Journal of Health and Human Services Administration

Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Journal of Health and Human Services Administration

The Journal of Health and Human Services Administration is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.

Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal of Health and Human Services Administration’s submission site [ https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jhx ] 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.

Sage disseminates high-quality research and engaged scholarship globally, and we are committed to diversity and inclusion in publishing. We encourage submissions from a diverse range of authors from across all countries and backgrounds.

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of the Journal of Health and Human Services Administration will be reviewed.

There are no fees payable to submit or publish in the Journal of Health and Human Services Administration.

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 of Health and Human Services Administration (JHHSA) 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 JHHSA will consider submissions of papers that have been posted on preprint 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 to a preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in JHHSA. If your paper is accepted, you will need to contact the preprint server to ensure the final published article link is attached to your preprint. Learn more about our preprint policy here.

If you have any questions about publishing with Sage, please visit the Sage Journal Solutions Portal.

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 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 Identifiable information
   4.4 Supplemental material
   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?

The Journal of Health and Human Services Administration (JHHSA) publishes original theoretical and empirical research focused on management and administration in health care and human services organizations. JHHSA adopts a broad perspective of health care, human services, and management and administration. The journal encourages submissions that focus on traditional public and nonprofit health care organizations, including hospitals and health systems, nursing homes, ambulatory care or outpatient clinics, and private practices, and in a variety of public, private, or nonprofit human services agencies. In addition to these areas, the journal embraces a healthy communities model that includes five dimensions of health, including:

• Individual health (healthy behaviors and outcomes health disparities)
• Environmental health (clean air and clean water; community safety)
• Civic health (citizen engagement and voluntary behavior)
• Community health (socialization; availability of health care and social services)
• Economic health (robust and diverse local economy).

Authors writing on any of these topics should ensure that manuscripts are substantively focused on or provide implications for issues of management and administration.

Manuscripts should be written in a clear and concise manner accessible to a broad audience that may include academics, clinicians, and other practitioners from a number of different specializations. Given the focus on health and human services, some types of clinical or technical language may be necessary; authors should ensure that any technical language is explained in a way that a reader will understand.

JHHSA publishes research from authors in the United States and around the world. Authors writing about a specific country or case setting should make sure that their work demonstrates connections to the larger field and is broadly applicable.

Manuscript submissions are encouraged from both academics and practitioners, and collaborations that draw on both populations are especially welcome.

The editorial staff members of JHHSA take seriously ethical principles related to authoring and publishing and follow the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE’s) Code of Conduct. Please see JHHSA’s ethics guidelines for more information prior to submitting a manuscript.

1.1 Aims & Scope

Before submitting your manuscript to the Journal of Health and Human Services Administration, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.

1.2 Article types

Research Articles

The Journal of Health and Human Services Administration, publishes both theoretical and empirical research, and embraces methodological diversity including quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. Research articles should concretely improve our understanding of theory, practice, or both, and authors are encouraged to build upon past work in a manner that acknowledges the complex, interdisciplinary nature of health and human services functions. Empirical articles should follow standard conventions for structure (e.g., introduction, literature review, methods, findings, conclusion), while theory-focused articles may have a more flexible structure as appropriate to the topic. Research articles should be between 7,000 and 10,000 words in length and should follow APA style guidelines.

Research Notes

Research notes are shorter articles that examine a new conceptual or theoretical application, present interesting or novel research findings, or make some other type of contribution to our knowledge of how health and human services organizations function. These types of articles are shorter and, though they do not need to follow the same format as standard research articles, should proceed in a similar manner with regard to theoretical support, understanding of methods and results (if relevant), and discussion of contributions to knowledge. Given the shorter length, clarity of writing and attention to language is especially important. Research notes should use the same APA Style guidelines as research articles and should be between 4,000 and 5,000 words in length.

Emerging Scholars

JHHSA periodically publishes original research by doctoral or early career students. Students wishing to have their manuscript considered for the Emerging Scholars section will first engage in one-on-one developmental review and revisions with an editor or editorial board member prior to peer review, and manuscripts will then undergo the traditional full peer review process. Importantly, the selection process for the Emerging Scholars section is competitive, and not all submissions will be accepted. Those interested in submitting a manuscript for the Emerging Scholars section should contact  Dr. Hillary Knepper (hknepper@pace.edu) via email, and include:

• The title, abstract, and keywords for the manuscript to be considered
• A biography of up to 200 words

A decision will be made on the suitability of the manuscript for the Emerging Scholars section, and authors will be contacted with a decision and instruction for next steps, if accepted. Students are encouraged to work closely with faculty members at their college or university first before submitting a manuscript.

1.3 Writing your paper

Visit the Sage Author Gateway for general advice on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance your article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.

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.

Back to top

2. Editorial policies

2.1 Peer review policy

Incoming manuscripts are first reviewed by the Journal of Health and Human Services Administration’s editorial team. Work that is determined to exhibit plagiarism or problems such as extensive structural or linguistic issues that prevent the clear communication of scholarly contribution may be returned at this time. Then, manuscripts are sent out for double-anonymized peer review. Reviewers are asked to evaluate each manuscript along several dimensions, including:

• Degree to which the work advances the field
• Strength of connection to theory
• Soundness of methods and analysis
• Organization and presentation

Sage does not permit the use of author-suggested (recommended) reviewers at any stage of the submission process, be that through the web-based submission system or other communication.

Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if:

• The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors.
• The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper.
• The author has recommended the reviewer.
• The reviewer has provided a personal (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution).

Review is intended to improve scholarship by providing constructive criticism to authors. Reviewers and editorial staff are expected to adhere to the guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Reviewers should:

• Identify any conflicts of interest and recuse themselves in such cases.
• Respect the confidentiality of blind peer review.
• Be objective and constructive.
• Return reviews and recommendations in a timely manner.
• Address the substance of the scholarship.

The Journal of Health and Human Services Administration’s (JHHSA) policy is to have manuscripts reviewed by two expert reviewers. JHHSA utilizes a double-anonymized peer review process in which the reviewer and authors’ names and information are withheld from the other. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, while maintaining rigor. Reviewers make comments to the author and recommendations to the Editor who then makes the final decision. Reviewer comments and recommendations assist the editorial team in rendering decisions on submitted manuscripts. Multiple rounds of review may be necessary before a final decision can be made; an offer to revise does not constitute an agreement to publish.

The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in JHHSA. 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.

Special issue manuscripts are sent to Guest Editors upon submission to ensure they meet the scope of the special issue. The rest of the peer review process will be handled by JHHSA's internal editorial team. Reviewers make comments to the author and recommendations to the Editor who then makes the final decision. 

JHHSA is committed to delivering high quality, fast peer-review for your paper, and as such has partnered with Web of Science (previously Publons). Web of Science is a third-party service that seeks to track, verify and give credit for peer review. Reviewers for JHHSA can opt into Web of Science 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 Web of Science website.

2.2 Authorship

All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.

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 acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.

Per ICMJE recommendations, it is best practice to obtain consent from non-author contributors who you are acknowledging in your paper.

2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

• Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input.
• Identify any entities that paid for this assistance.
• Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

2.3.2 Writing assistance

Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and therefore 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

Journal of Health and Human Services Administration requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Funding information must include both the full name of all granting or supporting organizations, as well as corresponding grant numbers or other identifying information. 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 the Journal of Health and Human Services Administration 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 acknowledgements 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

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 patient confidentiality. The Journal of Health and Human Services Administration 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.

All papers reporting 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. Manuscripts of this type should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.

2.7 Research data

The Journal of Health and Human Services Administration is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.

Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:

• Share your research data in a relevant public data repository.
• Include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, use the statement to confirm why it cannot be shared.
• Cite this data in your research.

If you need to anonymize your research data for peer review, please refer to our Research Data Sharing FAQs for guidance.
 

Back to top

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

Journal of Health and Human Services Administration 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 of Health and Human Services Administration 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 acknowledgement, 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 license agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and license 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

Journal of Health and Human Services Administration offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice program. 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.

Back to top

4. Preparing your manuscript

4.1 Formatting

The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. For additional details on Article Types, please see section 1.2.

Points for Practitioners

All manuscripts must include three to five takeaways for practitioners that emerge clearly and directly from the article. These takeaways should be presented in the form of sentences (in bullet point list format) inserted just after the keywords and before the introduction. Authors must include these points with the initial manuscript submission.

Formatting a Manuscript for Review

Manuscripts submitted for review as standard research articles should be approximately 7,000 - 10,000 words long, and research notes should be between 4,000 - 5,000 words long (these amounts include the abstract, tables, figures, and references). Manuscripts should be double-spaced with standard fonts and margins (12-point, Times New Roman, 1 inch margins).

All manuscripts must be formatted according to American Psychological Association (APA) style guidelines, including in-text citations and references (please note that headers are modified from APA style as noted in the following section). More information on APA style can be found here: http://www.apastyle.org/

Authors should follow a consistent and clear system for formatting headers throughout the manuscript.

• Primary headings: 12-point, Times New Roman, title case, left justified, bold, and set on a line separate from the text.
• Secondary subheads: 12-point, Times New Roman, title case, italicized, and set on a line separate from the text.
• Tertiary sub-subheads (run-in subheads): 12-point roman type, title case, bold, run-in at the beginning of a paragraph, and followed by a period.

In-text notes are discouraged; if they are necessary, they should be inserted as footnotes, not as endnotes.

Manuscripts should include:

1. Title
2. Abstract (not more than 150 words)
3. Keywords
4. Points for Practitioners
5. Text
6. References
7. Appendices or other end matter if needed

A title page should be submitted as a separate document and should include:

• Full manuscript title
• Each author's full name and affiliation
• Contact information for the corresponding author
• Acknowledgements and credits (if applicable)
• Funding information (if applicable)

Submission implies a commitment by the authors to publish in the journal upon acceptance; manuscripts may not be submitted while under consideration by any other journal. Manuscripts submitted for review with JHHSA may not be currently under consideration with another journal.

4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

Tables, figures, and graphics should be inserted in the place they should appear in the text rather than as an appendix. Tables should be created in Microsoft Word (or other text editing software) rather than being inserted as a graphic or picture file. Figures should be created in Word or inserted as high-quality pictures. The words 'table' and 'figure' should be lowercase when inserted as call outs and capitalized in the title of the table or figure.

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.

4.3 Identifiable information

To facilitate double-anonymized peer review, authors are required to submit:

1. A version of the manuscript which has had any information that compromises the anonymity of the author(s) removed or anonymized. This version will be sent to the peer reviewers.
2. A separate title page which includes any removed or anonymized material. This will not be sent to the peer reviewers.

All author identifiers must be removed from the manuscript before submission. References to one or more authors may be retained, but text must refer to such works in the third person. Visit the Sage Author Gateway for detailed guidance on making an anonymous submission.

4.4 Supplemental material

The Journal of Health and Human Services Administration 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.

4.5 Reference style

The Journal of Health and Human Services Administration adheres to the APA reference style. View the APA guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

4.6 English language editing services

Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the Journal of Health and Human Services Administration’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

Back to top

5. Submitting your manuscript

The Journal of Health and Human Services Administration is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit [ https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jhx ] 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 of Health and Human Services Administration 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 The Journal of Health and Human Services Administration. 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 on 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.

Back to top

6. On acceptance and publication

Authors submitting a manuscript for publication in the Journal of Health and Human Services Administration confirm that they are the corresponding/submitting author, that any co-authors are in agreement, and that JHHSA may retain email addresses for the purpose of communicating with authors about the article and/or future research opportunities. Please inform JHHSA immediately if any contact or affiliation details change. Upon acceptance of your manuscript for publication, JHHSA will contact authors using the email address used during the registration process. JHHSA does not retain copies of articles that have been declined for publication.

Final manuscripts accepted for publication should be submitted by email to the journal editor as a Microsoft Word file and should follow APA style and citation guidelines. Margins should be set to 1 inch on all sides.

Note that all tables, graphs, figures, etc. must also fit within these margins. Insert figures into the body of the article. Please do not insert figures as a picture or object. If you must do so, please email the raw figure (in the file format in which it was originally created) as a separate file.

Include information for each author(s) full name(s), institutional affiliation, contact information, and a short biographical statement of up to 100 words for each author.

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.

Back to top

7. Further information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Journal of Health and Human Services Administration editorial office as follows:

General inquiries about manuscript status should be emailed to: jhhsa@spaef.org

Questions regarding symposia or Emerging Scholars submissions should be directed to  Dr. Hillary Knepper (hknepper@pace.edu ).

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

Back to top