Journal of Global Health Reports' Mission Statement: “Promoting Local Research to Improve Global Health”

Abstract

In comparison to many other fields of science, global health research has many specific features that may require different approaches to publishing. Although research in global health issues clearly requires a remarkable effort from researchers, and can have a very large translational impact on society, policies and decision-making, many journals are reluctant to publish work from local contexts. The lack of general relevance or interest, typically small sample sizes and low likelihood that the work would be cited by many other scientists are the likely explanations for this rather unfortunate situation. This led us to launch the *Journal of Global Health Reports* -- to embrace local research on difficult questions and issues in global health. This journal should become a platform for publishing research from challenging contexts, offering an opportunity to publish papers in flexible formats and styles. The journal will also embrace all instruments of research -- epidemiological research, health policy and systems research, research focused on the improvement of the existing interventions, as well as research that proposes to develop new and innovative interventions. We are also entirely open to all methodological approaches -- qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods, or even descriptive reports or personal insights and thoughts on what we feel are relevant problems in global health.