޾ֲ+ Journals

޾ֲ+ is the owner of the Inter­na­tional Journal of Public Health (IJPH) and of the Public Health Reviews (PHR).

The International Journal of Public Health and Public Health Reviews are independent society journals owned and published by the non-profit Swiss School of Public Health (޾ֲ+) using the systems and services of Frontiers. The journals are managed by a fully independent editorial office based at the . For more information, please refer to our journal policy.

޾ֲ+ is a member of the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers ().

IJPH and PHR are listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals () and have been awarded the .

WAIVERS

GLOBEQUITY: APC discounts for LMIC First Authors

Since 2021, the GLOBEQUITY program has offered APC discounts and waivers for first authors affiliated with institutions in low- and middle-income countries (research4life) and some additional countries where there is limited access to APC funding. GLOBEQUITY was initially funded by the open science programme of swissuniversities, with contributions from ޾ֲ+. The original GLOBEQUITY project ended in 2025 in the absence of continued external funding from swissuniversities or elsewhere (see here for more information).

Following the success of the project, however, the ޾ֲ+ journals have committed to continuing the GLOBEQUITY scheme. Each year, a portion of journal revenues will be reserved for use as waivers and discounts for manuscripts submitted to IJPH and PHR. In order to qualify, the first author must be affiliated with an . Please see the individual journal pages for reduced APC fees. Additional support may be available in exceptional cases.

In order to apply for a discount, please complete the APC support application form for either or when the manuscript is submitted. Requests will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

APC Waiver Program for ޾ֲ+ Affiliates

IJPH and PHR manuscripts submitted during 2026 with successful peer-review and with at least one author affiliated with ޾ֲ+ (at the time of submission) will receive a 50% APC discount, under the following conditions:

  • Manuscripts must be submitted by 31.12.2026
  • At least one author is an ޾ֲ+ Faculty member or is part of the research group or department of an ޾ֲ+ Faculty member i.e. they hold the same primary affiliation
  • Review articles (all forms, including policy briefs) must be submitted to Public Health Reviews and original articles to International Journal of Public Health (review articles submitted to IJPH will not qualify for the fee waiver).
  • As part of our efforts to strengthen the journals’ quality and performance, beneficiaries of ޾ֲ+ fee waivers are expected to provide feedback – upon request – about their experience with the review and publishing process (simple short survey).

Find more information and the procedure here.

Manuscripts submitted by 31.12.2025 will benefit from the 2025 ޾ֲ+ APC Waiver Program, whereby the entire APC is waived.

Quality in Publishing

On November 30th 2023, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) announced that they will no longer fund Open Access articles in special issues due to the supposed use of “inconsistent process”. We oppose this policy, since we believe that it is not possible to determine quality based on whether an article is published as part of a special issue or as a regular publication. Indeed, our journals operate exactly the same rigorous peer review process for special issue and regular submissions. We believe that scientific funding policy should instead focus on the true problems in scientific publishing: threats to editorial independence and rigor in peer review processes. Read our full response to this SNSF policy here.

Prof. em. Nino Künzli, Chair ޾ֲ+ Journals and Editor in Chief, Int J of Public Health
Dr. Christopher Woodrow, Managing Editor ޾ֲ+ Journals, Swiss TPH
Dr. Anke Berger, former Managing Editor ޾ֲ+ Journals, Swiss TPH