AIMS AND SCOPE

The European Journal of Public Health (EJPH) is a multidisciplinary journal aimed at attracting contributions from epidemiology, health services research, health economics, social sciences, management sciences, ethics and law, environmental health sciences, and other disciplines of relevance to public health. The journal provides a forum for discussion and debate of current international public health issues, with a focus on the European Region. Bi-monthly issues contain peer-reviewed original articles, editorials, commentaries, book reviews, news, letters to the editor, announcements of events, and various other features.

The EJPH is owned by the European Public Health Association, which has more than 4000 individual members throughout Europe. All members are entitled to receive the electronic version of the journal, which ensures an exceptionally large readership consisting of public health researchers, policy-makers and practitioners in all European countries.

The EJPH style and editorial policies conform to the 'Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals', as specified by the statements of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Unless differently specified below, all these guidelines (www.icmje.org) apply to the EJPH.

SUBMISSION PROCEDURES

Manuscripts must be submitted online. Once you have prepared your manuscript according to the instructions below please visit the online submission web site. Instructions on submitting your manuscript online can be viewed here.

Manuscripts containing original material are accepted for consideration with the understanding that neither the article nor any part of its essential substance, tables, or figures has been or will be published or submitted for publication elsewhere. This restriction does not apply to abstracts or short press reports published in connection with scientific meetings. Copies of any closely related manuscripts should be submitted along with the manuscript that is to be considered by the EJPH. The EJPH discourages the submission of more than one article dealing with related aspects of the same study.

The EJPH only accepts online submission of papers. Authors are encouraged to consult the journal’s website www.eurpub.oxfordjournals.org/for_authors/online_submission.html.

During the online submission procedure, authors are asked to provide: a) information on prior or duplicate publication or submission elsewhere of any part of the work; b) a statement of financial or other relationships that might lead to a conflict of interest or a statement that the authors do not have any conflict of interest; c) a statement that the manuscript has been read and approved by all authors; d) the name, address, telephone and fax number of the corresponding author who is responsible for negotiations concerning the manuscript. The manuscript must be accompanied by copies of any permissions (see heading Permissions below) to reproduce already published material, to use illustrations or report sensitive personal information about identifiable persons, or to name persons (see heading Acknowledgements below) for their contributions.

All papers submitted to the EJPH are checked by the editorial office for conformance to author and other instructions all specified below. Non-conforming manuscripts will be returned to authors.

FORMAT OF CONTRIBUTIONS

The European Journal of Public Health welcomes submissions of the following types of paper: original articles, short reports, commentaries, and letters to the editor. In addition, the EJPH also commissions editorials, ‘viewpoint’ papers, and book reviews.

Only articles in English are considered for publication. British spelling conventions (Oxford Dictionary) are used. Examples: standardise (not standardize), colour (not color), paediatrics (not pediatrics), foetal (not fetal), etc.

Prepare your manuscript, including tables, using a word processing program and save it as a .doc, .rtf or .ps file. Use a minimum font size of 11, double-spaced and paginated throughout including references and tables, with margins of at least 2.5 cm. The text should be left justified and not hyphenated. Number pages consecutively, beginning with the title page. Begin each of the sections on separate pages.

Original articles

Original articles should be presented in the following format: title page; abstract with keywords; introduction; methods; results; discussion; acknowledgements; conflicts of interest; key-points; references; tables (each table on a separate page, complete with title and footnotes); figure legends; figures.

Original articles should only in exceptional cases exceed 5 pages in print. This implies a word limit of appr. 3000 words in the main text of the paper, and a maximum of 4 medium-sized tables/figures.

The title page should carry a) the title of the article, which should be concise but informative; b) first name, middle initial, last name and institutional affiliation of each author; c) name of department(s) and institution(s) to which the work should be attributed if not already stated under b); d) disclaimers, if any; e) name, address, telephone and fax numbers of author responsible for correspondence about the manuscript; f) source(s) of support in the form of grants, equipment, drugs, etc.; g) a word count of the whole manuscript; h) a short running head of no more than 40 characters (count letters and spaces).

The abstract should be structured under the following headings: Background, Methods, Results, Conclusion. The word limit is 250 words. Add three to five key words or short phrases to the bottom of the abstract page, which will assist us in indexing the article and which may be published with the abstract. Use terms from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) list of Index Medicus when possible.

The main text should be divided into the following sections: Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion. More information on the structure and content of these sections can be found in the Uniform Requirements for manuscripts (www.icmje.org).

In the acknowledgements, all sources of funding for research must be explicitly stated, including grant numbers if appropriate. Other financial and material support, specifying the nature of the support, should be acknowledged as well. If the work has been presented orally previously, for example at a scientific meeting, then the name, place and date of the conference should be noted. Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission from persons acknowledged by name because readers may infer their endorsement of the data and conclusions.

All original articles should contain a statement on conflicts of interest. Either mention: ‘none declared’, or specify the authors’ financial or other interests which should be known to the readers. See below for further details.

Keypoints should be presented in the form of 3 to 5 bulleted, short statements which summarize what this paper adds to what was already known. Include at least one implication for public health policy and practice.

For the references, see the separate guidelines at the end of the author instructions.

Type each table with double spacing on a separate page, and provide a title for each. Do not use internal horizontal and vertical rules. Abbreviations in tables should be explained.
Excessive tabular data are discouraged: a maximum of four medium-sized tables/illustrations is allowed. Do not duplicate data in graphs and tables. Additional tables/figures can be presented on the journals’ web-page if needed. Do not repeat in the text all the data in the tables or illustrations; emphasize or summarize only important observations. If you use data from another published or unpublished source, obtain permission and acknowledge fully.

Figures should be professionally designed, using a well-known software package for standard personal computers. Three-dimensional figures are not allowed. If a spreadsheet programme has been used to produce the chart, the spreadsheet containing the underlying data should be supplied on diskette. Provide the figures in separate files, not as part of the main text. Symbols, lettering, and numbering should be clear and large enough to remain legible after the figure has been reduced to fit the width of a single column, i.e. 7 cm. Legends for illustrations should be typewritten (double-spaced) on a separate sheet and should not appear on the illustrations. If a figure has been published earlier, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material. If photographs of patients are used, their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use the picture, whether the patient is identifiable or not. For useful information on preparing your figures for publication, go to http://cpc.cadmus.com/da.

Colour figures are accepted, but the authors will be required to pay the cost of the reproduction (£350/$665 per figure). Alternatively, if the colour is not critical for the image's scientific understanding, colour can be published online only, as Supplementary data, with a black and white version being published in the print version of the journal.

Short reports

Short reports should have the same format as original articles, but should not exceed 1200 words, and contain a maximum of one table/figure. Abstracts of short reports should not be structured, and should be no longer than 100 words. The maximum number of references is 10.

Commentaries

Commentaries are opinion pieces which reflect on papers previously or currently published in the European Journal of Public Health, or on issues of general interest to public health science or policy.

Their format is free, but they should at least contain a title page, the main text, acknowledgements, a conflict of interest statement, and references. They do not need an abstract. The main text should not exceed 1200 words. The maximum number of references is 10.

Letters to the editor

Letters to the editor should be a maximum of 500 words and do not need an abstract. However, a short heading should be suggested.

Editorials

Editorials are usually commissioned. Editorials are opinion pieces which reflect on papers previously or currently published in the European Journal of Public Health, or on issues of general interest to public health science or policy. They should be written in a crisp, lively style. They should have a maximum of 800 words, and not more than 5 references.

Viewpoint papers

Viewpoint papers are usually commissioned. Viewpoint sections in the EJPH usually consist of two or three contrasting pieces which reflect in issues of general interest to public health science or policy. They should be written in a crisp, lively style. They should have a maximum of between 800 and 1500 words, and not more than 5 references.

Book reviews

Book reviews are usually commissioned. They should have a maximum of 500 words.

AUTHORSHIP

All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship. The order of authorship should be a joint decision of the coauthors. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content. One author will be asked to act as the corresponding author. This needs not be the first author. All communications from and to the editorial office, the editors, Oxford University Press etc. will go through the corresponding author.

Increasingly, multicentre trials are attributed to a corporate author. All members of the group who are named as authors should fully meet the criteria for authorship as defined in the Uniform Requirements (www.icmje.org).

During the submission procedure, authors will be asked to grant a licence to publish to the European Public Health Association, the owner of the EJPH, and to declare copyright ownership (author, public domain, employer).

After acceptance of the paper, all authors will be requested to sign an authorship statement.

PERMISSIONS

Authors are reminded that it is their responsibility to comply with copyright laws. It is essential to ensure that no parts of the submission have or are due to appear in other publications without prior permission from the copyright holder and the original author. Materials, e.g tables, taken from other sources must be accompanied by a written statement from both author and publisher giving permission to the EJPH for reproduction.

PEER REVIEW

All original papers, short reports and commentaries are evaluated by two or three external referees, who are asked to comment on originality, validity, presentation, and importance and interest.

The European Journal of Public Health is working towards a system of open peer review. Manuscripts are not blinded to reviewers. Reviewers are encouraged to sign their reviews.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

EJPH policy requires that authors of all manuscripts reveal any financial interests or connections, direct or indirect, or other situations that might raise the question of bias in the work reported or the conclusions, implications, or opinions stated - including pertinent commercial or other sources of funding for the individual author(s) or for the associated department(s) or organization(s), personal relationships, or direct academic competition. When considering whether you should declare a conflicting interest or connection please consider the conflict of interest test: Is there any arrangement that would embarrass you or any of your co-authors if it was to emerge after publication and you had not declared it?
Please provide details of potential conflicts of interest to the editorial office. If the manuscript is published, this information will be communicated in a statement in the published paper.

COPYRIGHT

It is a condition of publication in the Journal that authors grant an exclusive licence to the Journal, published by Oxford University Press. This ensures that requests from third parties to reproduce articles are handled efficiently and consistently and will also allow the article to be as widely disseminated as possible. In assigning the licence, authors may use their own material in other publications provided that the Journal is acknowledged as the original place of publication, and Oxford University Press is notified in writing and in advance. Information about the New Creative Commons licence can be found here.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

Abbreviations and footnotes

Do not use abbreviations in the title or the abstract. Except for units of measurement, abbreviations are discouraged. Use only standard abbreviations. The first time an abbreviation appears it should be preceded by the words for which it stands.
Footnotes are permitted only in tables. Use lower case characters - a, b, c, etc. - to indicate each footnote.

Units of measurement

Authors of articles must express all measurements in terms of the International System of Units (SI units), but they may include older conventional units in parentheses if they desire.

Numbers and percentages

All numbers in the text should be written in numeric form except numbers 0-10. Use % symbol instead of writing out the words per cent.

Drug names

Generic names should be used. Authors who wish to do so may insert brand names in parentheses.

REFERENCES

References must be typed with double spacing and must be numbered consecutively as they are cited (Vancouver style). References first cited in tables or figure legends must be numbered so that they will be in sequence with references cited in the text. Authors are discouraged from citing material that is not commonly available, e.g., databases, patents, computer files etc. Numbered references to personal communications, unpublished data and manuscripts in preparation or submitted for publication are unacceptable. The style of references is that of Index Medicus. List all authors when there are six or fewer; when there are seven or more, list the first three, then 'et al'. Identify references in text with superscript Arabic numerals. Sample references are as follows:

1. Standard journal article: McIsaac SJ, Wilkinson RG. Income distribution and cause-specific mortality. Eur J Public Health 1997;7(1):45-53. As an option, if a journal carries continuous pagination throughout a volume the month and issue number may be omitted: McIsaac SJ, Wilkinson RG. Income distribution and cause-specific mortality. Eur J Public Health 1997;7:45-53. Goate AM, Haynes AR, Owen MJ, Farall M, James LA, Lai LY, et al. Predisposing locus for Alzheimer's disease on chromosome 21. Lancet 1989;1:352-5
2. Organization as author: The Royal Marsden Hospital Bone-marrow Transplantation Team. Failure of syngeneic bone-marrow graft without preconditioning in post-hepatitis marrow aplasia. Lancet 1977;2:742-4.
3. No author given: Coffee drinking and cancer of the pancreas [editorial]. BMJ 1981;283:628.
4. Article in a foreign language: As above. Include an English translation in parentheses after the original title.
5. Volume with supplement: Magni F, Rossoni G, Berti F. BN-52021 protects guinea-pig from heart anaphylaxis. Pharmacol Res Commun 1988;20 Suppl 5:75-8.
6. Issue with supplement: Gardos G, Cole JO, Haskell D, Marby D, Paine SS, Moore P. The natural history of tardive dyskinesia. J Clin Psychopharmacol 1988;8(4 Suppl):31S-37S.
7. Volume with part: Hanly C. Metaphysics and innateness: a psychoanalytic perspective. Int J Psychoanal 1988;69(Pt 3):389-99.
8. Issue with part: Edwards L, Meyskens F, Levine N. Effect of oral isotretinoin on dysplastic nevi. J Am Acad Dermatol 1989;20(2 Pt 1):257-60.
9. Issue with no volume: Baumeister AA. Origins and control of stereotyped movements. Monogr Am Assoc Ment Defic 1978;(3):353-84.
10. No issue or volume: Danoek K. Skiing in and through the history of medicine. Nord Medicinhist Êrsb 1982:86-100.
11. Pagination in roman numerals: Ronne Y. Ansvarsfall. Blodtransfusion till fel patient. V...rdfacket 1989;13:XXVI-XXVII.
12. Type of article indicated as needed: La Vecchia C, Parazzini F, Levi F. Perinatal and infant mortality: a worldwide issue [editorial]. Eur J Public Health 1996;6:157-8. Fuhrman SA, Joiner KA. Binding of the third component of complement C3 by Toxoplasma gondii [abstract]. Clin Res 1987;35:475A.
13. Article containing retraction: Shishido A. Retraction notice: Effect of platinum compounds on murine lymphocyte mitogenesis [Retraction of Alsabti EA, Ghalib ON, Salem MH. In: Jpn J Med Sci Biol 1979;32:53-65). Jpn J Med Sci Biol 1980;33:235-7.
14. Article retracted: Alsabti EA, Ghalib ON, Salem MH. Effect of platinum compounds on murine lymphocyte mitogenesis [Retracted by Shishido A. In: Jpn J Med Sci Biol 1980;33:235-7). Jpn J Med Sci Biol 1979;32:53-65.
15. Article containing comment: Piccoli A, Bossatti A. Early steroid therapy in IgA neuropathy: still an open question [comment]. Nephron 1989;51:289-91. Comment on: Nephron 1988;48:12-7.
16. Article commented on: Kobayashi Y, Fujii K, Hiki Y, Tateno S, Kurokawa A, Kamivama M. Steroid therapy in IgA nephropathy: a retrospective study in heavy proteinuric cases [see comments]. Nephron 1988;48:12-7. Comment in: Nephron 1989;51:289-91.
17. Article with published erratum: Schofield A. The CAGE questionnaire and psychological health [published erratum appears in Br J Addict 1989;84:701). Br J Addict 1988;83:761-4.
18. Personal author(s): Colson JH, Armour WJ. Sports injuries and their treatment. 2nd rev ed. London: S Paul, 1986.
19. Editor(s), compiler as author: Diener HC, Wilkinson M, editors. Drug-induced headache. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1988.
20. Organization as author and publisher: Virginia Law Foundation. The medical and legal implications of AIDS. Charlottesville: The Foundation, 1987.
21. Chapter in a book: Weinstein L, Swartz MN. Pathologic properties of invading microorganisms. In: Sodeman WA Jr, Sodeman WA, editors. Pathologic physiology: mechanisms of disease. Philadelphia: Saunders, 1974:457-72.
22. Conference proceedings: Vivian VL, editor. Child abuse and neglect: a medical community response. Proceedings of the First AMA National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect; 1984 Mar 30-31; Chicago. Chicago: American Medical Association, 1985.
23. Conference paper: Harley NH. Comparing radon daughter dosimetric and risk models. In: Gammage RB, Kaye SV, editors. Indoor air and human health. Proceedings of the Seventh Life Sciences Symposium; 1984 Oct 29-31; Knoxville (TN). Chelsea (MI): Lewis, 1985:69-78.
24. Scientific or technical report: Akutsu T. Total heart replacement device. Bethesda (MD): National Institutes of Health, National Heart and Lung Institute; 1974 Apr. Report No.: NIH-NHLI-69-2185-4.
25. Dissertation: Youssef NM. School adjustment of children with congenital heart disease [dissertation]. Pittsburgh (PA): Univ of Pittsburgh, 1988.
26. Patent: Harred JF, Knight AR, McIntyre JS, inventors. Dow Chemical Company, assignee. Epoxidation process. US patent 3,654,317. 1972 Apr 4.
27. Newspaper article: Rensberger B, Specter B. CFCs may be destroyed by natural process. The Washington Post 1989 Aug 7;Sect A:2(col 5)
28. Audiovisual: AIDS epidemic: the physician's role [videorecording]. Cleveland (OH): Academy of Medicine of Cleveland, 1987.
29. Computer file: Renal system [computer program]. MS-DOS version. Edwardsville (KS): Medi-Sim, 1988.
30. Legal material: Toxic Substances Control Act: Hearing on S.776 Before the Subcomm. on the Environment of the Senate Comm. on Commerce. 94th Congr., 1st Sess. 343 (1975).
31. Map: Scotland [topographic map]. Washington: National Geographic Society (US), 1981.
32. Book of the Bible: Ruth 3:1-18. The Holy Bible. Authorised King James version. New York: Oxford Univ Press, 1972.
33. Dictionary and similar references: Ectasia. Dorland's illustrated medical dictionary. 27th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders, 1988:527.
34. Classical material: The Winter's Tale: act 5, scene 1, lines 13-16. The complete works of William Shakespeare. London: Rex, 1973.
35. Lillywhite HD, Donald JA. Pulmonary blood flow regulation in an aquatic snake. Science, in press.
36. Website: Federal Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs, Austria: http://www.bmags.gv.at Accessed [Date (i.e. date reference item accessed on organization website)].

AUTHOR SELF-ARCHIVING/PUBLIC ACCESS POLICY FROM MAY 2005

For information about this journal's policy, please visit our Author Self-Archiving policy page.

OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING

OPEN ACCESS OPTION FOR AUTHORS Starting in January 2006, European Journal of Public Health authors have the option, at an additional charge, to make their paper freely available online immediately upon publication, under the Oxford Open initiative. After your manuscript is accepted, as part of the mandatory licence form required of all corresponding authors, you will be asked to indicate whether or not you wish to pay to have your paper made freely available immediately. If you do not select the Open Access option, your paper will be published with standard subscription-based access and you will not be charged.

For those selecting the Open Access option, the charges for vary European Journal of Public Health depending on the institution at which the Corresponding author is based (see below).

Optional Oxford Open charges:

For a Corresponding author based at an institution with an online subscription to European Journal of Public Health:

• Regular charge per paper - £800 / $1500
• List B developing country charge* - £400 / $750
• List A developing country charge* - £0 / $0

For a Corresponding author based at an institution that does not subscribe to the online journal:

• Regular charge per paper - £1500 / $2800
• List B developing country charge* - £750 / $1400
  
• List A developing country charge* - £0 / $0
  

*Visit http://www.oxfordjournals.org/jnls/devel/ for list of qualifying countries.

The above Open Access charges are in addition to any page charges and color charges that might apply.

Orders from UK will be subject to a 17.5% VAT charge. For orders from the rest of the EU, we will assume that the service is provided for business purposes, please provide a VAT number for yourself or your institution and ensure you account for your own local VAT correctly

If you choose the Open Access option you will also be asked to complete an Open Access charge form online. You will be automatically directed to the appropriate version of the form depending on whether you are based at an institution with an online subscription to European Journal of Public Health. Therefore please make sure that you are using an institutional computer when accessing the form. To check whether you are based at a subscribing institution please use the Subscriber Test link for European Journal of Public Health.