As the economy is forcing many of us to tighten our budgets, even prestigious universities such as Harvard University are looking for ways to save—particularly on the relatively high cost of journal subscriptions, which can cost up to $40,000 a year, according to a recent Marketplace Morning Report story.   

For those working outside of well-endowed university settings, accessing the latest global health research has been an issue in even good economic times, especially in low- and middle-income country settings. A recent special supplement to the Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives, titled “Meeting the Information Needs of Health Care Providers, Program Managers and Policy Makers in Low- and Middle-Income Countries,” highlighted the lack of access to relevant and up-to-date health information and the need for free access to journals. The special supplement is provided free of charge via open access courtesy of the K4Health Project.

Logo for the journal Global Health: Science & Practice

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has also recognized the dearth of information available to health practitioners in low- and middle-income countries. Consequently, USAID in partnership with the K4Health Project is launching Global Health: Science and Practice—a new peer-reviewed, open access online journal. Guided by a vision to provide access to the latest global health research and best practices to improve health programs on the ground, Global Health: Science and Practice will be offered free of charge to health professionals worldwide. There also is no cost to authors to submit their manuscripts to the journal for consideration. Editors-in-Chief for the journal James D. Shelton, MD, MPH of USAID and Ron Waldman, MD, MPH of the Center for Global Health at George Washington University bring their vast experience in the field of international health and development to lead the journal.

Issued quarterly, Global Health: Science and Practice will cover all global health topics, including but not limited to: child health, communicable and emerging diseases, HIV/AIDS, malaria, neglected tropical diseases, and family planning/reproductive health. The new journal will also address a number of cross-cutting areas such as: gender, health communication, health systems, health behavior, knowledge management, mHealth, monitoring and evaluation, and more.

Global Health: Science and Practice is now accepting manuscripts that share best practices and lessons learned, with an emphasis on articles that explore and describe how programs can be implemented successfully.

Read the Author Guidelines for information about specific types of manuscripts that the journal is seeking and how to prepare manuscripts.

You can also sign up to be a peer reviewer for Global Health: Science and Practice by sending an email to reviewer@ghspjournal.org.

The journal expects to launch the first issue toward the end of 2012. Subscribe to be notified when the first issue is launched and to receive updates of other important journal news.