Author Instructions
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Australian Journal of Primary Health aims to provide its readers with information on issues influencing community health services and primary health care and on integrating theory and practice, utilising perspectives from a range of disciplines.
- Publishing Policies
- Peer review
- Authorship
- Licence to publish
- Open access
- Journal editorial policy
- Forum articles
- Research papers
- Reviews
- Practice & Innovation
- Letters
- Preparation of manuscripts
- Use of inclusive language
- Title page
- Title
- Keywords
- Abstract
- Summary text for the Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Data Availability Statement
- Conflicts of Interest
- Declaration of Funding
- Ethics approval
- Clinical Trials
- References
- Use of referencing software
- Tables
- Figures
- Page proofs
- Reprints
- Address for submissions
- Comprehensive Primary Health Care: Positioning the Australian Journal of Primary Health
Publishing Policies
Australian Journal of Primary Health insists on high standards of ethical behaviour throughout the publication process. Our journal editors work within the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Further information on our policies can be found at http://www.publish.csiro.au/py/PublishingPolicies.
Australian Journal of Primary Health adheres to the CSIRO Publishing policy on the use of Artificial Intelligence tools and technologies.
Authors
Artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT or Large Language Models (LLMs) do not meet the criteria for authorship and cannot be listed as an author on a manuscript, in accordance with the guidance of COPE. Use of AI tools in any aspect of the collection and analysis of data, generation of ideas or in preparation of a manuscript must be transparently disclosed in the manuscript (usually in the Materials and Methods section if available, otherwise in the Acknowledgements). The author(s) should describe how the AI tool was used, how the tool’s outputs were validated, and which tool was used (name, version, model, source).
Authors are responsible for the full content of their manuscript and are requested to check any part generated by an AI tool for accuracy and integrity, and to ensure all relevant sources are cited
Reviewers
An unpublished manuscript is a privileged document and should not be entered into LLMs or Chatbots. Entering any part of a manuscript or abstract, or the text of your review, into a chatbot, LLM, or similar tool is a violation of confidentiality. If such AI tools are used in a way that ensures confidentiality in the peer review process, reviewers must disclose and describe their use to the editor. Reviewers assume full responsibility for the review report they submit.
Peer review
Australian Journal of Primary Health is a peer-reviewed journal that uses a double-blind peer-review. The Editors-in-Chief are responsible to maintain high-quality peer-review of papers submitted to the journal and work together with an Editorial Panel and Board to ensure a thorough and fair peer-review and the highest scientific publishing standards. All submissions undergo preliminary assessment by an Editor-in-Chief, who may reject a paper before peer review when it is outside the journal’s scope or is of insufficient quality. Editorial Panel members select reviewers and after at least two review reports are received, they make the decision whether to accept/reject or send a manuscript for revision. The final decision is made by the Editorial Panel member.
Authorship
The conditions around authorship for Australian Journal of Primary Health should follow the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), for more information see http://www.publish.csiro.au/py/PublishingPolicies.
Licence to publish
For details regarding copyright, please see Copyright/Licence to Publish.
Open access
Authors may choose to publish their paper Open Access on payment of a publication fee. See Open Access for more details.
Journal editorial policy
Authors should obtain the appropriate clearances from their directors or supervisors before submission. Authors are encouraged to ensure their papers are in accord with the Journal´s implementation of Article VII of the Declaration of Alma Ata.
Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to use figures and tables previously published in other books or journals. It is also the reponsibility of the authors to check reproduced materials against the original for accuracy.
Forum articles
Forum articles should address important policy, research, service delivery or practice issues that have wider application to primary and community health. They should present new ideas, proposals and analyses through scholarly argument drawing on the literature and previous literature as appropriate. Forum papers should not exceed 4,000 words, (excluding Abstract) plus up to 25 references.
Research papers should present new findings on issues in primary and community health. Topics may include health services research, consumer research, implementation science, policy analyses and multi-disciplinary clinical studies. (Studies that report on clinical interventions involving single disciplines will not be accepted.)
All methodological approaches are acceptable. Authors should consider using reporting guidelines where relevant and helpful (e.g., CRISP, COREQ).
Papers should be limited to a maximum of 4,000 words (excluding Abstract) plus up to 25 references.
For qualitative research, quotations should be embedded in the text (rather than included as Tables) but are excluded from the word limit. A maximum of 5000 words is allowed for papers that include quotes.
Reviews
The Journal welcomes systematic review articles that conform to the current PRISMA guidelines for systematic reviews. They should be submitted in the same way as research papers. The focus of submitted reviews must be within the scope of the Journal.
The Journal also welcomes literature reviews. Authors are advised to discuss the review with the editors before submission. They should be formatted as simply as possible, using no more than three levels of heading and normal or body text style for the main text. Summary diagrams should be used where possible to reduce the amount of description required to introduce a topic.
High quality reviews accepted for publication may be selected by the Editors to be offered free open access. The Editors will be selecting one review article per issue to be made Gold Open Access, published under a Creative Commons Licence and freely available. All submitted reviews are eligible for consideration for ‘Editor’s Choice’ Open Access.
Some examples of Editor’s Choice Open Access systematic reviews are https://www.publish.csiro.au/PY/PY17178 and https://www.publish.csiro.au/PY/PY17088.
Reviews should be limited to a maximum 4,000 words (excluding Abstract).
Practice & Innovation
Practice & Innovation papers are different from research papers in some important ways. First, they may be about learning from practice. In the Journal context this requires clarity about the problem addressed, the context in which the practice is located, and how particular projects or practices add to our knowledge of ways to solve the problem. Second, they may be about exploring evidence-based practice. This may mean either that practices emerge from relevant research or evaluation, or it may mean exploration of evidence to practice processes and actions in their own right.
Walter et al. (2003)* describe a taxonomy of interventions reported in the literature on evidence-based policy and practice. In the taxonomy there are six categories of activity: professional, financial, organisational, patient-oriented, structural and regulatory interventions. Some interventions are about publicising research with potential users, and others are about promoting uptake of research findings by users. Some promote findings of particular research projects, others promote user engagement with researchers and accumulated bodies of knowledge, while yet others promote practices that required the acquisition of knowledge. For a more detailed discussion of these issues see the editorial in the November 2007 issue of the Journal.
*Walter I, Nutley S, Davies H (2003) Developing a taxonomy of interventions used to increase the impact of research. Research Unit for Research Utilisation, Department of Management, University of St Andrews, St Andrews.
Practice & Innovation papers need to be carefully and systematically written in a style, and with a structure, that is accessible to readers and builds upon existing knowledge. Practice & Innovation papers should be limited to a maximum of 4,000 words (excluding Abstract) plus up to 25 references.
A typical structure for a practice paper is the following:
- Introduction
- Context - policy or service context
- Review of literature on similar cases
- The case study or practice innovation
- What can be learnt from this case
- Conclusion
- References
The structure of a research to practice paper, which addresses some of the issues described by Walter et al. (2003), may have a structure more like the following:
- Introduction
- Discussion of the evidence base
- Discussion of the relevant links between researchers and practitioners
- Description of the initiative
- What was learnt or what resulted from the initiative
- Conclusion
- References
Letters
Letters should provide brief commentary on primary health policy, research and practice issues. They may include comments on articles published in the Journal. Letters should not exceed 600 words in length. Publication is at the discretion of the editors.
Preparation of manuscripts
Papers must be typed with double- or 1.5-line spacing throughout and with a margin of at least 3 cm on the left-hand side. All pages of the manuscript must be numbered consecutively, including those carrying references, tables and figure captions, all of which are to be placed after the text. All pages of the manuscript must contain line numbering to aid the referees in their task. llustrations, both line drawings and photographs, are to be numbered as figures in a common sequence, and each must be referred to in the text. Figures that are of the same quality as those to be reproduced in the published paper must be included and clearly numbered.
Use of inclusive language
These guidelines should be used to assist in identifying appropriate language, but are by no means exhaustive or definitive. Inclusive language comprises carefully chosen words and phrases that are respectful and promote the acceptance and value of all people. It is language which is free from words, phrases or tones that demean, insult, exclude, stereotype, or trivialise people on the basis of their membership of a certain group or because of a particular attribute. As such, inclusive language should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader, and contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on any grounds including but not limited to: age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition. We encourage the use of plural nouns (e.g., 'they' as default wherever possible instead of 'he/she'), and recommend avoiding the use of descriptors that refer to personal attributes, unless there is scientific or clinical relevance. For further guidance on inclusive language see Inclusive language | Style Manual. If there are questions about language use and/or publishing with regards to First Nations people, please contact the Journal.
Title page
The title page should include the manuscript title, author names, and institutional affiliations of authors (please give complete details including addresses), as well as any ethics approval, competing interests and acknowledgments that may spoil double-blind review. Information should be provided as shown in this template.
Title
The title should be concise and appropriately informative and should contain all keywords necessary to facilitate retrieval by modern searching techniques.
Keywords
A minimum of 8 key words or phrases are required to improve online discoverability of your work. These terms can be repeated from the title if necessary. List the keywords under the abstract, with terms separated by commas
Abstract
Abstracts should be no more than 250 words. Abstracts of Research Papers should be formatted to include the following labelled sections: Background; Methods; Results; Conclusions. Using these headings, the Abstract should state concisely why the study was done, what hypothesis was tested, and how the study was undertaken; should give the principal findings and conclusions; and should highlight the implications of the results. Abstracts of Review, Practice & Innovation and Forum papers do not need to be formatted with sections but should still provide a concise overview of the full manuscript. As a general rule, avoid including references and abbreviations in Abstracts.
Summary text for the Table of Contents
For forum, research, review, and practice & innovation articles authors are asked to provide a three-sentence paragraph of 50 to 80 words. This text will be included with your title in the table of contents that is available online; it is an opportunity to encourage people to read your article. Your first sentence should engage the reader, convincing them that this is an important area (i.e. what is known about the topic?). The second sentence should introduce the problem addressed in the paper and state your main discovery (i.e. what does the paper add?). The final sentence should describe how the results fit into the bigger picture (i.e. implications or impact of the discovery). It should be written for interested non-experts, such as journalists, teachers, government workers etc. The text should be free from scientific jargon and abbreviations (except for a few that are self-explanatory and universally understood, e.g. HIV/AIDS) and written at the level of an article in a science magazine. No references should be included. Colloquial terms and local details should not be included, and nor should the paper's country of origin (unless that is essential, pertinent information). Instead the statements should be framed globally.
Acknowledgments
The contribution of colleagues who do not meet all criteria for authorship should be acknowledged. Anyone included in the Acknowledgements section should have granted permission to be listed. Sources of financial support should be acknowledged in a separate ‘Declaration of Funding’ rather than here.
Data Availability Statement
CSIRO Publishing encourages authors to share the research data underlying their papers to support transparency and reproducibility of research. A Data Availability Statement must be included at the end of the manuscript indicating whether the data used to generate the results in the paper are available and, if so, where to access them. For more information on CSIRO Publishing’s data sharing policy and for examples of what to include in the data availability statement please see https://www.publish.csiro.au/journals/publishingpolicies#6.
Authors can get credit for their work by citing their research data in the reference list of their article. Citations should include at a minimum: all authors, year of publication, title of dataset, record ID, publisher. DOI or URL if available. Examples of how to cite research data:
Wang L, Edwards D, Bailey A, Carr L, Boreham C, Grosjean E, Anderson J, Jarrett A, MacFarlane S, Southby C, Carson C, Khider K, Palu T, Henson P (2021) Well log data analysis and interpretation on the pre-Carboniferous succession in Waukarlycarly 1, Canning Basin, Western Australia. Record 2021/003 [Dataset]. Geoscience Australia, Canberra. Available at http://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/144547
Fiddes S, Pepler A, Saunders K, Hope P (2020) Southern Australia’s climate regions (Version 1.0.0) [Dataset] Zenodo. doi:10.5281/zenodo.4265471
Digital Earth Australia (2021) Wetlands Insight Tool Queensland Wetlands Polygons. Version 1.0.0 [Dataset]. Geoscience Australia, Canberra. Available at http://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/144795
Conflicts of Interest
Under a subheading ´Conflicts of Interest´ at the end of the text all authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with organisations or people that could inappropriately influence their work. If there is no conflict of interest, please include the statement "The authors declare no conflicts of interest".
Declaration of Funding
Under a subheading ´Declaration of Funding´ at the end of the text authors are required to declare all sources of funding for the research and/or preparation of the article, and the inclusion of grant numbers is recommended. Authors should declare sponsor names along with explanations of the role of those sources if any in the preparation of the data or manuscript or the decision to submit for publication; or a statement declaring that the supporting source had no such involvement. If no funding has been provided for the research, please include the following sentence: 'This research did not receive any specific funding'.
Ethics approval
In reporting research regarding human subjects, authors are required to document that a formally constituted review board (Institutional Review Board or Ethics committee) has granted approval for the research to be done, or that the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki regarding human experimentation have been met. Investigators who do not have access to an institutional review board are required to provide a statement to the editor outlining why it was not possible to gain formal ethics approval. If the study is judged exempt from review, a statement from the committee is required. Authors should make an ethics statement within the manuscript to this effect. Authors should also state that the research was undertaken with appropriate informed consent of participants or guardians. CSIRO Publishing also follows CSIRO’s own guidelines on ethical human research.
Clinical Trials
Articles on clinical trials should contain abstracts that include items the CONSORT group has identified as essential. When reporting a randomised controlled trial (RCT) include the trial registration number at the end of the abstract. When reporting on a RCT, list the trial registration number at the first instance of using the trial acronym whenever a registration number is available.
References
References are cited chronologically in the text by author and date and are not numbered. All references in the text must be listed at the end of the paper, with the names of authors arranged alphabetically; all entries in this list must correspond to references in the text. In the text, the names of two co-authors are linked by ´and´; for three or more the first author´s name is followed by ´et al.´. No editorial responsibility can be taken for the accuracy of the references and authors are requested to check these with special care. The following are examples of the style required for citing a journal article, whole book, book chapter and website.
- Isaksson G, Skar L, Lexell J (2005) Women´s perception of changes in the social network after a spinal cord injury. Disability and Rehabilitation 27, 131-141.
- Bamert R, Dillon J (Eds) (2007) ´Promoting teamwork in community care.´ (Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK)
- Johnson H (2002) Emerging trends in mental health: implications for social work. In ´Social work practice in mental health: contemporary roles, tasks, and techniques´. (Ed. K Bentley) pp. 361-391. (Brooks and Cole: Pacific Grove, CA, USA)
- Black Dog Institute (2009) ´Bipolar disorder explained.´ (Black Dog Institute: Sydney, NSW, Australia) Available at http://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/public/bipolardisorder/index.cfm [Verified 26 June 2008]
Use of referencing software
If using ´EndNote´ software, you can obtain the style file for this journal at http://www.endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp.
Tables
Editable tables should be prepared in Word using the 'Table' tool (not tabs), without any hard returns within cells, or can be set up in Excel. Number each table and refer to it in the text (Table 1, Table 2, etc.) in order of appearance. There is no need to add instructions on the placement of tables as long as each table is referred to in the text. Do not provide tables as images.
Table titles should be concise and clear and should fully explain the table. Use sentence case throughout the table. Supporting information relating to the whole table and definitions for any symbols, abbreviations or acronyms used in the table should be included as table footnotes. Additional information relating to specific cells should be placed as table footnotes using superscript capital letters as identifiers. Symbols for units of measurement should be placed in parentheses beneath the column heading.
Tables should appear at the end of the main document, not within the text. Keep tables as simple as possible, without excessive subdivision of column headings.
Figures
Figures should be supplied as separate files but the captions should be included in the main document (at the end). Refer to each figure in the text (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc.), and number each figure according to the order in which it appears in the text. There is no need to add instructions on placement of figures as long as each figure is referred to in the text. If your figure has multiple parts label with (a), (b), (c), etc. and place the labels in the top left of each image where possible. Figure parts can be supplied as separate images if needed. Please make sure all images are supplied are at highest possible resolution.
Format
Where possible, line diagrams (graphs, charts, etc.) should be provided as editable files and prepared using either a graphics or chart/graph program such as MacDraw, Illustrator, CorelDraw, Excel, Sigmaplot, Harvard Graphics or Cricket Graph and files should be saved in one of the following formats: encapsulated PostScript (EPS), Illustrator or Excel (provided the Excel files have been saved with the chart encapsulated in it). The submission of scanned images or illustrations prepared in a paint program, e.g. Photoshop (and PICT and JPEG files) is discouraged, because of the difficulty in making editorial corrections to these files. If illustrations must be created in a paint program, save the file as a TIFF or EPS (these files should be 600 dpi for line drawings and 300 dpi for halftone figures). Photographs can be supplied in the highest resolution possible.
Fonts
Please prepare figures using a standard sans serif font. Arial preferred. Font sizes for main axis labels, part labels should not be more than 8pt. Legends and data points should be 7pt font size where possible. Font should never be smaller than 5pt to ensure readability.
Style
- Use sentence case for text within figures
- Use Australian English spelling (ise, not ize, etc.) throughout
- Use 'and' not '&'
- For ranges in numbers (5–10) or minus signs (–20) please use an en rule rather than a hyphen as this is clearer for the reader.
Graphs
Should be prepared with one main x and y axis line. Grid lines are not required. Line weight of x- and y-axes should be ~1.0 (not below 0.7). State on the axes of a graph what is being measured and give the appropriate units in parentheses. Ensure any symbols/colours used are explained in a legend on the figure, or in the caption. Ensure numbers on axes have the same number of decimal places.
Maps
Ensure north is identified and a scale is provided. Ensure any symbols used are fully explained in a legend within the figure, or the caption. If maps are taken from Google Earth (or similar) please ensure attribution information is retained either on the figure, or provided in the caption.
Photographs
Ensure that permission has been gained by the copyright holder of the photograph and include a photographer credit in your caption. If your photograph contains people, please ensure that they have provided permission for their image to be published.
Captions
Captions should be concise and clear and should fully explain the figure. Explain any symbols or abbreviations used in the caption of the figure, or in a legend. If your figure has multiple parts, ensure each part is explained in the caption. If your figure is a photograph, ensure the photographer is credited in the caption.
Colour figures in print
Colour is free of charge in the online versions of your paper. Colour charges are incurred only if you want colour in the print version of the journal, see Publishing Charges for details.
If your figure files are too large for upload to ScholarOne please ensure you let CSIRO Publishing know as soon as your paper is accepted and an alternative transfer will be arranged. Note: Figures used in the final paper will be based on what is provided – if the quality is low in the original, it will remain low in the final publication.
Authors are responsible for obtaining prior permission from the copyright holder for the use of figures/images from other publications. Authors may be charged a fee by the copyright holder for such reuse.
Page proofs
We will send page proofs to the corresponding author as PDF files. They must be returned to the production editor within the time specified. Major alterations to the text and illustrations are accepted only when absolutely necessary.
Reprints
The publisher will provide a final version of the paper free of charge as a high-resolution PDF. Authors may purchase hard copies and order them from the publisher when the proofs are returned. Hard copies (if ordered) are sent out a few weeks after online publication.
Address for submissions
To submit your paper, please use our online journal management system ScholarOne Manuscripts, which can be reached directly through this link or from the link on the journal´s homepage. If a first-time user, register via the ´Register here´ link, or use your existing username and password to log in. Then click on the ´Author Centre´ link and proceed.
A covering letter must accompany the submission and should include the name, address, fax and telephone numbers, and email address of the corresponding author.
For general enquiries not related to submissions please contact:
Attention: Jenny Macmillan
Australian Journal of Primary Health
c/o Australian Institute for Primary Care and Ageing
La Trobe University
Bundoora, Vic. 3086
Australia
Telephone +[61 3] 9479 1772
Fax +[61 3] 9479 5977
Email j.macmillan@latrobe.edu.au
Comprehensive Primary Health Care: Positioning the Australian Journal of Primary Health
Article VII of the declaration of Alma Ata describes the elements of primary health care. They are reproduced in the table below together with the Journal´s implementation of these principles.
| Article VII Declaration of Alma Ata (WHO & UNICEF 1978) | Australian Journal of Primary Health (AJPH) – implementation of the principles |
| 1. Reflects and evolves from the economic conditions and socio-cultural and political characteristics of the country and its communities and is based on the application of the relevant results of social, biomedical and health services research and public health experience. | We publish papers that build the evidence base for the Australian primary health care system. Because other journals focus on biomedical perspectives these should be a low priority for the AJPH. The WHO concept of health as being about social, physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing underpins the primary health care approach. |
| 2. Addresses the main health problems in the community, providing promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative services accordingly. | The AJPH selection of topics should be strongly influenced by Australian health problems and could address issues across the continuum of care from health promotion to rehabilitation. This does not preclude international papers addressing universal issues. Some of the universal issues are captured in the Reform agenda described in the World Health Report of 2008 summarised below this table. |
| 3. Includes at least: education concerning prevailing health problems and the methods of preventing and controlling them; promotion of food supply and proper nutrition; an adequate supply of safe water and basic sanitation; maternal and child health care, including family planning; immunization against the major infectious diseases; prevention and control of locally endemic diseases; appropriate treatment of common diseases and injuries; and provision of essential drugs. | Each of these topics is appropriate as are others reflective of the Australian context, for example Indigenous health and multicultural issues. The approach taken to these issues should reflect point 1 above. |
| 4. Involves, in addition to the health sector, all related sectors and aspects of national and community development, in particular agriculture, animal husbandry, food, industry, education, housing, public works, communications and other sectors; and demands the coordinated efforts of all those Sectors. | Collaborative research and practice undertaken with the sectors influencing the social determinants and pre-requisites for health are relevant to the AJPH. The emphasis of the papers should be on the health issues or health effects. |
| 5. Requires and promotes maximum community and individual self-reliance and participation in the planning, organization, operation and control of primary health care, making fullest use of local, national and other available resources; and to this end develops through appropriate education the ability of communities to participate. | Papers on individual and community capacity to influence health and the participation if individuals and communities in planning and decision-making are relevant to the AJPH. This includes self care, organised self help, and chronic disease self management. |
| 6. Should be sustained by integrated, functional and mutually supportive referral systems, leading to the progressive improvement of comprehensive health care for all, and giving priority to those most in need. | Papers addressing people centred service systems, linkages within the primary health care system, across the boundaries into secondary and tertiary care, and links with social care that address the needs of disadvantaged individuals and populations, are relevant to the AJPH. Equity and social justice issues relevant to health and wellbeing are also relevant. |
| 7. Relies, at local and referral levels, on health workers, including physicians, nurses, midwives, auxiliaries and community workers as applicable, as well as traditional practitioners as needed, suitably trained socially and technically to work as a health team and to respond to the expressed health needs of the community. | Papers addressing multi-disciplinary team work and interagency partnerships to address community needs are relevant. |
The World Health Report (WHO 2008) argues that there are a number of health reforms relevant to primary health care systems around the world. These are apparent at the point of convergence between: “the evidence on what is needed for an effective response to the health challenges of today’s world, the values of equity, solidarity and social justice that drive the PHC movement, and the growing expectations of the population in modernizing societies” (WHO 2008:xvi). These reforms should ensure that:
- that health systems contribute to health equity, social justice and the end of exclusion, primarily by moving towards universal access and social health protection – universal coverage reforms;
- reforms that reorganize health services as primary care, i.e. around people’s needs and expectations, so as to make them more socially relevant and more responsive to the changing world while producing better outcomes – service delivery reforms;
- reforms that secure healthier communities, by integrating public health actions with primary care and by pursuing healthy public policies across sectors – public policy reforms;
- reforms that replace disproportionate reliance on command and control on one hand, and laissez-faire disengagement of the state on the other, by the inclusive, participatory, negotiation-based leadership required by the complexity of contemporary health systems – leadership reforms (WHO 2008:xvi).
References
WHO (2008) World Health Report 2008: Primary health care – Now more than ever. World health Organization, Geneva.
WHO and UNICEF (1978) Declaration of Alma Ata. International Conference on Primary Health Care, Alma-Ata, USSR, 6-12 September
