About the Journal

Publication Ethics Statement of the Journal of Health Promotion and Health Education

The Journal of Health Promotion and Health Education is dedicated to publishing research articles in the fields of health promotion and health education, and all published content undergoes open calls for submissions and professional peer review.

The journal requires that all submitted manuscripts comply with publication ethics and rejects any manuscripts involving misconduct such as plagiarism, duplicate submission, data fabrication or falsification, ghostwriting, or undisclosed conflicts of interest.

This journal follows the Publishing Ethics guidelines recommended by Elsevier (https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/publishing-ethics), as well as the ethical guidelines and standards established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (http://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines).

During the review and publication process, the Editor-in-Chief, editorial board members, and the publisher shall adhere to these guidelines and standards to ensure the prevention of any violations of publication ethics or improper publishing practices.

The ethical responsibilities of editors, reviewers, and authors are summarized as follows:

Duties of Editors

  1. Publication Decisions
    Based on the results of peer review, editors may decide whether to publish submitted manuscripts according to the research topic itself or its importance to other researchers or readers. Editors must follow relevant journal editorial guidelines and legal requirements. Editors may authorize the editorial board to exercise publication decision-making authority.
  2. Fair Play
    Editors must evaluate manuscripts based on their content, without regard to the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, nationality, or political views. Editorial policies should be transparent and complete, and editors must ensure that both reviewers and authors clearly understand expectations. Editors shall use the journal’s standard electronic submission system for all communications to ensure fairness.
  3. Confidentiality
    Editors and relevant personnel must not disclose any information about a manuscript to anyone other than the relevant author, reviewers, editorial advisors, and the publisher.
  4. Disclosure Principles
    • Without the author’s consent, editors must not use unpublished materials from a manuscript for their own research.
    • Information and revision suggestions provided by peer reviewers must not be used for personal purposes.
    • When editors believe that a conflict of interest exists due to competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with the author, enterprises, or organizations, they must recuse themselves from the review process and assign it to an appropriate individual.
    • Editors must require all contributors to disclose relevant conflict-of-interest information. If conflicts of interest are identified after publication, necessary actions such as corrections, retractions, or statements of concern must be taken.
  5. Conflicts of Interest
    • Editors must ensure that sponsorship or funding does not result in preferential treatment during peer review, and that review standards remain consistent with other manuscripts.
    • Sponsored or funded content must conform to academic purposes rather than commercial interests.
    • If peer review is not conducted, this must be clearly disclosed.
  6. Investigation Involvement
    When ethical concerns or allegations of misconduct are identified, editors and publishers must take appropriate measures, including contacting the authors or relevant institutions and informing them of the issues. Once a violation of academic ethics is confirmed, actions such as correction, retraction, or clarification must be taken immediately. Any misconduct must be thoroughly investigated, and published articles remain subject to retrospective review.

Duties of Reviewers

  1. Competence
    If a reviewer considers themselves unqualified or unable to complete the review in a timely manner, they must notify the editorial board or responsible editor and request to withdraw from the review process.
  2. Confidentiality
    Reviewers must treat manuscripts under review as confidential documents and must not disclose any information to anyone other than the editor.
  3. Objectivity
    Reviewers must conduct evaluations impartially and objectively, without personal bias, and provide constructive comments. Criticism of the manuscript must be supported by specific examples.
  4. Acknowledgment of Sources
    Reviewers must identify relevant materials not cited by the authors and provide clear supporting examples. Any prior studies, investigations, or content must be properly cited. Reviewers must also inform the editor of any similarity or overlap between the manuscript and other published works.
  5. Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest
    Without the author’s consent, reviewers must not use unpublished materials from the manuscript. If reviewers consider that a conflict of interest exists due to competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with authors, enterprises, or organizations, they must withdraw from the review process.

Duties of Authors

  1. Reporting Standards
    Authors must prepare manuscripts in accordance with the journal’s requirements and present relevant research data, accurately describing the experimental or research process and presenting clear results in an objective manner. The manuscript must clearly present important research details as well as relevant studies and references to facilitate further research by others. Any illegal or unethical behavior, such as deception, misleading statements, or inaccurate descriptions, is prohibited.
  2. Data Access and Retention
    Authors must retain original research or experimental data, provide them to reviewers during the review process, and make them available for public access after publication.
  3. Originality and Plagiarism
    Authors must ensure that submitted work is original, and any use of others’ work must be properly cited. Plagiarism or unethical and illegal conduct is prohibited, including appropriating others’ conclusions as one’s own, reproducing essential parts of other works, or presenting others’ work as one’s own.
  4. Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication
    Authors must not submit the same manuscript to multiple journals simultaneously or publish substantially similar research in more than one publication, as this constitutes unethical publishing behavior. Previously published research should not be submitted to another journal. However, secondary publication is permitted under specific conditions: both the original and secondary journal editors must agree, the content must be consistent with the original publication, and the original work must be properly cited in the references.
  5. Acknowledgment of Sources
    Authors must properly acknowledge all sources and identify factors that influence the nature of the research. Unpublished private information, such as conversations, correspondence, or third-party discussions, must not be used or published without explicit written permission from the source. Information obtained through the review of others’ work must not be used or published without the original author’s written consent.
  6. Authorship
    All individuals who have made significant contributions to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the study must be listed as co-authors, and participants involved in the research project must be clearly identified. The corresponding author must ensure that all contributing co-authors are listed and that individuals who did not contribute to the work are not listed. The corresponding author must confirm that all co-authors have reviewed the final version of the manuscript and agreed to its submission.
  7. Hazards and Human or Animal Subjects
    If the research involves hazardous chemicals, procedures, or equipment, these must be clearly described. If the research involves human or animal subjects, the procedures must be described in detail and comply with relevant laws and regulations. For research involving human subjects, authors must state that informed consent has been obtained and ensure the permanent protection of participants’ privacy.
  8. Conflicts of Interest
    Authors must disclose any conflicts of interest that may influence the research results or their interpretation. This includes funding, grants, employment, consultancy, ownership of materials, remuneration, expert testimony fees, patents, or donations. Potential future conflicts of interest must also be disclosed as early as possible.
  9. Errors in Published Work
    If authors discover errors or inaccuracies in their work, they must promptly notify the editor and take actions such as correction or retraction. If significant errors are identified by a third party, authors must also provide accurate information to the editor and cooperate in corrective actions.


During the review and publication process, the Editor-in-Chief, editorial board members, and the publisher must adhere to the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics. This includes the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and the Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers, to ensure compliance with publication ethics and prevent improper publishing practices.