Instructions for Author
About the Journal: SAJPH is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal published by the University of the Punjab, dedicated to rigorous and policy relevant research in public health, epidemiology, nutrition, and allied health disciplines. Submissions outside the scope may be declined at the initial stage without external review.
Article Types and Length: The journal welcomes several submission types: Original Research (Observational Studies: Cross-sectional study, Case-Control study and Cohort study), Interventional studies (Randomized controlled trial - RCT, Quasi-Experimental study etc), Qualitative Research, Narrative and Scoping Reviews, Systematic Reviews, Meta-analyses, Policy Analyses, Commentaries, Perspective/Opinions and Letters to the Editor. Research articles and Reviews should fall between 3,000 and 6,000 words (abstract, tables & references excluded). Shorter communications such as Commentaries, Opinions, and Letters should be 1,500 words. The total word count must be written on the title page.
Manuscript Preparation and Formatting: Manuscripts should typically include: (1) Cover/Title page (submitted separately for blinded review), (2) Main Manuscript: a separate file that should include the following: (a) Title, (b) Structured abstract (up to 250 words), (c) Keywords (4 to 6 keywords in alphabetical order following the abstract). Keywords must be from the Medical Subject Headings MeSH list of Index Medicus, (d) Main text with clear section headings (Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results/Findings, Discussion, Conclusions), (e) Tables and figures with descriptive captions should be included in the manuscript and not separately, (f) Back matter: Author Contributions, Use of AI declaration, Funding, Institutional Review Board (IRB/ERC) Statement, Informed Consent Statement, Data Availability Statement, Acknowledgments, Conflicts of Interest and Supplementary Materials (g) References.
Cover page : A cover page enclosing the manuscript should be provided, presenting a clear and complete title of the article (not more than 12 words in length), names of authors, professional affiliations, contact details of authors, ORCID IDs, and a brief professional biography.
Formatting requirements include use of the official SAJPH MS Word template (can be found at this link). Papers should be carefully written and presented. "Times New Roman" should be used as the font style for the text. The font size for the main heading should be 14 (bold), sub heading should be 12 (bold) and text should be 12. Margins should be 1 inch for all sides. Figures and tables should be in coordination with the text. Clear notes should be added at appropriate point of insertion in text. It is advised to write the full form of all abbreviations at first mention to develop clarity for the readers. An abstract (up to 250 words) should be written in IMRAD format: Background, Methodology, Results and Conclusions along with 5 to 6 keywords in alphabetical order following the abstract. A graphical abstract should be provided following the text abstract that not only summarizes the main points, but also visually highlights the article's topic in an engaging manner. It must be an original, unpublished artwork and high-quality illustration or diagram available in PNG or JPEG formats. Line numbering is recommended to facilitate peer review. To ensure double-blind review, the main manuscript must not include any identifiable information of the authors.
Submission, Review and Revision: All submissions shall be made to the editors at the official email ID sajph@pu.edu.pk. The corresponding author is responsible for the manuscript during submission and the peer-review process. All manuscripts undergo an initial editorial screening (scope alignment, ethical compliance and originality (plagiarism) by the editors personally, followed, where appropriate, by double-blind external peer review. Editorial decisions are based on novelty, scientific and methodological rigor and adherence to ethical standards. After peer review process, authors are notified of the reviewers' comments or suggestions and required to revise their research within a certain time frame. This must include a point-by-point response to the reviewer's comments, either annotated or submitted separately as a Rebuttal Letter.
Ethics, Authorship and Integrity: SAJPH maintains strict adherence to internationally recognised ethical standards (Committee on Publication Ethics). Authors must ensure that human or animal studies received prior ethics committee approval, participants provided informed consent where applicable, and clinical trials were prospectively registered. A letter or certificate by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Ethics Review Committee (ERC) should be provided with the manuscript. Authorship follows ICMJE criteria https://www.icmje.org/ and any change in authorship after submission needs written agreement from all authors along with editorial approval. Generative AI tools may be used responsibly during manuscript preparation for language editing and grammar correction but never replace scientific judgment, critical thinking or human interpretation. All submissions are screened with Turnitin plagiarism detection software. The overall similarity index must not exceed 19%, with no single source above 5%.
References and Data: A list of references should be provided at the end of the manuscript in alphabetical order. For in-text citations, the author's name should be followed by the date of publication in parentheses, e.g.: David (2010) or (David, 2010). References from multiple sources should be written in alphabetical order within parentheses using semicolons to separate them, e.g., (David, 2010; Wilson, 2012). In case of quotations and definitions, the page number should be mentioned in parentheses with the citation such as (David, 2010, p. 02). DOI Number should be mentioned in all references where available. Most of the references should be from last five years from the date of submission. For further details about formatting and referencing, consult the APA 7th edition.
Publication Charges and Copyright: Once the manuscript is accepted, the authors are required to pay publication charges (APC) of Rs. 25,000/ either by bank challan or transfer to the journal's UBL account (details provided on acceptance). A proof of payment should be emailed to the Editorial Office with manuscript ID. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right to publish their work under the CC BY 4.0 licence.