Submissions

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Author Guidelines

CommonHealth, the journal of the College of Public Health at Temple University, is a peer-reviewed, online-only, open access journal for rapid dissemination of high quality research and scholarship related to all aspects of public health. The journal publishes papers of interest to public health scholars in academic, clinical, government and industry roles working on all aspects of major public health issues.

All articles published in CommonHealth are immediately freely available to read, download and share. Accepted papers are published under a Creative Commons license, CC BY. With Creative Commons licenses, the author retains copyright and the public is allowed to reuse the content.

As part of the submission process, authors are required to ensure their submission complies with the Author Guidelines. Submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines. Access a PDF of these guidelines. It is recommended that authors utilize the Manuscript Submission Checklist to ensure that all guidelines are followed and that all required elements are included in the submission. Download the checklist.

 

Steps to Publication

  1. Generate your submission via the CommonHealth web portal. The information you submit when creating your submission will be used to populate the issue on the website, so please be sure that all authors are included and that author information (i.e., author names, degrees, affiliations, etc.) is complete and accurate. In order to ensure seamless communication, please include both a Temple email alias (if you have one) and a non-Temple email alias. 
  2. Once your submission is complete, the paper will undergo review by members of the journal’s Editorial Board and external reviewers with relevant content expertise.
    1. Submissions are reviewed on a rolling basis.
    2. You will be notified of the editorial decision via email.
    3. If your manuscript requires revisions based on feedback from the peer reviewers, you will be encouraged to revise and resubmit your paper within two weeks. If we haven’t heard back from you within 60 days of the original notification that your manuscript requires revisions, we will assume you no longer wish to pursue publication and administratively withdraw your submission.
  3. If your manuscript is accepted for publication, it will be formatted for publishing and scheduled for publication.

 

Editorial Policies and Procedures

Acceptance of submissions is based on originality of the observation or investigation, the quality of the work described, the clarity of presentation, and the relevance to our readership. Submissions (or their essential elements) cannot have been or be published or simultaneously submitted elsewhere for print or electronic publication consideration. All authors are required to have read and approved the content. Authors are also required to have declared all competing interests as well as articulate that the work has been conducted under the approval of a local Institutional Review Board (IRB) or equivalent (in studies reporting on human participants research) or Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) or equivalent (in studies reporting on animal subjects research). Authors are required to include a statement of disclosure of each authors’ contribution to the work.

The journal operates on a double-blind peer review process. All submissions will be reviewed by at least one of the Editors-in-Chief, members of the Editorial Board, or other expert reviewers. At the discretion of the Editors-in-Chief, the submission may be returned immediately without full review, if deemed not competitive or outside the realm of interests of the readership of the Journal. The decision (reject, revise, accept) letter will be conveyed through the CommonHealth portal or via email, coming from the Editor-in-Chief or Managing Editor of the Journal.

 

ORCID IDs

CommonHealth encourages all authors to provide an ORCID ID upon submission of their work. By supplying unique and persistent identifiers, ORCID ensures that researchers can be easily and correctly connected to their research activities, outputs, and affiliations. For information on what ORCID ID is and how to obtain one, please refer to the following website: https://orcid.org/register

 

Data Sharing

CommonHealth encourages authors to share the data and other artifacts supporting the results in the paper by archiving it in an appropriate public repository, where appropriate. Authors should include a data accessibility statement, including a link to the repository they have used, in order that this statement can be published alongside their paper.

 

Publication Ethics

CommonHealth supports the recommendation of the UK Committee on Publication Ethics and subscribes to its recommendations (Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE): guidelines on good publication practice). No paper will be published in the journal unless it meets all requirements related to study design and ethical approval, data analysis, authorship, conflict of interest, peer review, redundant publication, plagiarism, and duties of editors.

 

Authorship Considerations

CommonHealth suggests discussing publication authorship explicitly, clearly, and early in a project. CommonHealth strongly encourages co-authorship with community-based, non-academic partners in cases of collaborative work, including but not limited to Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR), Service-Learning or Community-Based Learning, and other instances when a community partner has significantly contributed. To merit authorship, all partners should have made a substantial and direct contribution to the project and contributed to the preparation and/or editing of the manuscript, including approving the final submission. Whoever meets those criteria should be offered authorship.

 

Submission Types

CommonHealth publishes content related to all aspects of public health. In addition to original research, we invite reviews and critical discussions of clinical practice, teaching innovation, and community engagement. Submissions may take one of the forms listed below. A table describing the requirements for each submission type is also provided below.

               Original Research: reports of original scientific data collected by the author(s)

  1. Research Article: Full-length report of original scientific data collected by the author(s), including experimental research on teaching.
  2. Research Letter: Concise report on original research.

              Reviews

  1. Systematic or Scoping Review: Critical literature review using systematic methods, with or without meta-analysis.
  2. Narrative Review: Up-to-date review for practitioners on a topic of general common interest.

              Reports

  1. Case Report: Describes a specific case study, including a concise literature review and discussion of the implications of the innovation for practice; this can include clinical case, teaching case or community partnerships that improve public health education, prevention, or intervention effort.
  2. Teaching/Supervisory Practice Report: Details an innovation in pedagogy or clinical supervision.

              Opinion

  1. Op-Ed: Offers a unique perspective on a timely public health issue.
  2. Letter to the Editors: Discussion of a recent article in this journal.

              Multimedia/Creative and Visual Works

  1. Multimedia: Reports in any of the above categories in the form of video/audio submission.
  2. Creative and Visual Works: The journal also welcomes submissions that address public health issues in creative or visual formats. Examples of this type of work include artwork, photovoice, and research animations/infographics.

To access a specific guide for each submission type, please follow this link. 

 

General Submission Guidelines

Authors must provide their entire submission in English in electronic format. Manuscripts should be typed double-spaced and in 12-point font.

  • Authors should provide a clear, concise, and interesting title and abstract. This helps readers quickly see the value of your work.
  • All pages should be numbered.
  • Line numbers should be included.
  • Avoid the use of abbreviations, as much as possible.
  • All scientific units should be expressed in SI units.
  • Authors should use person first language.

 

Submission Formatting

              Title Page: the title page should contain:

  1. The title of the article
  2. The name of each author (first name and surname preferred)
  3. The name of the department(s) and institution(s) to which the authors belong
  4. Three to six keywords
  5. A running title (up to 5 words)
  6. Acknowledgements
  7. Statement of each author’s contribution to the work
  8. Full address including e-mail of the corresponding author
  9. Potential conflicts of interest
  10. Sources of funding, if appropriate

Original Research Papers: original research papers should report novel research projects that yield valuable insights into topics within the scope of the journal. If submitting an original research paper, please include:

  1. A structured abstract (about 250 words)
  2. Introduction
  3. Materials and methods
  4. Results
  5. Discussion
  6. References

Reviews: systematic reviews provide a critical review of the literature review using systematic methods, with or without meta-analysis. The method for conducting the literature should be provided as part of the submission. While there is no required format for this type of review, a PRIMSA-style flow diagram should be included. This type of submission should also include a table with ratings of the quality of the studies/evidence. Narrative reviews include a review of the literature for practitioners on a topic of general common interest.

Reports: these papers will provide a summary and discussion of the relevant literature about any topic covered within the aims and scope of the journal. They should be divided into the following sections:

  1. Abstract (about 250 words)
  2. Introduction
  3. Text divided into relevant subsections and paragraphs
  4. Discussion
  5. References

Authors are particularly encouraged to use tables, diagrams, pictures, and figures as well as non-copyrighted materials from other sources.

Submitting Supplementary Materials

Recommended file formats for supplementary materials include:

  • Text: TXT, DOC, DOCX, or PDF
  • Image: JPG, TIF, PNG, GIF, PDF, EPS, or BMP
    • Minimum image resolution for photos: 300 dpi
    • Minimum image resolution for line art: 600 dpi
  • Video: MP4, MOV, WMV, or AVI
    • Resolution: 16:9 screen aspect ratio
    • Recommended file size: <100 MB
  • Audio: MP3, AIFF, MOV (Quicktime Audio), RA (Real Audio), or WAV (Windows Audio)
    • Recommended file size: <3 MB

References

References should be cited numerically in the order they appear in the text. Identify references in text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals in parentheses or as superscripts. References should follow AMA 10th edition style.

 

Tables and Figures

Type each table on a sperate page following on from the main text; number tables consecutively and supply a brief title and legend for each. Cite each table in the text in consecutive order, using Arabic numbers. Please use the table template provided, available here.

Figures or artwork must be supplied in electronic form, as separate files per figure. Letters, numbers and symbols should be clear and even throughout, and of sufficient size so that when reduced for publication the item will still be legible; titles and detailed explanations should be included in the legends, not in the illustrations themselves. Cite each figure in the text in consecutive order. Each figure must be saved and submitted as a separate file. Figures should not be embedded in the manuscript text file.

If you wish to use a figure or other multimedia that has been previously published, you must acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material.