The National Centre for Public Health and Pharmacy, as the publisher of Egészségfejlesztés, regards the professional credibility of the journal as a core value. It respects the autonomy of the editorial office and does not influence editorial decisions concerning the journal’s content.

Egészségfejlesztés is committed to ethical scholarly publishing and follows the recommended practices set out in the COPE Code of Conduct for editors, reviewers, and authors. Accordingly, all parties are expected to comply with the requirements below.

 

Editorial Office

The editorial office is responsible for the content published in the journal. In shaping this content, it takes into account the needs of readers and authors, drawing on surveys and feedback received.

The editorial office continuously monitors opportunities for improvement. With the needs of editors and authors in mind, it expands and, where possible, optimises the functions available through the journal platform. It also seeks to resolve any issues related to the editorial software, Open Journal Systems (OJS), as quickly as possible.

The professional credibility of the journal and the editorial independence of its editors are of central importance. Editors therefore ensure that decisions on manuscripts are made solely on professional grounds. To support this, authors are required to declare any conflicts of interest and to disclose the funding source of the research, including any role the funder may have played. Reviewers are expected to submit objective reviews by the deadline, taking into account the journal’s peer review criteria.

The editorial office provides a mechanism for correcting errors in published articles by publishing an Erratum alongside the original article. Where necessary, a request for retraction or for the publication of an apology may be submitted to the editorial office in writing, with reasons provided.

The editorial office welcomes comments on published manuscripts and actively encourages readers to submit such comments.

During the review process, the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts is protected by the closed OJS system and by the confidentiality obligations that apply to editors and reviewers.

Members of the editorial office may submit their own manuscripts to the journal. Such manuscripts are handled in the same way as any other submission. Editorial office members must declare all potential conflicts of interest.

Unless otherwise stated, articles published in Egészségfejlesztés are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). Under this licence, article content may be shared and adapted for non-commercial purposes, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original work and any changes are indicated.

Reviewers

Egészségfejlesztés places great value on the work of its reviewers. Reviewers receive an individual certificate and a letter of thanks in recognition of their contribution.

Manuscripts submitted to the Original Articles section undergo peer review. One reviewer assesses the manuscript as a whole, while, where necessary, another reviewer evaluates the statistical methodology. Additional reviewers may be invited if this is considered necessary for the decision-making process. The journal uses a double-blind peer review procedure. Where technically possible, invited reviewers receive manuscripts with all author-identifying information removed. Unless they indicate otherwise, reviewers remain anonymous to the authors. Authors and reviewers do not communicate directly, and reviews are not made public by the editorial office.

Reviewers must decline an invitation to review if they feel unable to assess the manuscript objectively or if there is any conflict of interest related to the presumed authors, the research, or the subject matter of the manuscript. Before preparing their review, reviewers are required to declare that they have no bias, interest, or conflict of interest in relation to the subject, results, or conclusions of the manuscript that could influence their assessment.

Reviewers should aim to provide objective comments supported by professional reasoning and evidence. Their views on a particular issue or research topic may naturally differ from those of the authors; however, such views should, where possible, be supported by scientific evidence. This helps ensure that differing opinions are presented constructively and contributes to improving the scientific quality of the manuscript. Reviewers may request citation of their own work only where this is clearly justified on professional grounds. Reviews should be objective, helpful to the authors, and phrased in a respectful manner. Reviewers are also expected to make every effort to meet the review deadline.

All manuscripts submitted for review are confidential. Neither the manuscript nor its contents may be shared with any third party without permission. If the involvement of a third party appears necessary, this must be discussed in advance with the responsible editor, who may grant permission where appropriate.

If reviewers suspect plagiarism or any other form of ethical misconduct, they must notify the editorial office without delay. In matters concerning the ethical aspects of peer review, the journal follows the relevant COPE guidelines.

 

Authors

Duplicate publication is generally not accepted. Exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis if the material has previously been presented as a preliminary report or preprint in connection with a scientific meeting, as an abstract or poster, or in conference proceedings. Secondary publication may also be acceptable if the work is published in another language or adapted for a different readership, provided that both journals have approved the secondary publication.

A manuscript submitted for publication must not contain material that has already been published, submitted elsewhere, or accepted for publication elsewhere but not yet published. At the time of submission, authors must inform the editorial office of any overlapping material included in other publications that have already been published or are under review.

Authors are expected to report data accurately, acknowledge the work of others through correct and consistent referencing, and declare all potential conflicts of interest. Submitted manuscripts are checked for plagiarism by the editorial office.

The editorial office is committed to promoting transparency and reproducibility in research. Authors must therefore include a statement at the end of the article indicating where and under what conditions the research data underlying the manuscript are available. If the data cannot be shared, the reason must be stated.

Where ethical approval was obtained for the research, the ethical compliance of the study and the publishability of its results must be confirmed by providing the approval number. If the authors do not have ethical approval but conducted research involving human participants, the research must comply with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. If concerns about ethical compliance arise and the authors are unable to resolve them satisfactorily, the editorial office will not accept the manuscript.

Information that could identify study participants may be included in the text or figures only if the participant has given informed consent for this. The article must state that such consent was obtained.

If a possible breach of ethical principles arises, the editorial office will first contact the authors to clarify the issue. If necessary, a publication ethics expert may also be consulted. If serious ethical misconduct is discovered after publication, the article will be retracted.

The decision to accept a manuscript for publication is made by the editorial office on professional grounds and, where relevant, with the peer reviews taken into account. Authors may appeal an editorial decision to the editor-in-chief by presenting their arguments.

Authorship is granted to individuals whose contribution to the article includes at least one of the following: designing the study or analysing and interpreting the data; drafting the article or critically revising its main intellectual content; or preparing the final version for publication. Authors must state in the manuscript how each author contributed to the work.

The editorial office accepts the author order provided by the authors. Changes to the author list or author order are possible only if a justified request signed by all authors is submitted to the editorial office.

The corresponding author must declare that all authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Contributors who do not qualify as authors may be acknowledged in the Acknowledgements section or listed in a separate appendix. Artificial intelligence-based technologies do not qualify as authors and may not be listed as such.

When submitting manuscripts to the Original Articles section, authors may indicate any experts whom they would like to exclude from the peer review process.

If an author or any other person discovers an error or ethical issue after publication, they must notify the journal without delay. Questions, concerns, comments, and requests concerning published articles may be sent to folyoirat@nngyk.gov.hu. Authors are expected to cooperate in the correction process.