Journal of Pediatric Health and Nutrition
Editorial Policies
The rules the journal applies to every manuscript: how review is conducted, what authors must disclose, how children's data and images are protected, and how the record is corrected.
Scientific fit is set out on the Aims and Scope page and manuscript preparation in the Instructions for Authors. This page states the policy itself.
- Peer review
- Single-blind by default
- License
- CC BY 4.0, authors retain copyright
- Ethics framework
- COPE and ICMJE guidance
- Applies to
- Every submission, from screening to correction
Peer review
How manuscripts are reviewed
Review is organized so that an author knows what will happen to a manuscript, and a reader knows what a published article has been through.
- Screening. All submissions undergo initial editorial screening. Manuscripts that meet the journal's scope and minimum requirements proceed to independent peer review.
- Review model. Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request. Single-blind means the reviewers' identities are not disclosed to the authors.
- Reviewers. Manuscripts that proceed to external peer review are normally evaluated by at least two independent subject-matter experts.
- Decisions. Editorial decisions are based on scope, scientific quality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, reporting quality, and relevance to the journal.
- Double-blind preparation. Authors who request double-blind review prepare an anonymized manuscript as described in the Instructions for Authors; editors ensure that author-identifying information is not shared with reviewers.
- Independence from payment. Editorial and peer-review decisions are independent of payment, membership, editorial roles and any paid service, including language editing.
Authorship and conduct
What authors are responsible for
The journal follows COPE and ICMJE guidance on authorship, competing interests and research integrity.
- Authorship
- Authorship is limited to those who contributed substantially to the work, approved the version submitted, and accept accountability for it. Everyone who meets the criteria is listed; no one who does not is. Other contributions are acknowledged. Changes to the author list after submission require the written agreement of all authors.
- Competing interests
- Every author declares financial and non-financial interests that a reader could reasonably consider relevant, including employment, consultancy, funding, patents and relationships with manufacturers of products under study. A declaration is published with the article. Where there is nothing to declare, the article says so.
- Funding
- Sources of funding are named, with the role of the funder in design, analysis and the decision to publish stated.
- Originality
- Submissions must be original, not under consideration elsewhere, and must not reproduce substantial material from other work without attribution and permission. Submissions are screened for similarity; a similarity report is read in context by the editor and is never applied as an automatic threshold.
- Preprints
- Posting a preprint does not preclude submission. Authors disclose the preprint server and identifier at submission, and the published version is linked to it.
- Artificial intelligence
- Authors disclose any use of generative AI in the preparation of a manuscript, naming the tool and what it was used for. AI systems are not authors: the named authors remain accountable for everything the manuscript contains, including material an AI tool produced.
Research with children
Consent, assent and the protection of identity
Every study involving children requires approval from a research ethics committee or institutional review board, named in the manuscript with its reference number.
Participation requires permission from a parent or legal guardian, together with the child's own assent where the child is able to give it, obtained under the approved study protocol and in the form the applicable requirements specify.
Permission to publish material that could identify a child is separate from permission to take part in the study, is given in writing, and covers the specific material to be published. Identifying details that the science does not require are omitted.
Also required
- Interventional studies, dietary interventions included, must be registered in an accepted public trial registry at or before the time the first participant gives consent for enrollment. The registry name, registration number, and registration date must be reported in the manuscript.
- Studies of animals state the approving authority and the guidelines followed.
- Sensitive data about children may need controlled access rather than open deposit; the data-availability statement says where the data are and on what terms.
- Reporting follows the guideline for the study design — CONSORT, STROBE, PRISMA, CARE and the rest — as listed in the Instructions for Authors.
Every empirical research manuscript must include a data-availability statement.
A statement that describes restricted or controlled access, and why, satisfies this requirement. What it may not do is leave a reader unable to find out whether the data exist and how they could be obtained.
The published record
Corrections, retractions and complaints
The version of record is permanent. When something in it is wrong, the journal corrects it in a way that stays visible.
- Corrections
- An error that affects the record is corrected by a published correction notice, linked from the article. The original article remains available; the notice states what changed.
- Retraction
- A retraction is issued where findings are unreliable, whether through error or misconduct, or where the work breaches publication ethics. The retraction notice is linked from the article, states who issued it and why, and the article remains available and marked.
- Expressions of concern
- Where an investigation is unresolved, the journal may publish an expression of concern so that readers are informed while the matter is examined.
- Complaints and appeals
- An author who considers a decision mistaken may appeal to the editorial office with the reasons and any supporting evidence. The appeal is considered by an editor who was not responsible for the original decision. Complaints about the conduct of the journal are directed to the editorial office and handled under COPE guidance.
- Confidentiality
- Submitted manuscripts are confidential. Editors and reviewers do not disclose, distribute or use unpublished material, and reviewers securely delete downloaded files after submitting a review.
- Allegations of misconduct
- Allegations concerning a submitted or published manuscript are investigated under COPE guidance, with the authors given an opportunity to respond, and the authors' institution involved where that is appropriate.
Rights and charges
Licensing, access and fees
What a reader may do with an article, and what an author is asked to pay, are settled terms and are published in full.
License. Articles are published open access under CC BY 4.0. Authors retain copyright. Anyone may read, redistribute and adapt an article, including commercially, provided the original work is attributed. Reuse of third-party material in a manuscript requires the rights holder's permission.
Article processing charge. The charge and what it covers are on the Article Processing Charges page, which also states the journal's withdrawal policy in full.
A fee is never a factor in an editorial decision, and no payment, membership or role advances a manuscript through review.
Related guidance
Where each rule is applied
These pages state the same policies from the position of the person who has to act on them.
- Authors
- Instructions for Authors
- Editors
- For Editors
- Reviewers
- For Reviewers
Questions about a policy, an appeal or a complaint go to the editorial office at [email protected].
Digital preservation
This journal’s content is committed to Portico, a not-for-profit digital-preservation archive run by ITHAKA (the organization behind JSTOR). As articles are deposited they enter Portico’s permanent archive, so the scholarly record stays available for the long term — even if a title one day ceases to publish. Read our preservation policy.