Public Health Weekly Report (PHWR) is an open access, peer-reviewed journal committed to adhering to the following policies to enhance and maintain its high standards.
It is available at https://eng.phwr.org/content/contributors/for_authors.html
When preparing a revised version of your manuscript, carefully follow the instructions provided in the editor's letter. Submit an annotated copy that describes the changes you have made. Failure to do so may delay the decision on your revision. If references, tables, or figures are moved, added, or deleted during the revision process, renumber them to ensure all citations remain in numeric order.
Revised manuscript submissions should include a point-by-point response to reviewer comments. Authors should describe how each reviewer comment was addressed or explain why it was not addressed, and clearly indicate which paragraph in the manuscript was revised according to each comment. The response to reviewers will be shared with all reviewers. If certain data should not be included in the manuscript, authors may provide the data supporting their argument in the response to reviewers file.
The annotated copy should have changes highlighted (not by using the Track Changes function in MS Word but by marking them) with notes in the text referring to the editor or reviewer query.
Corresponding authors who wish to withdraw a manuscript after submission must provide a signed letter indicating that they represent the wishes of all authors. Manuscripts will remain under consideration until the journal office receives this written request. Manuscripts cannot be withdrawn after final acceptance, except in cases of scientific error or misconduct.
Appeals against editorial decisions must be made within 2 weeks of the decision letter. Authors should contact the editor-in-chief with detailed reasons for the appeal. Appeals are discussed with at least one associate editor and, if needed, at a full editorial meeting. The process follows COPE guidelines (https://publicationethics.org/appeals). PHWR does not consider second appeals.
Once the manuscript is finally accepted, a proofread version will be sent to the corresponding author after professional editing. Authors should review the proof for any misspellings or errors. Delayed responses may result in the manuscript's publication being postponed to the next issue.
After corrections have been made, authors will receive the final version of the manuscript as a PDF file. Within 5 working days of receipt, authors must notify the editorial office (or printing office) of any errors found in the file. The proof may be revised more than once by the corresponding author, if needed. Authors should double-check the content, title, affiliations, capitalization, figure locations, and references for accuracy. Corresponding authors are responsible for any further corrections needed after printing.
To correct errors in published articles, the corresponding author should contact the journal’s editorial office with a detailed description of the proposed correction. Errors can be corrected through an erratum (publisher's errors), corrigendum (author's errors), or retraction.
Authors must declare that their work is original and that copyright is not breached. Copyright for all published material is owned by Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. Each author must sign the authorship responsibility and copyright transfer agreement, attesting to authorship criteria. The corresponding author submits the Copyright Transfer Form during submission. Authors must obtain and provide written permission for any previously published material. Submitted material will not be returned unless requested.
This is an Open Access journal distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
PHWR is an Open Access journal distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Articles can be shared only as an accepted or published version, as described below.
The accepted version incorporates all amendments made during peer review but precedes the final published version.
The accepted version may be placed on:
It is recommended that the authors include a note and DOI link on the first page.
The final published version can be shared immediately upon publication under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
In accordance with the Korean Library Act, the full text of PHWR is archived in the National Library of Korea (NLK; https://www.nl.go.kr/archive/search_eng.do?op=all&kwd=2234-2591). PHWR ensures electronic backup and preservation of journal content through archiving in the NLK. This allows for permanent preservation of PHWR papers and ensures access in the event the journal ceases publication.
PHWR encourages data sharing wherever possible to promote openness, transparency, and reproducibility of research. Subject to ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:
PHWR accepts the ICMJE Recommendations for clinical data sharing statement policy (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/). Authors may refer to the editorial, “Data Sharing Statements for Clinical Trials: A Requirement of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors,” in J Korean Med Sci 2017;32:1051-3 (https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2017.32.7.1051).
PHWR allows a paper that has not conducted peer review on a preprint server such as the MedRxiv, Research square, and bioRxiv will not be considered as a duplicate publication, provided that the following conditions are met:
PHWR follows the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf) and the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (https://publicationethics.org/guidance) for this process, if not described as below:
PHWR aims to ensure the integrity of the academic record of all published or potential publications. Whenever it is recognized that a significant inaccuracy, misleading statement, or distorted report has been published, it must be corrected promptly and with due prominence. If, after an appropriate investigation, an item proves to be fraudulent, it should be retracted. The retraction should be clearly identifiable to readers and indexing systems.
Errors in published papers may be identified in the form of a corrigendum or erratum when the Editor-in-Chief considers it appropriate to inform the journal readership about a previous error and makes a correction to the error in the published article. The corrigendum or erratum will appear as a new article in the journal and will cite the original published article.
An article may be retracted when the sincerity of the published work is undermined due to the errors in the conduct, analysis and/or reporting of the study. Violation of publication or research ethics may also result in a study’s retraction. The original article is marked as retracted, but a PDF version remains available to readers, and the retraction statement is bi-directionally linked to the original published paper. Retraction statements will typically include a statement of assent or dissent from the authors.
Where a certain amount of doubt arises as to the honesty or integrity of a submitted or published article, journal editors may issue an expression of concern. However, it should only be issued if an investigation into the problems relating to the article has proven inconclusive, and if there are strong indicators that the concerns are valid.
Crossmark is an initiative to provide a standard way for readers to locate the current version of a piece of content. By applying the Crossmark button, PHWR is committing to maintaining the content it publishes, and to alerting readers to changes if and when they occur. Clicking on the Crossmark button will tell readers the current status of a document, and may also give readers additional publication record information about the document (https://www.crossref.org/documentation/crossmark/crossmark-policy-page/).
PHWR does not accept any commercial product advertisements until policy changes otherwise.
Dong-Ik Lee*, Seung-Hyuk Kim, Ok-Soo Kim
Public Health Weekly Report 2025;18: 33-43 https://doi.org/10.56786/PHWR.2025.18.1.3Myung-Jae Hwang, So Yeon Park, Hyungjun Kim, Se Jeong Yang, Sungchan Yang, Jin Seon Yang
Public Health Weekly Report 2025;18: 17-32 https://doi.org/10.56786/PHWR.2025.18.1.2+82-43-719-7569