Guidelines for Authors

Article Processing Charges (APCs)

As an Open Access journal, JoHS levies an Article Processing charge (APC) on all submissions accepted for publication. APC levies are available for members of partner organisations and for submissions from certain low income countries. You can read more about our APC policy here.

Preparing your Manuscript

At JoHS, we provide authors the opportunity to submit a variety of article types. Please take the time to explore submission guidelines before proceeding with submitting your manuscript.

• Original Research
• Protocols 
• Practice Guidelines
• Essays
• Debate
• Perspectives
• Key Concepts
• Letters
• Short Reports on Simulation Innovations Supplement (SRSIS)

Authorship

Authors are strongly advised to ensure that the author group, corresponding author, and order of authors are correct at submission.

• Requesting to add or delete authors or change authorship order after submission is a serious matter and will only be considered when justifiably warranted. Before consideration, written approval is required from all authors with an accompanying letter to the Editor-in-Chief that provides a convincing, detailed explanation about the role/deletion of the new/deleted author or authorship order change. In all cases, further documentation may be required to support your request.
• Authorship changes are not accepted after acceptance of a manuscript.

Manuscript Preparation

• While our preference is for UK English, alternate styles are acceptable. Please ensure consistency of style within the manuscript.
• If you need help with writing in English, please seek advice from colleagues and others who are to review your manuscript for clarity.
• Do not use abbreviations in the title or abstract and limit their use in the text. Abbreviations make a text more difficult to read. When using abbreviations, only use standard abbreviations as nonstandard abbreviations can be confusing.
• Manuscripts should be typed using double-spacing (except tables which are single-spaced), with margins of at least 2.5 cm (1 inch).
• Authors should number all the pages of the manuscript consecutively.
• Do not use page breaks in your manuscript
• Your manuscript should be submitted as a Microsoft WORD .doc or .docx file.

Cover Letter

A cover letter should be included indicating that the submission is made on behalf of all authors and that the manuscript is not under consideration by another journal.

Title Page

The title page should contain the following information:

• Article title. Concise titles are easier to read. However, titles that are too short may lack important information, such as study design (which is particularly important in finding articles for literature reviews).
• Authors should include all information in the title that will make electronic retrieval of the article both sensitive and specific. 
• Authors may consider the following article in seeking guidance for titles. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4908034/
• Authors’ names and institutional affiliations.
• The name of the department(s) and institution(s) to which the work should be attributed.
• The corresponding author’s name, mailing address, telephone, and email address.
• Source(s) of funding support (e.g., grant funding).
• Word count of the text only (excluding abstract, acknowledgments, tables, figure legends, and references), and of the abstract.
• The number of figures and tables.

References

References should be in Vancouver style. Number the references consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Place the reference, in square brackets, inside the punctuation. Provide a reference list at the end of the article. The names of all authors should be given, up to a total of six authors. In case of more than 6 authors, provide the first three, followed by et al.

Please see resources for referencing style. Here are two examples:

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/admin-services/library/learning-support/reference-management/vancouver-style/your-reference-list 

https://guides.lib.monash.edu/citing-referencing/vancouver

*If your manuscript does not meet the format requirements for references, your manuscript will be returned.

Figures

Key concepts article types do not need to conform to this process. Figures can be uploaded as the manuscript document.

For all other article types, on initial submission, figures (photographs, graphs and diagrams) should be attached as separate files. Please indicate in the manuscript the intended location of the figures (photographs, graphs and diagrams). Figures in black and white and full colour are welcome. Figures should be numbered consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text (separate numbering for tables). The editor may recommend relocating figures to online appendices.

Please follow the formatting instructions below: 

• Figures should be numbered in the order they are first mentioned in the text, and uploaded in this order. Multi-panel figures (those with parts a, b, c, d etc.) should be submitted as a single composite file that contains all parts of the figure.
• Figures should be uploaded in the correct orientation. 
• Figure titles (max 15 words) and legends (max 300 words) should be provided in the main manuscript, not in the graphic file.
• Each figure should be closely cropped to minimize the amount of white space surrounding the illustration. 
• Please note that it is the responsibility of the author(s) to obtain permission from the copyright holder to reproduce figures (or tables) that have previously been published elsewhere. In order for all figures to be open access, authors must have permission from the rights holder if they wish to include images that have been published elsewhere in non-open access journals. Permission should be indicated in the figure legend, and the original source included in the reference list.
• Figure file extensions can be .ppt, .eps, .tiff, .jpg, .bmp or .png format.

Tables

Key concepts article types do not need to conform to this process. Tables can be uploaded as the manuscript document.

• For all other article types, on initial submission tables should be attached as separate files. Please indicate in the manuscript the intended location of the tables. Tables must be created in Word using the table function.
• Tables created in Excel or using tabs and spacing will not be accepted. 
• Table titles (max 15 words) should be included above the table, and legends (max 300 words) should be included underneath the table.
• Tables should be typed using single-spacing and 10-point font. 
• Tables should be numbered consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text (separate numbering for figures). Tables should fit on a single page. 
• Colour and shading may not be used. Parts of the table can be highlighted using superscript, numbering, lettering, symbols or bold text, the meaning of which should be explained in a table legend. 
• Commas should not be used to indicate numerical values. 
• Table files should have either the .doc/.docx or .xls/.xlsx file extensions.
• Please note that the editor reserves the right to relocate tables to online appendices.

Submit Manuscript