About the PHR journal

Public Health Research (PHR) publishes research on the benefits, costs, acceptability and wider impacts of non-NHS interventions intended to improve the health of the public and reduce inequalities in health.

Dr Eugenia Cronin - Senior Journal Editor

View Editors

Public Health Research (PHR) was launched in 2013 and is indexed by MEDLINE, Europe PMC, NCBI Bookshelf, DOAJ, INAHTA and Ulrichsweb . 

Remit

The research is multi-disciplinary and broad, covering a range of interventions that improve public health.

Publication criteria

Manuscripts are published in Public Health Research if

  1. they have resulted from work for the NIHR Public Health Research (PHR) Programme, and
  2. they are of a sufficiently high scientific quality as assessed by the external reviewers and journal editors.

The journal will only publish findings from NIHR-funded research, therefore speculative submissions are not considered and there are no article processing charges (APCs) or article submission charges for authors.

Publication frequency

The journal follows a continuous publication schedule, with manuscripts published as and when they are ready for publication.  

Publication process

Manuscripts are delivered to the editorial office at the NIHR Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre (NETSCC) at the University of Southampton. We manage the editorial review process between the editors, reviewers and authors, ahead of sending the manuscript to the production house. We also co-ordinate the editorial boards, and manage the relationship with the production house. 

In preparing and submitting their PHR manuscript, researchers are expected to follow the Information for authors guidance. 

Publication ethics

We take an active role in the prevention of plagiarism, falsification of data, fabrication of results and other areas of ethical misconduct. The PHR journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). This is a UK-based charity, with over 7000 members worldwide from all academic fields. COPE advises editors and publishers on how to handle cases of research and publication misconduct. 

Plagiarism detection software is used to check all manuscripts submitted to Public Health Research.  

Should there be concerns that a project suffered misconduct in research, publication, or professional behaviour, the case may be discussed in confidence with the editorial board, or referred to COPE or any other relevant authorities. 

We support the use of a declaration of transparency. For further information please see the Equator website: www.equator-network.org

Please see our policies for more information about our requirements for authors. 

Our community of reviewers plays a vital part in maintaining and improving the quality of the journal. Reviewers are usually sourced from our database of experts, from author suggestions, or from peer-to-peer recommendations. Typically, for each manuscript, four reviewers are chosen for suitability by the editors, and will cover a variety of relevant areas in their reviews. PHR has a system of single blind review, where authors do not know who has reviewed or edited their final manuscripts. Please see our be a reviewer page for more information.

Our production house is Newgen Publishing UK. We have a dedicated project management team at Newgen who are responsible for managing the production stage following editorial review. This involves copy-editing, typesetting and producing the electronic files of manuscripts. When manuscripts reach Newgen, they are copy-edited and proofread by professional writers and proof-readers who liaise directly with the manuscript authors and editors.

All manuscripts published in PHR are open access. For further information please see the Journals Library open access statement.

The NIHR Journals Library is committed to maintaining the content it publishes and to alerting readers to changes if and when they occur.

Research

PHR/node/17011 funds research to evaluate non-NHS interventions intended to improve the health of the public and reduce inequalities in health. Most of these interventions are delivered by local government or third sector organisations. View PHR research projects.

The programme will fund both primary research and evidence synthesis; precise methods will need to be appropriate to the question being asked and the feasibility of the research. For further information on the PHR Programme  and its remit, please visit the programme pages on the NIHR website.