About the Journal

If you have a manuscript that is relevant to public health practice or health systems strengthening, submit it now. Global Public Health Practice and Health Systems Journal (GPHHS) is an international, open access, peer-reviewed scholarly journal published by EcoScribe Publishers Company Limited. The journal publishes research and evidence-informed scholarship that contributes to public health practice, health systems strengthening, implementation, policy learning, service delivery improvement, and equitable health outcomes.

GPHHS welcomes manuscripts from diverse settings, including academic institutions, public health programmes, health facilities, communities, policy environments, and implementation contexts. The journal has particular interest in work from low- and middle-income countries and other resource-constrained settings, while also considering submissions from any setting where the findings are relevant to public health practice or health systems learning.

                             

The journal’s purpose is to provide a credible publishing platform for work that is methodologically sound, ethically conducted, clearly reported, and useful to researchers, practitioners, health managers, policymakers, development partners, and other stakeholders involved in public health and health systems improvement.

Journal Aim

The aim of GPHHS is to support the publication and dissemination of research that improves understanding of how public health programmes, services, policies, and health systems function in real-world contexts.

The journal encourages submissions that go beyond describing problems to explain implementation processes, system constraints, contextual influences, measured outcomes, and practical implications. Manuscripts should present evidence in a balanced manner, acknowledge limitations, and avoid conclusions that go beyond the data.

Continuous Publication Model

GPHHS uses a continuous publication model. After acceptance and completion of production processes, articles are published online without waiting for the full issue to be completed. Production processes include copyediting, layout preparation, author proofreading, metadata checks, and final editorial approval.

The journal publishes one volume per year, organized into four issues. Articles are added to the relevant issue as they are finalized. This model is intended to support timely dissemination while maintaining editorial and production checks.

Open Access Policy

GPHHS is an open access journal. Published articles are freely available online to readers without subscription barriers. Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY), unless otherwise stated.

This licence allows readers to read, download, share, and reuse published work, provided that appropriate credit is given to the authors and the source of publication.

Journal Content Preservation and Archiving

EcoScribe Publishers Company Limited is committed to maintaining long-term access to published journal content. GPHHS uses secure hosting, regular website backups, and preservation mechanisms supported through the Open Journal Systems publishing infrastructure where available.

The journal will continue to strengthen its preservation and archiving arrangements as it develops, including participation in recognized preservation services where technically and institutionally feasible.

Editorial Screening

All submissions undergo an initial editorial assessment before peer review. This assessment considers whether the manuscript:

  • fits the journal’s scope;
  • is complete and prepared according to journal requirements;
  • presents a clear research question, objective, or scholarly contribution;
  • provides adequate methodological and ethical information;
  • meets basic standards of reporting quality;
  • appears sufficiently original for consideration;
  • complies with journal policies on authorship, conflicts of interest, research ethics, and publication integrity.

Manuscripts may be declined at this stage if they are outside the journal scope, incomplete, methodologically unsuitable, insufficiently developed, or inconsistent with the journal’s ethical and editorial standards.

The journal aims to complete initial editorial screening within 5–7 days for complete submissions. This is a target timeframe and may vary depending on manuscript volume, completeness, and editorial availability.

Peer Review Process

Manuscripts that pass editorial screening are normally sent for external peer review. GPHHS primarily uses a double-blind peer review model, where author identities are not disclosed to reviewers and reviewer identities are not disclosed to authors.

In specific cases, another review model may be used where appropriate and where this does not compromise fairness, confidentiality, or editorial integrity.

The journal usually seeks at least two independent expert reviews for manuscripts sent to external review. Reviewers are selected based on subject expertise, methodological competence, and relevant experience in research, practice, policy, programme delivery, or health systems work.

For manuscripts sent to peer review, GPHHS aims to provide a first decision within 3–4 weeks. This timeframe is a target rather than a guarantee. Review duration may vary depending on reviewer availability, manuscript complexity, the need for additional expertise, and the quality of the submitted manuscript.

Editorial Decision-Making

Editorial decisions are based on scholarly merit, relevance to the journal’s scope, methodological quality, ethical integrity, clarity of reporting, contribution to knowledge or practice, and the strength of the evidence presented.

Payment or ability to pay does not influence editorial decisions, peer review outcomes, or acceptance decisions. Article processing charges, where applicable, are requested only after a manuscript has been accepted.

From Acceptance to Publication

After acceptance, manuscripts proceed to production. This may include copyediting, reference checks, layout preparation, metadata preparation, author proofreading, and final editorial review.

The journal aims to publish accepted manuscripts promptly after production is complete and authors have returned any required corrections. Publication timing may vary depending on the extent of copyediting, author response time, production workload, and final quality checks.

What We Publish

GPHHS considers a range of manuscript types relevant to public health practice and health systems strengthening, including:

  • Original Research Articles;
  • Implementation Research;
  • Programme Evaluations;
  • Health Systems Research;
  • Policy Analyses;
  • Quality Improvement Reports;
  • Systematic Reviews and Scoping Reviews;
  • Evidence Syntheses;
  • Short Communications;
  • Case Studies and Field Reports;
  • Commentaries and Perspectives;
  • Special Issues or Themed Collections on priority public health and health systems topics.

All submissions should clearly describe the study context, methods, findings, limitations, and implications for practice, policy, implementation, or future research.

Scope of the Journal

GPHHS publishes work across a broad range of public health and health systems topics. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

Public Health Practice

  • community health and primary health care;
  • disease prevention and health promotion;
  • maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health;
  • reproductive health and family planning;
  • communicable diseases, including HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, and outbreak response;
  • noncommunicable disease prevention and control;
  • mental health and psychosocial support;
  • environmental health and water, sanitation, and hygiene;
  • nutrition and public health nutrition;
  • injury prevention and road safety;
  • occupational and school health.

Health Systems and Services

  • health governance and accountability;
  • health financing and universal health coverage strategies;
  • health workforce performance and development;
  • service delivery models and integration;
  • supply chains, medicines, diagnostics, and essential technologies;
  • health information systems, data quality, and digital health;
  • quality improvement and patient safety;
  • referral systems and continuity of care;
  • health equity and access barriers.

Evidence to Policy and Implementation

  • implementation science and scale-up;
  • programme evaluation and learning;
  • operational research;
  • policy analysis and health reforms;
  • health system resilience, emergency preparedness, and response;
  • community engagement and behaviour change;
  • translation of evidence into practice and policy.

Authors should consult the journal’s Aims and Scope page for more detailed guidance on topic suitability.

Reporting Standards and Research Integrity

GPHHS encourages authors to use appropriate reporting guidelines for their study design, such as CONSORT for randomized trials, STROBE for observational studies, PRISMA for systematic reviews, PRISMA-ScR for scoping reviews, COREQ for qualitative research, and other relevant reporting standards.

Manuscripts should include sufficient methodological detail to allow readers, reviewers, and editors to understand how the work was conducted. Authors should report ethical approval, informed consent, funding, conflicts of interest, data availability, and author contributions as applicable.

The journal expects authors to present findings responsibly, avoid unsupported claims, and distinguish clearly between evidence, interpretation, and recommendation.

Target Audience

GPHHS serves a broad readership, including:

  • researchers and academics in public health, epidemiology, implementation science, and health systems research;
  • public health practitioners working in community and facility-based programmes;
  • health managers and administrators responsible for service delivery and quality improvement;
  • policymakers and regulators involved in public health and health system reform;
  • development partners, non-governmental organizations, and implementing agencies;
  • educators and students in public health, health management, and related fields;
  • monitoring, evaluation, learning, and data professionals working on programme and health system performance.

Commitment to Practical and Policy-Relevant Scholarship

GPHHS is intended to support the publication of evidence that is useful for public health decision-making and health systems improvement. The journal values work that is contextually grounded, methodologically transparent, ethically conducted, and clear about its implications.

The journal recognizes that improving public health outcomes requires attention not only to whether interventions work, but also to how they are implemented, why they succeed or fail, what resources and systems they require, and how lessons can be responsibly transferred across settings.

Submissions

Authors whose work is relevant to public health practice, implementation, programme learning, policy analysis, or health systems strengthening are invited to consider GPHHS as a publication outlet.

Before submission, authors should review the journal’s Aims and Scope, Author Guidelines, Peer Review Policy, Publication Ethics Policy, APC Policy, and Submission Checklist.

For questions about scope or submission requirements, authors may contact the editorial office before submitting.