About the Journal

The International Journal of Public Health Research (IJPHR) is an external peer-reviewed journal published by Penerbit UKM and managed by the Department of Public Health Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). This journal is funded by UKM. The copyright is owned by UKM. IJPHR is published twice a year in February and August. There are no article processing charges (APC) to publish in IJPHR. 

Scope and Focus 

The global disease burden is increasing every year. The recent pandemic and changing lifestyle behaviors have significantly influenced public health issues worldwide. The International Journal of Public Health Research (IJPHR) publishes original articles in English or Malay that cover public health topics in epidemiology, family health and nutrition, occupational health, environmental health, health promotion, health management, health economics, healthcare policies, and global health issues. The primary focus is on articles related to the prevention and control of the global disease burden. IJPHR welcomes submissions from both developed and developing countries.

Peer Review Process

IJPHR selects articles through an external peer review process using the "double-blind" method. Each manuscript will be evaluated by at least two reviewers. Peer reviewers are experts in their fields who are not part of the editorial staff, making them an important component of the scientific process. Reviewers are expected to submit their evaluations within four (4) weeks. The editor will base the decision on the recommendations from the external peer review. The modified content should be submitted by the author within the agreed-upon timeframe. Once the modifications are received, the journal's editor will ultimately decide on acceptance and the eventual publication date.

Please note that submission to the peer review process does not guarantee acceptance. All manuscripts are subject to editorial evaluation and must meet the journal's standards for originality, relevance, and quality before publication decisions are made.

Publication Frequency

IJPHR is published twice a year, in February and August.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Indexed

  • MyCite (Malaysian Citation Centre)
  • Western Pacific Region Index Medicus
  • Scientific Indexing Services
  • Google Scholar
  • Asean Citation Index

Archiving

The journal will be archived in a Google Drive maintained by the journal, and access can be requested by contacting the journal directly.

Ethical Guidelines and Malpractice Statement

It is necessary to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior for all parties involved in the act of publishing: the author, the journal editor, the peer reviewer, and the publisher. Our ethics statements are based on the COPE™ Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.

Publication decisions

The editor of the journal is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The editor may be guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. The editor may confer with other editors or external reviewers in making this decision.

Fair play

An editor will at any time evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.

Confidentiality

The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, external reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's research without the express written consent of the author. The journal ensures ethical oversight by requiring authors to adhere to ethical research standards and properly disclose any conflicts of interest, while respecting intellectual property rights and proper attribution of sources.

Business revenue

Our journal is not funded through any combination of revenue sources, which include author fees, subscriptions, advertising, reprints, institutional support, and organizational support. 

All decisions regarding article acceptance are made based solely on the quality and relevance of the submission.

Advertising & direct marketing

Our journal does not involve advertising or direct marketing in any form.

Duties of Reviewers

Contribution to Editorial Decisions

Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and, through the editorial communications with the author, may also assist the author in improving the paper.

Promptness

Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.

Confidentiality

Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.

Standards of Objectivity

Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments. Acknowledgement of Sources Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Disclosure and Conflict of Interest

Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

Duties of Authors

Reporting standards

Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Data Access and Retention

Authors are asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data (consistent with the ALPSP-STM Statement on Data and Databases), if practicable, and should in any event be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.

Originality and Plagiarism

The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others, that this has been appropriately cited or quoted.

Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication

An author should not, in general, publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

Acknowledgment of Sources

Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.

Authorship of the Paper

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where others have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

Fundamental errors in published works

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the authors' obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Authors are encouraged to use artificial intelligence (AI) to assist with research and writing. However, authors are required to cite text or parts generated through AI in all aspects of publication. In the Acknowledgment section, the authors should state the aspects of research and text generated through AI, including research design, data analysis, data visualization, and illustration. The copyright of text generated through AI does not belong to the authors of the article. If the author uses text generated by AI, the part of the text should be clearly stated in the article.

Policy of Screening for Plagiarism

All submitted articles will be checked for any similarity using appropriate plagiarism software. 

Authors can adhere to the following steps to report plagiarism:

  • Inform the editor of the journal where a plagiarized article is published.
  • Send original and plagiarized articles with plagiarized parts highlighted.
  • If evidence of plagiarism is convincing, the editor should arrange for a disciplinary meeting.
  • The editor of the journal where the plagiarized article was published should communicate with the editor of the journal containing the original article to rectify the matter.
  • The plagiarist should be asked to explain.
  • In case of nonresponse in the stipulated time or an unsatisfactory explanation, the article should be permanently retracted.
  • Author should be blacklisted and debarred for submitted an article to a particular journal for at least 5 years.
  • The concerned head of the institution has to be notified.

Dealing of Misconduct

The journal Editorial Board will take all reported possible misconduct, including plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication, among others. A committee will be formed to investigate such reports. If found guilty, the author will be subjected to the appropriate action. This includes the retraction of the article, barring it from publishing in IJPHR for a period of time, and informing the relevant author's institution.