Ethiopian Journal of Health Development
Journal / Ethiopian Journal of Health Development / Submissions

General: The Ethiopian Journal of Health Development (EJHD) is a multi-disciplinary scientific publication of broad field of health development. The journal is a joint publication of the Ethiopian Public Health Association (EPHA) and the School of Public Health (SPH), Addis Ababa University (AAU).

EJHD publishes original research outcomes, brief communications, book reviews and special issues/supplements. More specifically, the Journal focus on important topics in health development that include: health policy and planning; health service management, health behavior and communication, monitoring and evaluation; health administration and organization of health services; hospital administration; health human resources; health economics, financing;  health informatics and health information systems; maternal and child health; sexual reproductive health; environmental health  and  water;  food  and  nutrition;  communicable, non-communicable diseases and Neglected Tropical Diseases; community participation and partnership;  drug supply  and  distribution;  indigenous medicine; social determinants of health; and broader topics health care technologies.

Manuscript: The manuscript should be submitted in electronic copy online on the journal’s website www.ejhd.org. The submitting/corresponding author should create username on the journal before the submission following instructions. Authors can obtain procedures of online submission from the journal website. The following instructions relating to submissions must be adhered to. Failure to conform may result in rejection or delay in publication.

Cover Letter
Title
Explanation of any conflict of interest
Signed by corresponding author

Signed authorship statement from all authors (Refer format)

Title page
1. Title of article: The title should be as clear as possible that could represent the paper 

2. Abstract: The abstract should be concise (maximum of 300 words excluding characters). This should stand-alone and should not be part of the document.

• Background: What issues led to this work? What is the environment that makes this work interesting or important?
• Objective/ Aim
• Methods: how the study was done (setting, sources of data, collection, analysis etc.) 
• Results: What were the main findings of the study with appropriate illustrations
• Discussion: Interpretation of the findings. What does the results mean vis-à-vis available evidences and once own experiences …
• Conclusions: What would authors say about the study in its totality – and what do you send as a message to different stakeholders addressing on why are the results important? 
• Keywords: words or phrases that you feel capture the most important aspects of your paper

Introduction

• Indicate the field of the work, why this field is important, and what has already been done 
• Indicate a gap, raise a research question, or challenge from previous  work in this territory
• Outline the purpose and announce the present research, clearly indicating what is novel and why it is significant
• Avoid repeating the abstract; providing unnecessary background information; exaggerating the importance of work.

Methods

• Describe how the results were generated with sufficient detail so that an independent researcher (working in the same field) could reproduce the results sufficiently to allow validation of the conclusions.
• Has the chosen method been justified?
• Are data analysis and statistical approaches justified, with assumptions and biases considered?
• Avoid including results in the method section; including extraneous details (unnecessary to enable reproducibility or judge validity); treating the method as a chronological history of what happened; unneeded references to commercial products; references to “proprietary” products or processes unavailable to the reader.

Results 

• Present the results of the paper, in logical order starting with characterizing study participants 
• Cross check if objectives of the study are all addressed
• Consider use of tables, graphs and illustrations as necessary

Discussion

• Chose key results that you want to discuss - explain by way of shading light on what the result means
• What does the result mean in view of existing evidences 
• Summarize if the results were expected or not and why? 
• Avoid discussing results that were not presented in result section 

Conclusions

• Provide a very brief summary of Results and Discussion
• Emphasize the implications of the findings, explaining how the work is significant and providing the key message(s) the author wishes to convey
• Provide the most general claims that can be supported by the evidence
• Provide suggested future perspective on the work (recommendations)
• Avoid: repeating the abstract; repeating background information from the introduction; introducing new evidence or new arguments not found in the Results and Discussion; failing to address all of the research questions set out in the Introduction.

References:

• Include contemporary citations that provide sufficient context to allow for critical analysis of this work by others. 
• Include citations that give the reader sources of background and related material so that the current work can be understood by the target audience
• Include citations that acknowledge and give credit to sources relied upon for this work
• Use Vancouver referencing style.

Figures and Tables

• Ensure that the figures accurately and carefully document the data and their context.
• Provide appropriate titles that best describe the content
• Figures and Tables should appear in the last page of the document.
• Total number of combined Tables and Figures should not exceed five.

General Formatting

• The document should be prepared in the order of sections described above.
• Authors name and affiliations should be strictly uploaded in different word file.
• Font size should be 12 in Times New Roman
• Space between lines should be double.
• Manuscripts of original research works exceeding 2500 words excluding the title page, acknowledgment, tables and illustrations are not acceptable. 
• The absolute word limit is 3500 words.

Abbreviations and Symbols:  Only standard abbreviations should be used. Abbreviations must be avoided in the title and abstract sections.  In cases unavoidable abbreviations must be preceded by their full description in the first use.

Brief Communication:  All requirements for a full article apply for brief communication. Exceptions are the following:

abstract not exceeding 75 words, text should not exceed 600 words, only one table or figure, and a maximum of eight references.

References: References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text and should be listed in numerical order on a separate sheet at the end of the manuscript. References must follow the Vancouver style which is fully described in the "uniform Requirements for Manuscript Submitted to Biomedical Journals" as recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, refer to JAMA. 1997;277:92 7-934 (also available at http://www.slackinc.com/unireq.htm, accessed as of March 2004).

Ethics: All studies on human subjects must have been conducted in accordance with national and international ethical standards. Patient's name, initials or hospital numbers must be removed when submitting a manuscript.

Conflict of Interest: Authors are responsible for declaring any conflict of interest related to the submitted research work.  The source of funding for the research work should be acknowledged.

Authorship: As recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors- "All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship.  Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take official responsibility for the content. Authorship credits should be based only on substantial contributions to 1) conception and design, or analysis and interpretation of data; and to 2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and on 3) final approval of the version to be published.  Conditions 1, 2, and 3 must all be met.  Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship.  General supervision of the research group is not sufficient for authorship."

Acknowledgments: These should be limited to most important contributions.  Authors are responsible for obtaining permission for all persons acknowledged in their manuscript.  Acknowledgment must be placed on separate page.

Galley Proofs: Galley proofs will be sent to the corresponding author.  The corrected proof must be returned to the editorial office within 72 hours of receipt, and in any event within one week. Delay in returning corrected proofs may result in the paper being held over to the next issue or being published uncorrected.  At this stage, corrections must only be limited to essential and editorial mistakes.

Rejected Manuscripts: Authors will be notified on rejected manuscripts either upon submission depending on whether it meets basic requirements or following revisions if the manuscript still is not up to expectations

Supplements or Special publication: Supplements/special issues focusing on important public health policies, programs and training are encouraged.  However, the full cost of the publication must be covered by authors or a sponsoring organization. Contact the Editor in Chief for more information.

Copyright: It is a condition of publication that authors transfer copyright of their articles, including abstracts, to the School of Public Health, Addis Ababa University. Authors may use their article elsewhere after publication provided that proper acknowledgment is given to the Journal as the original source of publication, and the Editor-in-Chief is notified.

The Peer Review Process

Step 1: Timely response
Once the reviewer gets invitation he/she should respond within two days either accepting to review or sharing regrets. This stage is critical to avoid unnecessarily delay especially if the reviewer cannot take the task.  

Step 2
Editor in Chiefs have no way to know who is who and who is related to whom as well as definitive idea on the current areas of reviewer’s research interest. Peer reviewers are expected to declare any conflicts of interest to review the manuscript not later than two days after receiving the document. Details on declaration of conflict of interest can be found here (1)

Step 3
Peer reviewers must keep any information regarding the manuscript and its content manuscript confidential.

Step 4
Peer review comments should be objective and constructive without being hostile/too negative to the author(s) 

Further information on ethical peer review issues and conflicts of interest can be found in the COPE guidelines (2).