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Public Health

Instructions for authors

Public Health is intended for the publication of papers on all aspects of preventive medicine, public health and social medicine. Papers describing original epidemiological studies are particularly invited. Those describing a particular event (eg outbreak of infectious disease) should be submitted as soon as possible.

Correspondence. All manuscripts and editorial correspondence should be sent to the Editor, and addressed as follows:

Dr RCB Slack, Editor : Public Health
The Royal Institute of Public Health and Hygiene and Society of Public Health,
28 Portland Place, London W1N 4DE, UK
Tel: +44 20 7580 8359
Fax: +44 20 7580 6157
E-mail: public.health@RIPHH.org.uk

Books for review should also be sent to the Editor at the above address.

Manuscripts. Papers should be clear, precise and logical and should not normally exceed 3000 words. The manuscript must be typewritten, on one side of the paper only, double-spaced throughout with margins on both sides of at least one inch. The author should submit an additional copy together with their manuscript to the editor and retain a copy for their own reference. Words to appear in italics should be underlined. Headings should not be underlined. Extensive use of italics and emboldening within the text should be avoided.

Papers should be set out as follows:

1. Title page bearing title, all authors' initials, surname, main degrees (2 only) and the name and location of the institution(s) where the work was done. The author to whom proofs and correspondence should be sent should be clearly indicated.
2. Summary. This should briefly outline the content of the paper and the main conclusions. Keywords (3-6) should follow the summary.
3. Introduction.
4. Methods.
5. Results.
6. Discussion.
7. Acknowledgements.
8. References. Tables and figures should be kept to a minimum. Tables must be comprehensible without reference to the text. References should not be cited in the tables. Authors should indicate at approximately what point in the text the table should appear.

Figures, graphs, drawings etc should not be over complex and must be intelligible when reduced in size for printing. They should be on separate sheets, numbered and executed in black ink. Legends should be grouped on a separate sheet.

References. References should be cited using superscript figures in the text, and listed at the end of the text in order of citation in the following forms:

1 Reid DD. The beginning of bronchitis. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine 1969; 62: 311-316.

2 Jeffreys M. An Anatomy of Social Welfare Services. Michael Joseph: London, 1969.

Authors should personally verify the accuracy of every reference before submitting the paper for publication, and should ensure that the listed references correspond exactly to those in the text.

Proofs. One marked copy of the proofs will be sent to the author who should return the corrected proof to the publishers with the minimum of delay. Corrections to the proofs should be limited to the correction of printer's errors.

Copyright/Offprints. Authors submitting a manuscript do so on the understanding that if it is accepted for publication, exclusive copyright in the paper shall be assigned to the Society of Public Health. Copyright forms must be returned promptly to the publishers. Twenty-five free offprints will be sent to the corresponding author of each paper. Extra reprints can be ordered from the publishers. The Society will not put any limitation on the personal freedom of the author to use material contained in the paper in other works.

Guidance to authors. For guidance in the preparation of papers authors are referred to

Wilson, GS. Monthly Bulletin of Ministry of Health 1965; 24: 280; 'General notes on the preparation of scientific papers' The Royal Society: London, 1965.
International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (1988) 'Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals'. Br Med J 1988; 296: 401-405.

Business correspondence and enquiries relating to advertising, subscriptions, backnumbers or reprints should be addressed to the relevant person at Nature Publishing Group, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, UK.

Last Updated 21 March 2001