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Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health

Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health


eISSN: 19412479 | ISSN: 10105395 | Current volume: 36 | Current issue: 2-3 Frequency: 8 Times/Year

Published in association with the Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health (APACPH) Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health (APJPH) is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes 8 issues per year and focuses on health issues in the Asia-Pacific Region. APJPH publishes original articles on public health related issues, including implications for practical applications to professional education and services for public health and primary health care that are of concern and relevance to the Asia-Pacific region.

The Editor-in-Chief welcomes manuscripts on all aspects of public health, as well as global challenges in public health, emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, health security, disaster management, and chronic disease. For manuscript inquiries, please contact Prof. Wah-Yun Low, Editor-in-Chief at lowwy@um.edu.my.

This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health is the official journal of the Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health(APACPH). The journal is the only English language journal that publishes original articles on public health related issues, including implications for practical applications to professional education and services for public health and primary health care that are of concern and relevance to the Asia-Pacific region. The editor-in-chief welcomes manuscripts on all aspects of public health, as well as global challenges in public health, emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, health security, disaster management, and chronic disease.

Editor in Chief
Wah Yun Low University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Editor
Colin Binns Curtin University of Technology, Australia
Associate Editors
Emily Ying-Yang Chan Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Masamine Jimba University of Tokyo, Japan
Ho Kim Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
Hao Xiang Wuhan University, China
Kuala Lumpur Editorial Committee
Noor Ani Ahmad Ministry of Health Malaysia, Malaysia
Claire Choo Wan Yuen University of Malaya, Malaysia
Awang Bulgiba Awang Mahmud University of Malaya, Malaysia
Hazreen Abdul Majid University of Malaya, Malaysia
Noran Naqiah Hairi University of Malaya, Malaysia
Rosediani Muhamad Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia
Bairave Shunnmugam University of Malaya, Malaysia
Daniel Chow Ung T'chiang University of Malaya, Malaysia
International Board of Advisors
Le Vu Anh Hanoi School of Public Health, Vietnam
Wei J. Chen National Taiwan University, Taiwan
Dat Van Duong United Nations Population Fund, Vietnam
Sharon Fonn University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Mohan Gupte National Institute of Epidemiology, India
Kenji Hayashi National Institute of Public Health, Japan
Mohd Amin Jalaludin University of Malaya, Malaysia
Andy Johnson University of Southern California, USA
Orawan Kaewboonchoo Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University, Thailand
So Yoon Kim Yonsei University, Korea
Liming Lee Peking University Medical Center, China
Xiao Ma Sichuan University, China
Chizuru Nishida World Health Organisation, Geneva, Switzerland
Brian Oldenburg University of Melbourne, Australia
Andrew Prentice London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK
David Sanders University of Essex, UK
Richard F. Southby George Washington University, USA
Marcel Tanner Swiss Tropical Institute, Switzerland
Jennifer B. Unger University of Southern California, USA
T. Varagunam Eastern University, Sri Lanka
Kremlin Wickramasinghe University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Alistair Woodward University of Auckland, New Zealand
Anuar Zaini Md. Zain Monash University, Malaysia
  • CINAHL
  • Clarivate Analytics: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE)
  • Clarivate Analytics: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI)
  • EMBASE/Excerpta Medica
  • Malaysian Abstracting and Indexing System (MyAIS)
  • NISC
  • ProQuest
  • PsycINFO
  • PubMed: MEDLINE
  • SafetyLit
  • Scopus
  • Please read the guidelines below then visit Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health (APJPH)’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/apjph to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned. Remember you can log in to the submission site at any time to check on the progress of your paper through the peer review process.

    Sage Publishing disseminates high-quality research and engaged scholarship globally, and we are committed to diversity and inclusion in publishing. We encourage submissions from a diverse range of authors from across all countries and backgrounds.

    Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of APJPH will be reviewed. 

    The Journal requires authors to add two brief sections after their abstract (except for Short Communications or Letters to the Editor):

    1. What we already know
    2. What this article adds

    Each statement should consist of three bullet point notes. Please read our guidelines and recent issues of the journal to review formatting requirements.

    As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that APJPH may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy. If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.

    This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.

    This Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

    As of August 1, 2014, authors will need to submit a USD 25.00 submission fee electronically with their manuscript. This is a non-refundable submission fee to accompany all manuscripts to help offset editorial office and review costs. There will be no other charges apart from the submission fee. If, however, the corresponding author of the article is from a Research4Life country (either Group A or Group B), this fee will be waived (at the time of submission, select “R4L Submission” as your article type and check the box under “R4L Country Confirmation”). To learn more about Research4Life and determine if you qualify, please visit http://www.research4life.org/institutions/

    Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.

    If you have any questions about publishing with Sage, please visit the Sage Journal Solutions Portal.
     

    1. What do we publish?
      1.1 Aims & Scope
      1.2 Article types
      1.3 Writing your paper
      1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
    2. Editorial policies
      2.1 Peer review policy
      2.2 Authorship
      2.3 Acknowledgements
      2.3.1 Third party submissions
      2.3.2 Writing assistance
      2.4 Funding
      2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
      2.6 Research ethics and patient consent
      2.7 Clinical trials
      2.8 Reporting guidelines
      2.9 Research data
    3. Publishing policies
      3.1 Publication ethics
      3.1.1 Plagiarism
      3.1.2 Prior publication
      3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
      3.3 Open access and author archiving
    4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
      4.1 Formatting
      4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
      4.3 Supplemental material
      4.4 Reference style
      4.5 English language editing services
    5. Submitting your manuscript
      5.1 ORCID
      5.2 Information required for completing your submission
      5.3 Permissions
    6. On acceptance and publication
      6.1 Sage Production
      6.2 OnlineFirst publication
      6.3 Access to your published article
      6.4 Promoting your article
    7. Further information
      7.1 Appealing the publication decision

     

    1. What do we publish?

    1.1 Aims & Scope

    Before submitting your manuscript to APJPH, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope. 

    Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health is the official journal of the Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health (APACPH). The journal is the only English language journal that publishes original articles on public health related issues, including implications for practical applications to professional education and services for public health and primary health care, that are of concern and relevance to the Asia-Pacific region. The Editor in Chief welcomes manuscripts on all aspects of public health, as well as global challenges in public health, emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, health security, disaster management, and chronic disease.

    1.2 Article Types

    Word counts do not include abstracts and references. All abstracts must be unstructured.

    Original Articles (3000 words, max. 30 references, 150 word abstract)

    Original articles must be topically relevant and demonstrate novel findings that aim to educate and increase awareness of public health concerns. Articles should be not more than 3000 words, excluding references, tables, and figures and limit illustrations to 3. Additional material can be submitted for online-only publication. Papers describing randomized controlled trials must follow the CONSORT Guidelines (available from http://www.equator-network.org/). 

    Review Articles (3500-4000 words, max. 200 references, 200 word abstract)

    Review articles should focus on the critical aspects of a subject, linking what is known to what areas remain controversial. Review articles describe current topics of importance and provide a systematic, balanced account of prior research. Authors should describe the search employed. Review articles do not include the author’s personal experiences. They should be systematic reviews of the literature and not opinion pieces. Review articles must follow the PRISMA guidelines (available from http://www.equator-network.org/). 

    Reviews are normally invited by the editor but unsolicited reviews may also be accepted depending on relevance, quality, and the availability of space. Reviews should have 3000-4000 words with an unstructured abstract of no more than 200 words and a maximum of 200 references. The use of figures and tables to summarize critical points is encouraged.

    Letter to Editor (500 words)

    The Editorial Board has the right to accept or reject any letter. Letters are accepted if they are directly concerned with articles previously published in this Journal. The comments should be objective and constructive. There is no need for figure/tables. Subtitles should not be used and acknowledgements should be included in the body of the letter. No abstract is required.

    Commentary (1000 words, max. 10 references)

    Commentaries should be solicited by the Editor to provide commentary on an upcoming paper to be published, so the 2 papers are published together. We do not accept unsolicited commentaries about previously published papers, which would fit into the ‘Letters to the Editor’ category. The text limit is 1000 words with 10 references and may include tables and figures. Commentaries include debate articles and observations on current research trends.

    Short articles describing an author’s experience of a specific topic, that may be controversial and in which the author’s perspective is provided, are usually published as a letter to the editor.

    Case Reports (600 words, max. 10 references, 30-50 word abstract)

    Case Reports describes a single or comparative case with unique features, such as previously-unreported observations of a recognized disease/disorder/epidemic; previously-unreported conditions/complications of a public health intervention. The number of Case Reports published will be strictly limited. Case Report should be short and focused consisting of an Abstract, Introduction, Case Report and Discussion. Case Reports are peer reviewed. The Case Reports should not exceed 600 words (with an abstract of 30-50 words). It should not contain more than 10 references with one table or figure.

    Short Reports (1000 words, max. 10 references)

    These are other types of articles that contribute to the scope of APJPH, that is, public health-related issues, including implications for practical applications to professional education and healthcare services that are of concern and relevance to the Asia-Pacific region. They include short communications or works-in-progress; historical articles; teaching articles; health policy and evidence-based practice. Short Reports should contain an unstructured abstract, with 2 tables, 2 figures, and 10 references, following the same structure as an original article.

    1.3 Writing your paper

    The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.

    1.3.1 Make your article discoverable

    For information and guidance on how to make your article more discoverable, visit our Gateway page on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online

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    2. Editorial policies

    2.1 Peer review policy

    APJPH adheres to a rigorous double-anonymize reviewing policy in which the identity of both the reviewer and author are always concealed from both parties.

    Decisions on manuscripts will be taken as rapidly as possible. In general, Editors will seek advice from two or more expert reviewers about the scientific content and presentation of submitted articles.

    As part of the submission process you will be asked to provide the names of peers who could be called upon to review your manuscript. Recommended reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Please be aware of any conflicts of interest when recommending reviewers. Examples of conflicts of interest include (but are not limited to) the below:

    • The reviewer should have no prior knowledge of your submission
    • The reviewer should not have recently collaborated with any of the authors
    • Reviewer nominees from the same institution as any of the authors are not permitted

    You will also be asked to nominate peers who you do not wish to review your manuscript (opposed reviewers).

    Please note that the Editors are not obliged to invite/reject any recommended/opposed reviewers to assess your manuscript.

    The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor/Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.

    APJPH is committed to delivering high quality, fast peer-review for your paper, and as such has partnered with Publons. Publons is a third party service that seeks to track, verify and give credit for peer review. Reviewers for APJPH can opt in to Publons in order to claim their reviews or have them automatically verified and added to their reviewer profile. Reviewers claiming credit for their review will be associated with the relevant journal, but the article name, reviewer’s decision and the content of their review is not published on the site. For more information visit the Publons website.

    2.2 Authorship

    Papers should only be submitted for consideration once all contributing authors give consent. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors. 
    The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:

    1. Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,
    2. Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
    3. Approved the version to be published, 
    4. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.

    Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. When a large, multicenter group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship. 

    Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.

    Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.

    2.3 Acknowledgements

    All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support. 

    Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.

    2.3.1 Third party submissions

    Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

    • Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
    • Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
    • Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

    Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

    2.3.2 Writing assistance

    Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.

    2.4 Funding

    APJPH requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading.  Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: “This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.” 

    2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

    It is the policy of APJPH to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles. 

    Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that: “The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest.” For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations here.

    2.6 Research ethics and patient consent

    Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.

    Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and all papers reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the methods section that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the approval number, in the Methods section of your manuscript.

    For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.

    Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be included in the manuscript text. A statement is required regarding whether written informed consent for patient information and images to be published was provided by the patient(s) or a legally authorized representative. Please do not submit the patient’s actual written informed consent with your article, as this in itself breaches the patient’s confidentiality. The Journal requests that you confirm to us, in writing, that you have obtained written informed consent but the written consent itself should be held by the authors/investigators themselves, for example in a patient’s hospital record. The confirmatory letter may be uploaded with your submission as a separate file.

    Please also refer to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants.

    All research involving animals submitted for publication must be approved by an ethics committee with oversight of the facility in which the studies were conducted. The Journal has adopted the ARRIVE guidelines.

    2.7 Clinical trials

    APJPH conforms to the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrollment as a condition of consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.

    2.8 Reporting guidelines

    The relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines should be followed depending on the type of study. For example, all randomized controlled trials submitted for publication should include a completed CONSORT flow chart as a cited figure and the completed CONSORT checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplemental file. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses should include the completed PRISMA flow chart as a cited figure and the completed PRISMA checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplemental file. The EQUATOR wizard can help you identify the appropriate guideline. If your research involves animals, you will be asked to confirm that you have carefully read and adhered to the ARRIVE guidelines.

    Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives.

    2.9 Research data

    The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.

    Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:

    • share your research data in a relevant public data repository
    • include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
    • cite this data in your research 

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    3. Publishing Policies

    3.1 Publication ethics

    Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.

    3.1.1 Plagiarism

    APJPH and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

    3.1.2 Prior publication

    If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

    3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

    Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway

    3.3 Open access and author archiving

    APJPH offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.

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    4. Preparing your manuscript for submission

    4.1 Formatting

    The preferred format for your manuscript is Word.

    Manuscripts should be prepared according to the American Medical Association (AMA) Manual of Style (11th Edition).

    Arrange the manuscript in this order: (1) title page; (2) abstract and keywords; (3) text; (4) acknowledgments; (5) references; (6) figure legends; (7); tables; and (8) figures. Please also submit figures as separate figure files (tif, jpeg, eps, gif) with 300 dpi resolution or better.

    Number all pages in above sequence, beginning with title page as 1, abstract as 2, etc.

    The Title Page

    The title page should include the following information:

    • Manuscript Title.
    • Author names and affiliations. Names of authors should be written in full, First Name followed by Surname, e.g. Colin Binns or Wah Yun Low. Up to two academic degrees may be listed for each author (choose highest degrees). A superscript number should be placed after each name to refer to the respective affiliations that must be listed below. Provide the full postal address, contact number, and email address for each author.
    • Corresponding author information. Please ensure that any changes to the contact details of the corresponding author must immediately be notified to the Editorial Office.

    The Main Document

    The Abstract

    The abstract must be unstructured, and the word limit is determined by the relevant article type. At the end of the abstract, please include an alphabetical list of 5 to 8 keywords and subjects for indexing. Choose the keywords carefully as these will be used for subsequent retrieval.

    What We Already Know

    Please add two to three bullet points to highlight what is known on the manuscript's topic.

    What This Article Adds

    Please add two to three bullet points to highlight how the manuscript could add to current knowledge on the manuscript's topic.

    The Text

    Papers must follow this order: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion/Recommendation. Systeme Internationale (SI) Units should be used. Use only standard abbreviations. The full term for which an abbreviation stands should precede its first use in the text unless it is a standard unit of measurement.

    References

    Please note that all references should conform to the AMA Manual of Style, 11th Edition. See section 4.4 for more details on reference style. 

    Tables

    All tables and figures should be placed at the end of the manuscript after the references and numbered accordingly. Provide footnotes for explanatory matter and identify in alphabetical order all abbreviations used.

    NOTE: Remember to place callouts for the tables and figures in the text. For example, write “INSERT TABLE 1 HERE” to show where the table should appear within the text.

    Illustrations

    Only three illustrations (Tables/Figures) are allowed. For quality purposes, please submit figures in JPEG, TIFF, GIF, or EPS format; PowerPoint slides and images embedded in Word documents do not transfer well to print unless they are simple line art. Abbreviations, symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters used in the figures must be identified and explained in the corresponding legends.

    Submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce any previously published figures.

    4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

    For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.

    Figures supplied in color will appear in color online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version. For specifically requested color reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article. 

    4.3 Supplemental material

    This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc.) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplemental files.

    4.4 Reference style

    APJPH adheres to the AMA Manual of Style, 11th Edition. View the guide here to ensure your manuscript conforms to this style.

    Number the references in order of mention in text. Please ensure that you limit your references to the amount specified by the article type. Identify references in text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals in superscript. Titles of journals are abbreviated according to MEDLINE.

    In the text, please use the author’s surname(s) and a superscripted number that correlates with the reference at the end of the manuscript. For example, for the first reference in the text, use a superscripted number 1, such as Skinner1, or use only the superscripted number after the phrase or sentence of citation. When several references are cited simultaneously in the text, list the superscripted numbers together, for example, “Many researchers have debated this subject.”1,2,5,9 In text citations, use “et al” for references of 3 authors. However, in the references, list up to 6 authors. If there are more than 6 authors, list the first 3 authors and then “et al”.

    References should appear at the end of the text numbered in order of appearance in the manuscript. 

    Unpublished data and personal communications should be given as references. Follow the examples of forms of references as shown below.

    Journal references should be cited as follows:

    Ricketts TA. The impact of head and body angle on monaural and binaural performance with directional and omnidirectional hearing aids. Ear Hear. 2000;21(4):318-329.

    Book chapters should conform to the following:

    Skinner MW, Holden LK, Binzer SM. Aural rehabilitation for individuals with severe and profound hearing impairment hearing aids, cochlear implants, counseling, and training. In: Valente M, ed. Strategies for Selecting and Verifying Hearing Aid Fittings. New York, NY: Thieme Medical Publishers; 1994:267-299.

    Books should be listed as follows:

    Valente M. Strategies for Selecting and Verifying Hearing Aid Fittings. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Thieme Medical Publishers; 1994.

    4.5 English language editing services

    Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information. 

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    5. Submitting your manuscript

    APJPH is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/apjph to login and submit your article online. 

    IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created.  For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

    5.1 ORCID

    As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized. 

    The collection of ORCID IDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID ID you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID ID will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID ID is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.

    If you do not already have an ORCID ID please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more. 

    5.2 Information required for completing your submission

    You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplemental files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

    5.3 Permissions

    Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.

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    6. On acceptance and publication

    6.1 Sage Production

    Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit or by email, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.

    6.2 OnlineFirst publication

    OnlineFirst allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite OnlineFirst articles.

    6.3 Access to your published article

    Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.

    6.4 Promoting your article

    Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.  

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    7. Further information

    Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the APJPH editorial office as follows: 

    Prof. Wah Yun Low
    Editor in Chief
    Dean’s Office
    Faculty of Medicine
    University of Malaya
    lowwy@um.edu.my

    7.1 Appealing the publication decision

    Editors have very broad discretion in determining whether an article is an appropriate fit for their journal. Many manuscripts are declined with a very general statement of the rejection decision. These decisions are not eligible for formal appeal unless the author believes the decision to reject the manuscript was based on an error in the review of the article, in which case the author may appeal the decision by providing the Editor with a detailed written description of the error they believe occurred.

    If an author believes the decision regarding their manuscript was affected by a publication ethics breach, the author may contact the publisher with a detailed written description of their concern, and information supporting the concern, at publication_ethics@sagepub.com.

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