Advances in Healthcare Research (AHR) is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access scholarly journal dedicated to advancing scientific knowledge, evidence, methodology, policy, and practice across healthcare and health-related disciplines in their broadest sense. The journal provides a scholarly platform for research addressing public health, nursing, midwifery, medicine, pharmacy, health psychology, nutrition, health technology, health analysis, health information systems, medical records, health law, hospital management, and other closely related areas of healthcare research.
AHR welcomes rigorous original research and critical literature synthesis that develop, test, extend, integrate, or evaluate scientific evidence, theoretical and conceptual explanations, clinical and healthcare practices, health interventions, health technologies, healthcare systems, institutional arrangements, public health policies, and other phenomena relevant to health and healthcare.
Equal Scope Principle: All healthcare and health-related scholarly areas explicitly recognized below constitute the journal's main scholarly scope and have equal standing in editorial scope assessment. Each recognized field may independently establish manuscript relevance through a meaningful scientific or scholarly contribution. A manuscript is not required to integrate multiple healthcare disciplines when its primary research problem and contribution fall substantively within one recognized AHR field.
Research may investigate an individual healthcare field or examine substantive relationships among multiple recognized fields. AHR welcomes scientifically grounded, methodologically defensible, ethically conducted, and practically relevant studies from diverse geographical, institutional, clinical, community, and healthcare settings, provided that their findings or scholarly synthesis contribute meaningfully to health-related knowledge.
Public Health and Population Health includes public health science, community health, population health, preventive healthcare, health promotion, disease prevention, health education, health behavior, public health interventions, community-based health programs, environmental health, occupational health, and the social, economic, behavioral, environmental, and institutional determinants of health.
Epidemiology, Disease Prevention and Health Protection includes epidemiological investigations, communicable and noncommunicable diseases, infectious disease prevention, disease surveillance, outbreak investigation, health risk assessment, public health preparedness, disaster-related health management, vaccination research, screening programs, and population-level strategies for preventing illness and improving health outcomes.
Health Policy, Healthcare Access and Community Health includes public health policy, healthcare access, health equity, health disparities, healthcare utilization, primary healthcare, community health services, health systems strengthening, maternal and child health programs, reproductive health, adolescent health, family health, healthy aging, and the effectiveness of health policies and public health initiatives.
Nursing Science and Nursing Practice includes nursing science, clinical nursing, community nursing, medical-surgical nursing, pediatric nursing, gerontological nursing, psychiatric and mental health nursing, emergency nursing, critical care nursing, nursing interventions, evidence-based nursing practice, nursing care quality, patient safety, and nursing-related health outcomes.
Midwifery and Maternal Healthcare includes midwifery science, maternal health, antenatal care, intrapartum care, postpartum care, maternal and neonatal outcomes, pregnancy-related complications, reproductive health, family planning, breastfeeding, maternal nutrition, childbirth experiences, maternal mental health, and community-based maternal healthcare interventions.
Patient-Centered Care and Healthcare Professional Practice includes patient experiences, therapeutic communication, clinical caregiving, nursing and midwifery competencies, interdisciplinary patient care, continuity of care, healthcare professional development, care coordination, patient education, clinical decision-making, care quality improvement, and evidence-based approaches to improving patient and family outcomes.
Medicine and Clinical Health Sciences includes general medicine, clinical medicine, internal medicine, family medicine, preventive medicine, pediatric medicine, maternal and reproductive medicine, geriatric medicine, emergency medicine, rehabilitation medicine, and other medical disciplines addressing human health, disease, diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and recovery.
Clinical Investigation, Diagnosis and Therapeutic Research includes clinical research, clinical epidemiology, diagnostic evaluation, disease risk factors, clinical assessment, treatment effectiveness, therapeutic interventions, patient outcomes, clinical decision-making, disease management, and investigations of the effectiveness, safety, and quality of healthcare interventions.
Evidence-Based Medicine and Clinical Healthcare Improvement includes evidence-based medicine, comparative effectiveness research, clinical practice evaluation, healthcare quality improvement, patient-centered treatment, clinical safety, preventive clinical interventions, multidisciplinary medical care, and the translation of scientific evidence into healthcare practice.
Pharmaceutical Sciences and Drug Development includes pharmaceutical sciences, pharmaceutics, pharmaceutical formulation, pharmaceutical technology, drug delivery systems, dosage-form development, pharmaceutical quality, formulation stability, pharmaceutical analysis, medicinal chemistry, natural-product-based pharmaceutical preparations, and the scientific evaluation of pharmaceutical products.
Pharmacology, Pharmacotherapy and Pharmaceutical Evaluation includes pharmacology, pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, experimental pharmacology, therapeutic evaluation, drug effectiveness, drug safety, toxicological evaluation, antimicrobial research, pharmaceutical laboratory investigations, and other pharmacological studies relevant to healthcare and pharmaceutical practice.
Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Healthcare Services includes clinical pharmacy, community pharmacy, hospital pharmacy, rational medication use, prescribing practices, medication adherence, pharmacovigilance, pharmaceutical care, medication safety, pharmaceutical service quality, and the role of pharmacists in improving patient and public health outcomes.
Health Psychology and Psychological Well-Being includes health psychology, psychological determinants of health, mental health, psychological well-being, health-related stress, anxiety, depression, coping mechanisms, psychological adjustment to illness, psychological interventions, patient behavior, psychosocial support, and psychological factors affecting health and healthcare outcomes.
Behavioral Health and Health-Related Decision-Making includes health behavior, behavioral interventions, health beliefs, risk perception, patient motivation, treatment adherence, preventive health behavior, lifestyle-related health outcomes, behavioral change, family and social support, and the psychological and social mechanisms influencing individual and community health decisions.
Nutrition, Dietetics and Nutritional Health includes nutrition science, clinical nutrition, public health nutrition, maternal and child nutrition, dietary behavior, nutritional assessment, malnutrition, obesity, nutritional deficiencies, food-related health risks, nutrition interventions, diet-related diseases, community nutrition, nutritional status, and the relationship between dietary practices and health outcomes.
Health Technology and Healthcare Innovation includes healthcare technology, medical technology, digital health, telemedicine, mobile health, wearable health devices, technology-assisted healthcare, medical devices, healthcare innovation, technology-supported clinical decision-making, and the development, application, evaluation, or improvement of technologies relevant to human health and healthcare services.
Health Analysis and Medical Laboratory Sciences includes health analysis, medical laboratory science, clinical laboratory investigations, diagnostic laboratory procedures, laboratory-based health assessment, biomedical diagnostic analysis, clinical chemistry, hematology, clinical microbiology, laboratory quality assurance, diagnostic measurement, and analytical procedures supporting healthcare diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and monitoring.
Diagnostic Technology and Healthcare Applications includes diagnostic innovation, health-related analytical methods, diagnostic accuracy, clinical measurement, medical testing, laboratory instrumentation, medical imaging applications, artificial intelligence in healthcare, machine learning for health analysis, and the validation or evaluation of health technologies and diagnostic approaches.
Health Information Systems and Digital Healthcare includes health information systems, hospital information systems, electronic health records, healthcare information technology, clinical information systems, digital healthcare management, health data integration, health information exchange, information system implementation, health information quality, and the adoption or evaluation of information technologies in healthcare organizations.
Medical Records and Health Information Management includes medical record management, medical documentation, electronic medical records, health information administration, clinical documentation quality, medical coding, healthcare data accuracy, medical record completeness, health data confidentiality, patient information management, medical record interoperability, and information governance in healthcare institutions.
Health Informatics, Healthcare Data and Digital Decision Support includes health informatics, healthcare analytics, clinical data analysis, public health informatics, healthcare databases, digital health evaluation, healthcare data governance, predictive health analytics, technology-enabled healthcare decision support, health information security, and the use of digital information to improve healthcare processes and outcomes.
Health Law, Regulation and Healthcare Ethics includes health law, medical law, healthcare regulation, patient rights, healthcare professional responsibilities, legal accountability in healthcare, health policy regulation, medical confidentiality, informed consent, healthcare-related legal protection, regulatory compliance, and ethical and legal issues affecting medical and healthcare services.
Hospital Management and Healthcare Administration includes hospital management, healthcare administration, hospital operations, healthcare service management, healthcare leadership, human resource management in healthcare, healthcare workforce performance, hospital service quality, patient satisfaction, healthcare organizational effectiveness, healthcare resource allocation, healthcare service efficiency, and institutional performance in health service organizations.
Healthcare Governance, Quality and Health Systems Management includes healthcare governance, hospital accreditation, patient safety management, healthcare quality improvement, health service accessibility, healthcare financing and resource management, healthcare organizational strategy, healthcare service innovation, institutional accountability, healthcare risk management, and evidence-based organizational and policy decisions affecting healthcare delivery.
AHR accepts manuscripts written in English under only two recognized manuscript types: Research Paper and Literature Review Paper.
Research Paper includes original empirical, clinical, public health, laboratory-based, pharmaceutical, diagnostic, behavioral, technological, institutional, and healthcare-related research using quantitative, qualitative, mixed-method, experimental, quasi-experimental, observational, cross-sectional, longitudinal, comparative, epidemiological, case-based, development-and-validation, or other scientifically defensible original-research designs. The research design, data, procedures, analysis, findings, and conclusions must accurately reflect the investigation and evidence actually used.
Literature Review Paper includes rigorous narrative, integrative, systematic, scoping, structured, bibliometric, meta-analytical, evidence-synthesis, theory-oriented, concept-oriented, or other defensible literature-review approaches relevant to healthcare and health-related scholarship. Reviews should present transparent methods appropriate to the declared review design and provide meaningful scientific synthesis, critical evaluation, conceptual understanding, methodological insight, implications for healthcare practice or policy, or a focused future-research agenda.
Manuscript-Type Principle: Research designs, analytical techniques, clinical or laboratory methods, theoretical contributions, development approaches, and literature-review methodologies do not constitute additional manuscript types. Conceptual Papers are not recognized as a separate manuscript category. Bibliometric and mapping-based reviews should provide substantive scholarly synthesis rather than descriptive publication mapping alone.
Methodological Integrity: Authors must accurately identify and report the research or review design actually undertaken. Claims involving clinical trials, experimental investigations, systematic reviews, PRISMA-based reporting, meta-analysis, diagnostic validation, laboratory testing, statistical procedures, or other specialized methodologies must be supported by the procedures genuinely conducted and the evidence available. Methodological sophistication alone does not guarantee publication.
AHR welcomes scholarly work that generates meaningful scientific, empirical, theoretical, conceptual, methodological, clinical, pharmaceutical, technological, practical, institutional, public health, healthcare management, policy, or literature-synthesis contributions within any recognized area of its main scholarly scope.
Scientific, Empirical and Clinical Contributions include generating, testing, replicating, extending, integrating, refining, challenging, or critically evaluating scientific evidence, clinical findings, health-related relationships, research models, diagnostic approaches, health interventions, pharmaceutical applications, patient outcomes, and explanatory frameworks relevant to healthcare research.
Methodological, Technological and Literature-Synthesis Contributions include developing, adapting, validating, comparing, evaluating, or demonstrating healthcare research methods, clinical measurements, laboratory procedures, pharmaceutical formulations, healthcare technologies, health information systems, analytical approaches, and review methodologies. Literature-synthesis contributions should critically examine scientific evidence, research gaps, methodological limitations, scholarly debates, theoretical developments, and future research directions.
Clinical, Practical, Public Health and Policy Contributions include evidence-based implications for patients, healthcare professionals, hospitals, clinical institutions, public health agencies, pharmaceutical practitioners, healthcare managers, policymakers, regulators, communities, and other relevant healthcare stakeholders. Claims and recommendations should remain proportionate to the available evidence, study design, research setting, limitations, and applicability of the findings.
AHR welcomes research conducted in hospitals, clinics, primary healthcare facilities, community health centers, pharmaceutical laboratories, diagnostic laboratories, public health agencies, educational and research institutions, healthcare organizations, governmental institutions, nonprofit organizations, and other settings directly relevant to health and healthcare research.
Single-country, multi-country, local, regional, national, international, single-institution, multi-institution, clinical, community-based, and laboratory-based studies may be eligible when they establish a clear scientific or scholarly problem and provide defensible empirical, clinical, methodological, theoretical, technological, practical, or healthcare policy insights.
International or multi-country data are not mandatory. Contextually grounded studies should explain how their findings, analytical evidence, clinical investigation, or literature synthesis contribute to broader scientific understanding, improvements in healthcare practice, or relevant public health and health system knowledge rather than presenting solely descriptive local or operational information.
The journal serves researchers, academics, healthcare scientists, physicians, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, nutritionists, psychologists, medical laboratory professionals, health information specialists, hospital administrators, healthcare managers, public health practitioners, health law scholars, policymakers, clinical researchers, and other readers interested in advancing evidence-based healthcare knowledge and practice.
Manuscripts should clearly identify the research or review problem, relevant healthcare or health-related scholarly field, theoretical or conceptual foundation where appropriate, research objective, methodology or review methodology, evidence, analysis or synthesis, findings, interpretation, implications, and substantive contribution. Relevance may be established through one recognized AHR field without requiring the integration of multiple healthcare disciplines.
Out-of-Scope Research includes studies whose principal research questions, scientific foundations, evidence, and scholarly contributions do not relate substantively to health, healthcare, or at least one recognized AHR field. Purely commercial, financial, organizational, engineering, computational, legal, or other non-health studies may fall outside the journal's scope when they lack meaningful health-related scientific, clinical, public health, pharmaceutical, technological, healthcare management, health information, or healthcare policy relevance.
Descriptive reports, routine service accounts, unsupported clinical claims, unverified health recommendations, and local operational descriptions that do not establish a scholarly problem, defensible research or review methodology, adequate evidence, and meaningful contribution to knowledge may also be considered unsuitable for publication.
Research Ethics and Scientific Integrity: Studies involving human participants, identifiable patient information, clinical interventions, biological materials, or experimental animals must address applicable research ethics, institutional approvals, informed consent, confidentiality, participant or animal welfare, and relevant reporting requirements as appropriate to the actual research design. Authors must not fabricate research procedures, ethical approvals, experimental results, or clinical evidence.
Editorial Screening: Manuscripts that clearly fall outside the stated Aims & Scope, do not conform to one of the two recognized manuscript types, lack adequate scientific or scholarly contribution, or fail essential submission and research-integrity requirements may be declined during initial editorial screening without external peer review.
Publication Eligibility: Alignment with the journal's scope does not guarantee acceptance or publication. Every manuscript remains subject to originality, scientific integrity, appropriate research or review methodology, ethical compliance, scholarly quality, submission requirements, independent peer review, editorial evaluation, and applicable publication-ethics policies.
The current AHR Aims & Scope framework provides the scholarly basis for assessing new manuscripts in the recognized areas of healthcare and health-related research. All healthcare fields explicitly identified in this framework have equal standing as part of the journal's main scholarly scope. Their order of presentation does not establish a hierarchy of scientific importance or editorial preference.
Valid manuscripts, editorial decisions, previously published articles, volume and issue assignments, publication dates, bibliographic metadata, DOI records, and other historical scholarly records established under earlier journal policies remain part of the journal's permanent scholarly record and are not retrospectively reclassified, removed, or altered merely to conform to the current scope framework.
Authors, editors, and reviewers should apply the journal's current Aims & Scope and applicable manuscript requirements when assessing new submissions while respecting valid editorial commitments, publication decisions, and historical records associated with earlier manuscripts.
Prospective authors should consult the current author guidelines, official manuscript template, submission requirements, publication ethics, peer-review procedures, Article Processing Charge policy, and other applicable AHR journal information before submitting their work.