About the Journal

ABOUT US

The Health Research and Development Journal (HRDJ) is the official journal of the Institute of Health Research and Development, affiliated with the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital. It is an open access double-blind peer-reviewed journal that fosters dynamic discourse and disseminates knowledge in health research. HRDJ covers clinical studies, public health, clinical trials, translational and interdisciplinary research, and welcomes contributions from researchers globally. HRDJ is published twice a year (June and November).

Content We Consider: HRDJ publishes original research articles, review articles, short communications and perspectives in various fields of health research, including but not limited to clinical studies, public health, translational and interdisciplinary research. HRDJ publishes research from various medical disciplines including Medicine, Surgery, Community Medicine, Nursing, Medical Laboratory Sciences, Dietetics, Medical Radiography, Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, Clinical Pharmacy etc. In addition, HRDJ also publishes health-related research articles from other disciplines such as Architecture, Business, Economics, Engineering, Finance, and Social Sciences among others.

Article Processing Charge: The APC covers the cost of peer review, editing, publishing, maintaining, and archiving. Details on the APC will be available soon; however, the first two issues of this journal have been sponsored and are therefore free of charge.

 

EDITORIAL POLICIES

Open Access and Creative Commons Licencing: HRDJ is open access, and its articles are shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial ShareAlike 4.0 License. This permits others to remix, adapt, and build upon the work for non-commercial purposes, provided proper credit is given and any new creations are licensed under the same terms.

Data Availability: Submission of a manuscript to HRDJ implies that materials described in the manuscript, including all relevant raw data, will be freely available to any scientist wishing to use them for non-commercial purposes, without breaching participant confidentiality.

Study Pre-Registration: HRDJ supports the prospective registration of protocols and encourages authors to register their research in a suitable registry (such as PROSPERO for Systematic reviews and CENTRAL for Clinical Trials). Authors who have registered their protocols should include the registration number as the last line of the manuscript abstract.

Peer Review Policy: Peer-review is the system used to assess the quality of a manuscript before it is published. Independent researchers in the relevant research area assess submitted manuscripts for originality, validity, and significance to help editors determine whether the manuscript should be published in their journal.

Manuscripts submitted to HRDJ are assessed by our editors and/or peer reviewers. Editors are expected to obtain a minimum of two peer reviewers for manuscripts reporting primary research or secondary analysis of primary research. In some exceptional circumstances, it may not be possible to obtain two independent peer reviewers. In such cases, editors may decide to publish based on one peer review report.

Overall editorial responsibility for the journal is with the Editor, with Editorial Board Members acting as handling editors.

Ethical Considerations: Research involving human participants, human material, or human data, must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee. A statement detailing this, including the name of the ethics committee and the reference number where appropriate, must appear in all manuscripts reporting such research. If a study has been granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript.

Consent for Publication: For all research involving human participants, informed consent to participate in the study should be obtained from participants (or their parent or legal guardian in the case of children under 16) and a statement to this effect should appear in the manuscript. Consent must be obtained for all forms of personally identifiable data including biomedical, clinical, and biometric data.

Standards of Reporting: HRDJ advocates complete and transparent reporting of biomedical and biological research. Authors are encouraged to refer to the minimum reporting guidelines for health research hosted by the EQUATOR Network (https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/) when preparing their manuscript.

Competing Interests: HRDJ requires authors to declare all competing interests in relation to their work. All submitted manuscripts must include a ‘competing interests’ section at the end of the manuscript listing all competing interests (financial and non-financial). Where authors have no competing interests, the statement should read “The author(s) declare(s) that they have no competing interests”. The Editor may ask for further information relating to competing interests.

Funding: Authors must disclose all sources of funding for their research, specifying the role of each funding agency in the study design, data collection, analysis, and publication decisions. This information should be included in the acknowledgement section of the manuscript. Transparency in funding is crucial for maintaining the integrity and trustworthiness of the research, allowing readers to understand potential influences on the study. Authors should also declare any potential conflicts of interest arising from the funding sources.

Copyright Policy: As an author of an article published in HRDJ, you retain the copyright of your article, and you are free to reproduce and disseminate your work.

Anti-Plagiarism Policy: Our journal has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. All manuscripts undergo plagiarism checks using reliable software. Any work found to contain plagiarism, including self-plagiarism, will be rejected. Authors must ensure their work is original and properly cited. Violations may lead to article retraction and notification of the authors' institutions.

Authorship: Authorship provides credit for a researcher’s contributions to a study and carries accountability. Authors are expected to fulfil the criteria below:

  • Each author is expected to have made substantial contributions to at least one of the following:
    • Conception or design of the work
    • Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data
    • Drafting the work or substantively revising it
  • In addition, they should have approved the submitted version (and any substantially modified version involving the author's contribution to the study)
  • And have agreed to both be personally accountability for their own contributions and to ensure questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work, even those they were not personally involved, are appropriately investigated, resolved, and documented in the literature

Corresponding Authors: Corresponding authors are responsible for ensuring that all listed authors have approved the manuscript before submission, including the names and order of authors, and that all authors receive the submission and all substantive correspondence with editors, as well as the full reviews, verifying that all data, figures, materials (including reagents), and code, even those developed or provided by other authors, comply with the transparency and reproducibility standards of both the field and journal.

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 writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support. Sources of funding should also be included here.

Third-Party Submissions: All manuscripts must be submitted by an author and may not be submitted by a third party.

Author Name Change: An author who has changed their name for reasons may request for their name, pronouns, and other relevant biographical information to be corrected on papers published prior to the change.

Artificial Intelligence (AI): Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, do not currently satisfy our authorship criteria. Use of an LLM should be properly documented in the Methods section of the manuscript. Non-generative machine learning tools should be disclosed in the relevant caption upon submission to allow a case-by-case review.

Appeals and Complaints: At HRDJ, we ensure fairness and integrity in our editorial process. Authors may appeal rejections by submitting a formal letter within 30 days, stating their reasons and new evidence. Complaints about editorial conduct or publication ethics should be submitted in writing to the Editor-in-Chief, who will investigate and resolve the issue within 60 days. If dissatisfied, the complainant can request further review by the editorial board. We are committed to transparency and continual improvement based on feedback.

Communicate with Respect: At HRDJ, our staff are expected to always behave professionally and respectfully when engaging with authors, reviewers, and readers. Likewise, we expect the same standards of behaviour from the academic community and the public in their interactions with our staff. We do not tolerate aggressive behaviour, or any form of harassment, bullying, or discrimination.

Submission of Manuscripts: All manuscripts must be submitted online through the website. First-time users will have to register at this site. Registration is free but mandatory. Registered authors can keep track of their articles after logging into the site using their username and password. Before submitting a manuscript, contributors are requested to check that it adheres to for the latest submission guidelines available on the website.