About the Journal

Health Research in Africa (Health Res. Afr:, HRA)

ISSN (print): 3006-4090   / EISSN  (online)  : 3006-4104

 http://hsd-fmsb.org/index.php/hra/ 

Health Research in Africa (HRA) is an open source, monthly scholarly, multidisciplinary, peer reviewed medical journal that is partnered to Health Sciences and Disease, the official publication of the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (FMBS) of the University of Yaoundé I. Numerous basic health data from many African countries are still lacking in the medical literature and HRA seeks to fill this gap. Therefore, HRA covers all aspects of medicine, pharmacy, biomedical and health sciences, including health technologies, public health and societal issues. However, HRA values mostly pertinent applied research articles with impact on clinical care or public health. HRA is an “online first” publication, which means that all the publications articles appear on the website before being included in the print journal. The papers are published in full on the website, with open access. Our mission is to inform and educate the health professionals, especially from Africa,  and to promote constructive debate on health issues that matter in the management not only of diseases but of health as a whole.

Acceptance of manuscripts is based on the originality, the quality of the work and validity of the evidence, the clarity of presentation, and the relevance to our readership. Publications are expected to be concise, well organized and clearly written. Authors submit a manuscript with the understanding that the manuscript (or its essential substance) has not been published other than as an abstract in any language or format and is not currently submitted elsewhere for print or electronic publication. 

The preferred way for submission is the online submission. Please, refer to the instructions to authors and to the HRA home page: http://hsd-fmsb.org/index.php/HRA/. Otherwise, manuscripts can be addressed to nkooamvenes@gmail.com or nkoo_as@yahoo.com. HRA was created in 2023.

 

English, French

 

Key informations about the the composition and the responsibilities of the editorial team, the advisory and scientific board and the adminitrative secretariat are available here.

 

HRA is published monthly since 2024.

 

To guarantee long-term digital preservation, content published in HRA is deposited in the CLOCKSS archives.

 

By default, articles published by HRA are Open Access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Non-Commercial No-Derivatives License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This license enables reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. CC BY-NC-ND includes the following elements:

• BY: credit must be given to the creator.

• NC: Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted.

• ND: No derivatives or adaptations of the work are permitted.

The authors publishing under the Creative Commons Non-Commercial No-Derivatives License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). with HRA retain all rights,  which means that  the authors can read, print, and download, redistribute or republish (eg, display in a repository), translate the article (for private use only, not for distribution), download for text and data mining, reuse portions or extracts in other works, but they are not allowed to sell or re-use for commercial purposes, without asking prior permission from the publisher, provided the original work is properly cited. For reusers , the license stipulates: You are free to share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format (the licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms) under the following terms:

• Attribution — You must give appropriate credit , provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made . You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

• Non Commercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes .

• No Derivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.

• No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

 

HRA’s Publications Policy Committee follows the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), the Council of Science Editors (CSE) and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) for guidance on policies and procedures related to publication ethics. The policies for HRA  have been adapted from those three advisory bodies and, where necessary, modified and tailored to meet the specific content, audiences, and aims of HRA. 

At submission, the authors should disclose whether they used artificial intelligence (AI)–assisted technologies in the production of the publication and how AI was used. However, authors should not list AI and AI-assisted technologies as an author or co-author, nor cite AI as an author.

Journal’s policies on authorship and contributorship (https://cope.onl/authorship)

To be listed as an author, an individual must have made substantial contributions to all three categories established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) : (a) “conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data,” (b) “drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content,” and (c) “final approval of the version to be published.” Consensus holds that some types of contributions do not alone justify identification as an author. These include assisting the research by providing advice, research space, or departmental oversight; obtaining financial support; performing isolated analyses; or providing reagents/patients/animals/other study materials. These contributions should be listed in the acknowledgments.

Authors who wish to appeal an editorial decision should submit a formal letter of appeal to the HRA editorial team. They should include the manuscript tracking number in the email subject line and the appeal letter. If appeals are successful, authors will receive instructions on how to proceed. If an appeal merits further consideration, the Editor in Chief (EIC) may send the authors' response and the revised paper out for further peer review.

Complaints about processes or publication ethics are in the first instance handled by the EIC of HRA. 

For complaints about processes, such as time taken for review, the EIC will review and respond to the complainant's concerns. This feedback will be provided to relevant stakeholders to guide improvements to processes and procedures.

For complaints about publication ethics or scientific content, the EIC will follow guidelines published by the Committee on Publication Ethics, then decides on a course of action and provides feedback to the complainant. 

 

In the event that editors or publisher are made aware of any allegation of research misconduct relating to a submitted or published article, the EIC or publisher should follow Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)’s guidance (or equivalent) in dealing with cases of suspected misconduct. In many cases of suspected research or publication misconduct, HRA editorial team will contact and share manuscripts with third parties, for example, author(s)’ institution(s) and ethics committee(s). HRA EIC may also  seek advice from COPE and discuss anonymized cases in the COPE Forum. A notice of suspected transgression of ethical standards in the peer review system may be included as part of the author’s and article’s bibliographic record.

All research involving humans (including human data and human material) and animals must have been carried out within an appropriate ethical framework. If there is suspicion that research has not taken place within an appropriate ethical framework, the EIC may reject a manuscript and may inform third parties, for example, author(s)’ institution(s) and ethics committee(s). In cases of proven research misconduct involving published articles, or where the scientific integrity of the article is significantly undermined, articles may be retracted.

Data falsification is manipulating research data with the intention of giving a false impression. This includes manipulating images, removing outliers or “inconvenient” results, changing, adding or omitting data points, etc. Data fabrication means the making up of research findings. Any questions regarding data integrity raised during or after the peer review process will be referred to the EIC Chief. After due verification, the manuscript may be rejected or, in the case of a published article, retracted. Cases of suspected misconduct will be reported to the author(s)’ institution(s).

HRA will follow the COPE guidelines outlining how to deal with cases of potential publication misconduct.

HRA  randomly uses free plagiarism detection software. If plagiarism is identified, the COPE guidelines on plagiarism will be followed.

At the time of submission, authors are asked to disclose whether they have any financial interests or connections, direct or indirect, or other situations that may influence directly or indirectly the work submitted for consideration, - including pertinent commercial or other sources of funding for the individual author(s) or for the associated department(s) or organization(s), personal relationships, or direct academic competition.

Submission of a manuscript to HRA implies that materials described in the manuscript, including all relevant raw data, will be freely available to any scientist wishing to use them for non-commercial purposes, without breaching participant confidentiality. HRA  encourages that all datasets on which the conclusions of the paper rely should be available to readers. So, the authors must ensure that their datasets are either deposited in publicly available repositories (where available and appropriate) or presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files, in machine-readable format (such as spreadsheets rather than PDFs) whenever possible

According to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), ethical oversight should include, but is not limited to policies on consent to publication, publication on vulnerable populations, ethical conduct of research using animals, ethical conduct of research using human subjects, handling confidential data and ethical business/marketing practices. All research published HRA must have been conducted according to international and local guidelines ensuring ethically conducted research and should comply to the pricipales of the Declaration of Helsinki. 

For studies involving data relating to human or animal experimental investigations, appropriate institutional review board approval is required and should be described within the article. For investigations involving human subjects, authors should explain how informed consent was obtained from the participants involved. Patients have a right to privacy that should not be infringed without informed consent. Identifying information should not be included unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or legal guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. When informed consent has been obtained it should be indicated in the manuscript. In attempting to maintain patient anonymity, identifying details should be omitted where they are not essential. However, patient data should never be amended or falsified. Informed consent should be obtained whenever there is any doubt that anonymity can be assured.

HRA  recognizes the importance of intellectual property rights in research and publication. This intellectual property policy outlines the principles and guidelines regarding the protection and use of intellectual property in articles published in HRA.

When submitting an article to HRA, the corresponding (submitting) author agrees to publish the work under the conditions laid out in the journal’s policies on open access and copyright and licensing. Further, it is the corresponding author’s responsibility to obtain permission to use published copyrighted material, and state the license and permission in the main text or figure caption(s). It is also the corresponding author’s responsibility to ensure that the manuscript does not contain any confidential or copyrighted information without express permission for its use. In submitting their work to HRA, the corresponding author agrees that: 

1. the manuscript contains no confidential information, publication of which is restricted.

2. permission has been granted to reuse, modify or redistribute any copyrighted material and the license and permission are provided in the main text or caption.

Disputes over copyright scholarly content should be addressed to the editor in chief by email. 

HRA only accepts manuscripts that have not been previously published in a peer-reviewed journal. HRA does not accept manuscripts that are under consideration for publication by another scholarly (i.e. peer-reviewed) journal. Manuscripts that have not undergone a peer-review process, including institutional reports or manuscripts that appear on personal or institutional websites or recognized preprint servers, are not considered to be cases of prior publication and are accepted by HRA. Authors should always acknowledge such circumstances upon submission and cite any previous versions of the submitted article.

The Council of Science Editors (CSE) defines plagiarism as “ a form of piracy that involves the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language (figures images or tables) and thoughts of others and the representation of them as one’s own original work without permission or acknowledgment by the author of the source of these materials. Plagiarism generally involves the use of materials from others, but can apply to researchers’ duplication of their own previously published reports without acknowledgment (this is sometimes called self-plagiarism or duplicate publication).” Plagiarism is not accepted by HRA, which randomly  screens submitted material with internet free software. Further, when submitting an article to HRA, the corresponding (submitting) author should agree to respect the conditions described in this intellectual property policy.

Plagiarism can also apply to researchers who re-use their own text or duplicate their own previously published reports without acknowledgment. This, is sometimes called self-plagiarism, text recycling, duplicate or redundant publication. Submissions to HRA must not engage in (undisclosed) self-plagiarism. To avoid this, authors should always cite or acknowledge the source of information and avoid reproducing text from their own publications. HRA  does not take as plagiarism studies based on data that were previously published in non-peer reviewed reports available in institutional repositories. However, such instances must be declared upon submission and the extent of overlap described.

Post publications discussions are not yet implemented by HRA

Authors, readers or organizations who become aware of errors or ethics issues in a published article are encouraged to contact HRA in the first instance via the contact details available on the journal website. 

Changes to published articles that affect the interpretation and conclusion of the article, but do not fully invalidate the article, will, at the Editor(s)’ discretion, be corrected via publication of a correction that is indexed and bidirectionally linked to the original article.

When the interpretation or conclusion of an article is substantially undermined, it may be necessary for published articles to be retracted. HRA will follow the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines in such cases. Retraction notices are indexed and bidirectionally linked to the original article. The original article is watermarked as retracted and the title is amended with the prefix “Retracted article:”

Editorial Expressions of Concern

When an editor becomes aware of serious concerns regarding interpretation or conclusion of a published article, he may choose to publish a statement alerting the readership

 

a) Submission and initial screening. Manuscripts are first reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief (EIC) or section editors to identify major deficiencies. At this stage, the manuscript may be rejected without full peer review.

b) Peer Review. Manuscripts that pass the initial screening are sent to one or two anonymous reviewers (single-blind review). Reviewers are guided by a detailed checklist, which evaluates originality and scientific contribution, methodological rigor, clarity of writing and relevance to the field of health in Africa.

c) Conflict of interest policy. Reviewers and editors must declare any potential conflicts of interest. In case of a conflict, the manuscript is assigned to another reviewer or editor.

d) Final decision and publication. The Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision based on the reviewers’ reports. The process may take from a few days to several weeks. Once accepted, the manuscript is published within an average of 6 weeks. The submission, acceptance, and publication dates are indicated in the article.

e) Review Statistics

• Average review time: 4 weeks.
• Average time to publication: 6 weeks.

f) Additional notes

• Open peer-review option : In the future, we are considering introducing an open peer-review process, where review reports may be published alongside the article (with the reviewers’ consent).
• Reviewer guidelines : Reviewers are provided with detailed guidelines to ensure a fair and constructive review process. These guidelines are available upon request.

 The date of publication is published in the paper as well as dates of submission and acceptance.

 

The entire online  content of HRA is free for access

 

Afrimvoe Medical Services.

Nouvelle Route Nkolbisson, Carrefour Station Ola

PO Box 17583, Yaounde, Cameroon.  https://afrimvoe.net/ 

 

Article submission is free of charges, but if your paper is accepted for publication, you will be asked to pay article processing charges (APC) to cover publications costs, depending on the type, complexity and length of the work, and on the number of authors. To guarantee HRA independence, APC cover publication charges such as electronic archiving, plagiarism checking, editing, peer review process, site maintenance and web-hosting, proofreading, quality check, PDF designing and article maintenance. The minimum amount of APC is about 220 euros or 250 dollars or 145 000 XAF. If an author from a low revenue country does not have enough funds to pay such fees and the publication is a really worthy work, he may have an opportunity to partially waive each fee by asking the EIC.  APC are due before the accepted paper is published. Inquiries about fast track, manuscript status and preparation, as well as letters to the editor, should be directed to the Editor in Chief

 

APC are the sole revenue source of HRA. HRA does not accept advertising.

 

HRA does not accept advertising.

 

There are no  direct marketing activities, including solicitation of manuscripts.