Get your JMIR Public Health and Surveillance paper right the first time: a ready-made structure with the right abstract and citations, so editors see your science, not formatting slips.
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Authored by Sumalatha Gangadhar | Published on 17 August, 2026
Submitting to JMIR Public Health and Surveillance goes smoothly when your draft already matches the journal's own rules. Editors screen new manuscripts against the JMIR Public Health and Surveillance guide for authors before peer review, so formatting, structure, and required statements should be right on the first draft rather than repaired during upload. This template sets that structure up for you.
It is a manuscript shell aligned to JMIR Public Health and Surveillance. It covers front matter, the abstract the journal expects, a body organized to the journal's article types, and a reference list in the journal's required style. Confirm current scope and article types on the JMIR Public Health and Surveillance journal page before you draft.
Prepare the title, authors, affiliations, and ORCID iDs. Write the abstract to the journal's rule and word limit, organize the body to the article type, and apply the required reference style from the first citation. Complete every declaration (ethics, competing interests, funding, data availability) the JMIR Public Health and Surveillance guide for authors lists, and cite figures and tables in order.
The common failure modes are formatting or reference style that does not match the guide for authors, missing required statements, and an incomplete portal checklist. Clear all three against the JMIR Public Health and Surveillance guide for authors before you submit.
The shell mirrors what editorial staff check first: article-type fit, the abstract rules, required declarations, and the journal's reference style. For more detail see the author resources. When your draft is ready, upload it through the journal's submission system.
| Element | JMIR Public Health Surveillance requirement |
|---|---|
| Abstract | Structured abstract required for Original Papers, Reviews, Protocols, and Implementation Reports (maximum 450 words) with mandatory headers: Background - Objective - Methods - Results - Conclusions. For Protocols, the Results section briefly describes study status, timeline, and anticipated completion date. Rapid Surveillance Reports require unstructured abstract (maximum 450 words). Viewpoints and Tutorials require unstructured abstract (maximum 450 words). Research Letters do not include full abstracts; only a 1-2 sentence summary. Implementation Reports use headers: Background - Objective - Methods - Implementation (Results) - Conclusions |
| Main text | Recommended maximum of 10,000 words for original research papers and reviews (strongly recommended, not strict). JMIR Publications journals do not impose a strict maximum word count—as digital journals, they can accommodate longer manuscripts when warranted. Word count includes title, abstract, keywords, manuscript body text, table and textbox content, captions, abbreviations, acknowledgements, authors' contributions, conflicts of interest, data availability, and funding statements. Word count excludes author metadata, figure content, multimedia appendices, and reference list. Concise manuscripts encouraged. Supplementary material can be moved to multimedia appendices to manage length |
| Declarations | Ethics approval/consent as applicable; competing interests; funding; data availability |
| Figures/tables | Publication-ready; cited in order |
| Supplemental | Upload separately when used |
| Keywords | 5-12 keywords recommended (no strict limit). Authors should choose keywords from the US National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) collection, but MeSH terms are often too broad and should be complemented by more specific author-generated keywords. Author keywords are indexed in PubMed and used to match reviewers to articles |
| References | AMA Manual of Style (American Medical Association Manual of Style: A Guide for Authors and Editors, 11th Edition, Oxford University Press, 2020). In-text citations must be numbered in square brackets in numerical order of appearance (e.g., [1], [1,3,18], [2-13]). Reference list must be in numerical order at end of manuscript. PMID or DOI should be included at the end of each journal reference where available. Minor variation in reference format is acceptable as long as the correct digital identifier is provided |
| Peer review | Single-anonymized (single-blind) peer review. Reviewers are aware of the names of the authors. Reviewers for JMIR Publications journals will not remain anonymous—their names will appear at the end of the published article. Manuscripts are assigned to an Associate Editor and sent to 2-4 external experts for peer review. Authors are required to suggest at least 2 peer reviewers without conflict of interest during submission |
| Submission | publichealth.jmir.org/author |
Read the JMIR Public Health and Surveillance guide for authors once before drafting and once before upload. Draft the abstract after results are stable. Set the reference style before adding citations. Keep a cover letter that states your contribution and fit to JMIR Public Health and Surveillance in under a page.
Skim two or three recent JMIR Public Health Surveillance papers to calibrate depth and figure style. Make the novelty clear in the first two pages. Deposit data and code when the policy on the JMIR Public Health and Surveillance journal page requires it. Disclose any preprint or conference version with identifiers in the cover letter.
Do one focused pass against the JMIR Public Health and Surveillance guide for authors: scope, length, reference style, required declarations, and figure quality. Then submit through the journal's submission system.