, please follow the guidelines given below:
Drawing settings: chain angle, 120° bond spacing, 18% width; fixed length, 14.4 pt; bold width, 2.0 pt; line width, 0.6 pt; margin width, 1.6 pt; hash spacing, 2.5 pt. Scale 100% Atom Label settings: font, Arial; size, 8 pt.
Assign all chemical compounds a bold, Arabic numeral in the order in which the compounds are presented in the manuscript text.
4.19 Table Requirements and Style Guidelines
Tables should be inserted at the end of the manuscript in an editable format. If you use a word processor, build your table in Word. If you use a LaTeX processor, build your table in LaTeX. An empty line should be left before and after the table.
Table captions must be placed immediately before the table. Captions should be preceded by the appropriate label, for example “Table 1.” Please use only a single paragraph for the caption.
All captions of tables should be free from abbreviations; at the end of each caption should appear the study type, the countries or region and the years of the study. Example: Cardiovascular outcomes (systematic review, low- and middle-income countries, 2000– 2019).
Kindly ensure that each table is mentioned in the text and in numerical order.
Please note that large tables covering several pages cannot be included in the final PDF for formatting reasons. These tables will be published as supplementary material (anonymized).
Please note that tables which are not according to the guidelines will cause substantial delay during the production process.
4.20. Accessibility
PHR encourages authors to make the figures and visual elements of their articles accessible for the visually impaired. An effective use of color can help people with low visual acuity, or color blindness, understand all the content of an article.
These guidelines are easy to implement and are in accordance with the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1), the standard for web accessibility best practices.
A. Ensure sufficient contrast between text and its background
People who have low visual acuity or color blindness could find it difficult to read text with low contrast background color. Try using colors that provide maximum contrast.
W3C recommends the following contrast ratio levels:
Level AA, contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1.
Level AAA, contrast ratio of at least 7:1.
You can verify the contrast ratio of your palette with these online ratio checkers:
B. Avoid using red or green indicators
More than 99% of color-blind people have a red-green color vision deficiency.
C. Avoid using only color to communicate information
Elements with complex information like charts and graphs can be hard to read when only color is used to distinguish the data. Try to use other visual aspects to communicate information, such as shape, labels, and size. Incorporating patterns into the shape fills also makes differences clearer.
4.21. Supplementary Material
Data that are not of primary importance to the text, or which cannot be included in the article because they are too large or the current format does not permit it (such as videos, raw data traces, PowerPoint presentations, etc.), can be uploaded as Supplementary Material during the submission procedure and will be displayed along with the published article. All supplementary files are deposited to Figshare for permanent storage and receive a DOI. Please ensure all supplementary files are anonymized.
Supplementary Material is not typeset, so please ensure that all information is clearly presented without tracked changes/highlighted text/line numbers, and the appropriate caption is included in the file. To avoid discrepancies between the published article and the supplementary material, please do not add the title, author list, affiliations or correspondence in the supplementary files.
The Supplementary Material can be uploaded as Data Sheet, anonymized (Word, Excel, CSV, CDX, FASTA, PDF or Zip files), Presentation (PowerPoint, PDF or Zip files), Image (CDX, EPS, JPEG, PDF, PNG or TIF/TIFF), Table (Word, Excel, CSV or PDF), Audio (MP3, WAV or WMA) or Video (AVI, DIVX, FLV, MOV, MP4, MPEG, MPG or WMV).
4.22. References
All citations in the text, figures or tables must be in the reference list and vice-versa.
The names of the first six authors followed by et al. and the DOI (when available) should be provided.
The reference list should only include articles that are published or accepted...
Unpublished data, submitted manuscripts or personal communications should be cited within the text only, for the article types that allow such inclusions
For accepted but unpublished works use “in press” instead of page numbers
Data sets that have been deposited to an online repository should be included in the reference list. Include the version and unique identifier when available.
Personal communications should be documented by a letter of permission.
Website URLs should be included as footnotes.
Any inclusion of verbatim text must be contained in quotation marks and clearly reference the original source.
Preprints can be cited as long as a DOI or archive URL is available, and the citation clearly mentions that the contribution is a preprint. If a peer-reviewed journal publication for the same preprint exists, the official journal publication is the preferred source.
4.22.1. In-text Citations
Please apply the Vancouver system for in-text citations.
In-text citations should be numbered consecutively in order of appearance in the text - identified by Arabic numerals in parenthesis.
4.22.2. Reference - format example
ARTICLE IN A PRINT JOURNAL: Sondheimer N, Lindquist S. Rnq1: an epigenetic modifier of protein function in yeast. Mol Cell (2000) 5:163-72.
ARTICLE IN AN ONLINE JOURNAL: Tahimic CGT, Wang Y, Bikle DD. Anabolic effects of IGF-1 signaling on the skeleton. Front Endocrinol (2013) 4:6. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2013.00006
ARTICLE OR CHAPTER IN A BOOK: Sorenson PW, Caprio JC. “Chemoreception,”. In: Evans DH, editor. The Physiology of Fishes. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press (1998). p. 375-405.
BOOK: Cowan WM, Jessell TM, Zipursky SL. Molecular and Cellular Approaches to NeuralDevelopment. New York: Oxford University Press (1997). 345 p.
ABSTRACT: Christensen S, Oppacher F. An analysis of Koza’s computational effort statistic for genetic programming. In: Foster JA, editor. Genetic Programming. EuroGP 2002: Proceedings of the 5th European Conference on Genetic Programming; 2002 Apr 3–5; Kinsdale, Ireland. Berlin: Springer (2002). p. 182–91.
WEBSITE: World Health Organization. E. coli (2018). https://www.who.int/news-room/fact- sheets/detail/e-coli [Accessed March 15, 2018].
PATENT: Pagedas AC, inventor; Ancel Surgical R&D Inc., assignee. Flexible Endoscopic Grasping and Cutting Device and Positioning Tool Assembly. United States patent US 2002 0103498 (2002).
DATA: Perdiguero P, Venturas M, Cervera MT, Gil L, Collada C. Data from: Massive sequencing of Ulms minor’s transcriptome provides new molecular tools for a genus under the constant threat of Dutch elm disease. Dryad Digital Repository. (2015) http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.ps837
THESES AND DISSERTATIONS: Smith, J. (2008) Post-structuralist discourse relative to phenomenological pursuits in the deconstructivist arena. [dissertation/master’s thesis]. [Chicago (IL)]: University of Chicago
PREPRINT: Smith, J. Title of the document. Preprint repository name [Preprint] (2008). Available at: https://persistent-url (Accessed March 15, 2018).
5. Artificial Intelligence
These guidelines cover acceptable uses of generative AI technologies such as Large Language Models (ChatGPT, Jasper) and text-to-image generators (DALL-E 2, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion) in the writing or editing of manuscripts submitted to PHR.
Authors should not list a generative AI technology as a co-author or author of any submitted manuscript. Generative AI technologies cannot be held accountable for all aspects of a manuscript and consequently do not meet the criteria required for authorship.
If the author of a submitted manuscript has used written or visual content produced by or edited using a generative AI technology, this use must follow all PHR guidelines and policies. Specifically, the author is responsible for checking the factual accuracy of any content created by the generative AI technology. This includes, but is not limited to, any quotes, citations or references. Figures produced by or edited using a generative AI technology must be checked to ensure they accurately reflect the data presented in the manuscript. Authors must also check that any written or visual content produced by or edited using a generative AI technology is free from plagiarism.
If the author of a submitted manuscript has used written or visual content produced by or edited using a generative AI technology, such use must be acknowledged in the acknowledgements section of the manuscript and the methods section if applicable. This explanation must list the name, version, model, and source of the generative AI technology.
We encourage authors to upload all input prompts provided to a generative AI technology and outputs received from a generative AI technology in the supplementary files for the manuscript.
6. Ethical Standards
To ensure objectivity and transparency in research and to ensure that accepted principles of ethical and professional conduct have been followed, authors should include information regarding sources of funding, potential conflicts of interest (financial or non-financial), informed consent if the research involved human participants, and a statement on welfare of animals if the research involved animals.
During submission, the submitting author will be required to answer questions regarding the manuscript and research, as well as provide information and consent for all authors. Below is a checklist detailing the information that will be required (if applicable to the study):
Conflict of interest (mandatory for all article types)
Funding (if applicable).
Ethical approval (including record number) (if applicable).
Informed consent (if applicable).
Research involving Human Participants and/or Animals (if applicable).
The corresponding author should be prepared to collect documentation of compliance with ethical standards and send if requested during peer review or after publication.
The Editors reserve the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above-mentioned guidelines. The author will be held responsible for false statements or failure to fulfill the above-mentioned guidelines.
6.1. Conflict of interest
Authors must disclose all conflicts of interest that could influence or bias the work. Although an author may not feel there are conflicts, disclosure of relationships and interests affords a more transparent process, leading to an accurate and objective assessment of the work. Awareness of real or perceived conflicts of interests is a perspective to which the readers are entitled and is not meant to imply that a financial relationship with an organization that sponsored the research or compensation for consultancy work is inappropriate. Examples of potential conflicts of interests that are directly or indirectly related to the research may include but are not limited to the following:
Research grants from funding agencies (please give the research funder and the grant number).
Honoraria for speaking at symposia.
Financial support for attending symposia.
Financial support for educational programs.
Employment or consultation.
Support from a project sponsor.
Position on advisory board or board of directors or other type of management relationships.
Multiple affiliations.
Financial relationships, for example equity ownership or investment interest.
Intellectual property rights (e.g. patents, copyrights and royalties from such rights).
Holdings of spouse and/or children that may have financial interest in the work.
In addition, interests that go beyond financial interests and compensation (non-financial interests) that may be important to readers should be disclosed. These may include but are not limited to personal relationships or competing interests directly or indirectly tied to this research, or professional interests or personal beliefs that may influence your research.
Conflicts of interest should be stated upon submission of an article in the submission system.
The corresponding author will include a summary statement in the submission system that discloses any potential conflict of interest.
6.1.1. Examples for funding and conflict of interest statements
Funding: “This study was funded by X (grant number X)”.
For commercial funding, the role of the funder must be declared. We recommend the following statements for any commercially-funded manuscript:
“The authors declare that this study received funding from XXXXXXX. The funder had the following involvement with the study: XXXXXXX”.
“The authors declare that this study received funding from XXXXXXX. The funder was not involved in the study design, collection, analysis, interpretation of data, the writing of this article or the decision to submit it for publication”.
Conflict of interest:
“Author A has received research grants from Company A. Author B has received a speaker honorarium from Company X and owns stock in Company Y. Author C is a member of committee Z.
If no conflict exists, the authors will be able to select the following: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that constitute a (potential) conflict of interest.
6.2. Research involving human participants
6.2.1. Statement of human rights
When reporting studies that involve human participants, authors should include a statement that the studies have been approved by the appropriate institutional and/or national research ethics committee and have been performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration or comparable standards, the authors must explain the reasons for their approach, and demonstrate that the independent ethics committee or institutional review board explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study.
If a study was granted exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript (including the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption and the reasons for the exemption).
Authors must - in all situations as described above - include the name of the ethics committee and the reference number where appropriate.
See below examples:
Ethical approval: “All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee (include name of committee + reference number) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.”
6.2.2. Ethical approval of studies using pre-existing data
Data should be anonymized and irreversibly de-identified to protect patient, health care professional and/or hospital privacy. For studies using pre-existing and de-identified data, formal approval from the ethics committee is not required.
6.3. Informed consent
All individuals have individual rights that are not to be infringed. Individual participants in studies have, for example, the right to decide what happens to the (identifiable) personal data gathered, to what they have said during a study or an interview, as well as to any photograph that was taken.
Hence it is important that all participants gave their informed consent in writing prior to inclusion in the study. Identifying details (names, dates of birth, identity numbers and other information) of the participants that were studied should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and genetic profiles unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the participant (or parent or guardian if the participant is incapable) gave written informed consent for publication. Complete anonymity is difficult to achieve in some cases, and informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt. For example, masking the eye region in photographs of participants is inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic profiles, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning. The following statement should be included:
Informed consent: “Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.”
If identifying information about participants is available in the article, the following statement should be included: “Additional informed consent was obtained from all individual participants for whom identifying information is included in this article.”
An ethics questionnaire is a mandatory feature of the submission system. Please ensure that the relevant ethical approval and consent details were received and are available on request by the editor or editorial office. You will be requested to declare involvement of any human or animal subjects, and inclusion of identifiable human data for the research during the submission process; declaration statements will be generated and automatically added to your manuscript.
Please read carefully the following sections about the ethical responsibilities of authors. Submissions that do not meet all of the ethical requirements are returned to the author shortly after submission or rejected immediately. Co-authorship should fully comply with the criteria defined by the ICMJE guidelines.
This journal is committed to upholding the integrity of the scientific record. The publisher of PHR, Frontiers, is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and thus the journal will follow the COPE guidelines on how to deal with potential acts of misconduct.
Authors should refrain from misrepresenting research results which could damage trust in the journal, the professionalism of scientific authorship, and ultimately the entire scientific endeavor. Maintaining integrity of the research and its presentation is helped by following the rules of good scientific practice, which include*:
The manuscript should not be submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration.
The submitted work should be original and should not have been published elsewhere in any form or language (partially or in full), unless the new work concerns an expansion of previous work. (Please provide transparency on the re- use of material to avoid the concerns about text- recycling (‘self-plagiarism’).
A single study should not be split up into several parts to increase the quantity of submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time (i.e. ‘salami-slicing/publishing’).
Concurrent or secondary publication is sometimes justifiable, provided certain conditions are met. Examples include translations or a manuscript that is intended for a different group of readers.
Results should be presented clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation (including image-based manipulation). Authors should adhere to discipline-specific rules for acquiring, selecting and processing data.
No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the author’s own (‘plagiarism’). Proper acknowledgements to other works must be given (this includes material that is closely copied (near verbatim), summarized and/or paraphrased), quotation marks (to indicate words taken from another source) are used for verbatim copying of material, and permissions secured for material that is copyrighted.
The journal uses software to screen all submissions and=revised versions for plagiarism.
Authors should make sure they have permissions for the use of software, questionnaires/(web) surveys and scales in their studies (if appropriate).
Authors should avoid untrue statements about an entity (who can be an individual person or a company) or descriptions of their behavior or actions that could potentially be seen as personal attacks or allegations about that person.
Research that may be misapplied to pose a threat to public health or national security should be clearly identified in the manuscript (e.g. dual use of research). Examples include the creation of harmful consequences of biological agents or toxins, disruption of immunity of vaccines, unusual hazards in the use of chemicals, weaponization of research/technology (amongst others).
Authors are strongly advised to ensure the author group, the Corresponding Author, and the order of authors are all correct at submission. Adding and/or deleting authors during the revision stages is generally not permitted, but in some cases may be warranted. Reasons for changes in authorship should be explained in detail. Please note that changes to authorship cannot be made after acceptance of a manuscript.
Upon request, authors should be prepared to send relevant documentation or data in order to verify the validity of the results presented. This could be in the form of raw data, samples, records, etc. Sensitive information in the form of confidential or proprietary data is excluded. *All the above are guidelines and authors need to make sure to respect third parties’ rights such as copyright and/or moral rights.
If there is suspicion of misbehavior or alleged fraud the Journal and/or Publisher will carry out an investigation following COPE guidelines. If, after investigation, there are valid concerns, the author(s) concerned will be contacted under their given e-mail address and given an opportunity to address the issue. Depending on the situation, this may result in the Journal’s and/or Publisher’s implementation of the following measures, including, but not limited to:
If the manuscript is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.
If the article has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the infraction:
a Correction may be placed with the article.
an expression of concern may be placed with the article.
In severe cases retraction of the article may occur. The reason will be given in the published erratum, expression of concern or retraction note, which will accompany the original article. Please note that retraction means that the article is maintained on the platform, watermarked “retracted” and the explanation for the retraction is provided in a note linked to the watermarked article.
The author’s institution may be informed.
A notice of suspected transgression of ethical standards in the peer review system may be included as part of the author’s and article’s bibliographic record.
7. English Language Editing
For editors and reviewers to accurately assess the work presented in your manuscript authors need to ensure the English language is of sufficient quality to be understood. If you need help with writing in English, you should consider:
Asking a colleague who is a native English speaker to review your manuscript for clarity and grammar.
Using a professional language editing service where editors will improve the English to ensure that your meaning is clear and identify problems that require your review.
Please note that the use of a language editing service is not a requirement for publication in this journal and does not imply or guarantee that the article will be selected for peer review or will be accepted for publication. If your manuscript is accepted, it will be checked by our copy editors for spelling and formal style before publication.
8. Proof Reading
The purpose of the proof is to check for typesetting or conversion errors and the completeness and accuracy of the title, author names and affiliations, text, tables and figures. Substantial changes in content, e.g., new results, corrected values, title and authorship, are not allowed without the approval of the Editor.
After online publication, further changes can only be made in the form of a Correction, which will be hyperlinked to the article. To avoid a Correction connected to your article, please correct proofs very thoroughly. Please take a look at all numbers and data in text, tables and figures. Double check the author’s names and affiliations, references. Please note, not even small changes are possible after online publication.