Policies
Contents
- Philosophy of the Journal of Appalachian Health
- Who Can Submit?
- General Submission Rules
- Formatting Requirements
- Copyright and License to Publish
- General Terms and Conditions of Use
- Peer-Review Statement
Philosophy of the Journal of Appalachian Health
For more information, please see Journal of Appalachian Health About This Journal page.
Who Can Submit?
The Journal of Appalachian Health is available, without charge, to both authors and readers. Anyone may submit an original manuscript to be considered for publication in JAH provided he or she is the lead author, or the authorized agent of the author(s) and copyright holder (if different from the author[s]) to the work being submitted, or is authorized by the copyright owner or owners to submit the manuscript. Authors are the initial owners of the copyrights to their works (an exception in the non-academic world to this might exist if the authors have, as a condition of employment, agreed to transfer copyright to their employer).
General Submission Rules
Submitted manuscripts cannot have been previously published, nor be forthcoming in an archival journal or book (print or electronic). Please note: “publication” in a working-paper series does not constitute prior publication. In addition, by submitting material to the Journal of Appalachian Health the author is stipulating that the material is not currently under review at another journal (electronic or print) and that he or she will not submit the material to another journal (electronic or print) until the completion of the editorial decision process at the Journal of Appalachian Health. If you have concerns about the submission terms for the Journal of Appalachian Health, please contact the editors.
Types of Articles
The Journal of Appalachian Health will publish research articles, shorter articles on preliminary research, editorials, commentary, book reviews, letters to the editor, announcements, “Notes from the Field” and “Voices from the Hollow.” See Author Instructions for a more-detailed description of each article type.
Formatting Requirements
The Journal of Appalachian Health has some general rules about the formatting of manuscripts upon initial submission; please read the Author Instructions carefully before you submit a manuscript. There are, in addition, rules governing the formatting of the final submission. When your manuscript has been accepted for publication, you will be sent a detailed list of requirements for the final formatting of your article for publication.
It is understood that the current state of technology of Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF) is such that there are no, and can be no, guarantees that documents in PDF will work perfectly with all possible hardware and software configurations that readers may have.
Copyright and License to Publish
The Journal of Appalachian Health is a Gold Open Access (Gold OA) journal whose content is licensed under the Creative Commons (CC) Attribution license CC BY 4.0 International. Details about JAH's copyright policy are available from the author agreement.
General Terms and Conditions of Use
Users of the UKnowledge website and/or software agree not to misuse the UKnowledge service or software in any way.
The failure of UKnowledge to exercise or enforce any right or provision in the policies or the Submission Agreement does not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any term of the Submission Agreement or these policies is found to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Submission Agreement and these policies remain in full force and effect. These policies and the Submission Agreement constitute the entire agreement between UKnowledge and the Author(s) regarding submission of the article.
Peer-Review Statement
The Journal of Appalachian Health followed the tenets of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) when establishing its peer-review process.1
Peer Reviewers
As part of the early development of the journal, its editors chose a list of topic areas that would be appropriate for inclusion in the journal. Based on those topic areas, journal staff created a database of experts who could serve as peer reviewers of submitted manuscripts. Those submitted manuscripts are “privileged communication that are the authors’ private, confidential property, and authors may be harmed by premature disclosure of any or all of a manuscript’s details.”1 Reviewers are expected to maintain a strict level of confidentiality about what they read in a manuscript, following the ethical code of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).2 It is expected that reviewers will declare any conflict of interest, including any relationships or activities with the authors of the manuscript they have been asked to review.
The Peer-Review Process
The Journal of Appalachian Health uses a double-blind process, where neither the authors nor the reviewers know the identity of the other. Each manuscript is reviewed initially by the editors, and those deemed appropriate are considered for publication. The next step for research and review articles is external peer review; three topic experts are selected to perform the review. Nonresearch and nonreview manuscripts are also reviewed, generally by members of the Journal’s Editorial or Advisory Boards, for their relevance to Appalachian health. Manuscripts submitted by the Editors or members of either Board are handled by the Managing Editor, ensuring blinded and unbiased peer review.
The process of peer review gives the editors of the Journal the information they need to make a decision about each manuscript, as they are ultimately responsible for the content of the Journal. In addition, it reassures the readers that a rigorous process has been used before scientific material has been released to the public.
The editors of the Journal of Appalachian Health appreciate those health professionals who help make the decisions about each published article and acknowledge them in Journal at the end of each year.
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