International Journal of Social Determinants of Health and Health Services
The International Journal of Social Determinants of Health and Health Services is a peer-reviewed journal that delivers articles on political economy, social policy and inequalities, ecology and labor, and history and philosophy in the areas of health, quality of life and well-being. IJSDOHS provides analysis of developments in the health and social sectors of every area of the world, including relevant scholarly articles, position papers, and stimulating debates about the most controversial issues of the day. The journal is of interest to public health professionals, researchers and practitioners, as well as social scientists, organizations and activists with an interest in population health and health equity.
| Joan Benach | Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain, The Johns Hopkins University, USA |
| Carles Muntaner Bonet | University of Toronto, Canada, The Johns Hopkins University, USA |
| David Himmelstein | CUNY, New York, and Harvard University, USA |
| Steffie Woolhandler | CUNY, New York, and Harvard University, USA |
| Vicente Navarro | The Johns Hopkins University, USA |
| Matt Anderson | Albert Einstein College of Medicine, USA |
| Francisco Armada | Universidad Bolivariana, Venezuela |
| Alexis Benos | Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece |
| Anne-Emanuelle Birn | University of Toronto, Canada |
| Patrick Bond | University of Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Carme Borrell | Public Health Agency of Barcelona, Spain |
| Bo Burström | Karolinska Institute, Sweden |
| Paola Calvasina | FIOCRUZ, Brazil |
| Robert Chernomas | University of Manitoba, Canada |
| David Coburn | University of Toronto, Canada |
| H.-U. Deppe | Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Germany |
| Finn Diderichsen | University of Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Lesley Doyal | University of Bristol, UK |
| Adam Gaffney | Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA |
| Walter Korpi | Swedish Institute for Social Research, Sweden |
| Nancy Krieger | Harvard University, USA |
| Asa Cristina Laurell | Independent |
| Joel Lexchin | York University, Canada |
| Karen Messing | Quebec, Canada |
| Joakim Palme | Uppsala University, Sweden |
| Frances Fox Piven | City University of New York, USA |
| Mary Sheehan | Johns Hopkins University, USA |
| Orielle Solar | FLACSO and University of Chile, Chile |
| David Stuckler | Bocconi University, Italy, University of Cambridge, UK |
| Leif Svanström | Karolinska Institute, Sweden |
| Göran Therborn | University of Cambridge, UK |
| Howard Waitzkin | University of New Mexico, USA |
| Margaret Whitehead | University of Liverpool, UK |
| Wei Zhang | Tsinghua University, China |
| Sawsan Abdulrahim | American University of Beirut, Lebanon |
| Howard Berliner | New School University, USA |
| Haejoo Chung, RPh, MSc PhD | Korea University, Korea |
| Hesio Cordeiro | University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| Göran Dahlgren | University of Liverpool, UK |
| Nihaya Daoud | Ben-Gurion University of Negev, Israel |
| Abram de Swaan | University of Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Lisa Dubay | Urban Institute, USA |
| Stephen Gloyd | University of Washington, USA |
| Virginia Gunn | University of Toronto, Canada |
| Christer Hogstedt | Karolinska Institutet, Sweden |
| Lauri Kokkinen | University of Tampere, Finland |
| Debb Finn Mahabir | MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions, Canada |
| Meredith Minkler | University of California, Berkeley, USA |
| Masahiko Ohira | Okayama University Medical School, Japan |
| Liu Pei-Long | Ministry of Health and Peking University, Republic of China |
| Jack Salmon | University of Illinois at Chicago, USA |
| Atanu Sarkar | Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada |
| Claudio Schuftan | People's Health Movement, Vietnam |
| Alex Scott-Samuel | University of Liverpool, UK |
| Leiyu Shi | Johns Hopkins University, USA |
| Alicia Stolkiner | University of Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Alexander Telyukov | Institute for Economic Studies, Russia |
| Gianni Tognoni | Maggiore Policlinico Hospital, Italy |
| K. Gunnar Wennstrom | National Board of Health and Welfare, Sweden |
Please read the guidelines below then visit the International Journal of Social Determinants of Health and Health Services (IJSDOHS)’s submission site 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.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of IJSDOHS will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.
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 IJSDOHS 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.
1. What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper
2. Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
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
3.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving
4. Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Supplemental material
4.4 Journal layout
4.5 Reference style
4.6 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 Online First 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 IJSDOHS, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
1.2 Article types
- Original Research
- Research Reviews
- Policy Analyses
- Reports
The overall length of each of these should not exceed 8,500 words, including all elements (abstract, text, references, tables, footnotes).
The Journal does not have a limit on the number of references allowed.
1.3 Writing your paper
The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice on how to get published, plus links to further resources.
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
2. Editorial Policies
2.1 Peer review policy
IJSDOHS operates an anonymized peer review process in which the reviewer’s name is withheld from the author and, the author’s name from the reviewer. The reviewer may at their own discretion opt to reveal their name to the author in their review but, at the discretion of the Editorial Board, our standard policy practice is for both identities to remain concealed.
All manuscripts are reviewed initially by the Editors and only those papers that meet the scientific and editorial standards of the Journal, and fit within the aims and scope of the Journal, will be sent for outside review. Decisions on manuscripts will be taken as rapidly as possible. Authors should expect to have reviewer’s comments within approximately 6 weeks. Authors are requested to suggest the names, affiliations, and contact information of up to six individuals who may be suitable to serve as referees, but the Editors.
IJSDOHS 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 the journal 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.
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.
2.2 Authorship
Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. 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:
- Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,
- Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
- Approved the version to be published,
- 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, multicentre 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 acknowledgments separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.
2.3.1 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
IJSDOHS 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 IJSDOHS 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 acknowledgments, 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.
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
2.7 Clinical trials
IJSDOHS 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 enrolment 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 supplementary 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 supplementary file. The EQUATOR wizard can help you identify the appropriate guideline.
Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives
2.9. Research Data
At Sage we are committed to facilitating openness, transparency, and reproducibility of research. Where relevant, The Journal encourages authors to share their research data in a suitable public repository subject to ethical considerations and where data is included, to add a data accessibility statement in their manuscript file. Authors should also follow data citation principles. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway, which includes information about Sage’s partnership with the data repository Figshare.
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
IJSDOHS 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 acknowledgment, 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
IJSDOHS 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.
4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
4.1 Formatting
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
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 Journal layout
The manuscript must be prepared as follows:
- Double-spaced throughout, including abstract, text, notes, references, and tables
- Margins of 1½ inches, left and right, top and bottom
- Minimum 12 point font
- Begin page numbering on the first page of text
- Overall length should not exceed 8,500 words, including all elements (abstract, text, references, tables, footnotes)
Arrange the manuscript as follows:
- Cover sheet: title of article; names of all authors; corresponding author's complete mailing address, telephone number, and e-mail address; date of submission. If any portion presented elsewhere, any necessary permission(s) for reprinting must be submitted with the manuscript
- Title page: title of article; full name of all authors; date of submission
- Biographic sketch for each author (professional background): submit this as a separate file from the cover sheet and title page, 150 words maximum
- Article abstract: format as one cohesive paragraph, 200 words maximum
- Running head (shortened version of title, 40 characters or less)
- Text (body of article): please make sure the file containing the text does not contain any author names or details, at it must be anonymous
- Acknowledgments
- Footnotes
- References
- Tables
- Figure captions
- Figures
Biographic sketch: Submit in paragraph form, typed double-spaced, approximately 150 words in length. Do not send a Curriculum Vitae. Provide specific information: present position; past positions; academic degrees, with dates and names of institutions; important publications; research interests. Submit a biography for each author, one per page.
Footnotes: Keep footnotes to a minimum (no more than 4 for a 20-page article). Whenever possible, incorporate information within the text rather than a footnote. Do not use footnotes for citing references. Type footnotes double-spaced on a separate page following the body of the manuscript. Number footnotes consecutively throughout the manuscript. Number footnotes in text with Arabic numerals typed above, as1, etc.
4.5 Reference style
IJSDOHS adheres to the AMA Manual of Style. View the guide here to ensure your manuscript conforms to this style.
4.6 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.
5. Submitting your manuscript
IJSDOHS is hosted on Sage Track, a web-based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ijhs 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 in 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 supplementary 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
6.1 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 Online First publication
Online First 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 Online First 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. In addition, Sage is partnered with Kudos, a free service that allows authors to explain, enrich, share, and measure the impact of their article. Find out how to maximize your article’s impact with Kudos.
7. Further information
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the IJSDOHS editorial office as follows:
Aeve Ribbons, Managing Editor
Email: ijsdohs@gmail.com
Phone: 410-955-3280
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