About the Journal

About

The Columbia University Journal of Global Health is Columbia University’s premier undergraduate-run, open access public health publication and media organization dedicated to publishing high quality, peer-reviewed original student research relevant to the broader global health community. The Columbia University Journal of Global Health also provides a forum for the vibrant discussion of topical global health issues through podcast and blog formats to ultimately engage populations beyond academia. With authors representing 70+ institutions in 10+ countries spanning 5 continents, The Columbia University Journal of Global Health features the work of student researchers and activists from across the globe to convey the diverse perspectives necessary to address global health challenges and bring about equity in healthcare for all, worldwide.

Table of Contents

 

Aims and Scope

The CU Journal of Global Health bi-anually publishes original research, review papers, perspectives, and field notes on any topic relevant to global health, especially given the multidisciplinary nature of research addressing global health, that contributes a novel finding or unique perspective to the field. Although The CU Journal of Global Health welcomes submissions from all, our primary aim is to provide a voice to student researchers, an often underrepresented group in global health discourse, and thereby requires that at least one of the authors be a student at the undergraduate or graduate levels during the time of research. Ultimately, The CU Journal of Global Health seeks to relay innovative solutions to interdisciplinary global health issues from a variety of academic, cultural, and geographic perspectives. The Journal will adhere to rigorous standards of peer-review and consider all manuscripts on the basis of ethical and methodological integrity and potential to contribute to the extant body of knowledge. Articles will be published online on a continuous basis to ensure dissemination of timely, up-to-date information.

Open Access Policy

 The Journal of Global Health is a digital, open access journal. Our published content is free to access without charge to the user or their institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of their articles in this journal without asking prior permission from their publisher or their author. Authors retain their copyright and agree to license their articles with a Creative Commons "Attribution" License (CC-BY) unless otherwise noted on the article landing page. You can read more about Creative Commons licenses at creativecommons.org. 

The Journal of Global Health, in the spirit of equity, charges no author fees upon submission or acceptance.

Archiving Policy

The Journal of Global Health is archived in Columbia University’s Academic Commons. Academic Commons is Columbia University’s institutional repository, offering long-term public access to research shared by the Columbia community. A program of the Columbia University Libraries, Academic Commons provides secure, replicated storage for files in multiple formats. Academic Commons assigns a DOI and accurate metadata to each work to enhance discoverability.

Peer Review Policy

 The CU Journal of Global Health uses a system of peer review in order to receive independent assessments of submitted articles. Not only does review assure the accuracy and quality of scholarship, it can provide opportunities for development and the extension of an author's research through constructive critique and recommendations from their peers.

The CU Journal of Global Health editors conduct an anonymous review of article abstracts and select articles that will enter a formal, anonymous peer review process. Each article is subject to two reviews by anonymous peers mediated by the Journal's editors. The CU Journal of Global Health's peer review process is an opportunity for referees to participate in our mission to produce high quality scholarship and create a supportive environment where emerging scholars can experience the review and editing process. Reviewers for The CU Journal of Global Health are expected to provide personal and professional opinions based on their expertise and to deliver thoughtful and constructive feedback based on their consideration of the articles under review.

Please consider the following when conducting your review:

  • When approached, please agree to review only if you have the necessary experience and knowledge to assess the manuscript and can be unbiased in your assessment of the manuscript.
  • Be specific in your critique, and provide supporting evidence with appropriate references to substantiate general statements, to help editors in their evaluation.
  • Please respond to the request for review and submit your final review within the timeline specified (1 week to accept or reject, 3 weeks to submit review)

Copyright and Authors' Rights

Authors who publish with us retain copyright of their work. Works published in the JGH are licensed under a Creative Commons attribution license. Authors are free to put their content into an institutional repository or personal archive, or share or repurpose their content for other purposes.

View our author contract here.

Diversity Policy

The CU Journal of Global Health is committed to increasing the diversity of voices that is represented in the scholarly record encourages diversity and inclusiveness in the field of global health. Diversity refers to differences in race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, country of origin, religious or spiritual beliefs, ability, and social and economic class. 

Code of Ethics

The CU Journal of Global Health expects its members to uphold the highest standards of personal and professional behavior in the conduct of their work and the advancement of behavior analysis. The JGH authors should adhere to the ethical professional standards defined by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

It is essential that all who participate in producing the journal, who conduct themselves as authors, reviewers, and editors, strictly adhere to the highest level of professional ethical standards. By submitting a manuscript to this journal, each author explicitly confirms that the manuscript meets the highest ethical standards from the author and the coauthors including proper statistical investigations and thorough ethical reviews by the data owing organizations. To support and promote integrity in research publication, the editorial board fully endorse the position statements for editors and authors that were developed 2nd World Conference on Research Integrity in Singapore in 2010:

Position Statement 1: International Standards for Editors

Position Statement 2: International Standards for Authors

Both position statements were published under a Creative Commons license. Source: COPE

 

Conflicts of Interest

All conflicts of interest should be declared by the author, editor, or reviewer.

Conflicts of interest include:

  • A financial or personal interest in the outcomes of the research.
  • Undisclosed financial support for the research by an interested third party.
  • A financial or personal interest in the suppression of the research.

A note to the highlight the background to financial support for the research from third parties or any other possible conflict of interest must be added to the paper prior to review. 

If a conflict of interest is suspected by a reviewer or reader, this concern should be reported to the editor or to the Editors-in-chief at info@ghjournal.org. A concern regarding an editor should be raised to Editors in chief or to the Digital Publishing Librarian (publishing@librarian.columbia.edu). The CU Journal of Global Health will follow COPE action guidelines in cases of a suspected conflict of interest.

The Journal of Global Health reserves the right to withdraw and rescind their acceptance of author materials if ethical misconduct is discovered prior to publication.

Submission Guidelines

The CU Journal of Global Health publishes the following article types: 

Articles will be published online on a continuous basis to ensure dissemination of timely, up-to-date information. However, manuscripts submitted after September 30th will be considered for the Spring issue, and manuscripts submitted after February 8th will be considered for the Fall issue. Please carefully review the article type specifications prior to submission. The word count excludes the title page, abstract, tables, acknowledgements, contributions and references. Manuscripts exceeding the word count limit will be considered at the discretion of the editor. Formatting guidelines must be strictly followed and can be found in further detail in the Author Guidelines page along with additional information regarding the review process, resubmission and proofs.

To view our submission instructions, please go to our submissions page. 

Original Research

Original research papers address specific questions and/or social phenomena of global health, as defined by Koplan et al., in-depth in a clear and articulate manner backed by research conducted by the authors.

Full research papers should have an appropriate structure with elements of abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, conclusion, references, and tables and figures all contained in the manuscript.

Research on human subjects must have been approved by the appropriate ethics committee and conformed to principles in the Declaration of Helsinki. An author’s statement acknowledging this must be included in the methods section.

Use of the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines for reporting of sex and gender information in the research paper is encouraged. Omission of sex and/or gender information should be explained. 

SAGER: https://researchintegrityjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s41073-016-0007-6

Sex and gender reporting in global health: new editorial policies: https://gh.bmj.com/content/3/4/e001038

Authors must submit a cover letter along with their manuscript in their initial submission stating the title of the manuscript and the name of the authors, describing the rationale behind the study and major findings from the research, and explaining the significance of the study, including an explanation of what is already known, what are the new findings, and what the new findings imply.

Word count: up to 5000; not including title page, abstract, figures/tables, acknowledgments, contributions, or references

Requests to exceed our word count must be made to the editor prior to submission and will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Structured or unstructured abstract: up to 300 words; Structured abstracts should have the following structure: Introduction, Methods, Results, Conclusion

Figures/Tables: up to 5

References: up to 100

Reviews

Review papers discuss topical issues in global health, analyzing new or existing data or the extant literature. They should be engaging and impartial in evaluating data, with a clear argument and meaningful conclusion.

Authors should tailor their article for a broad and general audience with the goal of introducing a topic or field and perspectives at the prevailing edge of research. Authors should avoid jargon and explain any terminology as needed.

Review papers should have an introduction and conclusion, with thematic headings in between the two. Authors should not use traditional research paper headings such as methods and results/findings.

Authors must complete a summary with 4 to 5 sentences of the main ideas in their review.

Word count: up to 5000; not including title page, abstract, figures/tables, acknowledgments, contributions, or references

Requests to exceed our word count must be made to the editor prior to submission and will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Unstructured abstract: up to 300 words

Figures/Tables/Illustrations: up to 5

References: up to 100

Field Notes

Field Notes papers detail a field experience specific to a certain setting and may include novel data. They should be written in an engaging style with a clearly outlined problem, discuss how one might address similar problems elsewhere, and have a meaningful conclusion.

Authors should tailor their article for a broad and general audience. Authors should avoid jargon and explain any terminology as needed.

Authors must complete a summary with 3 to 5 sentences of the main ideas in their review.

Word count: up to 3000; not including title page, abstract, figures/tables, acknowledgments, contributions, or references.

Requests to exceed our word count must be made to the editor prior to submission and will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Unstructured abstract: up to 300 words

Figures/Tables/Illustrations: up to 5

References: up to 50

Perspectives

Perspectives papers are opinion-based essays that address a large issue or topic in global health, especially in the frame of policy decisions or a specific setting. Perspectives papers make a strong, well-argued point that is compelling and insightful.

Authors should tailor their article for a broad and general audience. Authors should avoid jargon and explain any terminology as needed.

If authors choose to use headings, there should be an introduction and conclusion, with thematic headings throughout the body.

Authors must complete a summary with 3 to 5 sentences of the main ideas in their review.

Word count: up to 2000; not including title page, figures/tables, acknowledgments, contributions, or references.

Requests to exceed our word count must be made to the editor prior to submission and will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Figures/Tables/Illustrations: up to 3

References: up to 50