Mission Statement

The journal of World Health and Population (WHP) provides a forum for researchers and policy makers worldwide to publish original research, reviews and commentaries on health- and population-related topics. WHP encourages the conduct and dissemination of applied research and policy analysis from diverse international settings. It is the goal of WHP to explore ideas, share best practices and enable excellence in healthcare worldwide through publishing contributions by researchers, policy makers and practitioners from these settings.

Submissions of particular interest include evaluations of health and population interventions which allow researchers, policy makers, and practitioners to gain insights to further promote the health and welfare of served populations.

Review Process

The journal of World Health and Population is a peer reviewed journal. The journal is indexed in CAB Abstracts, Global Health, MEDLINE/Pubmed and Ulrich’s (CSA).

Manuscripts are initially assessed by the WHP editorial team. Papers considered ready for full peer review are sent out to independent peer reviewers. If a paper is thought to have merit, but is not yet ready for full peer review, it will be sent back to the corresponding author for revision, with comments and suggestions provided by the internal WHP editors. Resubmissions will then be reconsidered for full peer review and further revisions based upon the comments of the peer reviewers. Final selection and acceptance for publication will be based on scientific merit, originality, timeliness, and policy relevance to the readers of WHP.

Open Access Agreement

Through this initiative, authors of accepted, peer reviewed research papers are given the opportunity to pay an Open Access publication charge to make their paper freely available online immediately upon publication of the issue.

Manuscript Preparation

All the submissions made to WHP must reflect the standards of Longwoods Publishing Corporation.

Research Papers

Our preferred length for research papers is approximately 3,500 words (12-15 typewritten, double-spaced pages) inclusive of maximum 4 figures and/or 4 tables. Submissions must include an abstract of 150 words or less. Pages should be numbered consecutively throughout. Authors who’s first language is not English might consider working with an editorial service to copy edit their work. Please refer to the list for details (editorial services) (PDF).

Case Studies: Innovation for a Healthy World

World Health and Population is seeking submission of case studies from international settings that demonstrate innovation in health services delivery, public health programs and patient care, and in particular those that have potential for widespread effect among vulnerable and marginalized populations. Innovation is defined as a new or adapted process, strategy or technique that improves patient care, education or research; has the potential for cost effective service; can be transported or applied to other jurisdictions; and is feasible to implement. In some cases, the innovation will have been formally evaluated, while others are showing promise in the early stages.

For detail information on are we looking for in a case study please visit this Call for Papers page (PDF). Please note that we will only accept cases that are balanced, evidence-based and applicable to other regions or countries.

Authors should email their manuscripts as attachment to: Editorial Director, Dianne Foster-Kent at dkent@longwoods.com.

Manuscripts must be accompanied by a cover letter which should include the following information.

• A full statement to the editor about all submissions and previous reports that might be regarded as redundant publication of the same or very similar work. Any such work should be referred to specifically and referenced in the new paper. Copies of such material should be included with the submitted paper, to help the editor decide how to handle the matter.
• A statement of financial or other relationships that might lead to a conflict, or perceived conflict, of interest, if that information is not included in the manuscript itself.
• Along with the name, address, and telephone number of the corresponding author, who is responsible for communicating with the other authors about revisions and final approval of the proofs.
• The authors listed must meet the three authorship criteria of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors:
  
  "An author is someone who: 
  1. Contributed substantially to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data AND 
  2. Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content AND 
  3. Gave final approval of the version to be published."
• Authors also have the option of including a statement indicating names of individuals who should not be asked to review the paper because of potential conflict of interest.

Manuscripts should also be accompanied by a face sheet that gives the title of the paper, five to seven key words and the names of the authors and their credentials, and current titles, e.g.,

Lois M. Smith, RN, MScN
Nurse Practitioner
XYZ hospital
Thistown, Province/State (no periods used in degrees).

Names of the authors should not appear in the text.

Author Disclosure

It is the policy of Longwoods Publishing Corporation that all authors of its medical publications disclose relationships with any commercial interest that may present a conflict of interest if:

a) the relationship is financial and occurred within the past 12 months;
and
b) the author discusses products or services of that commercial interest.

Relevant financial relationships are those relationships in which the author (and/or the author’s spouse or partner) benefits in any dollar amount by receiving a salary, royalty, intellectual property rights, consulting fee, honoraria, ownership interest, or other financial benefit. Financial benefits are usually associated with roles, such as employment, management position, independent contractor (including contracted research), consulting, speaking and teaching, membership on advisory committees or review panels, board membership, and/or other activities for which remuneration is received or expected.

All authors must read and sign the Longwoods Author Disclosure Form (PDF).

General Points of Style

• use double quotation marks, with single quotation marks within the double as necessary
• commas and periods always within the quotation marks
• series or serial comma not used to separate final elements in lists (e.g., CEOS, directors, managers and supervisors)
• articles and prepositions within titles and headings lowercased
• that/which distinction made for restrictive/nonrestrictive clauses
• Dates:
  • March 2003 (no comma)
  • March 12, 2003
  • The 1990s (no apostrophe)
• Numbers:
  • numbers below 10 spelled out; 10 and above as numerals
  • percentages always expressed as numerals, with percentage sign
    (e.g., 2%, 37%
  • dollar amounts - $10 million; $2 billion
• en dash used to set off phrases within sentences; space either side
• ellipses set tight; space either side for three ellipses within sentence ( ... )

References

The use of footnotes and endnotes is strongly discouraged. Instead, short explanatory remarks should be placed parenthetically in the text.

Longwoods follows a modified APA (American Psychological Association) style for referencing source material. In-text references should be placed in parentheses and consist of last name of the author(s) and the year of publication of the work to which reference has been made. No punctuation separates the two items.

In-text References

One Author:

The theory was first propounded in 1970 (Goodenough 1971).

Alternatively, author surnames may be integrated into the text, followed immediately by the year of publication in parentheses:

Goodenough (1971) was the first to propound the theory.

Two Authors:

EI has been proven to positively affect an organization’s success (Cooper and Sawaf 1997).

Multiple Authors/Citations:

Any health organization could potentially benefit from this type of approach (Madden et al. 1995).

Madden et al. (1995) propose the following solutions …

This trend is reflected in recent surveys of healthcare organizations (Canadian Physiotherapy Association 2000; Gaudine 2000; Parent et al. 2001; Pimentel 2000).

In-text citations requiring page references to quoted material should be styled as follows:

(Goodenough et al. 1979: 22-23; Simcoe 1980: 734-35.)

Reference List

Ensure that all sources cited in the text are included in a "Reference" list at the end of the article. The accompanying list should be in alphabetical order and include full publication details. For multiple entries by the same author, arrange citations in chronological order, earliest year first. In the examples shown here, the following rules are observed:

• in citations with multiple authors, invert the first-name
• no parentheses for year of publication
• article titles in upper and lower case, enclosed in double quotation marks
• volume number, issue number, page references styled as follows (plain type - no italics): 15(3): 319-25 

Sample References

Anis, A.H., D. Guh and X. Wang. 2001. "A Dog’s Breakfast: Prescription Drug Coverage Varies Widely across Canada." Medical Care 39(4): 315-26.

Boyatzis, R., D. Goleman and K. Rhee. 2000. "Clustering Competence in Emotional Intelligence: Insights from the Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI)." In R. Bar-On and J.D.A. Parker, eds., The Handbook of Emotional Intelligence. San Fransisco, CA: Jossey Bass.

Drinka, T.J.K. and P.G. Clark. 2000. Healthcare Teamwork: Interdisciplinary Practice and Teaching. Westport, CT: Auburn House

Shortell, S.M., J. Zimmerman, D.M. Rousseau, R.R. Gillies, Wagner, E.A. Draper, W.A. Knaus and J. Duffy. 1994. "The Performance of Intensive Care Units: Does Good Management Make a Difference?" Medical Care 32(5): 508-25.

Citations of all material accessed on-line should be as complete as possible and include all the information that would normally be cited for a print source. In addition, the date of access/retrieval should be included.

Ontario Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat. 2005. "A 10-Year Plan to Strengthen Health Care." Retrieved July 4, 2008. <http://www.scics.gc.ca/cinfo04/800042005_e.pdf>.

Tables and Figures

Tables and figures should follow the material they illustrate.

All illustrations consisting of line art (pie charts, bar graphs, etc.) should be labeled as "Figures" and numbered consecutively within the article (Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.). Include an appropriate title, legend and sourceline, where required, for each Figure.

Similarly, all Tables should be numbers consecutively within the article (Table 1, Table 2, etc.).

Tables

Number tables consecutively and supply a brief title for each. The table number should appear centered on the first line, while the table title should appear on the next line, also centered. Include explanatory footnotes for all nonstandard abbreviations. Cite each table in the text in consecutive order. They should be self-explanatory and not duplicate the text. If you use data from another published or unpublished source, obtain permission and acknowledge fully. Please include all Tables in one file, separate from the article text.

Figures

To ensure accurate reproduction of your figure, graph or picture in any Longwoods publication, please provide, in addition to the Word document, the original file you "placed" into your Word document (see below for examples). If the figure being used was not created by you, and therefore obtaining on original is not possible, please provide any text from the figure as a separate Word Document.

Acceptable file formats:

• jpg, eps, tiff or psd (at a resolution of 300 dpi)
• Adobe Illustrator (.ai or eps file)

Note: Powerpoint and Excel files are acceptable if you used these programs to create the original figure or graph.

How to submit graphs & figures(PDF)
More information on high resolution photos(PDF)

Permission

Data and/or figures reproduced from another published source must be properly cited and acknowledged. Authors are required to obtain written permission from the appropriate author and/or copyright holder to reproduce previously published or copyrighted material, including extensive quotations (longer than 500 words), tables, figures, graphs, etc. Authors must also obtain permission from at least 1 author when citing unpublished data, "in-press" articles, and/or personal communications. Permission should accompany the manuscript.