We accept submissions on a rolling basis. Please submit your work here. We publish two issues a year in June and December. Depending on when articles are submitting and review process length articles will be published in the current or next issue.
Anyone with a public health perspective—including students, alumni, professionals, and community members—from any discipline or affiliation may submit content to PHR that highlights or focuses on a public health topic or issue. Submissions should align with PHR's vision and mission. There is a limit of two submissions per person.
Common disciplines that intersect with public health include: sociology, environmental studies, public affairs, economics, education, business, psychology, medicine, nursing, biological sciences, and many more.
Common topics include: health policy, public health practice, public health medicine, epidemiology, biological statistics, community health, environmental health, global health, maternal and child health, nutrition, toxicology, and emergency care.
For additional questions, please see our Q&A section.
All articles must be submitted under one of the following sections:
Research Articles
Research articles describe results from public health research studies. They can focus on findings from an entire study or just one study finding.
Literature Reviews
Literature reviews answer specific questions by critically analyzing existing research deemed relevant to the topic of choice.
Analytic Essays
Analytic essays are pieces that critically analyze various perspectives or themes surrounding an issue. This resource from Stanford Professor Tim Büthe may be helpful.
Opinion Editorials
Opinion editorial pieces express the opinion of the author about a topic within public health. This resource from the Op-Ed Project may be helpful.
Issue Brief
Issue briefs describe a public health issue, persuasively laying out why this issue should be addressed through the implementation or change of policy. University of Minnesota School of Public Health Professor Katy Kozhimannil lays out each section of the issue brief in the following way (section headers are in bold): define the problem in 1 sentence; list the magnitude of the problem through numbers, economic data, etc.; identify the issues, meaning the direct causes of the problem; state the main issue that needs addressing; propose the main policy question; state the problem trajectory, describing the political, social, economic, and/or environmental forces contributing to the problem (these are usually subheaders); describe previous policies that have contributed to or have not alleviated the problem; and persuasively describe the current pressure for political action.
Policy Proposal
Policy proposals include an abbreviated issue brief with additional sections that propose one or two policy solutions. According to University of Minnesota School of Public Health Professor Katy Kozhimannil, the policy proposal should include a condensed version of the issue brief sections stated above. Then, each policy option should be described in a paragraph or two, with additional sections laying out its effectiveness, political feasibility, financial and administrative feasibility, and ethical feasibility. Each of the items in bold should serve as separate subheadings. One policy solution should be chosen and justified in a recommendation section.
Public Health Practice
Public health practice pieces focus on issues and interventions relating to public health practice. These pieces must thoroughly describe a program/intervention, including its goals/purpose, location(s), implementation dates, population, program implementation, program evaluation (including unintended consequences), program sustainability, and program impact on public health.
Editor's Choice
If you have a submission that does not fall into any of the above categories, but is pertinent to the field of public health and the scope of the Journal, consider submitting your piece under the Editor's Choice option.
Contact Publishing Services | Acceptable Use of IT Resources
The copyright of these individual works published by the University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing remains with the original creator or editorial team. For uses beyond those covered by law or the Creative Commons license, permission to reuse should be sought directly from the copyright owner listed on each article.
