Research in Health Services & Regions - Article categories

Original Articles

These are full reports of original primary research. The Original Research format includes Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion sections. At RHSR, we accept original articles in three categories:

Research Articles: a full report of a sound study that deals with geographical variation in health care and comparisons between regions of health indicators.

Study Protocols: The Study Protocol article type denotes descriptions of proposed or ongoing research on geographic practice variations in healthcare and should provide a detailed account of the research question, rationale, methodology, and analysis of the study.

Methods Articles: papers that delve into new methods or new uses of current methods, both qualitative and quantitative, which help us better understand regional differences in health services.

Policy Analyses: reports on health policy interventions or local initiatives designed to improve care based on insights from geospatial comparisons.

Word count as a guide: about 4,000 (incl. abstract, without references)

Review Articles

Review Articles provide a comprehensive summary of research on a certain topic and a perspective on the state of the field and where it is heading. At RHSR, we accept review articles in three categories:

Literature Reviews: manuscripts on selection and interpretation of existing literature relevant to the aims and scopes of the journal.

Methods Reviews: summaries of recent developments around methods used to study geographical variation in health care.

Policy Reviews: summaries of recent policies, their application, and results concerning health care variation.

Word count as a guide: about 6,000 (incl. abstract, without references)

Brief Communications

These papers communicate brief reports of data from original research. As they are relatively short, the format is useful for scientists with time-sensitive results. At RHSR, we accept brief communications in four categories:

Research Briefs: short forms of original research.

Methods Briefs: short forms of methods articles.

Research Commentaries: brief paper discussing important aspects of regional health care research.

Scientific Letter: researchbased comment on recently published articles or a topic of interest of the research community in the regional health services.

Word count as a guide: about 2,500 (incl. abstract, without references)