The publishing philosophy of the Journal of the Academy of Public Health is composed of four commitments: (i) open access, (ii) open and rigorous peer review, (iii) rewarding reviewers, and (iv) a timely and efficient publishing process.

I. Open Access

All articles in the Journal of the Academy of Public Heath are open access and freely available for anyone to read. They are published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license, permitting its broad reuse and distribution so long as appropriate source and author attributions are made.

II. Open and Rigorous Peer Review

To promote open and polite scientific discourse, all peer reviews are published together with the research articles, signed by the reviewer. This enhances the readers’ understanding of and appreciation for the research, while giving young scientists an improved understanding of scientific reasoning and interpretation. It also facilitates appropriate appraisal of scientific research, as it can be based on peer reviews of the actual work rather than on the prestige or impact factor of the journal in which it is published.

III. Rewarding Reviewers

Reviewers should be rewarded for their important work. The major added value that journals provide compared to preprint servers is peer review, and as a non-profit we are able to provide an honorarium for each review. Since the reviews are signed and published, reviewers also get public recognition and appreciation, as well as an item to add to their curriculum vitae.

IV. Timely and Efficient Publishing

Excellent public health scientists, who have been rigorously evaluated based on their previously published research, have the academic freedom to publish any of their public health research in the Journal of the Academy of Public Health. Through pre-submission evaluation at the author level rather than gatekeeping for each article, and by assuming that excellent public health scientists all have valuable scientific contributions that are worthy of publication, the research can be published in a timely manner. Please note that, unlike our other article types, Perspectives submissions are assessed by the editorial staff before they can be accepted for publication. This ensures that all published work adheres to our stated Editorial Scope and maintains the identity of JAPH as first and foremost a publisher of academic science. We do still welcome manuscript submissions from non-Academy member scientists; these submissions are either accepted or rejected at the discretion of the editorial staff and reviewers, like with any more traditional academic journal. 

Important research should be published as soon as possible to promptly advance science. Questionable research is better published together with critical reviews from the first journal to which it is submitted. Now such papers waste precious time by requiring multiple reviews and rejections by different journals, while most are still eventually published with a stamp of approval from a “peer-reviewed journal,” but without readers having access to those earlier critical reviews.

For more a more extensive discussion of our publishing philosophy, please read the Perspective on academic publishing that our Founding Editor-in-Chief Martin Kulldorff wrote for the inaugural issue in 2025: "The Rise and Fall of Scientific Journals and a Way Forward.”