Expectations are that (1) articles are factually correct contributions to knowledge or understanding in the field; (2) Based on reproducible evidence; (3) Robust in approach, reasoning, argument and conclusions; (4) Supported by relevant literature review; (5) Clear in expression; (6) Original work by the authors that has not been published elsewhere; (7) Not submitted at the same time to another journal.

Appeals If you feel that the peer review by the editor and external reviewers treated you unfairly, then please send a rebuttal letter to: JRTPH@jcu.edu.au. We will consider only one appeal per article.

Editing and proofs All material submitted for publication must be submitted exclusively to the JRTPH. Final proofs are sent to the corresponding author before publication. Corrections must be re-submitted within one week. If no corrections are received within one week, papers will be published.

Reprints We do not provide reprints.

Authorship The uniform requirements (http://www.icmje.org/) for manuscripts submitted to for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals, drawn up by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), state that authorship credit should be based only on substantial contribution to:

• conception and design, or analysis and interpretation of data;
• drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
• and final approval of the version to be published.

All these conditions must all be met. Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship.

Fee policy Publication in this journal is free of charge.

Access policy Access to this publication is free of charge.

Copyright The full copyright stays with the authors. JRTPH only seeks a copyright licence to publish the manuscript. See full copyright document here and licence for publication here.

Article requirements for the Journal of Rural and Tropical Public Health

Please ensure that anything you submit to the JRTPH conforms to the uniform requirements (http://www.icmje.org/) for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals, drawn up by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Here is an overview of the requirements for all JRTPH manuscripts:

• Title
• Names, addresses, and positions of all authors plus email address for corresponding author
• Copyright/licence for publication - Our preferred way of receiving the granting of this licence is by a statement in the manuscript: “The Corresponding Author has the right to grant on behalf of all authors and does grant on behalf of all authors, an exclusive licence (or non exclusive for government employees) on a worldwide basis to the JRTPH, to permit this article (if accepted) to be published in the JRTPH”. We will also accept the above statement in an email.
• A competing interest statement - A statement in the manuscript describing the interests of all authors or a declaration in the manuscript that "Authors have no competing interests to declare". See full document here.
• Publication of any personal information about a patient in the JRTPH, for example in a case report or clinical photograph or within a subsample described in detail in a research article, will require the signed consent of the patient.
• For research we will need statements regarding ethics approval (or a statement that it was not required) and of seeking informed consent from participants.
• If you are submitting a report of:
• a randomised controlled trial please send with your manuscript a completed checklist and flowchart in accordance with the appropriate CONSORT guidelines;
• a systematic review please follow the QUOROM guidelines
• a meta-analysis of observational studies please follow the MOOSE guidelines
• a study of diagnostic accuracy please follow the STARD guidelines
• an observational study please follow the STROBE guidelines
• a health economics paper please follow our health economics checklist

These reporting guidelines are collected together in one place: the website of the EQUATOR Network (http://www.equator-network.org/) in the Resource Centre. This network seeks to improve the quality of scientific publications by promoting transparent and accurate reporting of health research.

No word limit We do not set fixed limits for the length of JRTPH articles and can be flexible. Nonetheless, please try to make your article concise and make every word count. Think hard about what really needs to be in the paper to get your message across accurately and what can be left out.

Title page The title page should give the title of the article, including the study design. Please give for each author his or her name and initials, full address including postal code, one main work position (job title) at the time of writing the paper, and authors’ qualifications. For the corresponding author please provide an email address.

Overall style Original research articles should follow the IMRaD style (introduction, methods, results and discussion) and should have a structured abstract, a structured discussion, and a succinct introduction that focuses on the background to the research question. The type of your paper should determine the headings you use. Bear in mind that headings should facilitate reading and understanding. You should use only two levels of headings.

Structured abstract Please ensure that the structured abstract is as complete, accurate, and clear as possible—but not unnecessarily long—and has been approved by all authors. We may screen original research articles by reading only the abstract. Please note the general rules for abstracts in the JRTPH:

• Structure: Objectives, Methods, Results, and Conclusion;
• Should be 250- 300 words long;
• Numbers over 10 do not need spelling out at the start of sentences;
• Sentences starting with a number do not require a capital letter;
• p values should always be accompanied by supporting data and denominators should be given for percentages;
• Abstracts do not need references.

Keywords Provide three to nine keywords. These words should add to the words used in the title and should help define the topic.

Tables and Figures Tables and Figures can help clarify your paper. Insert Tables and Figures in text with suitable captions. Do not put your Tables and Figures at the end of the paper. Cite the Table and Figure in the text (e.g. Table 1 or Figure 1). Provide your Tables with titles and your Figures with legends. Tables and Figures have to be self-explanatory. All abbreviations have to be explained. Ensure reproducible quality. Photocopies are of insufficient quality. Provide all relevant units of measurement (metric units).

References The following Harvard-based system is to be followed. DO NOT use Vancouver citation method and DO NOT use EndNote or other referencing systems. All references must be in standard text format.

Journal References Author's names and initials, date of publication (in parentheses), title of the article (only first letter of first word capitalized), the name of the journal (in full), the volume, the first and last pages of the article, http address (if it exists), e.g.

Arther PG, Freddrick MN. (1995) Educational software design: a literature review. Australian Journal of Educational Technology 11:68-84.

Web References Author's or Website's name, date of publication or modification (in parentheses), title of the web page or article (only first letter of first word capitalized), the name of the web site (in full), (Cited month year) http address, e.g.

Werner F. (2008) Environmental health - heavy metals. Toxnet. Cited May 2008. http://www.toxnet.org/enhealth.

Book References Author's names and initials, date of publication (in parentheses), book title (first letters of all words capitalized), edition, publisher's name, place of publication, http address (if it exists), e.g.

Murphy SE. (1998) Rural Environments, 2nd edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Book Chapter References Author's names and initials, date of publication (in parentheses), title of the chapter (only first letter of first word capitalized), page reference, Book title (first letters of all words capitalized), edition, editors(s), publisher's name, place of publication, http address (if it exists), e.g.

Gubler DJ, Reiter P. (1988). Dengue in the Tropics, pp. 223-260. In: The Arboviruses: Epidemiology, Vol 3, (ed.) Monarth T. CRC Press, Florida.

Text Citations In the text, references should be given as Smith (2000) or (Smith, 2000) or Smith and Johns (2000) or (Smith and Johns, 2000). Use Smith et al. (2000) or (Smith et al., 2000) when there are more than two (2) authors. When more than one reference is cited in one place, separate citations by a semicolon. If papers by the same authors in the same year are cited, they should be distinguished alphabetically, e.g. (Smith, 2000a; Smith 2000b). Alphabetical order is required. References to papers "in press" must mean that the papers have been accepted for publication. References to works "in prep" or "submitted" are not allowed. References to personal communication (pers. com.) and unpublished work are permitted only in the text, not in the reference section.

Permission to reproduce borrowed material Written permission to reproduce borrowed material, illustrations, tables or photographs must be obtained from the original publishers and submitted with the typescript. Borrowed material should be acknowledged in this style: "Reproduced by kind permission of ...(publishers) ... from ... (reference)".

Writing style It should be no surprise that editors are more likely to accept well-written submissions than badly written ones; we are no exception. Few writers, the Editor included, find it easy to write clearly or concisely without a great deal of criticism and revision. A harsh editor may be your greatest friend in the long run, although it may not seem possible at the time. Easily understood writing is an asset for all professionals and well worth the effort of acquiring. Some simple "rules" for better writing are: Use bullet points for presenting simple lists; Use tables to present complex lists and figures to present complex concepts; Keep sentences simple and use easily understood language; Use a spelling checker and a grammar checker for advice; Avoid one sentence paragraphs and paragraphs longer than five sentences; Contractions are not acceptable in formal writing; Use abbreviations only after defining them first.

Submission Please send your manuscript in RTF or DOC format to the JRTPH@jcu.edu.au by email attachment.