Women's Health
Women’s Health (WHE) is an open access, peer-reviewed international journal that focuses on all aspects of women's healthcare. WHE welcomes submissions on topics covering the entire lifespan of women, from childhood/adolescence to menopause and beyond. Primary research, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, reviews and editorials addressing topics on any manner of scale are welcome, as are submissions from both low- and high-resource countries. Please see Aims and Scope tab for further information.
Why publish in WHE?
- Indexed in MEDLINE, Scopus and Clarivate Analytics' ESCI
- Included in PubMed Central
- Open access dissemination of your article to a global audience of professionals, including decision makers
- Rigorous single-blind peer review
- Distinguished international editorial board
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Statement
Women’s Health (WHE) promotes inclusive, open science that reflects the disciplinary, human, and geographic diversity of the women’s health community.
Diversity as a core value embodies inclusiveness, mutual respect, and multiple perspectives.
We welcome editors, editorial board members, peer reviewers and authors from all backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities, nationalities, races, religions, sexes, sexual orientations, gender identities, mental or physical (dis)abilities, ages, career stages, socioeconomic status or any other individual status.
We are committed to continually improving our editorial and review processes whilst playing our part in eradicating bias and inequality in all forms.
Open access article processing charge (APC) information
The article processing charge for this Journal is $3,000 USD. The article processing charge for Plain Language Summary is $5,000 USD. Authors may also choose to pay in GBP*.
The APC is payable when a manuscript is accepted after peer review, before it is published. The APC is subject to taxes where applicable. Please see further details here.
Submission information
Submit your manuscript today at https://sage.atyponrex.com/journal/whe.
Please see the Submission Guidelines for more information on how to submit your article to the journal.
Contact
Please direct any queries to the Managing Editor, Shasha Sharief (shasha.sharief@sagepub.co.uk).
Women’s Health delivers the highest quality peer-reviewed, open access, original research articles, reviews, and scholarly comment on pioneering efforts and innovative research from all disciplines related to women’s health globally.
The journal is committed to publishing multidisciplinary research that spans the whole spectrum of women’s health and acknowledges women’s health research is needed by more than just cisgender women (women whose gender aligns with their assigned sex at birth). Trans men and women are often left out of women’s health conversations and non-binary, genderqueer and gender non-confirming individuals also have specific health needs that should be explored.
The Editors welcome international contributions particularly from those living in low-middle income countries.
Women’s health covers themes including but not limited to:
· Addiction
· Bone Health
· Breast Health
· Cardiovascular Health
· Contraception and Family Planning
· Disabilities
· Endocrinology
· Gender-based Violence
· Gynaecology
· Health Disparities
· Infectious Disease
· Internal Medicine
· LGBTQIA+ Health
· Menopause
· Mental Health
· Nutrition
· Obstetrics
· Oncology
· Paediatrics and Adolescent Health
· Sex and Gender Differences in Disease
· Telemedicine
· Urology
· Women’s Health and Race
The primary aim of Women’s Health is to provide universally accessible and digestible content to all stakeholders involved in women’s health. It provides a unique forum for dissemination of high-quality content applicable to researchers, clinicians and allied health practitioners, patients, social scientists, industry and government.
Review articles include expert opinion/perspective, narrative reviews and therapeutic area reviews. Systematic reviews, meta-analyses, post-marketing and health economic and pharmacoeconomic reviews are also welcomed. The appropriate EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines should be followed (e.g. CONSORT for randomized, controlled trials and PRISMA for systematic reviews/meta-analyses).
The journal adheres to a single-blind review process in which the reviewer's name is routinely withheld from the author unless the reviewer requests a preference for their identity to be revealed. Manuscripts are reviewed by at least two referees.
| Edward Kwabena Ameyaw | Lingnan University, Hong Kong, China |
| Zohra S Lassi | University of Adelaide, Australia |
| Jeannette M Wade | University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA |
| Shasha Sharief | SAGE Publishing, London, UK |
| Mahima Dua | SAGE Publishing, New Delhi, India |
| Ashima Sinha | SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd, New Delhi, India |
| Obasanjo Bolarinwa BSc, MSc, MSc GPH, FRSPH, FHEA, PhD | York St John University, London, UK |
| Cassandra M. Germain, PhD | North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, USA |
| Dr LeRoy G. Robinson, Ph.D | San Francisco State University & NYU Langone Medical Center, USA |
| Dr. Ashish Awasthi | CSIR - Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, India |
| Mehak Batra, PhD | Latrobe University, Victoria, Australia |
| Chao Cai, PhD | University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA |
| Vincenza Cofini, PhD | University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy |
| Md Moyazzem Hossain PhD | Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Bangladesh |
| Osaro Mgbere, PhD, MS, MPH | University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA |
| Tanya Dobriyal | Sage Publishing, Dehradun, India |
| Dr Emily Banks | The Australian National University, Australia |
| Dr Olivier Bruyere | University of Liege, Belgium |
| Professor Nassib Bezerra Bueno | Federal University of Alagoas, Brazil |
| Dr Anita H Clayton | University of Virginia, USA |
| Dr Linda Ahenkorah Fondjo | Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology, Ghana |
| Dr Caitlin Fox-Harding | Exercise Medicine Research Institute, Australia |
| Professor Ian Greer | Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK |
| Dr. Marybec Griffin | Rutgers School of Public Health, New Jersey, USA |
| Dr Neveen Hamdy | Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands |
| Professor Waguih W. IsHak | Cedars-Sinai and University of California (UCLA), USA |
| Jolaade Kalinowski | The University of Connecticut, USA |
| Dr Vik Khullar | St. Mary's Hospital, UK |
| Jessica Kiley, MD, MPH | Northwestern University, IL, USA |
| Professor Matteo Lambertini | University of Genova, Genova, Italy |
| Dr E Michael Lewiecki | New Mexico Clinical Research & Osteoporosis Center, USA |
| Professor Sphiwe Madiba | Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, South Africa |
| Dr Maurie Markman | The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA |
| Dr Ida Martinelli | Angelo Bianchi Bonomi Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center, Italy |
| Dr. Daniel Martingano | Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, NJ, USA |
| Linda May, MS, PhD | East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA |
| Dr Christine Morton | Stanford University, CA, USA |
| Professor Jorma Paavonen | University of Helsinki, Finland |
| Dr Santiago Palacios | Palacios Institute of Woman's Health, Spain |
| Dr Teri Pearlstein | Brown University, USA |
| Professor Lee P Shulman | Northwestern University Medical College, Chicago, IL, USA |
| Dr Michelle P Warren | Columbia University, USA |
| Dr Jacqueline L Wolf | Harvard University, USA |
| Professor Mark Woodward | The George Institute, Australia |
| Dr Rainer Zotz | Heinrich Heine University Medical Center, Germany |
| Mohd Faizal Ahmad, MD, DrObGyn, Repro Med, Fellowship of Oncofertility | Hospital Canselor Tuanku Mukhriz UKM, National University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia |
| Shahinoor Akter, PHD | La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia |
| Halima Mohammed Albalushi, BSC, MD, PhD. | Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman |
| Taghreed Alhaidari, MBChB, CABOG, FRCOG | Al Kindy College of Medicine, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq |
| Farzaneh Ashrafinia, MD | Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Iran |
| Elham Askari, MD | Faghihi Hospital, Shiraz, Iran |
| Ayhan Atigan, MD, PhD | Pamukkale University, Denizli, Türkiye |
| Nicolae Bacalbasa, MD | University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Carol Davila Bucharest, Romania |
| Daniel Joseph E. Berdida, PhD, RN, RM | University of Santo Tomas, Philippines |
| Giulia Bonavina, MD | Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, IRCCS Multimedica, Milan, Italy |
| Lina Angélica Buitrago Reyes, MSc, PhD | Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Bogota, Colombia |
| Antonio Casas Barragán, PhD | University of Granada (UGR), Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria (ibs.GRANADA), Granada, Spain |
| Pratip Chakraborty, PhD | Institute of Reproductive Medicine, India |
| Vivian Chia-Rong Hsieh, PhD, MSc | China Medical University, Taiwan |
| Corliss D. Heath, PhD, MPH | Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), HIV/AIDS Bureau in Rockville, USA |
| Zoe Davey, PhD | Oxford Institute of Applied Health Research, Oxford Brookes University, UK |
| Lance De Barry, MD | San Fernando General Hospital, South West Regional Health Authority, Trinidad and Tobago |
| Beth Desaretz Chiatti, PhD, MSN, RN, CTN-B, CGNC, FFNMRCSI, FTNSS | College of Nursing and Health Professions, Drexel University, Philadelphia, US |
| Thiago Fernandes, PhD | Federal University of Paraiba, Brazil |
| Madelon L. Finkel, Ph.D | The Madelon Global Health Foundation, USA |
| Dr Katrina E Forbes-McKay, MA, PhD, AFBPsS, CPsychol, SFHEA | School of Law and Social Science, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK |
| Ourlad Alzeus Gaddi Tantengco, MD, PhD | University of the Philippines Manila, Philippines |
| Bogdan Severus Gaspar, MD, PhD | Department of Surgery, "Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania |
| Dolina Gencheva, MD, PhD | Medical University of Plovdiv, First Department of Internal Diseases, Plovdiv, Bulgaria |
| Hadeel Ghazzawi, PhD | The University of Jordan, Jordan |
| Vincenza Gianfredi, MDPH, PhD. | University of Milan, Italy |
| Dr. Mariangela Gomez F. | University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA |
| Elona Greca, MD, PGDip | Larkin Community Hospital, Miami, FL, US |
| Frances Grimstad, MD, MS | Boston Children’s Hospital, USA |
| Prof. Roberta Gualtierotti, MD, PhD | Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy |
| Aklilu Habte, MPh | Wachemo University, Hosanna, Ethiopia |
| Dereje Haile, MPH | Wolaita Sodo University, Ethiopia |
| Mickiale Hailu Tekle, MSc | College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dire Dawa University, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia |
| Hsuan-Man Hung, PhD., RN | Department of Second-Degree BS in Nursing, Fooyin University Kaohsiung, Taiwan |
| Merin Jose, MD | Oregon Health and Science University, USA |
| Jenny Jung ,MPH | Women’s, Children's and Adolescents’ Health Program, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Australia |
| Assoc Prof Esra Keles, MD, PhD | University of Health Sciences, Kartal Dr Lutfi Kirdar City Hospital,Turkey |
| Triana Kesuma Dewi, MSc, PhD | Airlangga University, Indonesia |
| Amjad Khan, PhD, Postdoc | Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan |
| Zeba Khanam, MS, FICMCH, FMAS | VMMC and Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi, India |
| Khawla Nuseir, PhD | Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan |
| Iwaho Kikuchi, MD, PhD | Juntendo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan |
| Shana J. Kim, MSc | University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada |
| Alessandro Libretti, MD | University Hospital Maggiore della Carità, Novara, Italy |
| Molly M. Jacobs, MS, PhD | College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida, FL, US |
| Lauren M. Postlewait, MD, FACS | Grady Memorial Hospital, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA |
| Dr Kate Maclaran, MBChB, MD, BSc(Hons), MRCOG | Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust. UK |
| Hisham Mamdouh Haggag, PhD | Cairo University, Egypt |
| Bharti Manwani, MD, PhD | UTHealth Houston, Texas, USA |
| Salima Meherali, PhD, RN | University of Alberta, USA |
| Roma Mehta, MD | UAB Medical Center, Birmingham, AL, United States |
| Carmela Mento, PhD | University of Messina, Italy |
| Firoozeh Mirzaee, PhD | Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Iran |
| Norhasmah Mohd Zain, PhD | Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kelantan, Malaysia |
| Dr. Vallikkannu Narayanan, MBBS, M(Med) | Universiti Malaya, Malaysia |
| Mubarick Nungbaso Asumah, Mphil, BsN, RGN | Nurses and Midwives Training College Tamale, Ghana |
| Hafize OZTURK CAN-RN, PhD | Ege University Faculty of health Sciences, Turkey |
| S. Yasamin Parvar, MD, MPH | Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran |
| Mihaela Corina Radu, RM (Registered Midwife), MSc, PhD | Department of Nursing, Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania |
| Sophie Rees, PhD | University of Bristol, UK |
| Dr. Luca Roncati, MD-PhD, DMLS | Link Campus University, Rome, Italy |
| Stefania Saponara, MD, PhD | University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy |
| Antigoni Sarantaki, PhD | University of West Attica, Greece |
| Vladut Sasaran, MD, PhD | George Emil Palade University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology of Tîrgu Mure?, Romania |
| Giuseppe Scibilia | Hospital "Giovanni Paolo II", Italy |
| Dr. Vidya Seshan, RN, RM, MSN, Ph.D. | Department of Nursing, College of Health Sciences, University of Sharjah, UAE |
| Grace Sheehy, PhD | IPAS, USA |
| Jie Shen, PhD | University of Virginia, USA |
| Yun Shen, MD | Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana, US |
| Dr Sara Shishehgar, RN, BMid, MSc, PhD | School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University, Australia |
| Saeed Soliman, MD, FRCGP | Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt |
| Intira Sriprasert, MD, PhD | Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, USA |
| ARUMUGAM SURESH, Ph.D., M.Phil., M.Sc. | Meenakshi Medical College Hospital and Research, Meenakshi Academy of Higher Education and Research, Enathur, Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, India |
| Rosnah Sutan, MD | The National University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia |
| Kristin King Sznajder ,PhD | Penn State College of Medicine, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Andrei Adrian Tica, MD, PhD | Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Clinical Emergency County Hospital of Craiova, Romania |
| Deborah Tolulope Esan, RN, RM, RPHN, BNSc, MPH, PhD | College of Health Sciences, Bowen University, Iwo, Nigeria |
| Wen Tu, PhD | University of Utah College of Nursing, US |
| Kemal Türker ULUTAS, MD | Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Hatay Reyhanli State Hospital, Hatay, Türkiye |
| Maria Vernet-Tomas, MD, PhD | Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, Spain |
| Senahara Wake | Ambo University, Ethiopia |
| Mitiku Wale Muluneh, MSc | Debre Tabor University, Debre Tabor, Ethiopia |
| Wei Wang, BMed, DSc | Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway |
| Chuanxian Wei, PhD | Sino-French Hoffmann Institute, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China |
| Malgorzata Wójcik, MSc PT, PhD PT, DSc | Department of Physiotherapy, Poznan University of Physical Education, Poznan, Poland |
| Pamela J. Wright, PhD, MS, MEd, RN, CEN | University of South Carolina, USA |
| Zemenu Yohannes, BSc,MSc | Hawassa University, Hawassa, Ethiopia |
| Kornelia Zareba, MD, PhD | College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates |
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Women’s Health
- Open Access
- Article processing charge (APC)
- Article Types
- Editorial policies
4.1 Peer Review Policy
4.2 Authorship
4.3 Acknowledgements
4.4 Funding
4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
4.6 Research ethics and patient consent
4.7 Clinical Trials
4.8 Reporting guidelines
4.9 Data - Publishing policies
5.1 Publication ethics
5.2 Contributor's publishing agreement - Preparing your manuscript
6.1 Word processing formats
6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
6.3 Supplementary material
6.4 Reference style
6.5 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
7.1 ORCID
7.2 Information required for completing your submission
7.3 Corresponding author contact details
7.4 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
8.1 SAGE Production
8.2 Continuous publication
8.3 Promoting your article - Further information
This Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
Women's Health is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Please read the guidelines below then visit the journal’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/whe to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Women’s Health will be reviewed.
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, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.
1. Open Access
Women’s Health is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. Each article accepted by peer review is freely available online immediately upon publication, is published under a Creative Commons license and will be hosted online in perpetuity. Publication costs of the journal are covered by the collection of article processing charges(APC) which are paid by the funder, institution or author of each manuscript upon acceptance. There is no charge for submitting a paper to the journal.
For general information on open access at SAGE please visit the Open Access page or view our Open Access FAQs.
2. Article processing charge
If, after peer review, your manuscript is accepted for publication, a one-time APC is payable. This APC covers the cost of publication and ensures that your article will be freely available online in perpetuity under a Creative Commons license.
The APC for Women’s Health is $1,500*. Authors may also choose to pay in GBP.
*If the paying party is based in the European Union, to comply with European law, value added tax (VAT) must be added to the APC. Providing a VAT registration number will allow an institution to be exempt from paying this tax, except for UK institutions.
3. Article types
Original article: Women’s Health welcomes the submission of original articles with positive or negative results. Original papers should be structured for peer review as follows: title page, structured abstract (Objectives, Methods, Results, and Conclusions), Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion/Conclusion, Acknowledgements, Funding Acknowledgements, Declaration of Conflicting Interests, References, Figure and Table Legends. Figures and tables should be submitted as separate files.
Systematic review/meta-analysis: Systematic reviews/meta-analyses should follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement and should include a completed flow chart as a cited figure, and a completed PRISMA checklist as a supplementary file.
Study protocol: Study protocols should include the following sections: title page, structured abstract (Objectives, Methods, Discussion, Trial registration [if applicable]), Introduction, Methods, Discussion, Acknowledgements, Funding Acknowledgements, Declaration of Conflicting Interests, References, Figure and Table Legends. Figures and tables should be submitted as separate files.
Review: Women’s Health welcomes literature reviews that focus on specific subjects of current interest where there have been recent and significant advances. These papers may take their own relevant main headings .
Case report: Case reports may include a single case study or a case series, such as a group of patients. They should be based on an intervention or on an interesting observation of a unique clinical case, and should be of general rather than specialist interest. Case reports should be divided into Introduction, Case Report, Discussion, Acknowledgements, Declaration of Conflicting Interests and References, Figure and Table Legends. Figures and tables should be submitted as separate files.
Editorial: Short pieces on topical subjects, usually commissioned by the Editor, of no more than 1,000 words plus up to 10 references.
Covering letter The covering letter is important. To help the Editors in their preliminary evaluation, please indicate why you consider the paper suitable for publication.
Title page The first page should contain the full title of the manuscript the author(s) name(s) and affiliation(s), and the name, postal and email addresses of the author for correspondence, as well as a full list of declarations (Conflicting Interests, Funding, Guarantor, Contributorship, Acknowledgements; where one of these is not applicable please indicate as such under the sub-heading). Please also include a list of up to six keywords or MeSH terms.
The title should be concise and informative, accurately indicating the content of the article.
4. Editorial policies
Following a preliminary triage to eliminate submissions unsuitable for Women’s Health all papers are sent out for review. The covering letter is important. To help the Editor in his preliminary evaluation, please indicate why you think the paper suitable for publication. If your paper should be considered for fast-track publication, please explain why.] The journal’s policy is to have manuscripts reviewed by at least two expert reviewers. Women’s Health operates using a single-blind peer-review process; that is, reviewer’s identities are concealed from the author(s). 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.
As part of the submission process you may provide the names of suitable peers who could be called upon to review your manuscript. Recommended reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Please be aware of any conflicts of interest when recommending reviewers. Examples of conflicts of interest include (but are not limited to) the below:
-
- The reviewer should have no prior knowledge of your submission
- The reviewer should not have recently collaborated with any of the authors
- Reviewer nominees from the same institution as any of the authors are not permitted
Please note that the Editors are not obliged to invite any recommended/opposed reviewers to assess your manuscript.
The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the journal. In these cases, Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.
Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors.
The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:
-
- Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,
- Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
- Approved the version to be published,
- Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.
Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship. Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the CMJE authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.
Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.
Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the CMJE authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.
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.
4.3.1 Writing assistance
Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so 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.
Any acknowledgements should appear in the title page of your article, prior to your Declaration of Conflicting Interests statement.
Women’s Health requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. 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.
4.5 Declaration of Conflicting Interests
It is the policy of Women’s Health 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 in the title pageof 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. Authors are encouraged to use the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest to standardize their disclosures.
4.6. Research ethics and patient consent
Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.
Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and all papers reporting animal and/or 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.
For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.
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 also refer to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants
All research involving animals submitted for publication must be approved by an ethics committee with oversight of the facility in which the studies were conducted. The journal has adopted the Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare for Veterinary Journals published by the International Association of Veterinary Editors.
Women’s Health endorses the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrolment. However, consistent with the AllTrials campaign, retrospectively registered trials will be considered if the justification for late registration is acceptable. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.
The relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines should be followed depending on the type of study. For example, all randomized controlled trials submitted for publication should include a completed CONSORT flow chart as a cited figure and the completed CONSORT checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses should include the completed PRISMA flow chart as a cited figure and the completed PRISMA checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. The EQUATOR wizard can help you identify the appropriate guideline.
Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives
SAGE acknowledges the importance of research data availability as an integral part of the research and verification process for academic journal articles.
Women’s Health requests all authors submitting any primary data used in their research articles alongside their article submissions to be published in the online version of the journal, or provide detailed information in their articles on how the data can be obtained. This information should include links to third-party data repositories or detailed contact information for third-party data sources. Data available only on an author-maintained website will need to be loaded onto either the journal’s platform or a third-party platform to ensure continuing accessibility. Examples of data types include but are not limited to statistical data files, replication code, text files, audio files, images, videos, appendices, and additional charts and graphs necessary to understand the original research. The Editor may consider limited embargoes on proprietary data. The Editor will also grant exceptions for data that cannot legally or ethically be released. All data submitted should comply with Institutional or Ethical Review Board requirements and applicable government regulations. For further information, please contact the editorial office.
5. Publishing policies
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.
5.1.1 Plagiarism
Women’s Health 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 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.
5.1.2 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.
5.2 Contributor’s Publishing Agreement
Before publication SAGE requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Women’s Health publishes manuscripts under Creative Commons licenses. The standard license for the journal is Creative Commons by Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC), which allows others to re-use the work without permission as long as the work is properly referenced and the use is non-commercial. For more information, you are advised to visit SAGE's OA licenses page.
Alternative license arrangements are available, for example, to meet particular funder mandates, made at the author’s request.
6. Preparing your manuscript
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
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.
This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. These will be subject to peer-review alongside the article .For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files.
Women’s Health adheres to the SAGE Vancouver reference style. Please review the guidelines on SAGE Vancouver to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the SAGE Vancouver output file here.
6.5 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using SAGE Language Services. Visit SAGE Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
7. Submitting your manuscript
Women’s Health is hosted on SAGE Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/whe 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 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.
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 persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher 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 recognised.
We encourage all authors to add their ORCIDs to their SAGE Track accounts and include their ORCIDs as part of the submission process. If you don’t already have one you can create one here.
7.2 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. 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).
7.3 Corresponding author contact details
Provide full contact details for the corresponding author including email, mailing address and telephone numbers. Academic affiliations are required for all co-authors. These details should be presented separately to the main text of the article to facilitate anonymous peer review.
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
8. On acceptance and publication
If your paper is accepted for publication after peer review, you will first be asked to complete the Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Once your manuscript files have been check for SAGE Production, the corresponding author will be asked to pay the APC via a payment link. Once the APC has been processed, your article will be prepared for publication and can appear online within an average of 30 days. Please note that no production work will occur on your paper until the APC has been received.
Your SAGE Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned 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. Please note that if there are any changes to the author list at this stage all authors will be required to complete and sign a form authorising the change.
One of the many benefits of publishing your research in an open access journal is the speed to publication. With no page count constraints, your article will be published online in a fully citable form with a DOI number as soon as it has completed the production process. At this time it will be completely free to view and download for all.
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. In addition, SAGE is partnered with Kudos, a free service that allows authors to explain, enrich, share, and measure the impact of their article. Find out how to maximise your article’s impact with Kudos.
9. Further information
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Women’s Health editorial office as follows: