Instructions to authors

• Scope
• How We Publish
• Peer Review Process
• Appeals and Complaints
• Publication and Research Ethics
• Availability of Data and Materials
• Self-archiving
• Publishing Agreement and Charges
• Changes to Published Papers
• Promoting Your Work
• Preparing Your Manuscript
• Pre-submission Language Editing
• Contact Us
• Submission Guidelines

Scope

Health Promotion International is a peer reviewed journal that contains refereed original articles, perspectives, opinion pieces, policy pieces, and editorials relating to contemporary themes and innovations in the health promotion field. We seek papers related to the social, environmental, commercial and political determinants of health. Studies focusing on planetary health (and the climate crisis), health literacy, youth, First Nations Health, harmful industries, public messaging/social marketing, the infodemic (health misinformation/disinformation), health policy, and health advocacy are particularly encouraged.

Contributors who are new to the journal may like to read the following editorial from Professor Samantha Thomas (Editor in Chief) and Emeritus Professor Mike Daube (Chair of the Editorial Board).

Pre-submission advice

Unfortunately, for reasons of capacity, the editorial team are unable to offer pre-submission advice to prospective authors. We encourage you to consider our scope and, if you choose to submit, you can expect timely consideration of your paper as set out in our processing times guidance.

How we Publish

Health Promotion International is a peer reviewed journal publishing six issues per year online.

After copyediting and review of the final proof, papers are continuously published in the currently open issue.

Peer Review Process

With the exception of Editorials and papers submitted for the Mike Daube Early Career Researcher Advocacy Series, the Journal operates single-anonymized peer review, meaning that the identity of the authors is known to the editors and to the reviewers, but that the reviewers’ identities are known only to the editors and are hidden from the authors.

Once a submitted manuscript passes initial assessment by the Journal’s Editor-in-Chief, it will then be passed to a handling editor to undergo peer review before recommending a final decision. The Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision on the submitted manuscript.

During the peer review phase, your manuscript is typically sent to two reviewers.

You may suggest potential reviewers at submission. However, there is no guarantee the suggested reviewers will be selected by the Journal.

Statistical methods should be rigorous, and reporting of statistical findings should be accurate and complete. Editors may request an expert statistical review of any submission containing statistical analysis.

If your manuscript is accepted for publication, the reviewer comments will not be published alongside the paper.

For full details about the peer review process, see Fair editing and peer review or OUP's author FAQs.

Processing times

We aim to process manuscripts as quickly as possible. Turnaround times during the review process may vary subject to the availability of experts to review your paper. Our median turnaround times are:

• 2 days from submission to first decision (for all papers, including those which are rejected following initial assessment)

• 51 days from submission to first decision (for those papers sent for peer review)

• 140 days in review (from submission to final decision)

Appeals and Complaints

Authors may appeal an editorial decision. To do so, please contact the editorial office, providing as much specific detail as possible about why the original decision should be reconsidered. Every appeal will receive a response within a reasonable timeframe. Please do not resubmit your manuscript in the interim.

To register a complaint regarding non-editorial decisions, the Journal’s policies and procedures, editors, or staff, please contact journals.ethics@oup.com. Complaints will be taken seriously and will be carried forward following COPE guidelines and processes.

Publication and Research Ethics

Authorship

Authorship is confined to those who have made a significant contribution to the design and execution of the work described. Any contributors whose participation does not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged but not listed as an author. For a detailed definition of authorship, please see the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) definitions of authors and contributors.

The Journal does not allow ghost authorship, where an unnamed author prepares the article with no credit, or guest/gift authorship, where an author who made little or no contribution is listed as an author. The Journal follows Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidance on investigating and resolving these cases. For more information, please see the OUP Publication Ethics page.

After manuscript submission, no authorship changes (including the authorship list, author order, and who is designated as the corresponding author) should be made without the approval of the Editor-in-Chief. All co-authors must agree on the change(s), and neither the Journal nor the publisher mediates such disputes. If individuals cannot agree on the authorship of a submitted manuscript, contact the editorial office (hpi@oup.com). The dispute must be resolved among the individuals and their institution(s) before the manuscript can be accepted for publication. If an authorship dispute or change arises after a paper is accepted, contact OUP’s Author Support team. COPE provides guidance for authors on resolving authorship disputes.

AI Tools

Natural language processing tools driven by artificial intelligence (AI) do not qualify as authors, and the Journal will screen for them in author lists. The use of AI (for example, to help generate content, write code, or process data) should be disclosed both in cover letters to editors and in the Methods or Acknowledgements section of manuscripts. Please see the COPE position statement on Authorship and AI for more details.

ORCID

Authors are encouraged to provide their ORCID iDs (Open Researcher and Contributor IDs) at submission and take advantage of the benefits of participating in ORCID.

If you do not already have an ORCID iD, you can register for free via the ORCID website.

As ORCID identifiers are collected, they are included in papers and displayed online, both in the HTML and PDF versions of the publication, in compliance with recommended practice issued by ORCID.

ORCID functionality online allows users to link to the ORCID website to view an author’s profile and list of publications. ORCID iDs are displayed on web pages and are sent downstream to third parties in data feeds, where supported.

If you have registered with ORCID, you can associate your ORCID iD with your submission system account by going to your account details, entering your ORCID iD, and validating your details. Learn more about ORCID and how to link it to your account.

CRediT

The Journal uses the contributor roles taxonomy (CRediT), which allows authors to describe the contributor roles in a standardized, transparent, and accurate way. Authors should choose from the contributor roles outlined on the CRediT website and supply this information upon submission. You may choose multiple contributor roles per author. Any other individuals who do not meet authorship criteria and made less substantive contributions should be listed in your manuscript as non-author contributors with their contributions clearly described. Following manuscript submission, any changes to contributor roles require the approval of the editor.

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

Authors

The Journal requires all authors to disclose any potential conflict of interest at the point of submission. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that conflicts of interest of all authors are declared to the Journal.

A conflict of interest exists when the position, activities, or relationships of an individual, whether direct or indirect, financial or non-financial, could influence or be seen to influence the opinions or activities of the individual. For more information, refer to OUP’s definition of conflict of interest. The Journal follows the COPE guidance for any undisclosed conflict of interest that emerges during peer review, production, or after publication.

The corresponding author must submit a completed and signed International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) disclosure of potential conflicts of interest (COI) form for each author at revision stage at the latest. A form must be submitted even if there are no interests to disclose, in which case the disclosure form and manuscript should state “none declared.” In addition, the manuscript must include a concise and accurate summary of any conflicts of interest declared in the ICMJE forms.

Peer reviewers

Individuals that have a conflict of interest relating to a submitted manuscript should recuse themselves and will not be assigned to oversee, handle, or peer review the manuscript.

If during peer review an editor, reviewer, or author becomes aware of a conflict of interest that was not previously known or disclosed they must inform the Editor-in-Chief immediately.

Editors and editorial board members

At initial submission, the corresponding author must declare if the Editor-in-Chief, an Editor, or an Editorial Board Member of the Journal is an author of or contributor to the manuscript. Another Editor without a conflict of interest will oversee the peer review and decision-making process. If accepted, a statement will be published in the paper describing how the manuscript was handled.

The statement, which should be included in the COI section of the manuscript, should read: “[Author] holds the position of [Editor-in-Chief/Senior Editor/Editorial Board Member] for [Journal] and is involved neither in the review process nor in any decision-making on the manuscript.”

Previously published material

You should only submit your manuscript(s) to the Journal if:

• It is original work by you and your co-author(s).
• It is not under consideration, in peer review, or accepted for publication in any other publication.
• It has not been published in any other publication.
• It contains nothing abusive, defamatory, derogatory, obscene, fraudulent, or illegal.

The submitting author must disclose in their cover letter and provide copies of all related or similar preprints, dissertations, manuscripts, published papers, and reports by the same authors (i.e., those containing substantially similar content or using the same, similar, or a subset of data) that have been previously published or posted electronically or are under consideration elsewhere at the time of manuscript submission. You must also provide a concise explanation of how the submitted manuscript differs from these related manuscripts and papers. All related previously published papers should be cited as references and described in the submitted manuscript.

The Journal does not discourage you from presenting your findings at conferences or scientific meetings but recommends that you refrain from distributing complete copies of your manuscripts, which might later be published elsewhere without your knowledge.

For previously published materials including tables and figures, please see the Reusing copyrighted materials section.

Preprints

As an author, you retain the right to make an Author’s Original Version (preprint) available through various channels and this does not prevent submission to the Journal. If accepted, the authors are required to update the status of any preprint, including adding your published paper’s DOI. For full details on allowed channels and updating your preprint, please see our Author self-archiving policy.

Reusing copyrighted material

As an author, you must obtain permission for any material used within your manuscript for which you are not the rightsholder, including quotations, tables, figures, or images. In seeking permissions for published materials, first contact the publisher rather than the author. For unpublished materials, start by contacting the creator. Copies of each grant of permission should be provided to the editorial office of the Journal. The permissions agreement must include the following:

• nonexclusive rights to reproduce the material in your paper in Health Promotion International
• rights for use in print and electronic format at a minimum, and preferably for use in any form or medium
• lifetime rights to use the material
• worldwide English-language rights

If you have chosen to publish under an open access licence but have not obtained open access re-use permissions for third-party material contained within the manuscript, this must be stated clearly by supplying a credit line alongside the material with the following information:

Title of content

Author, Original publication, year of original publication, by permission of [rightsholder]

This image/content is not covered by the terms of the Creative Commons licence of this publication. For permission to reuse, please contact the rights holder

Oxford University Press provides detailed Copyright and Permissions Guidelines, and a summary of the fundamental information.

Misconduct

Authors should observe high standards with respect to research integrity and publication ethics as set out by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Falsification or fabrication of data including inappropriate image manipulation, plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the author's own work without proper citation, and misappropriation of work are all unacceptable practices. Allegations of ethical misconduct, both directly and through social media, are treated seriously and will be investigated in accordance with the relevant COPE guidance.

If misconduct has been established beyond reasonable doubt, this may result in one or more of the following outcomes, among others:

• If a submitted manuscript is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.
• If a paper has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the infraction, either a correction notice will be published and linked to the paper, or retraction of the paper will occur, following the COPE Retraction Guidelines.
• The relevant party’s institution(s) and/or other journals may be informed.

Manuscripts submitted to the Journal may be screened with plagiarism-detection software. Any manuscript may be screened, especially if there is reason to suppose that part or all the of the manuscript has been previously published.

COPE defines plagiarism as “when somebody presents the work of others (data, words or theories) as if they were their own and without proper acknowledgment.”

COPE defines redundant/overlapping publication as “when a published work (or substantial sections from a published work) is/are published more than once (in the same or another language) without adequate acknowledgment of the source/cross-referencing/justification,

or

when the same (or substantially overlapping) data is presented in more than one publication without adequate cross-referencing/justification, particularly when this is done in such a way that reviewers/readers are unlikely to realise that most or all the findings have been published before.”

COPE defines citation manipulation as “behaviours intended to inflate citation counts for personal gain, such as: excessive self-citation of an authors’ own work, excessive citation to the journal publishing the citing article, and excessive citation between journals in a coordinated manner.”

Data fabrication is defined as intentionally creating fake data or misrepresenting research results. An example includes making up data sets.

Data falsification is defined as manipulating research data with the purpose of intentionally giving a false representation. This can apply to images, research materials, equipment, or processes. Examples include cropping of gels/images to change context and omission of selected data.

If notified of a potential breach of research misconduct or publication ethics, the Journal editor and editorial office staff may inform OUP and/or the author’s institutional affiliation(s).

Ethical research

The Journal follows Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines on ethical oversight. We take research integrity seriously, and all research published in the Journal must have been conducted in a fair and ethical manner. Wherever appropriate, the Journal requires that all research be done according to international and local guidelines.

Human subjects

When reporting on human subjects, you should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Helsinki Declaration (1964, amended most recently in 2013), which were developed by the World Medical Association. For non-interventional studies, where ethical approval is not required or where a study has been granted an exemption by an ethics committee, this should be stated within the manuscript with a full explanation. Otherwise, manuscripts must include a statement in the Methods section that the research was performed after approval by a local ethics committee, institutional review board and/or local licensing committee, or that such approval was not required. The name of the authorizing body and any reference/permit numbers (where available) should also be stated there. Please be prepared to provide further information to the editorial office upon request.

Human subjects must give written informed consent, or if they are minors or incapacitated, such consent must be obtained from their parents or guardians. Consent forms should cover not only study participation but also the publication of the data collected. Also, any patient or provider information should be anonymized to the extent possible; names and ID numbers should not be used in the text and must be removed from any images (X-rays, photographs, etc.). Please note blanking out an individual’s eyes in a photograph is not an effective way to conceal their identity. In studies where verbal, rather than written, informed consent was obtained, this must be explained and stated within the manuscript. If informed consent is not required or where a study has been granted an exemption, this must be included in the Methods section along with the name of the authorizing body. Please be prepared to provide written consent forms signed by the participants or other appropriate documentation to the editorial office upon request.

Clinical trials

Clinical trials should be registered before enrolment of the first subject in accordance with the criteria outlined by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). When reporting primary or secondary analyses from a clinical trial, follow these criteria:

• Provide the trial registration number at the end of the Abstract.
• When the trial acronym is first used in the manuscript, provide the registration number and a link to the trial registration, which should be cited as a reference.
• If your data have been deposited in a public repository and/or are being used in a secondary analysis, please state at the end of the Abstract the unique, persistent data set identifier, and repository name and number.
• When submitting the manuscript, you must disclose any protocol alterations and all posting of results of the submitted work or closely related work in registries.
• In reporting randomized clinical trials, you must comply with published CONSORT guidelines.
• Complete the recommended checklist and be prepared to provide it to the editorial office upon request.
• Present the recommended trial flow diagram as a figure in the manuscript or as supplementary material.
• If your manuscript reports on a randomized Phase II/III trial, you must provide a brief description of the statistical plan of the original study that includes the primary and secondary endpoints, power calculation, and sample size.

Where available, registration numbers should be provided not only for the trial you are reporting but also for any other trial mentioned in the manuscript. When the trial acronym is first used in the manuscript, provide the registration number and a link to the trial registration, which should be cited as a reference.

Availability of Data and Materials

Where ethically feasible, the Journal strongly encourages authors to make all data and software code on which the conclusions of the paper rely available to readers. Authors are required to include a data availability statement in their paper. When data and software underlying the research article are available in an online source, authors should include a full citation in their reference list. For details of the minimum information to be included in data and software citations see the OUP guidance on citing research data and software.

Whenever possible, data should be presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files or deposited in a public repository. Visit OUP’s Research data page for information on general repositories for all data types, and resources for selecting repositories by subject area.

Data availability statement

The inclusion of a data availability statement is a requirement for papers submitted from April 4th, 2024. Data availability statements provide a standardized format for readers to understand the availability of original and third-party data underlying the research results described in the paper. The statement should describe and provide means of access, where possible, by linking to the data or providing the required unique identifier.

More information and example data availability statements

Self-archiving

Self-archiving refers to posting a copy of your work on a publicly accessible website or repository. Under certain circumstances, you may self-archive versions of your work on your own webpages, on institutional webpages, and in other repositories. For information about the Journal’s policy, and to learn which version(s) of your paper are acceptable for self-archiving, please see our Author self-archiving policy.

Publishing Agreement and Charges

Publishing Agreement

After your manuscript is accepted, you will be asked to sign a licence to publish through the Journals Licencing and Online Payments portal. The Journal offers the option of publishing under either a non-open access (standard) licence or an open access (Creative Commons) licence. There is a charge to publish under an open access licence, which allows your paper to be freely accessible to all readers immediately upon online publication. Editorial decisions occur prior to this step and are not influenced by payment or ability to pay. The standard licence makes your paper available only to Journal subscribers and there is no licence charge. This licence grants OUP an exclusive licence to publish and distribute the content. There is no transfer of ownership of the copyright. You, the author, retain copyright for the content.

Please note that some funders require open access publication as a condition of funding. If you are unsure whether you are required to publish open access, please check with your funder or institution before selecting your licence.

Papers can be published under the following:

• Standard licence to publish (Oxford University Press (OUP) Journals, Standard Publication Model)
• Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY)
• Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial licence (CC BY-NC)
• Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives licence (CC BY-NC-ND)
• United States Government Licence
• Crown Copyright Licence

Please see the OUP guidance on Licences, copyright, and re-use rights for more information regarding these publishing agreement options.

Complying with funder mandates

Please note that some funders require open access publication as a condition of funding. If you are unsure whether you are required to publish open access, please do clarify any such requirements with your funder or institution before selecting your licence.

Further information on funder mandates and direct links to a range of funder policies.

Charges

Open access charges

Please see the details of open access licences and charges. If you select an open access licence, you must pay the open access charge or request to use an institutional agreement to pay the open access charge through the Journals Licencing and Online Payments portal.

OUP has a growing number of open access agreements with institutions and consortia, which provide funding for open access publishing (also known as Read and Publish agreements). This means corresponding authors from participating institutions can publish open access, and the institution may pay the charge. Find out if your institution has an open access agreement.

Colour charges

The Journal does not charge for colour.

Page charges

The Journal does not have page charges.

Changes to published papers

The Journal will only make changes to published papers if the publication record is seriously affected by the academic accuracy of the published information. Changes to a published paper will be accompanied by a formal correction notice linking to and from the original paper.

As needed, we follow the COPE guidelines on retractions.

For more information and details of how to request changes, including for authors who wish to update their name and/or pronouns, please see OUP’s policy on changes to published papers.

Promoting Your Work

As the author, you are the best advocate for your work, and we encourage you to be involved in promoting your publication. Sharing your ideas and news about your publication with your colleagues and friends could take as little as 15 minutes and will make a real difference in raising the profile of your research.

You can promote your work by:

• Sharing your paper with colleagues and friends. If your paper is published open access, it will always be freely available to all readers, and you can share it without any limitations. Otherwise, use the toll-free link that is emailed to you after publication. It provides permanent, free access to your paper, even if your paper is updated.
• Signing up for an ORCID iD author identifier to distinguish yourself from any other researchers with the same name, create an online profile showcasing all your publications, and increase the visibility of your work.
• Using social media to promote your work. To learn more about self-promotion on social media, see our social media guide for authors.

Find out how Oxford University Press promotes your content.

Preparing Your Manuscript

General guidelines on preparing your manuscript for publication can be found on OUP’s Preparing and submitting your manuscript page. Specific instructions for Health Promotion International can be found below.

Text abstracts

Text abstracts must be written in English.

Study funding

You must fully declare all funding information relevant to the study, including specific grant numbers, under a separate subheading following the acknowledgements.

Pre-submission language editing

You may wish to use a language-editing service before submitting to ensure that editors and reviewers understand your manuscript. Our publisher, Oxford University Press, partners with Enago, a leading provider of author services. Prospective authors are entitled to a discount of 30% for editing services at Enago, through the OUP-Enago partner page.

Enago is an independent service provider, who will handle all aspects of this service, including payment. As an author you are under no obligation to take up this offer. Language editing is optional and does not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted. Edited manuscripts will undergo the regular review process of the Journal.

Contact Us

For questions regarding submission and review, including appeals, you can reach the editorial office by email at hpi@oup.com.

To register a complaint regarding non-editorial decisions, the Journal’s policies and procedures, editors, or staff, please contact journals.ethics@oup.com. Complaints will be taken seriously and will be carried forward following COPE guidelines and processes.

After your paper has been sent to production, you can contact OUP’s Author Support team at jnls.author.support@oup.com for questions regarding the production process or publication. Please see Post-publication changes if you would need to request a substantive change to your published paper.

Submission Guidelines

Journal Sections

We publish eight types of manuscripts (Table One). With the exception of Editorials and papers submitted for the Mike Daube Early Career Advocacy Series, all manuscripts go through a single-anonymised process of peer review as described in the Peer Review Process section of these guidelines.

Please ensure when submitting that your main manuscript file includes the below information:

• The title of the paper
• The authors and institutional affiliations. We would encourage authors to use First Peoples placenames where appropriate (for example Naarm, Melbourne or Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland).
• An authorship statement about the contribution of each author in relation to the ICJME guidelines. Any author who does not meet ICJME criteria should be recognised in the Acknowledgements.
• A breakdown of the word count for each section (ensuring that these meet the word count for each article).
• Details of funding for the study *see section Funding below.
• A statement about the institutional ethical approval for the study (your ethics approval should also be included in the manuscript file)
• Acknowledgements
• Authors should note that Health Promotion International does not accept research funded by the tobacco, alcohol, ultra-processed food, commercial gambling, arms/weapons, or fossil fuel industries, or organisations funded by these industries.

Funding

For the funding statement the following rules should be followed:

• The sentence should begin: ‘This work was supported by …’
• The full official funding agency name should be given, i.e. ‘the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health’ or simply 'National Institutes of Health' not ‘NCI' (one of the 27 subinstitutions) or 'NCI at NIH’ (full RIN-approved list of UK funding agencies) Grant numbers should be complete and accurate and provided in brackets as follows: ‘[grant number ABX CDXXXXXX]’
• Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma as follows: ‘[grant numbers ABX CDXXXXXX, EFX GHXXXXXX]’
• Agencies should be separated by a semi-colon (plus ‘and’ before the last funding agency)
• Where individuals need to be specified for certain sources of funding the following text should be added after the relevant agency or grant number 'to [author initials]'. An example is given here: ‘This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [AA123456 to C.S., BB765432 to M.H.]; and the Alcohol & Education Research Council [P50 CA098252 and CA118790 to R.B.S.R.].’

Table One: Types of manuscripts published by Health Promotion International

Language

Manuscripts must be clearly and concisely written in an appropriate standard of English. You can find further help and information about English language support here.

Title

No longer than 15 words. Manuscripts must include the country where research was undertaken in the title (if relevant).

Abstract

Authors should provide an unstructured abstract in a single 250 word paragraph which clearly summarises each main section of your manuscript.

Contribution to Health Promotion

Authors should provide a short bullet point statement (titled Contribution to Health Promotion) of no more than 100 words. The statement should be provided directly under the Abstract and be comprised of:

• Three to five bullet points
• No more than 100 words in total (approximately 20 words per bullet point)
• Written in lay language that is understandable to a general audience

Keywords

Please include a minimum of 5-7 keywords to aid literature searching. Keyword listings may determine (a) the editors’ choice of peer reviewers, and (b) retrievability by your colleagues.

Format

Manuscripts are subject to single-anonymous peer review, so the below information should be included in your manuscript file:

• The title of the submission
• The name(s) and email address(es) of the author(s) [and where there is more than one author, the name and email address of the author designated to receive correspondence regarding the submission (the ‘corresponding author’)]
• The section of the journal for which the submission is intended
• Acknowledgements
• Ethics information
• Funding information
• A declaration of interest statement for the authors

Word Length

Word length is detailed in the table above. Please state clearly in the ScholarOne system the breakdown of the total word count. Over-length articles will not be considered in any circumstances.

Supplementary Materials

Online supplementary materials: HPI and OUP allow for supplementary materials (e.g., intervention tools; illustrative policy documents; video; etc.) to be placed online and connected to online published paper content.

Correspondence

The Editorial Office will correspond directly with authors on the acceptability of their papers. General questions can be directed to hpi@oup.com.

Unique submissions

Authors may not submit manuscripts that are under consideration for publication elsewhere. Compliance with this criterion should be clearly stated in the cover letter.

Online submission

Manuscripts must be submitted online via the online submission system. Please see further submission details below.

Research quality parameters

In order to secure the highest possible research integrity we ask that you provide information on ethical approval (where applicable and pertinent to the location of your research institution and the place of data collection); on quality standards such as PRISMA for systematic reviews, STROBE guidelines for quantitative observational studies, CONSORT for trials; and on standard reporting parameters. Qualitative researchers using Thematic Analysis may like to consider the following guidance developed by Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke.

Indigenous and First Peoples research

Health Promotion International is committed to ethical publishing in ‘Indigenous’ contexts. We recommend that such papers follow the reporting guidelines developed by Maddox and colleagues (2022) as outlined below and in this accessible and fillable PDF, particularly in relation to how Indigenous peoples were engaged in each stage of the research process.

Figure accessibility and alt text

Incorporating alt text (alternative text) when submitting your paper helps to foster inclusivity and accessibility. Good alt text ensures that individuals with visual impairments or those using screen readers can comprehend the content and context of your figures. The aim of alt text is to provide concise and informative descriptions of your figure so that all readers have access to the same level of information and understanding, and that all can engage with and benefit from the visual elements integral to scholarly content. Including alt text demonstrates a commitment to accessibility and enhances the overall impact and reach of your work.  

Alt-text is applicable to all images, figures, illustrations, photographs, and it isn’t required for tables and large datasets (unless the tables are provided as figures). 

Alt-text is only accessible via e-reader and so it won’t appear as part of the typeset article. 

Detailed guidance on how to draft and submit alt text. 

Graphical abstracts

In addition to the text abstract, authors are encouraged to submit a graphical abstract or short video abstract (no more than 2 minutes in length) as part of the article if they wish to do so. The graphical/video abstract should clearly summarize the focus and findings of the article, and will be published as part of the article online and in PDF. The graphical/video abstract should be submitted for peer review as a separate file, selecting the appropriate file-type designation in the journal’s online submission system. The file should be clearly named, e.g. graphical_abstract.tiff, video_abstract.mp4. See this page for guidance on appropriate file format and resolution for graphics and videos. Please ensure graphical abstracts are in landscape format.

Technical Requirements:

• Size: 4x3 aspect ratio, 100x75mm or 4x3in minimum
• File type: TIF, EPS or editable PDF (MP4 for videos)
• Resolution: 300-600dpi minimum
• Orientation: landscape
• Font: Use a sans serif font such as Arial, 12–16 points

Preparing Documents for Submission

Please submit manuscripts in Word (.doc) form.

Enter text in the style and order of the Journal (see "References" section below).

Insert figure and table captions at the end of the file. Images on disk can be accepted in Adobe PhotoShop compatible formats. Images should be saved in TIFF format. Image resolution should be a minimum of 300 dpi.

Indicate in the text where tables, diagrams, figures, graphs or illustrations would be most appropriately placed by inserting a hard return, caption between square brackets (e.g., [insert - Figure 1. Proportion of GDP spent on health expenditures in Pacific Islands - here]) and another hard return.

Save any tables, diagrams, figures, graphs or illustrations generated electronically as separate files (in EPS or AI format) and not embedded into the text file. Tables must be in editable format (e.g. Excel).

Type headings in the style of the Journal.

Where possible use Times New Roman for the text font and Symbol for the Greek and special characters. Please use the word processing formatting features to indicate Bold, Italic, Greek, Maths, Superscript and Subscript characters. Do not format your manuscript in the final print style of the Journal (i.e., in columns).

Once your manuscript is ready for submission, please follow the online submission instructions.

Review process

Upon submission your manuscript will be assessed by the Editorial Office to meet the scope of the Journal and specific submission requirements. If suitable for the Journal the manuscript will be assigned to an Associate Editor who will manage the review process. The manuscript will be sent to at least two reviewers. You will be able to indicate a preference for reviewers, and for non-preferred reviewers. Preferred reviewers need to be independent and objective peers. Colleagues, supervisors or subordinates from the same workplace as yours are deemed inappropriate.

The Journal will only make publication recommendations based on at least two reviews returned. This is the case for every stage of the review process and at any revision phase.

Reviewers volunteer their time and expertise to the Journal and we greatly appreciate this. They will be invited to submit reviews within a reasonable time (normally 2-4 weeks) but busy schedules and competing commitments may cause delays. The Editorial Office of the Journal will make every effort to follow up with delayed reviewer responses.

Occasionally we will be unable to secure appropriate reviewers within a reasonable time. If, following our reasonable effort, no appropriate reviews have been secured we will communicate this to you and discuss possibilities of rejection, withdrawal or resubmission. At this stage you may be given an opportunity to suggest new reviewers.

Examples: 

Journal article (already published in an issue): Xu, L. S., Pan, B. J., Lin, J. X., Chen L. P., Yu, S. H. and Jones, J. (2000) Creating health-promoting schools in rural China: A project started from deworming. Health Promotion International, 15, 197-206.

Journals article (e-pub ahead of print): Salmon, J., Ball, K., Crawford, D., Booth, M., Telford, A., Hume, C., Jolley, D. and Worsley, A. (2005) Reducing sedentary behaviour and increasing physical activity among 10-year-old children: overview and process evaluation of the ‘Switch-Play’ intervention. Health Promotion International, January 24, 2005: 10.1093/heapro/dah502.

Chapter in a book: Zerjal, T., Singh, L. and Thangaraj, Jr K. (1999) The use of Y-chromosomal DNA variation. In Papiha, B. N. and Chakraborty, E. (eds), Genomic Diversity, 2nd edition, Chapter 4. Kluwer Academic, New York, NY, pp. 91–101.

Book (Editor as author): Shaw, S. and Anderson, D. L. (eds) (1978) Classification of osteogenesis imperfect. New England Journal of Medicine, 21, 1003–1007.

Number of authors:

• Single author: Shaw, S.
• Two authors: Kennedy, T. and Jones, R.
• More than three authors: Zerjal, T., Singh, L. and Thangaraj, Jr K.
• More than six authors: If more than 6, retain first six authors and put et al.

Electronic source: Barry, P. (2002) One Tel’s cash SOS, then it all fell apart. Sydney Morning Herald, 1 August. Http://www.smh.com.au (last accessed 16 September 2002). 

Reference citations in text: 
Single author: (Zhou, 2001)
Two authors: (McDonald and Norman, 2002)
More than three authors, use only the family name of the first-listed author followed by the expression et al. (meaning 'and others')
Same author, more than one citation: (Jones, 2001, 2003)
Unpublished data: (H.G.Jones, unpublished results/submitted for publication/in preparation [delete as appropriate])​ 

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Communications

Editorial Office contact information:
Emma Fitzgerald
Health Promotion International Journal Administrator
Heapro Journal Site
Email: hpi@oup.com