International Journal of Global Health
Aims and Scope
IJGH publishes research addressing population, community, health-system and transnational health questions. The journal covers epidemiology, disease surveillance, global health equity, health systems, policy, implementation, environmental and planetary health, humanitarian health, and international or cross-country health challenges.
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The journal serves global-health, epidemiology, population-health, health-systems, policy, implementation, humanitarian-health, migration-health and health-security communities.
Population, system or transnational relevance is essential. Patient-level data may be used, but the research question and conclusions must extend to populations, public-health programmes, health systems, cross-country comparison or a defined transnational health challenge.
A strong fit when…
- The unit of inquiry is a population, community, programme, health system or transnational health process.
- The work compares countries or regions, examines cross-border determinants, or addresses a global-health governance, security, financing, equity or implementation question.
- The methods and conclusions support public-health, health-system, humanitarian or international policy decisions.
Not a fit when…
- The principal purpose is individual diagnosis, treatment selection or patient management.
- The study is laboratory or clinical work without a defined population-health application.
- “Global health” is used as a label without a defined population, system, comparative, international or transnational contribution.
Core research domains
These domains define the journal’s primary editorial remit. Examples illustrate fit; they do not guarantee acceptance.
Epidemiological methods and disease surveillance
Incidence and prevalence, outbreak investigation, surveillance quality, spatial and temporal analysis, epidemic modelling and forecasting.Typical fit: a spatiotemporal evaluation of a dengue-surveillance system across urban populations.
Population health and risk factors
Social determinants, health inequalities, environmental and occupational exposures, behavioural risk factors and population-level nutritional epidemiology.Typical fit: a multilevel study of air-pollution exposure and respiratory-disease burden.
Infectious-disease epidemiology
Transmission dynamics, vaccine coverage and effectiveness, antimicrobial-resistance surveillance, neglected-disease burden and communicable-disease control.Typical fit: modelling tuberculosis transmission and the population effect of contact tracing.
Health systems, services and policy
Access, service delivery, universal coverage, workforce capacity, financing, economic evaluation, policy implementation and system-level quality improvement. Typical fit: an interrupted-time-series evaluation of insurance expansion and maternal mortality.
Global and international health
Cross-country and comparative health research; transnational threats; global health governance and diplomacy; international policy and financing; humanitarian and conflict-related health; migration and displacement; health security; global health equity; international development; and implementation across diverse economic and geographic settings. Typical fit: a comparative evaluation of refugee-health access across neighbouring health systems.
Cross-cutting global-health fields
These fields are integral to the journal when the contribution is population-, system-, comparative-, international- or transnationally focused.
Non-communicable disease
Burden, determinants, prevention and control at population level.
Maternal and child health
Population outcomes, service access, programmes and health-system performance.
Digital epidemiology
Surveillance, health informatics and methods with a defined public-health use.
Environmental, climate and planetary health
Exposures, interdependence and interventions linked to measurable health outcomes.
Migration, displacement and refugee health
Health needs, rights, access and outcomes across migration and displacement settings.
One Health
Human, animal and environmental health connections with a defined epidemiological, surveillance or population-health application.
Humanitarian and conflict-related health
Health risks, response, delivery and recovery in crises, fragile settings and conflict.
Global health security
Preparedness, surveillance, cross-border response and governance of transnational threats.
Genomic and digital epidemiology
Genomic, informatics and AI-supported methods applied to defined public-health questions.
Use of a new method does not establish scope by itself; the health question, population or system, and international or transnational relevance must be explicit.
Out of scope
The following categories normally fall outside the journal’s current remit.
- Clinical case reports, case series and reports centred on individual patient management.
- Therapeutic, diagnostic, biomarker or laboratory-method studies without a defined population-health application.
- Animal research is considered only when it addresses a clearly defined population-health, epidemiological, One Health or disease-surveillance question. Eligible studies must also have applicable institutional approval and demonstrate humane conduct.
- Agriculture, conservation, livelihoods, education or social-issue research without a defined health outcome or health-system question.
- Descriptive advocacy, opinion or commentary without empirical evidence or systematic analysis.
- Manuscripts whose principal conclusions concern only individual diagnosis or treatment, even when patient-level datasets are large.
About the published record: the current scope applies to new submissions. The archive includes work accepted under an earlier, broader remit; those articles remain part of the published record but do not define current submission eligibility.
Article types
IJGH considers the following formats when the work meets the journal’s population, health-system, international or transnational scope.
- Original research
- Quantitative, qualitative or mixed-method studies with a clear research question and appropriate analysis.
- Evidence syntheses
- Systematic reviews, scoping reviews and meta-analyses using transparent and reproducible methods.
- Methods and protocols
- Methodological work and study protocols with a defined epidemiological, population-health or health-system contribution.
- Policy and implementation analyses
- Analyses connecting policy, financing, governance, workforce or delivery to measurable system or population outcomes.
- Field and programme evaluations
- Evaluations of public-health interventions, programmes or services using a stated design and outcome framework.
- Data reports and short communications
- Focused contributions that provide a substantive dataset, method, surveillance finding or time-sensitive analysis.
- Editorials and perspectives
- Evidence-led contributions may be commissioned or submitted unsolicited; both are considered selectively at editorial-office discretion.
Evidence expected
Scope fit is necessary but does not replace methodological, ethical or reporting requirements.
- Use the appropriate reporting guideline where applicable, including STROBE, PRISMA, CONSORT, RECORD or GATHER.
- State ethics approval and consent arrangements for research involving human participants or identifiable data.
- Include a data-availability statement and explain legitimate access restrictions.
- Describe statistical and analytical methods clearly enough for editorial and peer-review assessment.
- Disclose funding, competing interests and relevant preprints transparently.
Before submitting
Use the detailed journal guidance for preparation and research-integrity requirements.
Does your study fit?
If its central question and conclusions operate at population, programme, health-system, international or transnational level, review the author instructions before submission.