About the Journal

Focus and Scope

The Journal of Health Informatics in Africa (ISSN/NLM abbreviation: J Health Inform Afr) solicits scientific papers focusing on the use of information and ICTs in the healthcare sector in the broad sense (including self-help, health promotion, education and training of health providers, research, etc.) in Africa.

Papers can be based on quantitative or qualitative empirical research or literature analysis or theoretical argumentation. Authors can be African or non-African and affiliated to African higher education and research institutions or any other institutions anywhere, or without affiliations. Submissions can be in English or French.

Publication Frequency and Permanent Archiving of content

The JHIA currently publishes two issues within a volume (calendar year). One of them is the proceedings of the HELINA conference in that year, comprising of the peer reviewed full papers accepted to the conference. The other one is an open-call issue, comprising of papers that have been submitted directly to the journal, peer reviewed (possibly modified and re-reviewed) and accepted for publication before the due date of the issue in question. All articles published in JHIA receive a DOI. The content of JHIA is achived with a long term preservation service of the German National Library (Deutsche National Bibliothek - DNB).

All issues can also include non-reviewed short papers.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. All articles are published online and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial License.

Publication Fee

JHIA does not charge a publication fee!

Ethical Approval and Informed Consent

A requirement of publication is that research involving human subjects was conducted with the ethical approval of the appropriate bodies in the country where the research was conducted and of the ethical approval committees of affiliated research institutions elsewhere. The free and informed consent of the subjects must be obtained.

A clear statement to this effect must be made (in the Materials and Methods section) in any submitted manuscript presenting such research.

Conflict of Interest Statement

Authors must disclose all conflicts of interest on submission of the manuscript. These conflicts must be described in a dedicated section of each published manuscript. 

A Conflict of Interest (COI) can be defined as a situation where an author or a family member of the author holds one or more personal interests and these interests may be perceived as negatively influencing the author’s ability to manage his/her scientific and publishing activities objectively. COI may arise from a variety of situations including financial transactions, gifts, primary employment, or volunteer relationships and may compromise the author’s ability to provide an unbiased contribution to Journal of Health Informatics in Africa (JHIA). COI can undermine integrity, cast doubt, tarnish, and ultimately jeopardize the authors, reviewers, and the journal, regardless whether or not the author’s objectivity is in fact affected. Having a COI does not imply wrong-doing. 

Because it is impractical, and may be impossible to avoid all situations, where a COI might exist, JHIA has developed a process to recognize and manage the real or apparent author COI through disclosure. Disclosing conflicts of interest assures open and honest deliberation, improves reviews, and allows readers to consider the author’s COI when forming an opinion. 

Therefore, all manuscript submissions to JHIA must contain a declaration of conflict of interest. Conflicts of interests that must be disclosed include research relationships with industry, consulting/employment/honoraria relationships with industry, licensing and equity relationships, gifts by industry, Quid pro Quo relationships with industry and any potential conflict of commitment. All potential conflicts must be declared in the appropriate section of the manuscript. If the authors report no conflicts of interest, they must acknowledge as much, for example: 

“The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest in the research.” 

It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to review this policy with all authors and to collectively list the potential conflicts of interest. This information must be provided to the Editor-in-Chief in the cover letter during the online submission process.

Copyright Transfer Agreement

As the corresponding author who has obtained the assent of all the other authors, I hereby confirm the assignment of all copyrights to the manuscript named above in all forms, languages and media to JHIA, effective if and when the manuscript is accepted for publication in Journal of Health Informatics in Africa.

It is my understanding that if and when the manuscript is accepted for publication in Journal of Health Informatics in Africa, it will be published online. Journal of Health Informatics in Africa have undergone full peer review. It will be the corresponding author's responsibility to double-check the article for accuracy prior to submitting it for publication.

The manuscript does not contain any material the publication of which would violate any copyright or other personal or proprietary right of any person or entity.

I will obtain and include with the manuscript written permission from any respective copyright owners for the use of any materials that have been previously published or are otherwise copyrighted and owned by third parties. I agree that it is my responsibility to pay any fees charged for permissions.

If the manuscript is not published in Journal of Health Informatics in Africa this agreement will not take effect.

 JHIA’s Copyright Permission Policy is in accordance with the NIH Public Access Policy.

Repository Policy

Author Self-archiving 

Authors can self-archive versions of their work on their own webpages, on institutional webpages, and in other repositories. As JHIA is an open access Journal, authors may share and distribute their accepted manuscript and/or the final published version under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial License. An acknowledgement in the following form should be included, together with a link to the article’s Version of Record:

  • If you have posted your original manuscript anywhere before you submitted it to JHIA for peer-review ("Pre-Print"), we ask that, upon acceptance, you acknowledge that the article has been accepted for publication in JHIA as follows: “This is a pre-print of an article accepted for publication in Journal of Health Informatics in Africa. The final authenticated version will be available online at: https://jhia-online.org”. 
  • If you have posted your original manuscript anywhere before you submitted it to JHIA for peer-review ("Pre-Print"), we ask that, upon publication, you acknowledge that the article has been published in JHIA as follows: “This is a pre-print of an article published in Journal of Health Informatics in Africa on [date of publication]. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/XXX”. 
  • If you have posted the version of the manuscript accepted for publication by JHIA, including modifications based on referees’ suggestions, before it has undergone copyediting, typesetting and proof correction (" Post-Print", "Post-Peer-Review", "Pre-Copyedit") anywhere, we ask that, upon publication, you acknowledge that the article has been published in JHIA as follows: “This is a pre-copyedit of an article published in Journal of Health Informatics in Africa on [date of publication]. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/XXX”. 
  • If you have posted the final typeset and edited version of your paper that has been made available by JHIA formally and exclusively declaring the article “published" ("Version of Record") anywhere, we ask that, you acknowledge that the article has been published in JHIA as follows: “This is an original article published in Journal of Health Informatics in Africa under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial License on [date of publication]. The manuscript is available online at: https://doi.org/XXX”.   

Advertising Policy

JHIA will carry advertisements that are legal and conform to ICMJE Recommendation. JHIA therefore defends the right to editorial independence and does not allow advertisements intended to be juxtaposed with editorial content on the journal or to influence editorial decisions. Advertisements are fixed, clearly identifiable as advertisements, and do not depend on reader behavior. Advertisements are made in consent between senior staff of the publisher and the editor-in-chief.

ICMJE Recommendations

JHIA follows the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Official Journal of:

Pan African Health Informatics Association (HELINA),
the Africa Region of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA)