Guide for Authors

Aims
Public Health is an international, multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal. It publishes original papers, reviews and short communications on all aspects of the science, philosophy and practice of public health.

It is aimed at all public health practitioners and researchers and those who manage public health services and systems. This includes public health doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, demographers, epidemiologists, health education and promotion specialists, environmental health specialists, and other specialists and scientists in the field of public health, including those in training. It will also be of interest to anyone involved in the provision of public health programmes, the care of populations or communities and those who contribute to public health systems in any way.

Scope
Public Health considers submissions on any aspect of public health across age groups and settings. These include:

• Public health practice and impact
• Epidemiology (environmental and toxicological) - fundamental and applied
• Need or impact assessments
• Health service effectiveness, management and re-design
• Health protection including control of communicable diseases
• Screening
• Health promotion and disease prevention
• Evaluation of public health programmes or interventions
• Public health governance, audit and quality
• Public health law
• Public health policies and comparisons
• Capacity in public health systems and workforce

This is not an exhaustive list and the Editors will consider articles on any issue relating to public health.

Public Health also publishes invited articles, reviews and supplements from leading experts on topical issues. Organizations or individuals who wish to present proposals for supplements should contact the Editors for a copy of the specific guidance on the publication of supplements.

Papers describing original research impacting on public health practice are particularly encouraged. Those describing a particular event (e.g. an outbreak of infectious disease) should be submitted as soon as possible. Fast track publication of suitable articles is possible.

Papers are invited from anywhere in the world, but authors are asked to ensure that sufficient context is provided for all readers to appreciate their contribution.

The types of papers that may be considered for inclusion are:
1) Original research;
2) Review papers, including meta-analysis and systematic reviews;
3) Evaluations of public health interventions or programmes;
4) Public health practice – original work on audit, workforce or resource development
5) Short communications;
6) Book reviews (normally by invitation);
7) Letters;
8) Celebrating Public Health Lives – biographical articles about named individuals, living or deceased, who have made a special contribution to public health; and
9) Student papers – we encourage students to publish their work, e.g. originating from practice-based research, which will be subject to constructive peer review process.

On submission, authors should indicate in which category their contribution is to be considered.

Short communications
A short communication is preferred for the submission of important preliminary observations or data that does not warrant publication as a full paper. Short communications should be approximately 500?1500 words in length and provide adequate information to allow for the same peer review given to other submissions. An abstract will be requested during the online submission process in order to facilitate peer-review, but should not be included within the manuscript. Keywords are not required. Specific sections, such as Methods, should not be used. A short communication can include one table or figure and up to 10 references. Preliminary data published as a short communication will not preclude subsequent publication of more complete results if the work is significantly expanded.

Letters
Authors will be given the opportunity to comment and respond to any correspondence we intend to include in the `Letters to the Editors? regarding their previously published manuscript.

Submission
All manuscripts should normally be submitted online at http://ees.elsevier.com/puhe/ by clicking on the `submit paper? link. Authors will first need to register their details, and can then submit their paper.
Any author unable to submit online should contact the Editorial Office.

Correspondence
The official language of Public Health is English. Support may be made available to overseas authors whose first language is not English.

Any correspondence (including books for review) should be sent to the Editorial Office as follows:

The Editors
Public Health Editorial Office
The Royal Society for Public Health
3rd Floor Market Towers
1 Nine Elms Lane
London SW8 5NQ.

Tel: +44 (0) 20 3177 1600
Fax: +44 (0) 20 3177 1601
E-mail: public.health@rsph.org.uk

Manuscripts
Papers should be clear, precise and logical and should not normally exceed 3000 words. Use double spacing and wide (3 cm) margins, and avoid full justification, i.e. do not use a constant right-hand margin. Ensure that each new paragraph is clearly indicated. Present tables and figure legends on separate pages at the end of the manuscript. If possible, consult a recent issue of the journal to become familiar with layout and conventions. Number all pages consecutively. Manuscripts should also be `spellchecked? by the facility available in most good wordprocessing packages. Extensive use of italics and emboldening within the text should be avoided.

It is important that the file be saved in the native format of the wordprocessor used. The text should be in single-column format. Keep the layout of the text as simple as possible. Most formatting codes will be removed and replaced on processing the article. In particular, do not use the wordprocessor's options to justify text or to hyphenate words. Do not embed `graphically designed? equations or tables, but prepare these using the wordprocessor's facility. When preparing tables, if you are using a table grid, use only one grid for each individual table and not a grid for each row. If no grid is used, use tabs, not spaces, to align columns. The electronic text should be prepared in a way very similar to that of the conventional manuscript. Do not import the figures into the text file but, instead, indicate their approximate locations directly in the electronic text. See also the section on `Preparation of electronic illustrations?.

One author should be designated as corresponding author and provide the following information:
• E-mail address
• Full postal address
• Telephone and fax numbers

Original research or evaluation papers should be set out as follows:

1. Title page, bearing title, all authors' initials, surname, main degrees (two only) and the name and location of the institution(s) where the work was done. The author to whom proofs and correspondence should be sent should be clearly indicated with correct address, e-mail, telephone and fax details.
2. Abstract. This should be structured under the following headings:
Objectives, Study design, Methods, Results, Conclusions.
3. Keywords. 3?6 keywords should follow the abstract.
4. Introduction
5. Methods
6. Results
7. Discussion
8. Acknowledgements including
9. Declarations: Statements of ethical approval, funding and competing interests
10. References

Please note that any costs for reproducing material whose copyright is not held by the authors or the RIPH is to be met by the authors.

Tables and figures
Tables and figures should be kept to a minimum. Tables must be comprehensible without reference to the text. References should not be cited in the tables. Authors should indicate at approximately what point in the text the table should appear. Figures, graphs, drawings etc. should not be over complex and must be intelligible when reduced in size for printing. They should be on separate sheets, numbered and with legends.

Tables. Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Place footnotes to tables below the table body and indicate them with superscript lowercase letters. Avoid vertical rules. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in tables do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article.

Preparation of electronic illustrations
Submitting your artwork in an electronic format helps us to produce your work to the best possible standard, ensuring accuracy, clarity and a high level of detail.

General points

• Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
• Save text in illustrations as `graphics? or enclose the font.
• Only use Arial font in your illustrations
• Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
• Provide captions to illustrations separately.
• Produce images near to the desired size of the printed version.


A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website: artwork instructions You are urged to visit this site; some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.

Formats
Regardless of the application used, when your electronic artwork is finalized, please `save as? or convert the images to one of the following formats (note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones and line/halftone combinations given below):

EPS: Vector drawings. Embed the font or save the text as `graphics?.
TIFF: Colour or greyscale photographs (halftones): always use a minimum of 300 dpi.
TIFF: Bitmapped line drawings: use a minimum of 1000 dpi.
TIFF: Combinations bitmapped line/halftone (colour or greyscale): a minimum of 500 dpi is required.
DOC, XLS or PPT: If your electronic artwork is created in any of these Microsoft Office applications, please supply `as is?.

Please do not:
• Supply embedded graphics in your wordprocessed (spreadsheet, presentation) document;
• Supply files that are optimized for screen use (like GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); the resolution is too low;
• Supply files that are too low in resolution;
• Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.

Colour illustrations
If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable colour figures, Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in colour on the web (e.g. ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. Further information concerning colour illustrations and costs is available from Author Support (authorsupport@elsevier.com).

Please note: owing to technical complications that can arise when converting colour figures to 'greyscale' (should you not opt for colour in print), please also submit usable black and white prints corresponding to all the colour illustrations.

Authorship and acknowledgements
All authors should have made substantial contributions to all of the following: (1) the conception and design of the study, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and (3) final approval of the version to be submitted.

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship as defined above should be listed in the `Acknowledgements? section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support. Authors should disclose whether they had any writing assistance and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.

Declarations
Upon submission authors will be required to declare funding, competing interests and to indicate whether ethical approval was sought. This information must also be inserted into the manuscript under the `Acknowledgements? section with the headings below. If there are no declarations to make, the following statements should be inserted into the manuscript:
Funding: None
Competing interests: None declared
Ethical approval: Not required

Competing interests
See `Declarations? section above. All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work under the `Competing interests? statement. Examples of potential competing interests include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding.

Role of the funding source
See `Declarations? section above. All sources of funding should be declared. Authors should declare the role of study sponsors, if any, in the study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; and in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. If the study sponsors had no such involvement, the authors should so state.

Ethics
See `Declarations? section above. Work on human beings that is submitted to Public Health should comply with the principles laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki; Recommendations guiding physicians in biomedical research involving human subjects. Adopted by the 18th World Medical Assembly, Helsinki, Finland, June 1964, amended by the 29th World Medical Assembly, Tokyo, Japan, October 1975, the 35th World Medical Assembly, Venice, Italy, October 1983, and the 41st World Medical Assembly, Hong Kong, September 1989. The manuscript should contain a statement that the work has been approved by the appropriate ethical committees related to the institution(s) in which it was performed and that subjects gave informed consent to the work. Studies involving experiments with animals must state that their care was in accordance with institution guidelines.

Studies on patients or volunteers require ethics committee approval and informed consent which should be documented in your paper. Patients have a right to privacy. Therefore identifying information, including patients? images, names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be included in videos, recordings, written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and you have obtained written informed consent for publication in print and electronic form from the patient (or parent, guardian or next of kin where applicable). If such consent is made subject to any conditions, Elsevier must be made aware of all such conditions. Written consents must be provided to Elsevier on request. Even where consent has been given, identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning and editors should so note. If such consent has not been obtained, personal details of patients included in any part of the paper and in any supplementary materials (including all illustrations and videos) must be removed before submission.

Randomized controlled trials
All randomized controlled trials submitted for publication in Public Health should include a completed Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) flow chart. Please refer to the CONSORT statement website at http://www.consort-statement.org for more information. Public Health has adopted the proposal from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) which requires, as a condition of consideration for publication of clinical trials, registration in a public trials registry. Trials must register at or before the onset of patient enrolment. The clinical trial registration number should be included at the end of the abstract of the article. For this purpose, a clinical trial is defined as any research project that prospectively assigns human subjects to intervention or comparison groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome. Studies designed for other purposes, such as to study pharmacokinetics or major toxicity (e.g. phase I trials), would be exempt. Further information can be found at www.icmje.org.

References
References should be cited using the Vancouver convention, with superscript figures in the main body of the text relating to a list of referenced sources at the end of the text in order of citation.

For further guidance, authors are referred to:

Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. JAMA 1997;277:927?34.

Authors should personally verify the accuracy of every reference before submitting the paper for publication, and should ensure that the listed references correspond exactly to those in the text.

Text: Indicate references by superscript number(s). The actual authors can be referred to, but the reference number(s) must always be given.

List: Number the references in the list in the order in which they appear in the text.

Examples:

Reference to a journal publication:

1. Van der Geer J, Hanraads JAJ, Lupton RA. The art of writing a scientific article. J Sci Commun 2000;163:51?9.

Reference to a book:

2. Strunk Jr W, White EB. The elements of style. 3rd ed. New York: Macmillan; 1979.

Reference to a chapter in an edited book:

3. Mettam GR, Adams LB. How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In: Jones BS, Smith RZ, (eds). Introduction to the electronic age. New York: E-Publishing Inc; 1999. p. 281?304.

Note shortened form for last page number, e.g. 51?9, and that all authors and editors should be listed (i.e. `et al.? should not be used in the reference list).

Citations in the text: Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications should not be in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication.

Proofs
When your manuscript is received by Elsevier, it is considered to be in its final form. Proofs are not to be regarded as 'drafts'. A marked copy of the proof will be e-mailed to the corresponding author who should return the corrected proof to Elsevier with the minimum of delay. Corrections to the proofs should be limited to the correction of printer's errors.

Copyright/offprints
Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the copyright holder.

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to transfer exclusive copyright (for more information on copyright, see www.elsevier.com/authors) to the RIPH. This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. A letter will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript. A form facilitating transfer of copyright will be provided and must be returned promptly to Elsevier.

If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright holders and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases: contact Elsevier's Rights Department, Philadelphia, PA, USA: tel: (+1) 215 238 7869, fax: (+1) 215 238 2239, e-mail: healthpermissions@elsevier.com. Requests may also be completed online via the Elsevier homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/permissions

. Twenty-five free offprints will be sent to the corresponding author of each paper. Extra reprints can be ordered from Elsevier. The RIPH will not put any limitation on the personal freedom of the authors to use materials contained in the paper in other works.

Funding body agreements and policies
Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors whose articles appear in journals published by Elsevier, to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions of their grant awards. To learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies