Public Health in Africa – an international journal for African public health research and discourse
Dear All,
Within few weeks from today, history will be made with the launching of our first edition of Public health in Africa Journal. Our motivation is no more than the obvious state of public health in Africa, coupled with low enthusiasm for research and implementation of research findings. This is compounded by sluggish enthusiasm among the existing powerful journals to publish African originated research papers, either for obvious lack of novelty or poor contextual quality or both. The few existing African based medical journals are little known beyond their national boundaries. With these in mind, we aim to strike a balance without compromise. Public health in Africa journal will kick up as non-profit making, open access peer reviewed electronic journal to be published quarterly.
With our large ambition for achieving wide participation in discussion of public health issues across Africa, we will maintain open approach to the composition of this journal. Our aim in this is to allow people from all kinds of community context to contribute. At the same time, each contribution to the journal will be assessed through a form of peer review and editing that is suitable for the contribution.
Here I present our areas of interest:
(a) Research reviews
(b) Original Research
(c) Field notes
- By health practitioners (of all sorts, doctors, nurses, community workers, traditional healers, etc.)
- By local community members (of all sorts, patients, former patients, village leaders, teachers, local health officials, etc.)
- photos (individual or small sets) (by professional or community photographers)
(d) Pharmacology, technology, and hospital reviews
- By independent researchers
- Extended info-adverts (explicitly presented as such) by commercial and NGO health providers and product makers
(e) Media reviews
- books
- documentary and instructional films
- news reports
- websites
(f) Letters to the editor (all topics)
(g) Obituaries
Individuals with manuscript that falls within the realm of the journal may submit for possible publication in our historic first online edition. Manuscript should be emailed to: yusufmisau@gmail.com or editor@publichealthinafrica.com
We encourage authors to read authors€™ guide: CONSORT statement for randomized, controlled trials and the STROBE statement for observational studies (see http://www.equatoranetwork.org/) before sending their manuscripts. Guides to standard reference styles can be obtained here: (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/citingmedicine). All units of measurement and laboratory values should be expressed in SI units. Word count limits are 2000 for brief reports, case reports, and mini reviews, and 750 for letters. Generally, original articles should not exceed 3500 words. The word count should include the references. All original articles must contain a structured abstract of not more than 250 words. Usually, the abstract should be divided into: Background and Objectives, Patients (or Subjects) and Methods, Results, and Conclusion.
Manuscript Format: original articles should have the following format: Introduction (the question the paper intends to answer, what remains unknown, how patients could benefit from the answer); Methods (study design and methods, operational definitions of major variables, description of the patient or subject population, and laboratory and statistical methods); Results (pertinent findings in a logical sequence with tables and figures as necessary); and Discussion (conclusions based on the findings, evidence from the literature that supports the conclusions, conflicting evidence, applicability of the conclusions, limitations of the study, and implications for future research or clinical applications). References should be in consecutive numerical order (the order of citation in the manuscript, and not alphabetically).
Sincerely,
Yusuf Abdu Misau
MBBS(ABU), MPH(MAL), PhD Cand.(MAL)
mailto:yusufmisau@yahoo.com
Why not submit your articles today at www.publichealthinafrica.com and be part of Africa's pioneer continent wide electronic public health journal