We think broadly that academic communities extend beyond educational institutions and include medical centers, hospitals, departments of public health, community organizations and partners, and policy makers. Building a healthy academic community requires diversity in people, thought, and research. We encourage submissions that cover a variety of wellness topics including health promotion, wellness programming and management, environmental health and safety, epidemiology, preventive health care, and evidence-based wellness.
Policies
Focus and Scope
The Building Healthy Academic Communities (BHAC) Journal is the official journal of the National Consortium for Building Healthy Academic Communities (https://healthyacademics.org/). It is an Open Access journal published by The Ohio State University (OSU) Libraries. No author fees are charged. The journal is published three times a year and is accepting manuscripts that cover a variety of wellness topics including health promotion, wellness programming and management, environmental health and safety, epidemiology, preventive health care, and evidence-based wellness.
Peer Review Process
Submissions to BHAC are first reviewed by the editor to determine if they fit within the Focus and Scope of the journal. Submissions are then evaluated by peer-reviewers who are experts and/or leaders in health and wellness. BHAC’s submissions are peer-reviewed using a double-blind process, meaning that neither the authors of the submission know the identity of those who review the submission, nor do reviewers know the identity of those who submitted their work to BHAC. The final decision to accept or reject a submission is made by the Editor and is based on the reports of the peer-reviewers.
(Updated October 21, 2020)
Publication Ethics
Building Healthy Academic Communities (BHAC) is guided by the highest standards in publication ethics as outlined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in their Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing.
Authorship
All published articles in BHAC will contain clear and accurate attribution of authorship. The author is responsible for ensuring that everyone who contributed to the work is fairly acknowledged.
An author is defined using the ICMJE description:
- Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
- Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
- Final approval of the version to be published; AND
- Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
If authorship disputes arise, the BHAC editorial team will follow the COPE guidelines.
(Updated November 5, 2020)
Complaints and Appeals
BHAC editors have discretion in determining whether an article is an appropriate fit for the journal. However, if the author feels the decision to reject the manuscript was based on an error, the author can appeal the decision by contacting the editors with a detailed description of the perceived error.
BHAC editors will promptly respond to ethical complaints and, in collaboration with BHAC’s publisher, The Ohio State University Libraries, will follow guidance described by COPE.
(Updated November 5, 2020)
Conflict of Interest
Authors, reviewers, and editors are required to disclose conflicts of interest at the earliest possible opportunity - for example, when a manuscript is submitted or a review assignment is accepted. Conflict of interest is defined as any competing personal, professional, or financial interest that may introduce bias into the publishing process of the journal.
Example conflicts of interest:
- financial support from commercial enterprises that have a vested interest in the results
- personal relationships that would compromise objectivity during review or publication
- professional competition that would prevent objective evaluation of a submitted manuscript
Disclosure of a conflict of interest by an author does not necessarily mean that a manuscript will be denied acceptance to the journal. If an author is found to have a conflict of interest that was not disclosed during the submission and review process, the editor will identify an appropriate remedy, which may include a published correction or a retraction.
(Updated September 20, 2019)
Copyright and Plagiarism
Copyright Policy
Authors retain all rights to work published by The Ohio State University Libraries' Publishing Program. The specific terms of our author agreements may vary slightly from journal to journal, but they all constitute nonexclusive licenses covering the rights required to publish, index, abstract, and preserve the content. Authors are free to reuse their work and to enter into other agreements as long as they credit the relevant journal as the site of first publication and provide a link to the journal website.
Building Healthy Academic Communities is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license unless otherwise indicated.
Plagarism Policy
BHAC does not accept manuscripts with plagiarized material. For the purposes of this policy, plagiarism is defined as the use of previously authored works - including text, data, and images – of others or self without proper attribution.
The editors of BHAC will respond to plagiarism at their discretion. Actions taken will be based on the severity of the plagiarism attempt, but can include corrections to or retractions of the published article, the author being banned from publishing in the journal, and/or the editor notification of the author’s institution or funding agencies.
(Updated November 5, 2020)
Ethical Oversight
BHAC will promote the highest standards of research by ensuring that the published research is conducted in a fair and ethical manner. Wherever appropriate, published research based on human subjects will provide the name of the local ethics committee that approved the study (or confirmation that such approval is not needed). Any submissions that don’t meet these criteria will be returned to the authors.
(Updated November 5, 2020)
Post Publication Corrections
When errors are discovered in published content, BHAC will follow the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The following language is a brief summary of relevant portions of the guidelines for the benefit of our editors, authors, and readers. The full guidelines should be consulted if questions arise or action is being considered.
If the editor becomes aware of major errors in, or misconduct related to published work, the editor may issue a retraction, statement of concern, or correction. These actions are meant to maintain the scholarly record and are not meant to be a form of punishment. An author who determines that his or her published article may contain errors should contact the editor promptly so that the journal can determine a path forward. Readers are also invited to contact the editor with concerns about published content.
Retraction
A retraction is defined as a public disavowal, not an erasure or removal. Retractions will occur if the editors and editorial board find that the main conclusion of the work is undermined or if subsequent information about the work comes to light of which the authors or the editors were not aware at the time of publication.
Statement of Concern
A statement of concern will be issued if there is inconclusive evidence of research misconduct / ethical wrongdoing or there is an ongoing investigation and results are pending.
Correction
A correction will be published if the scholarly record is seriously affected (e.g., if accuracy / intended meaning, scientific reproducibility, author reputation, or journal reputation is judged to be compromised). Corrections such as misspellings or grammatical errors will not be published. Published corrections will be added to the original article whenever possible. When that is not possible, the correction will link to and from the original work.
Removal
Removal of published content may occur if an article is determined to be defamatory by a court of law, if it infringes on legal rights, or if there is a reasonable expectation that it will be subject to a court order for any reason. The bibliographic information about the work will be retained online, but the work will no longer be available through the journal. A note will be added to indicate that the item was removed for legal reasons.
(Updated November 5, 2020)
Preservation
This journal participates in the Public Knowledge Project's Private LOCKSS Network to preserve its contents. https://pkp.sfu.ca/pkp-pn/
(Updated September 20, 2019)
Research Involving Human Participants
All research involving human participants must be conducted with prior approval by the authors' institutional review board or equivalent committee(s). In addition, informed consent must be obtained in advance and all clinical investigation must be conducted according to the principles expressed in the Declaration of Helsinki. Authors must be able to submit, upon request, a statement from the research ethics committee or institutional review board indicating approval of the research, and that board must be named in the manuscript.
(Updated May 19, 2021)
Data Sharing Policy
Building Healthy Academic Communities Journal encourages, but does not require, authors to share the data and other supporting materials by archiving them in an appropriate repository. Authors can include a link to their data or supporting materials, which will also be included in the published work. If authors need assistance making their data available, they may contact the journal editors.
(Updated May 11, 2022)
