Editorial Policy

Editorial Policy

 

General Information on Rules of Reviewing and Accepting Manuscripts

 

All articles are available in consistence with the Open Access policy. This license allows users to download and share the article for non-commercial purposes, so long as the article is reproduced in the whole without changes, and the original authorship is acknowledged. This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Categories of Articles

Manuscripts submitted for possible publication should be clearly identified as being intended for publication in one of the following categories:

  • Original articles: reports of previously unpublished results from scientific experiments or research conducted by the authors in order to confirm or refute a clearly identified hypothesis. A vast majority of articles published in a given issue will belong to this category.
  • Review articles: reports on the current state of knowledge in a given area or a field of study, especially current controversies, theoretical and practical approaches to the issues, unresolved problems, etc., with carefully selected references to the literature. Such articles are typically commissioned by the editors of NJHP, though an unsolicited review article may be accepted if it is exceptionally interesting and carefully prepared.
  • Viewpoint/Opinion articles: authorial discussions of important issues, controversies, and schools of thought in the area of health and medical fields.

The Journal will not consider for publication submissions and redundant publications.

Ethics

Nigerian Journal of Health Promotion (NJHP) pays great attention to ethical issues. We agree that publication of an article in a peer-reviewed journal is an essential building block in the development of a coherent and respected network of knowledge. It is a direct reflection of the quality of work of the author and the institutions that support them. Peer-reviewed articles support and embody the scientific method. It is, therefore, important to agree upon standards of the expected ethical behaviour.

To minimize the risk of non-ethical behaviour, the following rules are implemented:

  • the Journal uses the advanced editorial system;
  • authors declare an existing / non-existing conflict of interest which ensures transparency and reliability;
  • a double blind peer-review system is used;
  • reviewers cannot be affiliated in the same institutions as the authors;
  • plagiarism, understood to be an intentional act of quoting or copying parts of another author’s work without attribution, is unacceptable; if found, its results will be rejected or retracted (if published);
  • in case of a complaint made against our author, the general rule is that the journal editor should contact the author about whom the complaint has been made, and the author should be given an opportunity to respond/comment. The editor may decide on the basis of the author’s response (e.g. if the author is responsive, articulates a clear and convincing position – and may draw inferences from the opposite as well); in extreme situations, after a thorough analysis, the Journal can decide to withdraw the paper;
  • if the Editorial Board members or editors submit as authors, they are subject to the same procedure as other authors.

 

Any research article describing a study involving humans should contain Informed Consent and Ethical approval by Ethics Board. Studies involving human should be conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Institutional Review Board (or Ethics Committee) of NAME OF INSTITUTE (protocol code XXX and date of approval)” for studies involving humans.

Written informed consent for publication must be obtained from participating patients who can be identified (including by the patients themselves). Please state: “Written informed consent has been obtained from the patient(s) to publish this paper”, if applicable.

 

Authorship of the Manuscript

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the concept, design, execution, or interpretation of the report study. All those who have made contributions should be listed as co-authors. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors are included in the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication. All activities associated with scientific unreliability, especially with “ghostwriting” and “guest authorship” will be exposed and documented. In case of suspicion of such situations taking place, action will be taken in compliance with the rules prepared by COPE (https://publicationethics.org/).

 

Fundamental Errors in the Published Works

When the author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

 

Permissions

Materials taken from other sources must be accompanied by a written statement from the first author and the publisher of the original publication giving permission for reproduction in NJHP. Permission should be obtained in writing from at least one author of papers still in press, and from the source of any unpublished data or personal communications used in the article.

 

Guideline for Authors

Submission of Articles /Peer Review:

All manuscripts should be submitted via e-mail directly to [email protected]. The managing editor of the journal makes first line check for title compatibility, structure of the manuscript, word count and tables and figures before passing to the Editor-In-Chief for further pre-review. If acceptable on pre-review, will be sent to two blinded reviewers. A double-blind review process is our standard, i.e. neither the reviewer knows the name(s) of the author(s) nor is the author informed who is going to review their article.

The reviewers are chosen by the editors of the journal. The comments of reviewers will then be sent to author/s (again blinded). After the comments are accommodated, the editorial board members discuss on each manuscript and make decision.

Manuscripts are accepted unconditionally if both reviewers agree that the work can be published in its present form. If the reviewers disagree or feel that the manuscript should be accepted subject to specific corrections, the editors may decide to send the work to another reviewer or return it to the author for correction. The ultimate decision to accept for publication, accept subject to correction or reject a work is the prerogative of the editors and cannot be appealed. The editors are not obliged to justify their decision.

The evaluation process should not take longer than 90 days on average, but the editors cannot guarantee an editorial decision within any established deadline. Additionally, Authors are notified by e-mail about every decision made by the Editorial Office regarding their manuscript.

 

Manuscripts considered clearly unsuitable for publication in NJHP are returned to the author without further review. Manuscripts that are incomplete or not prepared in accordance with the Instructions for Authors (e.g. non-anonymized) will also be returned, though in such a case they may be resubmitted when corrected.

The editors reserve the right to edit the article for formatting.

 

 

 

Submission of the article means that:

  • the submitted manuscript is the author(s)’ own work;
  • the research results have not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere;
  • all the authors named on the title page have consented to the submission of this work for publication in NJHP.

 

Preparation and Submission of Manuscripts

  1. Manuscripts and References must conform to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA, 7th edition) format and must be submitted in English Language.
  2. All correspondence between authors, managing editor and the Editor-in-Chief will be conducted electronically via e-mail attachments.
  3. Authors must submit manuscripts to the managing editor who will initiate the blind review by qualified experts in the subject areas. Authors will be communicated of the Decision on their manuscripts after 90 days.
  4. Manuscripts submitted must not be published nor considered for publication in any other Journal.
  5. Manuscripts should be typed with one-half line spacing and should not exceed 7000 word count for Original articles including tables, figures and references, and 5000 word count for Review articles. The body text should be in 12-point Times New Roman.

The order for the manuscript presentation should be:

  1. Title page
  2. Abstract
  • Keywords
  1. Introduction
  2. Materials and Methods
  3. Results
  • Discussion
  • Conclusions
  1. Acknowledgements
  2. References

The title page includes the full title, name of author(s) (First Name, Middle Name and Last/Surname without academic titles), institutional affiliation(s)/ the organizational affiliation of each author (workplace), running head, e-mail address and ORCID numbers (if available), the corresponding author's full name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address for purposes of correspondence and should be marked with asterisk. The blind title page includes the title only.

  1. The abstract must not exceed 200 words and should summarize the manuscript, giving a clear indication of the conclusions. Keywords must be between 3-7words
  2. All submissions must be accompanied with a cover letter, clearly stating that the manuscript is original, has not been published, and not being considered for publication elsewhere.
  3. Non-compliance with the above guidelines may disqualify the manuscript from being considered for review and possible publication. Therefore, crosscheck with the guidelines above before submission.
  4. Article Review Fee is #6,500 or $10.00. In addition, the publication fee is #20,000.00 or $70.00. All financial transactions must be through the Bank.

 

Abstract

The abstract should be in a structured form, not exceed 200 words, and it should cover four areas as follows: (a) Background (Introduction): the purpose of the article or research, the primary thesis; (b) Materials and Methods: a brief description of the research; in the case of a review or opinion article, a characterization of the literature; for a case study, a brief description of the subject; the main parameters measured, etc.; (c) Results: the most significant results achieved; (d) Conclusions/Recommendations: 1–2 most important conclusions derived by the authors from the research presented in the article.

The abstract should be an objective representation of the article, and it must not contain results that are not presented and substantiated in the main text and should not exaggerate the main conclusions. There should be no bibliographic references, abbreviations or footnotes in the abstract.

 

Structure of the Main Text

The whole text of the article should not exceed 15 pages and should be divided into seven sections labelled as follows: Background (Introduction), Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, References, Acknowledgements. An Appendix may be attached before References, if needed. When circumstances require, depending on the content and nature of the article, a different structure may be used, provided, however, that the structure of the article is clear, transparent and self-consistent. The editors reserve the right to return a manuscript to its authors for correction of structure.

Background (Introduction) should give the scientific rationale for researching the given topic, the primary issues and controversies, an explanation of the aim of the study and the primary thesis.

Materials and Methods should contain essential information regarding how the experiment or research was conducted, including the essential characteristics of the experimental and control groups (age, gender, etc.), inclusion and exclusion criteria, and the randomization method used. The protocol of data acquisition, procedures, investigated parameters, methods of measurements should be described in sufficient detail to allow other scientists to reproduce the results.

Results should concisely and reasonably summarize the findings in form of text, tables and figures arranged in a logical and internally self-consistent manner. The number of tables and figures should be limited to those absolutely needed to confirm or refute the article.

Discussion should deal only with new and/or important aspects of the results obtained, without repeating in detail data or other material previously presented in Background or Results. The Discussion should focus on attribution of findings, theoretical implications and/or practical consequences of the findings, including suggestions for further research. The Discussion should compare the results of the present study to those obtained by other researchers mentioned in the text.

Conclusions must be linked with the goals of the study. New hypotheses with recommendations for further research should be advanced only when fully warranted and explicitly justified.

Recommendations may be included when appropriate. Unqualified statements and conclusions not supported by the data obtained should be avoided.

All appendix sections must be cited in the main text. In the appendices, Figures, Tables, etc. should be labelled starting with “1”—e.g., Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.

References must be prepared in line with American Psychological Association (APA, 7th edition) format, and listed individually at the end of the manuscript. Include the digital object identifier (DOI) for all references where available.

Abbreviations and symbols are acceptable only when standard. Abbreviations should not be used in the title or abstract. The full term for which an abbreviation stands should precede its first use in the text, unless it is a standard unit of measurement.

 

Copyright Transfer

Upon acceptance of a manuscript for publication, the authors transfer copyright to NJHP. Once an article is accepted for publication in NJHP, the information it contains cannot be revealed in the public media until the publication date of the issue in which the article appears. Upon acceptance, all published manuscripts become permanent property of, and may not be published elsewhere without the Publisher’s written