current_guidelines.pdf

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Guidelines for
Guidelines for contributors
contributors
1. Scope and editorial policy
1.1 Content
The mission of the
Bulletin of the World
Health Organization
is “to publish and
disseminate scientifically rigorous pub-
lic health information of international
significance that enables policy-makers,
researchers and practitioners to be more
effective; it aims to improve health,
particularly among disadvantaged
populations”.
The
Bulletin
welcomes a variety
of unsolicited manuscripts (see below,
1.1.1.). These are initially screened in
house for originality, relevance to an
international public health audience
and scientific rigour. If they pass the
initial screening, they are sent to peer
reviewers whose opinions are taken into
account by the journal’s editorial advis-
ers when they decide whether to accept
a manuscript for publication. Accepted
papers are subject to editorial revision,
which may involve substantive changes,
shortening or restructuring the text and
deleting superfluous tables and figures.
The word limits given for each type of
contribution do not include the abstract
(where applicable), tables, boxes, figures
and references or appendices, if any.
The principal types of manuscripts are
outlined below.
reviewers when judging the quality of
research, studies should comply with the
relevant reporting guidelines, available
on the EQUATOR Network web site,
at: http://www.equator-network.org/
about-equator/equator-publications0/
equator-network-publications-2010. Int
-
tervention trials as defined by WHO (i.e.
“any research study that prospectively
assigns human participants or groups
of humans to one or more health-related
interventions to evaluate the effects on
health outcomes”) require registration
in a public trials registry acceptable to
the International Committee of Medical
Journal Editors (ICMJE) before submis-
sion, and the registration number must
be provided at the end of the abstract.
Acceptable registries are listed at: http://
www.icmje.org/faq_clinical.html. Web
publication constitutes prior publica-
tion. This includes institutional web
sites that are open to the general public.
Systematic reviews
should be provided. Not more than
1500 words and 15 references, plus a
structured abstract (see below, 2.7); not
more than one table and one figure; must
include one box listing three lessons
learnt; peer reviewed (see: http://www.
who.int/bulletin/volumes/84/1/3.pdf).
Perspectives
Views, hypotheses or discussions (with
a clear message) surrounding an issue
of public health interest; up to 1500
words, no more than six references;
peer reviewed.
1.1.2. Commissioned manuscripts
The categories of articles shown below
are normally commissioned by the
editors. Authors wishing to submit an
unsolicited manuscript for one of these
categories should first contact the edito-
rial office (see below, 2.1).
Editorials
1.1.1. Unsolicited manuscripts
We welcome unsolicited submissions
to the Research, Systematic reviews,
Policy & practice, Lessons from the field
and Perspectives sections of the
Bulletin.
All manuscripts destined for the first
four of these sections must include two
paragraphs indicating what they add to
the literature. The paragraphs should
briefly explain:
• what was already known about the
topic concerned;
• what new knowledge the manuscript
contributes.
Research
Exhaustive, critical assessments of
published and unpublished studies
(grey literature) on research questions
concerning interventions, policies or
practices in public health, with meta-
analysis when feasible. Not more than
3000 words plus a structured abstract
(see below, 2.7); the number of refer-
ences in accordance with the scope of
the review; peer reviewed. How studies
were included and excluded should be
illustrated in a flow diagram. Authors
should strictly follow the reporting
guidelines for systematic reviews and
meta-analyses (PRISMA) available
at: http://www.equator-network.org/
reporting-guidelines/preferred-report-
ing-items-for-systematic-reviews-and-
meta-analyses-the-prisma-statement.
Policy & practice
Authoritative reviews, analyses or views
of an important topic related to a theme
or to one or more papers published in
a given issue; not more than 800 words,
maximum 12 references.
Commentaries
Explanatory or critical analyses of indi-
vidual articles; not more than 800 words
and 12 references.
Round tables
A base paper on a controversial cur-
rent topic in public health (not more
than 2000 words and an abstract) is the
core of a debate by several discussants
invited to contribute not more than 500
words each.
1.2 Ethical issues
The World Health Organization (WHO)
publishes the results of research involv-
ing human subjects only if fully compli-
ant with ethical principles, including
the provisions of the World Medical
Association Declaration of Helsinki
(as amended by the 59th General As-
sembly, Seoul, the Republic of Korea,
October 2008; available at: http://www.
wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/
b3/17c.pdf ) and with the additional
requirements, if any, of the country in
Research, methodologically rigorous,
of relevance to international public
health. Formal scientific presentations
having not more than 3000 words and
50 references, plus a structured abstract
(see below, 2.7); peer reviewed. As clear
reporting is needed for readers and
Analytical assessments, debates or
hypothesis-generating papers; not more
than 3000 words and 50 references, plus
a non-structured abstract (see below,
2.7); peer reviewed.
Lessons from the field
Papers that capture experiences and
practice gained in solving specific
public health problems in developing
countries. Convincing evidence of effect
Bull World Health Organ
2015;93:63–64
|
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2471/BLT.15.990115
63
Guidelines for contributors
which the research was carried out. Any
manuscript describing the results of
such research must contain a clear state-
ment to this effect and should specify
that the free and informed consent of
the subjects or their legal guardians
was obtained and that the relevant
institutional or national ethics review
board approved the investigation. The
Bulletin
is a member of the Committee
on Publication Ethics (COPE; see: http://
publicationethics.org). Issues involving
publication ethics may be referred to
this committee by the editors. WHO
Ethics Review Committee clearance is
required for papers that report research
supported by WHO or that are authored
or co-authored by someone who was a
WHO staff member while the research
was conducted.
instructions are given. Queries about
online submissions should be sent to:
bulletin.submit.ask@who.int. Authors
requiring assistance with online sub-
mission can contact the editorial office.
They should send the letter granting
such permission to the editorial office
when they submit their papers.
2.6 Figures, tables and boxes
These should be used only to enhance
the understanding of the text, not to re-
peat what can be clearly communicated
within the text. All tables, figures and
boxes should be numbered consecu-
tively (e.g. Fig. 1, Table 1 and Box 1).
2.2 Uniform requirements
Manuscripts should be prepared in ac-
cordance with the
ICMJE recommenda-
tions for the conduct, reporting, editing
and publication of scholarly work in med-
ical journals.
The complete document,
updated in August 2013, is available at:
http://www.icmje.org/urm_main.html.
2.7 Abstracts
Abstracts should highlight the text’s most
important points and should be provided
for the following types of papers: Research,
Systematic reviews, Policy & practice,
base papers for Round tables and Lessons
from the field. The abstract should not
exceed 250 words. It appears in English at
the beginning of the paper and in Arabic,
Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish be-
tween the end of the text and the reference
list. Structured abstracts are required for
Research papers and Systematic reviews
(Objective, Methods, Findings, Conclu-
sion) and for Lessons from the field pa-
pers (Problem, Approach, Local setting,
Relevant changes, Lessons learnt).
2.3 Languages
Manuscripts should be submitted in
English and will be published in that
language in the
Bulletin;
the abstracts are
translated into Arabic, Chinese, French,
Russian and Spanish.
1.3 Competing interests
A competing interest arises when a
professional judgement concerning
a primary interest (such as patients’
welfare or the validity of research) may
be influenced by a secondary interest
(such as financial gain or personal ri-
valry). We ask all authors to disclose at
the time of submission any competing
interests that they may have. Examples
of competing interests may be found at:
http://www.icmje.org. Further informao
-
tion on competing interests is available
at: http://www.who.int/bulletin/vol/
-
umes/83/9/645.pdf.
2.4 Authorship
On the manuscript’s title page authors
should give their full names and the name,
city and country of their institutions. The
corresponding author must also provide a
full postal address, which will be published
with the e-mail address unless otherwise
requested. Academic titles and the names
of departments and subdepartments are
unnecessary and are discouraged for
reasons of space. If an author has several
affiliations, only the most important one
should be provided. The criteria for au-
thorship described in the
ICMJE recom-
mendations
(see above, 2.2) must be rigor-
ously observed. Each author should have
participated sufficiently in the work being
reported to take public responsibility for
the paper’s content and should describe
in detail on the online submission system
(not within the manuscript itself) his or
her particular contribution. The
Bulletin
encourages submissions from authors
in developing countries, and in line with
this policy at least one author should have
a professional affiliation in the country
where the study was conducted.
2.8 Bibliographic references
Reference citations should be numbered
consecutively as they occur in the text
and references should be listed in accor-
dance with the
ICMJE recommendations
(http://www.icmje.org/manuscript_a.
html). The accuracy of all references is
the authors’ responsibility and authors
are also responsible for dating access to
URLs, providing a record of when they
were active.
1.4 Funding
Authors should identify the sources that
funded the work undertaken, affirm
not having entered into an agreement
with the funder that may have limited
their ability to complete the research as
planned, and indicate that they have had
full control of all primary data.
2.9 Maps
Papers should contain no maps unless an
important finding cannot be conveyed
without them or unless they are needed
to make an essential point. Maps that
show international borders, partially
or in full, must be created from one of
the following sources, approved by the
United Nations: http://www.un.org/
Depts/Cartographic/english/htmain.
htm, http://www.unsalb.org or http://
apps.who.int/tools/geoserver and the
vectorial EPS (Encapsulated PostScript)
file must be submitted.
■
1.5 Appeals process
Authors of rejected papers can appeal
against the decision by following the
procedures outlined in an editorial pub-
lished in the
Bulletin
(see: http://www.
who.int/bulletin/volumes/83/9/645.pdf).
2.5 Licence for publication
If a manuscript is accepted for publica-
tion, the author(s) will be asked to sign a
statement granting exclusive licence for
publication (not copyright) to the WHO.
A copy of the statement is available
at: http://submit.bwho.org/journals/
bullwho/forms/licence.pdf. Authors
are responsible for obtaining permis-
sion to reproduce in their articles any
material enjoying copyright protection.
2. Preparation and
submission of manuscripts
2.1 Correspondence
Manuscripts should be submitted to the
Bulletin
via our submissions web site
(http://submit.bwho.org), where full
64
Bull World Health Organ
2015;93:63–64
|
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2471/BLT.15.990115

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