(Toronto, Feb 8, 2020) The outbreak of the novel coronavirus in China (Covid-19, formerly known as 2019-nCoV) represents a significant and urgent threat to global health. As of February 8th, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports more than 28,000 infections, with the infection spreading at a rapid rate.
We have created a new Theme Issue, Coronavirus COVID-19 Outbreak Rapid Reports for JMIR Public Health & Surveillance, for which we will accept original papers including rapid surveillance reports, field reports, case studies, and raw datasets related to COVID-19/nCoV.
For JPHS, we are particularly interested in papers with original research about
- surveillance systems
- surveillance data
- public health informatics/population health technologies
- infodemiology data (tweets, media reports)
- telemedicine approaches to care during quarantine
- technologies such as mobile apps and wearables as well as domestic technologies for screening, surveillance, and quarantine
While these are the themes specifically sought for for JMIR Public Health & Surveillance, all other JMIR journals are also soliciting COVID-19 papers, including viewpoints, rapid reviews, and original research, which will be prioritized for review and publication (when submitting, just choose a target journal that fits best).
JMIR Publications is one of the signatories of a statement that calls on researchers, journals, and funders to ensure that research findings and data relevant to this outbreak are shared rapidly and openly to inform the public health response and help save lives.
We affirm our commitment to these principles, and submissions to this theme issue will ensure that results are published in a rapid manner and that the WHO has rapid access to emerging findings that could aid the global response. Researchers are encouraged to use the JPHS Theme Issue to share interim and final research data related to the outbreak, together with protocols and standards used to collect the data, as rapidly and widely as possible. To further the public health response to this global threat, JPHS can also use new mechanisms for sharing datasets in combination with publication of the methods used to produce them.
All COVID-19 related articles submitted to this theme issue (and in fact also all other JMIR journals) will be shared and published rapidly through the following mechanisms:
- JMIR Preprints (example) are immediately available after submission (with DOI); authors should select the preprint option on submission. Preprints already submitted to MedRxiv can be transmitted to JPHS via the M2J interface
- Rapid peer-review and publication within 1-3 weeks post-acceptance
- Free “PubMed Now!” feature, ensuring that the paper is submitted to and searchable on PubMed within 24 hours after acceptance (fees are waived)
- Accelerated production timelines once APF has been paid after acceptance
- All peer-reviewed research publications relevant to the outbreak are immediately and permanently made open access—this is of course the standard for JMIR journals
- Research findings relevant to the outbreak are shared immediately with the WHO upon journal submission, by the journal and with the authors' knowledge (if authors think that the report should be shared immediately with WHO, please opt-in for the preprint options on submission and send a request to ed-support@jmir.org; the JMIR team will use its direct line to the WHO evidence team to share the paper)
- Special tagging of the XML of the published paper for priority release on PubMed Central (in collaboration with NCBI)
How to submit
Please submit to JMIR Public Health & Surveillance by selecting "Theme Issue: Coronavirus Covid-19/nCoV 2019 Outbreak Rapid Reports" in the "Section" drop-down list. See also How do I submit to a theme issue? in our KB.
Or submit to any other JMIR journal - we will automatically prioritize papers with "COVID-19" in the title, abstract or keywords that are accepted for a COVID-19 theme issue.