Health Affairs Scholar Is Now Accepting Submissions

Health Affairs Scholar: Emerging and Global Health Policy, the new fully open access (OA) companion journal to Health Affairs, is now accepting submissions. Building on Health Affairs’ reputation as the leading journal of health policy thought and research, Health Affairs Scholar (HAS) will serve as an additional forum for high-quality, peer-reviewed work from researchers worldwide. The journal will elevate emerging new research and policy analysis on health care technology and innovation, population health, global health policy, and important intersecting topics such as climate and health. The journal will also cover core health policy topics of health care costs, access to care, quality, and equity.

As HAS is an open access journal, authors will benefit from the increased dissemination and visibility achieved by work being made freely available to all readers globally. Additional benefits of publication in HAS include: 

• Constructive and timely review process based on high quality peer review
• Expedited publication
• Automatic compliance with funder mandates for OA publication
• Opportunity to be featured in Health Affairs’ first new journal launch in 40 years

I am pleased to lead an editorial team comprised of leading scholars across a broad range of disciplines and institutions.

Deputy Editor 

Deborah A. Marshall, University of Calgary  

Associate Editors 

Loren Adler, USC-Brooking Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy

Jose F. Figueroa, Harvard 

Rita Hamad, UCSF 

Inma Hernandez, UCSD 

Simon F. Haeder, Texas A&M University 

Corrina Moucheraud, UCLA 

Sayeh Nikpay, University of Minnesota  

Editorial Board 

Claire Brindis, UCSF 

Christine K. Cassel, UCSF 

Neelam Sekhri Feachem, UCSF 

Richard G. Frank, Harvard/USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative on Health Policy

Ivor Horn, Google 

Bob Kocher, Venrock 

Mark McClellan, Duke University 

Peter J. Neumann, Tufts University 

Ninez Ponce, UCLA 

Thomas Rice, UCLA 

Rachel Sachs, Washington University 

Mark Schlesinger, Yale 

Joanne Spetz, UCSF 

Reggie D. Williams, Commonwealth Fund 

Winnie Yip, Harvard  

Health Affairs Scholar will encourage publication of diverse perspectives addressing global health policy issues. As stated by Deborah Marshall, PhD, Arthur J.E. Child Chair of Rheumatology Outcomes Research at the University of Calgary and HAS Deputy Editor:

“As we strive to improve the health and well-being of the populations we serve, we are compelled to measure value comprehensively—weighing benefits, costs and preferences—to achieve more equitable health care across the globe.”

The important focus of Health Affairs Scholar on rapid publication of articles on emerging policy issues was further highlighted by Loren Adler, Associate Director of the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy and HAS Associate Editor:

“Getting health care policy right matters, and HAS will serve an important role connecting ideas from the research community and other experts to policymakers.”

Health Affairs Scholar will address the gap in our understanding of the intersections of technology and innovation with health policy, said Inma Hernandez, Associate Professor at the University of California San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and HAS Associate Editor:

“The last two years have underscored the need to embrace technology in health care; however, it is important that we find solutions that ensure that health care innovations do not exacerbate inequities in health care access and population outcomes.”

Speaking on health policy, Jose F. Figueroa, Assistant Professor of Health Policy Management at Harvard University and HAS Associate Editor noted:

“Achieving a high quality and equitable health care system must be a national priority. Health Affairs Scholar aims to help us achieve this goal by publishing evidence on how best to improve health care access, delivery, and clinical innovation for better health outcomes, and importantly, on how best to dismantle structural racism to improve health equity.”

Of particular interest are papers from intersecting fields of scholarship such as the environment, health and social services, housing, transportation, income, and justice. Rita Hamad, Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and HAS Associate Editor explained:

“There has long been recognition of factors beyond the healthcare system that matter for people’s health, and the pandemic has only made these determinants more obvious. Health Affairs Scholar will therefore include cutting-edge topics like income inequality, housing, immigration, climate, and ethics.”

Articles will be published under a continuous publication model — once accepted, articles will be assigned a DOI and published online in the Advance Articles section of the journal’s website. The accepted manuscript will be replaced by the copyedited, finalized version of the article, which will be published directly into an open issue with the same DOI.

The new journal is published under the auspices of Project HOPE in partnership with Oxford University Press.  All published material will be available at no charge to readers. As a fully open access journal, Health Affairs Scholar offers both CC BY 4.0 and CC BY-NC-ND licenses. Authors of accepted papers will pay an article processing fee, with some fee waivers available. 

For more information, please visit the Health Affairs Scholar website.