Editorial criteria

If you are involved in research that could impact on the way public health is practised in Australia, we are interested in your work and encourage you to submit it to Public Health Research & Practice. The journal is open-access, peer-reviewed and published quarterly online. It contains innovative, high-quality papers that inform public health policy and practice and has a special focus on innovations, data and perspectives from policy and practice.

Overview

The journal will publish:

• Original research and reviews relevant to policy and practice
• Articles that improve methods of research relevant to policy and practice or the understanding of these methods
• Overviews of emerging or debated issues or concepts in public health policy and practice
• Examples of innovative programs or policies, new data or perspectives from the practice of public health
• Brief reports of research or data of special relevance in strengthening public health practice.

Our peer review process will assess manuscripts for:

• Relevance to the aims of the journal
• Potential contribution to public health policy and practice
• Innovation and contribution to existing knowledge
• Scientific quality and appropriateness of methods.

Evaluations of programs that did not have an impact on the outcomes of interest, or tests for association that were not significant, will be considered for publication provided that they were sufficiently powered

Audience

The journal’s primary audiences are population and public health policy makers and practitioners and researchers who wish to influence public policy and practice.
While we have a special focus on public health in NSW, we are also interested in reaching similar audiences across Australia. We also aim to reach policy makers and practitioners elsewhere within the health sector (eg clinicians), and practitioners outside the health sector (e.g. government departments/agencies and NGOs).

Publication in the journal

Public Health Research & Practice publishes papers that will inform public health policy and practice. All submitted papers must adhere to our Author Guidelines and you can find more information on submission steps at Submit a paper. Please refer to our Editorial policies before submission.

Research

The journal publishes:

• Original research reporting quantitative or qualitative data
• Reviews of published research
• Articles that improve methods of research relevant to policy and practice or the understanding of these methods.

The word count for these papers should be 2500–3500 words (excluding references and figures but including abstract, key points and tables). These manuscripts are peer reviewed and can be commissioned or proffered. Internationally recognised reporting guidelines must be followed. Please see our Author guidelines for more detail.

Perspectives

The journal publishes:

• Overviews of emerging or topical issues or of new research developments of interest to public health policy and practice
• Concept development, frameworks or models
• Commentary on research articles published in the journal.

The word count for these papers should be 1000–1500 words (excluding references and figures but including abstract, key points and tables). Longer articles will be considered in cases where a topic of special interest for policy makers and practitioners warrants further discussion. These manuscripts are peer reviewed and can be commissioned or proffered. The journal also publishes editorials from the Editor-in-Chief or the Editorial Board – these are not peer reviewed.

In Practice

The journal publishes In Practice articles that are led by practitioners working in policy, program development or service delivery and describe insights from their work in the field, based on analysis of empirical information (quantitative or qualitative). These articles:

• Describe and reflect on examples of innovative programs or policies, perspectives or new data from the practice of public health, funded by national, state or local government, or nongovernment organisations
• Share experiences and approaches that other can learn from and use in their work
• Address the impact and wider implications of the work

For example, this might include descriptions of innovative programs or policies using a case study approach. Assertions about effects of policies or programs should be substantiated by verifiable information and accessible performance data.

Papers that are simply descriptions of programs or services will generally not be accepted, nor will  ‘promotional pieces’ more suitable for a newsletter.

The word count for these papers should be 1500–2000 words (excluding references and figures but including abstract, key points and tables). These manuscripts are peer reviewed and can be commissioned or proffered.

Brief Reports

The journal publishes brief reports of:

• Research or data of relevance to public health practice, including original empirical research or evaluations
• Preliminary or novel findings that are limited in scope, e.g. of trials or pilot demonstrations, or of health promotion strategies in the process of implementation
• Notable results that may be of interest to public health practitioners, but which make only a limited contribution to the knowledge base.

The word count for these papers should be 600–800 words (excluding references and figures but including tables). They are peer reviewed and can be commissioned or proffered.

News & Views

We  welcome your letters and will publish correspondence about our editorial content in this section. Please send your correspondence via the Contact us page or via email to the Editor. Letters should be no longer than 350 words and submitted no later than eight weeks after publication of the original article.