International Journal of Global Health
Aims and scope
IJGH considers research on how disease is distributed across populations, how health systems perform, and how social, economic and environmental conditions shape health outcomes.
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The journal serves epidemiologists, population-health researchers, health-systems and policy researchers, implementation scientists, public-health practitioners, modellers and related specialists.
Population-level inference is essential. Patient-level data may be used, but the research question and conclusions must apply to populations, public-health programmes or health systems.
A strong fit when…
- The unit of inquiry is a population, community, programme or health system.
- The work measures disease distribution, determinants, service performance or policy effects.
- The methods and conclusions support public-health or system-level 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 while the conclusions remain solely individual or clinical.
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.
Additional areas
These subjects are considered when the principal contribution and conclusions are explicitly population-level or health-system 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 and climate health
Exposures and interventions linked to measurable population-health outcomes.
Migration and displacement
Health needs, access and outcomes among migrant, displaced and refugee populations.
Genomic epidemiology
Pathogen surveillance and genomic methods applied to population-level questions.
Emerging approaches: One Health, planetary health, AI-based disease prediction and population-health intervention trials may fit when the public-health application, method and unit of inference are 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.
- Cellular, molecular or animal-model research without a direct population-health question.
- 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 or health-system 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 considered selectively when they offer a clear analytical contribution to the journal’s scope.
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 or health-system level, review the author instructions before submission.