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Policies

Contents

Open Access Policy

The Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association is an open-access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of all articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access (opens in new tab).

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Review Process

Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association is double-blind peer reviewed and published annually. If you have concerns about the terms of submission or review, please contact the Editor.

When an author submits a manuscript to the jGPHA, the journal's editors review it to ensure that it meets the guidelines and evaluate its appropriateness for the journal's readership. The manuscript then undergoes double-blind peer review. Please note that peer reviewers evaluate but do not edit the manuscript. Editorial staff members edit manuscripts for organization, grammar, style, format, clarity, and forward them to an editorial assistant. A proof of the accepted document is created and forwarded to the submitting author for review. Proofs must be carefully checked by authors and returned within three (3) days of receipt. Authors may offer suggestions on these edits but do not have the right of refusal. The journal's editor makes final decisions on publications. The response time for manuscripts is typically 6 – 8 weeks from submission.

All aspects of the submission and notification process are managed electronically. A cover letter indicating adherence to the jGPHA's five ethical compliance guidelines should be submitted with the manuscript (see Ethics Compliance Guidelines below). Prior to publication, a publishing agreement must be signed, dated, and submitted to the issue editor. Contributors are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright owners if they use an illustration, table, or lengthy quote (100+ words) that has been published elsewhere.

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Conflicts of Interest Statement

For jGPHA, conflicts of interest (COIs) exist when there is a divergence between an individual's private interests (competing interests) and his/her responsibilities to scientific and publishing activities for which a reasonable observer might wonder if the individual's behavior or judgment was motivated by considerations related to his/her other interests.

COIs may influence the judgment of authors, reviewers, and editors; these conflicts often are not immediately apparent to others or to the reviewer. There are several types of competing interests. They may be financial ties, academic commitments, personal relationship(s), political/religious beliefs and/or institutional affiliations. As a condition of reviewing a manuscript, all declarations about COIs must be provided in writing. If any are declared, they will be published with the article. If there is doubt about whether a circumstance represents a conflict, it must be disclosed.

  • Funding Sources. Sources of full or partial funding or other support for the research must be declared and should be described in an acknowledgement if the manuscript is published.
  • Authors. All authors will be asked to report financial, academic, personal, and other COIs related to the research, and jGPHA will publish all COIs (or their absence) that are relevant to the manuscript being considered.
  • Peer Reviewers. Reviewers will be asked if they have a COI with the content or authors of a manuscript; if so, they will be removed from the review process.
  • Editors. Editors will not make editorial decisions or be involved in the editorial process of a manuscript submitted to jGPHA if they have a COI as described above.

The jGPHA Conflicts of Interest Statement, based on the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), was adopted by the jGPHA Editorial Board on May 2, 2016.

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Ethics Compliance Guidelines

Based on the Guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Code of Conduct and Best Practices for Journal Editors, jGPHA adheres to the following ethical guidelines. At submission, authors must confirm that:

  1. The work has not been published before (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, review, or thesis).
  2. The work is not under consideration elsewhere.
  3. Copyright has not been breached in seeking its publication.
  4. The research has been approved by an Institutional Review Board (if applicable).
  5. The publication has been approved by all co-authors.

Principles of Transparency

  • Peer review process: For jGPHA, peer review is defined as obtaining advice on individual manuscripts from experts in the field who are not part of the journal's editorial staff.
  • Governing Body: jGPHA is led by an Editorial Board with members representing academic institutions, local and state health departments, boards of health, and student public health organizations. The full names and affiliations of the journal's editors are provided on the Editorial Board page.
  • Editorial team/contact information: The full names and affiliations of the journal's editors as well as contact information appear on the jGPHA homepage and on the Policies page.
  • Author fees: jGPHA Charge & fee policies are stated below on the Policies page.
  • Copyright Notice: jGPHA Copyright and reuse licensing policies are stated below on the Policies page.
  • Process for identification of and dealing with allegations of research misconduct: jGPHA editors will take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred, including plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication, among others. The Plagiarism Policy is stated below on the Policies page. The jGPHA editors will follow COPE's guidelines in dealing with allegations.
  • Ownership and management: jGPHA is published by the Georgia Public Health Association and managed by the Institute of Public & Preventive Health, Augusta University.
  • Web site: The jGPHA website is available at https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/jGPHA.
  • Name of journal: The name is Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association, also known as the Journal of GPHA or jGPHA. Based on the List of Title Word Abbreviations, the jGPHA scientific citation is J Ga Public Health Assoc.
  • Conflicts of interest: jGPHA policies on handling potential conflicts of interest of authors, reviewers, editors, and policies are stated above on the Policies page.
  • Access:The jGPHA open access statement is stated above on the Policies page.
  • Publishing schedule: jGPHA is published annually.
  • Archiving: The jGPHA archiving policy is stated below on the Policies page.

The jGPHA Ethics Compliance Policy, based on COPE guidelines, was adopted by the jGPHA Editorial Board on May 2, 2016.

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Guidelines for Submission

If you would like to submit a manuscript for publication consideration in Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association (jGPHA), please use this form.

The Editor invites original research and related papers in health promotion/disease prevention, community engagement, advocacy, and public health policy. Submissions must adhere to formatting instructions and will be judged for quality and relevance through peer-review. The editors suggest that authors review a published paper from the journal prior to submission and use the provided templates to assist in proper formatting. Submit manuscripts according to the following guidelines. Following are descriptions of articles for publication in jGPHA. Authors are invited to review the manuscript checklists and select from one of the categories listed below. If you have questions or concerns about these guidelines, please contact the Editor.

All manuscripts must report the results of original, data-driven research in public health using rigorous quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods. The initial submission should be clean and complete, 1.5 or double spaced with font size 12. Manuscripts must be submitted online in word format. Submissions should include a structured abstract.

All submissions should include a title page and de-identified manuscript. No author information should be listed on the main manuscript. All information should be placed on the separate title page. The title page should include all author information including degrees conferred, ORCID IDs, contact information for the corresponding author, funding information, and any conflicts of interest. If no conflicts of interest or funding exist, this should be explicitly stated. In addition to this, the title page should include the word count for the main body manuscript.

Full Manuscript

Full Manuscripts report the results of original public health research in up to 7500 words in the text, a structured abstract of up to 300 words, up to 4 tables and/or figures combined, and no more than 35 references. The structured abstract must provide the date(s) and location(s) of the study. The text must have an introduction and separate sections for Methods, Results, Discussion, and Public Health Implications.


BRIEF Report

Authors are invited to submit short articles for publication in the Journal of Georgia Public Health Association (jGPHA). In addition to following the formatting requirements outlined for full manuscripts, authors must adhere to several general specifications. Brief reports should feature a 4-sentence structured abstract using the headings Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusions, followed by a maximum of five keywords. The 1,000-word manuscript must be organized into four main sections: Introduction (≥100 words), Methods (≥300 words), Results (≥300 words), and Discussion/Conclusions (≥300 words). Authors may include up to two figures, two tables, or one of each—with complementary photographs and illustrations encouraged—as well as optional acknowledgements and a maximum of 12 properly formatted references. While the submission must stand on its own, traditional text-based appendix materials central to the manuscript, such as survey instruments, data, and programs, are acceptable as supplemental material following the references.

Research Protocol

     (Download the Research Protocol Template)
Research protocol articles are for proposed or ongoing public health research, and should provide a detailed account of the hypothesis, rationale, and methodology of the study. Submissions are not considered if the authors have other articles relating to the protocol that are published or under consideration. Research protocols for funded or unfunded research are appropriate for submission. Proof of ethics approval by an Institutional Review Board is required and authors must provide the relevant documentation at the time of manuscript submission. In addition to following the jGPHA formatting requirements outlined for full manuscripts, authors should note the following general specifications for the Research Protocol:

  • Introduction
    The introduction should explain the background to the study, its aims, a summary of the existing literature, policy context, why this study was necessary, and its contribution to public health. Specific aims, hypotheses, and questions the research is designed to answer, including primary and secondary outcomes, should be included in this section.
  • Methods
    The methods section should describe: 1) the design and setting; 2) characteristics of participants and recruitment process, including eligibility and exclusion criteria; and 3) all processes, interventions and comparisons. Authors should clearly define data collection or survey measures and describe how they will be administered. The validity and reliability of measures should be detailed (e.g., administered blind at pretest/posttest, data to be analyzed blind to condition), should be included. If appropriate, a sample size calculation should be described with statements about assumptions of effect size. A detailed statistical analysis plan should follow. This section should end with a research timeline.
  • Results
    Although results are not required for research protocols, a statement related to anticipated results must be included. Preliminary findings are permitted, including pilot study or formative research results.
  • Discussion
    This section should include a discussion of any practical or operational issues involved in performing the study and any issues not covered in other sections.
  • Future Direction
    Authors must include a statement related to the future direction of the research.
  • References
    jGPHA uses in-text citations (e.g., authors last name, year). References should be listed in alphabetical order at the end of the manuscript and formatted based on guidelines provided for full manuscripts.
  • Appendix
    The jGPHA submission should stand on its own; however, other items that provide details that remain central to the manuscript maybe needed. Traditional text-based appendix material, for example, survey instruments, data, and programs, are acceptable supplemental materials for the appendices, which should follow the references.

Practice Notes

     (Download the Practice Notes Template)
Practice Notes should present public health in action at the state, county, city, community, or local/state health department level. Practice-based evidence, practitioner-directed initiatives, and specific programmatic examples are accepted. Topics may include, for example, epidemiologic notes, natural/build environmental health interventions, surveillance or monitoring, or behavioral interventions. In addition to following the jGPHA formatting requirements outlined for full manuscripts, authors should note the following general specifications for Practice Notes:

  • Introduction
    The introduction should explain the rationale for the program and its purpose/goal, supported by published public health literature (e.g., similar evidence- based efforts). If applicable, authors should include the subheading Theoretical Framework describing the key constructs of concepts employed.
  • Methods
    The methods section should describe: 1) the setting; 2) characteristics of the targeted community, participants, and recruitment process; and 3) all processes, interventions and comparisons. This section should end with a project timeline.
  • Results
    Although results are not required for practice notes, a statement related to anticipated results must be included. Preliminary findings are permitted, including pilot test or formative results.
  • Discussion
    This section should include a discussion of operational issues involved in performing the project and any issues not covered in other sections.
  • Implications for Public Health
    Authors must include a concluding statement describing the implications of the project to public health.
  • Appendix
    The jGPHA submission should stand on its own; however, other items that provide details that remain central to the manuscript maybe needed. Traditional text-based appendix material, for example, survey instruments, data, and programs, are acceptable supplemental materials for the appendices, which should follow the references.

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Accessibility Requirements

By submitting their work for publication, the author(s) must warrant and affirm the following:

  1. The author(s) have reviewed the Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association's accessibility requirements as outlined in the journal's policies and submission guidelines.
  2. The author(s) have made a good-faith effort to ensure that the work, including all text, images, figures, tables, supplementary materials, and multimedia files, complies with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA (opens in new tab), including but not limited to:

    • The work uses built‑in heading styles to reflect its structural hierarchy.
    • All tables are created using proper table tools and include clearly identified header rows.
    • All images and figures contain descriptive alternative text (alt text).
    • All video or audio content contains accurate captions or transcripts.
    • Color is not used as the sole method of conveying information.
  3. The author(s) affirm that an accessibility check has been performed on the work, and all identified issues have been resolved.
  4. If any component of the work cannot be made fully accessible due to the nature of the content, the author(s) have described these limitations and the accommodations provided.
  5. The author(s) affirm that the work may be returned to them at any time for accessibility remediation, both prior to and following publication.

Tables

Only tables presenting data summarizing the main findings will be incorporated into the manuscript. Large, busy tables or tables of text or simple lists will be made available as online only, supplemental files. Tables must be simple and self-contained, with a description of the content. Statistical techniques used should not be part of the title but of the table footnotes. New references cited within a table or figure should be numbered as though they fall at the first callout in the body of the table. For example, if Table 1 is called out just after reference 24, the references in Table 1 will start at 25. No more than one column head is permitted per column. All items within a column must conform as much as possible—in identity and in units—to the column head. For Systematic Reviews, production staff may ask that long tables be divided into smaller tables based upon content or provided as supplements. Do not combine tables of disparate content into one table to circumvent stated figure and table count limitations. Editors and production staff will separate the material and ask that one of the files be uploaded as an online-only supplement.

Figures

Figures are limited to a single, readable, well-described panel; exception: when direct comparison is needed, two individual panels with at least one identical axis may be permitted. Additional panels, beyond one, and exceptionally two, will be considered as additional figures for the figure and table count restrictions. Figure titles must be self-contained with a description of the content. Do not combine figures of disparate content in an attempt to circumvent figure and table count limitations. Production staff will separate the material and ask that one of the files be uploaded as an online-only supplement.

Images and Photos

Any submitted image must be of print quality resolution 300 dpi minimum with a 150-line screen.

Supplemental Files

JGPHA welcomes and encourages the submission of additional materials to be included with the article as supplemental material and referred to as such in the main article. These files are placed online only and can be accessed from the online version of the article. Supplemental material may include appendices, images, videos, recordings, and tables/figures that could not be included in the main article because of space constraints. These files should be submitted with the paper and properly blinded, as supplemental material will be converted to PDF for review purposes. Nonetheless, they will be fully available to editors and staff exactly as uploaded. Please be aware that the editors and staff will review the files for appropriateness but will not edit the files. The final versions of supplemental files that are uploaded will be the versions made available to readers online within 48 hours of final online publication.

Statistics in Tables and Text

Beta and other Greek symbols should only be used in the text when referring to theoretical equations or parameters being estimated, never in reference to the statistical results based on sample data. Use of only one decimal point for proportions and effect measures is preferred. For all regression-related results change all beta symbols (β) to b (for unstandardized regression parameter estimates) or B (for standardized regression parameter estimates). Presentation of the results from logistic regression or other types of models (such as Poisson, Cox, or negative binomial regressions) should be the exponentiated parameter estimates (e.g., the odds ratio or the incidence rate ratio) and corresponding 95% confidence interval of the odds ratio, rather than the parameter estimates themselves. The inclusion of P values is unnecessary in the presence of 95% confidence intervals. When P values are used, the actual observed value rounded to one decimal should be presented. Under no circumstance should the symbol "NS" be used in place of actual P values. There are very rare circumstances where a "1-sided" significance test is appropriate, and this must be justified and presented in the context of the experimental design. Therefore, "2-sided" significance tests are the rule, not the exception. P values greater than .05 (P >.05) are not considered significant and should not be reported as such.

Reproduced Material

Reproduced material should be identified as such, and an appropriate reference should be cited. Authors should secure any rights and permissions prior to emailing their final source files upon formal acceptance by the editors. JGPHA is not responsible for obtaining permission to use previously published materials, images, or photos.

The CONSORT Statement and Trial Registration

Authors reporting the results of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) should ensure to report both the National Clinical Trial (NCT) registration number of the trial and the CONSORT checklist. The CONSORT flow diagram must be submitted as a figure in the manuscript for editorial and peer review. The trial registration requirement covers any clinical trial that prospectively assigns people or a group of people to an intervention, with or without concurrent comparison or control groups, to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a health-related intervention and a health outcome. As such, trial registration covers individually and group or cluster randomized trials, and not only those covered under FDAAA 801 final rule requirements for drugs and devices. Trial registration should occur prior to initial randomization of individuals or groups (see Clinicaltrials.gov).

The TREND Statement

For nonrandomized evaluations of behavioral and public health interventions, JGPHA supports the completion of the 22-item checklist of the Transparent Reporting of Evaluations with Nonrandomized Designs (TREND) trials. The TREND statement complements the widely adopted CONsolidated Standards.

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The Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association is an open-access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of all articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access (opens in new tab).

Copyright and licensing terms for Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association are registered with Open Policy Finder (opens in a new tab).

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Plagiarism Policy

The Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association may use Similarity Check, a multi-publisher initiative, to selectively screen article submissions for originality. Similarity Check uses the iThenticate software, which checks submissions against millions of published research papers (the Similarity Check database), documents on the web, and other relevant sources. These submitted papers are not retained in the Similarity Check system after they have been checked. Read more at Crossref's Similarity Check (opens in new tab) page.

Ethics Compliance

JGPHA adheres to the Principles of the Ethical Practice of Public Health of the American Public Health Association. Authors are required to state whether or not they have complied with this code. If they believe they are justified in departing from the code, a short explanation is required at submission, and should be explicitly stated in the cover letter. In addition, authors are required to disclose all possible conflicts of interest, e.g., funding sources for consultancies or studies of products, in the cover letter to the editors upon initial submission.

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Charges & Fees

Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association levies no submission charges, or charges or fees for publication of accepted articles.

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Digital Archiving

Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association is preserved using CLOCKSS, a leading preservation archive that guarantees persistent access to journal content for the very long term. Articles also receive Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) through Crossref to ensure they can always be found.

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