PHWR 주간 건강과 질병
PUBLIC HEALTH WEEKLY REPORT
질병관리청 (Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency)

Issues concerning ethical responsibilities and rights of papers submitted to PHWR shall be in accordance with the research ethics regulations of KDCA, and matters not specified in ethical regulations shall be governed by the 「Bioethics and Safety Act」 and the Declaration of Helsinki. The policy on research and publication ethics of PHWR follows the Guidelines on Good Publication of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the Good Publication Practice Guidelines for Medical Journal (2013, http://kamje.or.kr) of the Korean Medical Journal Editorial Council (http://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines).

1. Statement of Human and Animal Rights

Clinical research with human subjects should comply with the Declaration of Helsinki: Medical Research Involving Human Subjects (revised in 2013, https://www.wma.net/whatwe-do/medical-ethics/declaration-of-helsinki/), and concurrently, it should also follow the Korean Act on “Bioethics and Safety” (https://www.law.go.kr/법령/생명윤리및안전에관한법률) (web site). Patient-related information, such as name, hospital registration number, and date of birth, should be anonymized. Animal studies should follow the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals established by the state or institution, and animal studies conducted in Korea should follow the Animal Experiment Guidelines No. 127 of Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency (https://www.law.go.kr/행정규칙/농림축산검역본부 동물실험지침) (web site).

2. Statement of Informed Consent and Institutional Approval

If there is no reason to seek an exemption from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) review in human or animal studies, subjects' written consent and approval from the institutional bioethics committee of the author must be obtained, and approval details shall be described in the manuscript. The author must submit relevant documentation at the request of the editorial board.

3. Privacy Policy

No details, photographs, or family tree shall be included in the manuscript, unless there is written consent from the patient (or the patient's legal guardian), concurrently necessary for scientific purposes to be published. In addition, written consent should be obtained in all cases where patient anonymity is not guaranteed. For example, merely covering patients' eyes in an image cannot guarantee anonymity. If the identity-exposing features are changed to maintain anonymity, the author must ensure that the scientific meaning is not distorted by such changes. If a written consent is received, it has to be mentioned in the contribution paper. If necessary, the editorial board member may request a copy; so a copy of the consent form and the approval form should be kept ready.

4. Conflict of Interest Statement

The author should reveal in the paper whether he/she has any interests, which refer to cases where the author or the author's affiliated institution, reviewer, and editor have a financial or personal relationship that could affect the process of writing, screening, and publishing. The authenticity of the paper may be affected by financial interests, such as the author being employed by an institution related to a particular company, advising, owning company shares, or receiving a reward or travel expense. Interests can be expressed not only through financial but also human relations, academic competition, and intellectual passion. Conflict of interest can always exist, so it is important to clarify them. When submitting the manuscript, the author must submit a Conflict of Interest Statement, and if interests are expressed, it is sufficient for editors, reviewers, and readers to review or read the paper after understanding the situation.

5. Originality, Plagiarism, and Duplicate Publication

Papers that violate research ethics, such as fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, duplicate publication, and research fraud cannot be submitted or published. In addition, all authors should address copyright issues when quoting pictures or tables from academic journals other than open access.

• 1) Fabrication, Falsification, and Plagiarism
  1. ① Fabrication: Fake research results
  2. ② Falsification: manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data or results
  3. ③ Plagiarism: Using another person’s ideas, processes (methods), study results, sentences, etc. without proper citation or approval
• 2) Duplicate Publication
  A manuscript that is similar to the contents of work already published or scheduled to be published in another academic journal shall not be published. Similarly, a manuscript published in this academic journal may not be arbitrarily published in another academic journal. However, abstract or poster presentations are not considered as duplicate publication. Ethics regulations and procedures for screening and handling all research ethics, such as fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, duplication, and research fraud, follow the Third edition of the "Medical Paper Publishing Ethics Guidelines" enacted by the Publication Ethics Committee of the Korean Medical Journal Editorial Council (https://www.kamje.or.kr/board/lists?b_name=bo_publication) and the guidelines of COPE (https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Guidelines).

6. Secondary Publications

Secondary publications can be published if they meet the conditions proposed by ICMJE's Recommendations (https://www.icmje.org/). Medical guidelines published by government agencies or expert organizations have a diverse reader base. Therefore, several editors can agree and publish them in various journals. Secondary publications may also be published in other countries, languages, or journals. The author must first obtain prior permission from the editor or publisher of the academic journal. In addition, editors who have received secondary publication contributions must secure a copy of the original paper. To give priority to primary publications, publication dates are usually spaced by more than one week, although they can be published simultaneously if the editor agrees in advance. In addition, secondary publications must have a different readership and can be done only with a condensed version. Finally, the original thesis data and interpretation should be accurately followed, and the reader, reviewer, and authorities should be informed through footnotes on the first page of the contributed manuscript that all or part of the manuscript have been published in other journals.

7. Preprint Policy

PHWR allows a paper that has not conducted peer review on a preprint server such as the MedRxiv, Research square, and bioRxiv will not be considered as a duplicate publication, provided that the following conditions are met:

• 1) When submitting a paper, the author should clearly include a disclaimer that the paper was posted on the server before publication and provide the server’s name, registration number, and DOI of the server that was published on the title page.
  Example) Disclaimer: This manuscript is being considered for submission to Public Health Weekly Report. The manuscript published on the Research Square [DOI:00.12345./rs.3.rs.=-67890/v1] has not been peer-reviewed. Only peer-reviewed manuscripts can be used in Public Health Weekly Report.
• 2) PHWR does not support the publication of an edited version of the manuscript modified as a result of peer review on the paper server before publication.
• 3) Upon publication, the author is responsible for updating the DOI and the link of the final published version of the manuscript on the pre-published paper server. PHWR can accordingly be modified by providing a link with the following statements relating to the final published version of the paper, and thus the contents of the pre-published paper server.
  Example: “This paper (insert DOI) is a pre-author and pre-published version of Public Health Weekly Report paper.”

8. Authorship and Author Responsibility

The corresponding author takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal in the process of submitting the manuscript, peer review, and publication, and coordinate with the editorial board, such as providing author information, approval from the ethics committee, registering clinical trials, and collecting consent on conflicts of interest. Even after publication, the corresponding author should reply to comments on the paper and cooperate when the editorial board requests data or additional information used in the paper. The co-authors are jointly responsible for all the contents of the paper, and all researchers specified as authors must meet the four criteria mentioned below: (Author’s role defined by ICMJE, http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html).

• 1) Sufficient contribution to research concepts and planning and data collection, analysis, and interpretation
• 2) Writing papers on research results and critical revisions to important academic aspects
• 3) Approving the final version prior to publication
• 4) Responsible for answering the questions related to this when investigating the accuracy and authenticity of the study

Researchers who do not meet these criteria can be listed as contributors in the acknowledgement section. Changes to authors (addition, deletion, change in author order, etc.) after posting a paper should be explained to the editor by letter or e-mail, and the letter must be signed by all authors of the paper, and all authors must complete the copyright transfer. In principle, an author's affiliation can be changed with the approval of the editor-in-chief, and if the timing of the research and the publication of the paper are different, the affiliation is indicated as the institution at the time of actual research, and the author's current agency is listed separately at the bottom of the paper cover.

9. Process for Managing Research and Publication Misconduct

If there is a violation of research ethics, such as duplicate publication, plagiarism, fabrication or data manipulation, author change, interest issues, research ethics issues, or reviewers who used other authors’ data or ideas, the editorial committee discusses the issue and decides and implements measures by referring to the flow chart of the COPE (https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts).

10. Editorial Responsibilities

The editorial board shall ensure publishing ethics and integrity, such as maintaining content integrity, excluding commercial demands, and screening, modifying, or withdrawing publications, and plagiarized and fabricated materials. The submitted paper is examined with the Similarity Check, and if the similarity index value is high, it is evaluated in detail for duplicate publication or plagiarism. Editors are involved in determining whether to publish a contributed paper, examine conflict of interest, request correction of errors, recommend withdrawal if there is a serious violation, and make every effort to maintain reviewer anonymity.

1. Copyright

Copyrights for all papers published in PHWR are transferred to KDCA and are subject to the Korean Open Government License and Creative Commons License. When the publication of the thesis is finalized, all authors must sign and submit the copyright transfer agreement form.

2. Open Access Policy

PHWR is an Open Access journal that can be used, reproduced, and distributed for non-commercial purposes under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), but must obtain permission from the Editorial Board if used for commercial purposes.

3. Registration of Clinical Trial Research

Clinical trial studies should be registered with the Clinical Research Information Service (CRiS; https://cris.nih.go.kr) of the KDCA or International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (https://www.who.int/clinical-trials-registry-platform), which was approved by the World Health Organization, or ClinicalTrial.gov (https://clinicaltrials.gov) of the US National Institute of Health.

4. Data Sharing

PHWR complies with ICMJE recommendations for data sharing policies (https://icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf). All manuscripts reporting clinical trial results should submit a data-sharing statement in accordance with ICMJE guidelines and provide a link if necessary.

5. Archiving

PHWR provides electronic data storage and access to journal content by preserving it in the National Library of Korea (http://nl.go.kr) when the journal is no longer published. The author can archive the issuer's version or a PDF of the same.

6. Corrections

If the original paper needs revisions, it can be revised, withdrawn, and republished in accordance with ICMJE's recommendation (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/corrections-and-version-control.html). The following are the standards to be complied with when making corrections.

• 1) Corrections should be published as soon as possible.
• 2) The corrected article is included in the table of contents for appropriate indexes.
• 3) An amendment stating the changed parts and the date of amendment should be posted.
• 4) All editions including the previous original should be saved.
• 5) It should be ensured that the original version before modification has the latest revised edition.
• 6) The latest edition should be cited.

1. Submission of papers

Corresponding authors who wish to submit papers to PHWR can do so through the online submission system (https://www.phwr.org/submission) and refer to the manuscript's posting regulations for all necessary information.

2. Review process

The submitted paper is evaluated by the editorial board and reviewer. The editorial board review the content and quality of the articles posted before the actual examination. If the contents of the paper do not meet the purpose and scope of this journal or are not prepared in accordance with the posting regulations, the submission may be rejected without examination.

• 1) Appointment of reviewer
  For papers that completed preliminary review, at least two related professional reviewers shall be selected by the editorial board.
• 2) Confidentiality of the review process
  In any circumstance, the identity of the reviewer and the names of the authors and institutions that sent the manuscript to the reviewer are not disclosed. The reviewers shall maintain confidentiality of the facts of appointment, details of examination, etc. and shall not exchange any opinions with the contributor on the examination papers without passing through the editor-in-chief of the editorial board.
• 3) Review procedure
  - The reviewer shall request a paper review with the review guidelines through the online submission system.
  - In principle, the reviewer shall complete the review within six days from the date on which the review is requested. The reviewer shall describe the summary of the review in detail and submit it to the online submission system.
  - The corresponding author checks the results of the examination and the general evaluation of the editorial board in the online submission system, and corrects the paper according to the summary of the examination by reviewers within seven days of receipt. A revised paper and a review answer detailing the revised contents are uploaded on the online submission system. If the amendment is not submitted within 10 days, the post shall be deemed to have been withdrawn.
• 4) Review results
  When the revised paper is submitted, the editorial board finally decides whether to accept the paper in accordance with the review regulations. The editorial board makes a final decision on the approval of the publication of the submitted paper and may request further modifications, revisions, and deletions, if necessary.

3. Acceptance of papers

For papers that have been confirmed to be published, download the form for copyright transfer in the online submission system. All authors are required to sign it before submission.

The papers published in PHWR can be categorized into original articles, outbreak reports, surveillance reports, notes from the field, reviews & perspectives, policy notes and etc.

Original Articles : Original articles based on public health and health-related surveys and research should include content that can help improve future public health. The manuscript should be within 3,000 words, and include up to three tables and figures each. A maximum of ten references should be included. Original articles should consist of an abstract, key messages, introduction, method, results, discussion (conclusion), declarations, and references.

Outbreak Reports : In general, it follows a format similar to that of original articles, but in the case of outbreak reports, it should be described in a chronological descriptive format for outbreak cases. The manuscript must be within 3,000 words, and include a maximum of three tables and figures each. A maximum of ten references can be included. Outbreak reports should consist of an abstract, key messages, introduction, surveys and results, public health responses, discussion (conclusions), declarations, and references.

Surveillance Reports : It includes analysis and reporting of epidemiological changes in diseases, pathogens, and health issues based on national or international investigation/monitoring system data. The manuscript must be within 2,000 words, and a maximum of three tables and figures each can be included. Not more than ten references can be included. Outbreak reports should consist of an abstract, key messages, introduction, method and results, discussion (conclusions), declarations, and references.

Notes from the Field : A summary form of research reports on recent events or ongoing issues in the public health sector may include pandemics, specific group outbreaks, addiction, exposure to disease, and noteworthy public health case reports. Notes from the field consist of the beginning and recognition of the event, the content and description of the investigation, the size and scope of the event, results, temporary conclusions and measures, and references. It can be written in an unstructured format. Ideally, the manuscript should be within 2,000 words, and if the number of characters is exceeding, prior consultation by the editorial committee is required, and no more than one table and picture each should be included. There shall be no more than ten references.

Review & Perspective : It includes arbitration on major public health issues, literature review on policy research, and insightful analysis of project implementation and policies and guidelines in the field. For reviews, it is recommended to follow the PRISMA guidelines for systematic literature review. The report cannot exceed 3,000 words, although there is no limit on the number of references. Perspectives can have up to 2,000 words, can be written in an unstructured format, and subheadings suitable for the content can be used.

Policy Notes : It is a report released for the purpose of conveying new policies or guidelines related to public health and health of KCDC. The manuscript shall not exceed 2,000 words, and a maximum of three tables and figures each can be included. Policy reporting consists of an abstract, key messages, introduction, background, method, evidence and proofs, policy/recommendation, review and discussion, and references, although it may not include review and discussion, abstract, and key messages (unstructured format can also be used). There should be no more than ten references.

1. General guidelines on manuscript preparation

The manuscript should be prepared in Korean or English, using Hancom office or MS Word in accordance with the suggested "Manuscript Preparation Method."

• 1) All manuscripts are prepared using PHWR templates.
• 2) The manuscript should be prepared in the order of title page, abstract, key messages, body, declaration, tables and figures, and references. The text may be described autonomously without classifying subheadings.

2. Abbreviations and terms

Abbreviations cannot be used in titles or subheadings. However, the abbreviation can be used if the title is too long or the reader is familiar with it. Use abbreviations after expanding it in words first and place them in parenthesis. In principle, only standard abbreviations should be used, and abbreviations should be avoided as far as possible.

• 1) In principle, the names of people, places, and other proper nouns shall be written in the original language.
• 2) Arabic numerals are used for numbers; metric units are used for weights; and temperature is in degrees Celsius.
• 3) Other units of measurement follow the International System of Units (SI).
• 4) Except for °C, °, and %, spacing between measured values and unit marks is the principle, and when using parentheses, spacing is used in English or numbers, but not in Korean.
• 5) The labeling of devices and reagents shall be in accordance with the following provisions:
  1. ① In the case of equipment, the manufacturer's name, city, state, and country shall be written in parenthesis.
  2. ② For reagents, write the generic name, manufacturer name, city, state, and country in parenthesis.
  3. ③ If there is a model name, use a semi-colon (;) after the model name, and if the names of two or more reagents and instruments are listed consecutively, separate them using semi-colons (;).

3. Structure of the paper (Original articles)

• 1) Title page
  In the title page, the title of the paper, author's name, and name of the agency to which the author belongs are specified in Korean and English, as well as the email address of the corresponding author.
  1. ① If there are two or more authors, the name of the first author is mentioned first, and in the case of co-authors, it is mentioned according to their contribution to the paper. Author names shall be separated by a comma (,) and the corresponding author shall be marked with an asterisk (*).
  2. ② The affiliation is processed under the name, while the contact address (phone number, e-mail address) of the corresponding author is indicated.
• 2) Abstract and Keywords
  1. ① All abstracts shall be prepared in Korean and English in free format, not exceeding 250 words.
  2. ② The abstract must not cite references.
  3. ③ Provide 4–5 keywords at the bottom of the Korean and English abstracts. For English, refer to the terms listed in the National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) Index (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh). Each word is separated with a semi-colon (;), and the first word begins with a capital letter after a space.
• 3) Key message
  In principle, it should be written in a simple manner, and without the use of technical terms unless necessary, it should include ① What is known previously? ② What new information is presented? ③ What are implications? written in Korean and English within 100 words.
• 4) Main text
  The format of the text is in the order of introduction, method, results, and discussion (conclusions), and refers to the following items when describing. In principle, the text shall be written in Korean, and English shall be allowed if necessary.
  1. ① Introduction
     It includes the research background, research necessity, and recent research trends.
  2. ② Method
     - Research methods and research contents, including research subjects, are described according to the logical development.
     - The study correctly uses the terms gender (biological element) and sex (identity, social psychological, or cultural element), reports the gender/sex of the study subjects, and describes the methods used to determine gender and sex. If the study was conducted with limited subjects, for example, including only one gender, the authors should explain the reason, except in obvious cases (e.g., prostate cancer).
     - Method: Includes research design, research subjects, research tools, data collection, and analysis methods. The statistical program used also includes the version and manufacturer information.
  3. Example: It was analyzed using SAS (version 9.4; SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA).
  4. ③ Results
     The results of the study shall be clearly and logically described, but all data in the table or figure shall not be listed in the description of the research results, and only the main research results shall be briefly described.
  5. ④ Discussion (Conclusion)
     Conclusions and discussion based on the research results and appropriate policy suggestions may be included. When writing a paper without classification of subheadings, it includes the contents corresponding to ①–④ of 4) and describes it freely in a logical manner.
• 5) Declarations
  All the contents below should be written in English. If not applicable, it should be stated that it is not applicable (Not applicable, None, etc.). Refer to the template for a detailed description.
  1. ① Ethics Statement : For human studies, approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) should be obtained and approval details (including the approval number) should be recorded. Clinical studies should describe the informed consent of the subject. Even if prior consent is exempted by the IRB, the contents shall be described.
  2. ② Funding Source : In the case of receiving research funding from various sources, describe the details of research funding support.
  3. ③ Acknowledgments : Introduce a person not listed as co-author or an institution that has contributed in part to the paper.
  4. ④ Conflict of Interest: If there is a stake in the writing of the paper, it will be described in detail. If there is no conflict of interest, mention that "The authorities have no conflicts of interest to declare."
  5. ⑤ Author Contributions: If there are more than two authors, describe each author's role. The author's role can be described by referring to CRediT (https://www.casrai.org/credit.html).
     Example) Conceptualization: GDH. Data curation: JHK. Funding acquisition: GDH. Investigation: JHK, SSL. Methodology: AGK. Project administration: GDH. Supervision: GDH. Writing–original draft: JHK, SSL. Writing–review & editing: GDH, AGK.
  6. ⑥ ORCID: ORCID is a unique number given to researchers. Researchers without ORCID can simply create it on the ORCID website (https://orcid.org).
• 6) Tables and Figures
  - In principle, tables and figures shall be in Korean and English.
  - The contents of the table and figures must be easy to understand and independently readable.
  1. ① Principles for tables
     - All lines shall be in a single line and only the horizontal line (three lines) shall be marked, and no vertical line shall be used.
     - The title of the table shall be listed on the left-hand side alignment at the top in English; only the first letter of the sentence and proper nouns shall be capitalized; and there is no period at the end of the sentence.
     - In principle, the first column is left-aligned, and the remaining columns are center-aligned.
     - The table is numbered in the order in which it is quoted in the text. Indicate the citation information in the table in the body.
     - If explanation is required in the table, use footnotes. All non-standard abbreviations used in the table should be described in footnotes at the bottom of the table.
     Example: Exp=experimental group; Con=control group.
     - Footnotes are described with symbols, but symbols should be in alphabet superscripts (a), b), c),...). The P value is expressed in ”p-value” lowercase letters.
     - If materials that have already been published or have yet to be published are used in the table, permission from the original author must be obtained.
  2. ② Principles for figures
     - The figures are also numbered in the order in which they are cited.
     - In case it is in English, in the title of the picture, capitalize only the first letter of the sentence and proper nouns.
     - Color images shall be at least 300 dpi, and radiographs and black-and-white images shall have a resolution of at least 600 dpi.
     - The display of letters, numbers, and symbols should be made in clear and constant concentration, and even if the image is reduced during the publication process, the reader should be able to read the letters.
     - If the image is already published, specify the fact and obtain a license from the copyright holder. All documents except public domain documents (not copyrighted) must have a license from the author or issuer.
     - Explain what each footnote means at the bottom of the figure if a description of the figure is required, and if a symbol, arrow, number, or character is used for the purpose of marking a particular part of the figure. For microscopic photographs, magnification and staining are specified.
     - The patient's personal information should not be revealed in photographs or video findings. However, if the patient's information has to be inevitably disclosed, written consent should be obtained from him/her.
• 7) References
  All references cited in the text shall be in English.
  1. ① The reference is numbered in the order in which it is cited in the text, and the reference number is assigned in the following form.

     • In general, the reference number is placed at the end of the cited sentence.

     Example: ... It emphasizes the importance of preventive intervention [1].
     ... Overseas studies have highlighted personal hygiene [2,3,7].
     ... According to overseas studies, personal hygiene is emphasized [2–7].
     In English, spacing in front of [ is required.
     ... respiratory diseases such as pneumonia and death [5,6].

     • If the author's name is included, place the reference number after the author's name.

     Example: If there is only one author—Kim [1] is...
     If there are two authors—Kim and Lee [2] are...
     If there are more than three authors—Kim et al. [3] are...

  2. ② References cited only in tables and image descriptions are displayed in the order in which the table and image descriptions first appeared in the text.
  3. ③ If there are more than six authors in the reference, mention only the first three and add et al.
  4. ④ If there is no English title or author name in the original text, translate it into English and place it in parenthesis [].
  5. ⑤ For the form not included in the sample below, refer to the Vancouver form, which is the ICMJE recommended format (https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html)
  6. ⑥ Use the official abbreviation in NLM Catalog: Journals referred in the NCBI Databases (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals/) to refer to the name of the journal.