Policies

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.  This in-turn leads to healthier lives for those around the world.

We believe that authors should retain copyright to the article they have worked so hard to produce. This is an Open Access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.

Authors are also free to make derivative works (alter, transform, or build upon), but the derivative work must be attributed to the author and to the Christian Journal for Global Health.

Creative Commons License. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Authorship, Support & Conflict of Interest

Authorship credit should be based only on: (1) substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and (3) final approval of the version to be published. See How to handle authorship disputes: a guide for new researchers

Contributors and financial support sources should be acknowledged in the article, even if they do not meet the criteria for authorship.

Declaration of conflicting interests on any competing financial, copyright or other interest in relation to their paper, in accordance with the ICMJE unified disclosure form. All declared competing interests, or a statement indicating that there are no competing interests if appropriate, will be listed at the end of published articles.

A conflict of interest exists when professional judgment concerning a primary interest (such as patients’ welfare or the validity of research) may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain). Perceptions of conflict of interest are as important as actual conflicts of interest.

Reviewers and editors will recuse themselves of any involvement in the editorial process if they have any conflicts of interest.  Authors will declare conflicts of interest, along with sources of support for the work.

Research on Human and Animal Subjects

Ethical principles on research with human subjects follows the Declaration of Helsinki of the World Medical Association.

 Patients have a right to privacy that should not be infringed without informed consent. Identifying information, including patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that a patient who is identifiable be shown the manuscript to be published. Authors should identify Individuals who provide writing assistance and disclose the funding source for this assistance.

Identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential. Complete anonymity is difficult to achieve, however, and informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt. For example, masking the eye region in photographs of patients is inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning and editors should so note.

When informed consent has been obtained, it should be indicated in the published article.

When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether institutional and national standards for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed. Further guidance on animal research ethics is available from the International Association of Veterinary Editors’ Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare

Copyright Notice

Christian Journal for Global Health applies the Creative Commons Attribution License to all articles that we publish. Under this license, authors retain ownership of copyright for their articles or they can transfer copyright to their institution, but authors allow anyone without permission to copy, distribute, transmit, and/or adapt articles, even for commercial purposes so long as the original authors and Christian Journal for Global Health are appropriately cited.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Errata

The Christian Journal for Global Health endeavors to identify erratum during the copyediting and proofing stages, with errors preferably identified by the author(s) and corrected by the editors prior to the final publication.  Should errors be identified after publication, the author(s) should contact the journal editor, and the article will be corrected in a timely fashion.

Corrigenda

If an error by the author(s) is identified post-publication, the editor will then evaluate the change and decide on a course of action appropriate to the requested change.  This will likely involve the publication of a correction notice as soon as possible, the posting of an updated version of the article, and the archiving of the previous version of the article.

Author Complaint

Any complaint against the editors or reviewers regarding fair publication decision-making shall be received by the Managing Editor by e-mail correspondence, and referred to a panel of three from the Editorial Board for deliberation.

Statements of Concern

Statements of concern may be issued by the editors when there is inconclusive evidence of misconduct by the authors and further investigation is underway.  It will be prominently labeled as “Editorial Note,” express the reasons for the concern, and appear in the Table of Contents with the heading of the title of the original article until the question is resolved or the article is retracted.

Fabrication, Falsification and Plagiarism

After publication, should there be doubts expressed as to the validity of an article or a source within an article, the editors will contact any and all authors of the article in question.  After the editors conduct further inquiry, and the author(s) respond unsatisfactorily, admit to fabrication/falsification/plagiarism, or do not respond, a retraction may be issued.

Retraction

The editors will consider retracting a published article if they have clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of misconduct (e.g., data fabrication) or honest error (e.g., miscalculation or experimental error); the findings have previously been published without acknowledgment; if it constitutes fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism; or it reports research found to be unethical.  Any retracted articles will be clearly labeled as retracted, with an explanation for the article’s retraction, including a complete citation reference to the original article.

Editorial conflicts of interest

Editors will not be involved in decisions about papers in which they have a conflict of interest.  Papers submitted by editors or editorial board members are evaluated by other designated editors and reviewers to ensure unbiased and independent handling of such papers. 

Reviewer Misconduct

Allegations toward reviewers for breaches of confidentiality, non-declarations of conflicts of interest (financial or otherwise), plagiarism, or delay of peer review for competitive advantage will be considered by the editors and adjudicated or referred to the appropriate institution. 

Use of Author Pseudonyms

An author may request for their name to remain anonymous through the use of a pseudonym for reasons of security and safety.  That is, using the authors real name could believably lead to threats or persecution against them, their family or the community or organization in which they work. To be considered the author must write a request to the editors and clearly outline the reasons for their request for anonymity.  The editors will consider requests on a case by case basis by considering:

Accountability: The author(s) must take responsibility for the integrity of the paper, and must remain accessible if accountability or ethical issues arise. The anonymity does not excuse the author from adhering to the journals policies, processes, guidelines and ethical requirements.

Justification: There is a genuine and believable threat of harm or persecution to them, their family, organization or their community by disclosing their name(s).

The editors will then publish a statement below the article outlining why a pseudonym has been used and outlining the way a reader may contact the author for collaborative or academic purposes.