Submissions

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor). Please note: 'Publication' in a working-paper series or as an abstract only does not constitute prior publication.
  • Only persons who meet the following authorship criteria are listed as authors in the manuscript as they must be able to take public responsibility for the content: (i) made significant contributions to the work reported whether it is in the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis or interpretation of the data for the work; and (ii) drafted the manuscript or revised it critically for important intellectual content; and (iii) have seen and approved the final version of the paper and agreed to its submission for publication; and (iv) agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

    HRO-ORS recognizes that for research involving Indigenous Peoples authors are expected to uphold agreements that are in place as per TCPS 2 Chapter 9 and reflect the direction of the agreements in authorship and/or the acknowledgements. Given the nature of research published in HRO-ORS, sub-chapters 9.15 and 9.2 of TCPS 2 are particularly relevant for authorship and acknowledgements.
  • No persons who made substantial contributions to the work reported in the manuscript (such as technical help, writing and editing assistance, general support) but who do not meet the criteria for authorship are listed as an author. Please note: The contributions of such persons may be acknowledged in an "Acknowledgements" section after their written permission to be named as been obtained. Given the nature of articles published in HRO-ORS, this would particularly apply to policymakers or civil servants who provided information or advice on the specific aspects of the manuscript, but who do not take responsibility for authorship and conception of the manuscript.
  • The author(s) have disclosed any financial, personal or professional relationships that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of such financial relationships include employment (working for the organization implementing the policy reform or for an organization with a vested interest in the policy reform) and consultancies/honoraria/paid expert testimony/grants or other payments. Examples of personal or professional relationships include a spouse/partner working for an organization implementing or with a vested interest in a reform, a role as a board member for an association representing affected organizations or a researcher whose work provided the intellectual justification for the policy reform or who has advocated personally for or against the reform (or related reforms).
  • All co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript and agreed to its submission for publication.
  • The author(s) have disclosed all sources of financial support for the work (including the grant number or other reference number if any).
  • The submission file is in .doc or .docx file format.
  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS and follows the appropriate article format guidelines: HRA GUIDELINES or CHRA GUIDELINES
  • Where available, URLs and DOIs for the references have been provided.

Author Guidelines

WHO CAN SUBMIT?
Anyone may submit an original article (Provincial/Territorial Health Reform Analysis, Comparative Health Reform Analysis or Commentary) to be considered for publication in Health Reform Observer - Observatoire des Réformes de Santé provided he or she owns the copyright to the work being submitted or is authorized by the copyright owner or owners to submit the article. Authors are the owners of the copyrights to their works under the journal's Copyright Policy. 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.

Editorials will be invited by the Editorial Board and/or Editor(s)-in-Chief.

GENERAL SUBMISSION RULES
Submitted articles cannot have been previously published, nor be forthcoming in an archival journal or book (print or electronic). Please note that HRO-ORS does not consider publication in a working-paper series or as an abstract only 'prior publication.' Authors should, upon submission, make this known to the editors, disclose the identity of previous peer reviewers, and provide a copy of the working paper or abstract.

By submitting material to Health Reform Observer - Observatoire des Réformes de Santé, 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 Health Reform Observer - Observatoire des Réformes de Santé.

Authors submitting material to HRO-ORS are expected to follow the best practice guidelines on ethical behaviour contained in the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices (formerly, Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors' (ICMJE's) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS 2). Key responsibilities of authors include, but are not limited to, those highlighted in the journal's Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice statement found here. Authors should familiarize themselves with the statement prior to submitting their work.

If you have concerns about the submission terms for Health Reform Observer - Observatoire des Réformes de Santé, please feel free to email us.

SUBMITTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT
Manuscripts may be written in English or French. Provincial/Territorial Health Reform Analyses (HRAs) must follow the article format guidelines found at HRA GUIDELINES while Comparative Health Reform Analyses (CHRAs) should follow the article format guidlelines found at CHRA GUIDELINES.

Submitted articles (Provincial/Territorial Health Reform Analyses and Comparative Health Reform Analyses only) must be accompanied by the following:

  • Keywords: Please submit 3-10 keywords that best describe your submission.
  • Key Messages: Authors should identify 3-5 key messages for readers to 'take away' from the article. Consider a mix of potential readers, from decision-makers, to academics, to other policy players. Reading interest will vary by reader and take-away messages might relate to the choice of policy tools, context, implementation barriers and facilitators, policy players' roles and perspectives, or evaluation efforts.  Each key message should not exceed one sentence in length. Please include these under the heading 'Key Messages' on the first page of your manuscript.
  • Abstract:The abstract should be no more than 200 words in length and summarize why the reform was important to undertake, what happened, and with what impact or anticipated impact. It is a goal of the journal to make abstracts available in both official languages. Authors are asked to provide an abstract in both English and French. If you have a concern about the two languages requirement, please feel free to email us.

FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS
In preparing your manuscript for submission, Health Reform Observer - Observatoire des Réformes de Santé strongly encourages authors of Health Reform Analyses (HRAs) and Comparative Health Reform Analyses (CHRAs) to follow the article format guidelines described above. Authors should follow the typesetting and layout requirements set out in the FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS. 

Please submit your manuscript, including tables, figures, appendices, etc., as a single file. As manuscript files need to be easily accessible by a number of different persons involved in the refereeing and revision of a manuscript, only .doc and .docx files are accepted.

 

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (see The Effect of Open Access).