About the Journal

HIGIENE: Environmental Health Journal is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universitas Islam Negeri Alauddin Makassar, Indonesia. The journal provides an international scholarly platform for the publication and dissemination of research addressing the complex relationships between environmental factors, human exposure, and health.

HIGIENE is dedicated to advancing scientific knowledge in environmental health and related disciplines through the publication of rigorous, relevant, and ethically conducted research. The journal seeks to connect environmental health science with public health practice by promoting evidence that contributes to the identification of environmental hazards, assessment of human exposure, characterization of health risks, development of preventive interventions, and formulation of evidence-informed environmental health policies.

The journal welcomes contributions from researchers, academics, environmental health professionals, public health practitioners, toxicologists, epidemiologists, occupational health professionals, risk assessors, policymakers, and other professionals working at the interface between the environment and human health.

Aims

HIGIENE aims to advance environmental health science and practice by publishing high-quality scientific evidence relevant to the protection and improvement of population health.

The journal specifically aims to:

  • disseminate scientifically rigorous research on environmental determinants of human health;

  • advance methods and applications in environmental exposure assessment, toxicology, epidemiology, and health risk assessment;

  • strengthen scientific understanding of environmental hazards, exposure pathways, and associated health outcomes;

  • promote multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to environmental health problems;

  • support the development and evaluation of environmental health interventions and risk-management strategies;

  • facilitate the translation of scientific evidence into environmental health policy and practice; and

  • increase the national and international visibility and accessibility of environmental health research, particularly evidence relevant to populations experiencing significant environmental health challenges.

Focus and Scope

HIGIENE publishes research examining the relationships among environmental hazards, human exposure, and health outcomes. Particular consideration is given to studies in which the environment–exposure–health pathway is clearly defined and scientifically investigated.

The journal's scope includes, but is not limited to:

Environmental Exposure and Exposure Assessment

Studies assessing human exposure to chemical, physical, biological, and other environmental hazards through inhalation, ingestion, dermal contact, or multiple exposure pathways, including occupational and community-based exposures.

Environmental Toxicology

Research examining the adverse health effects of environmental contaminants and toxicants, including pesticides, heavy metals, persistent environmental pollutants, industrial chemicals, airborne particles, emerging contaminants, and other hazardous environmental agents.

Environmental Epidemiology

Population-based research examining associations between environmental exposures and human health outcomes, including studies addressing environmentally related disease patterns, vulnerable populations, environmental determinants of disease, and spatial or temporal variations in environmental health risks.

Environmental Health Risk Assessment

Research involving hazard identification, dose-response assessment, exposure assessment, risk characterization, uncertainty analysis, cumulative risk assessment, ecological-human health interfaces, and environmental health risk-management strategies.

Air Pollution and Health

Research on ambient air pollution, household air pollution, indoor air quality, occupational airborne exposures, particulate matter, gaseous pollutants, and their acute or chronic effects on human health.

Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene

Studies addressing drinking-water quality, sanitation, hygiene, wastewater, microbial and chemical contamination of water, water-related exposures, and associated health outcomes.

Food and Environmental Safety

Research addressing environmental contamination of food, food-chain exposure to environmental contaminants, chemical and biological hazards, food safety, and associated health risks.

Waste and Human Health

Studies examining municipal solid waste, hazardous waste, healthcare waste, electronic waste, agricultural waste, wastewater, waste-management practices, and their implications for environmental exposure and human health.

Occupational and Environmental Health

Research addressing occupational exposures with clear relevance to environmental health, including chemical, physical, biological, and ergonomic hazards and interactions between workplace and broader environmental exposures.

Biomonitoring and Exposure Biomarkers

Studies using biological specimens or biomarkers to characterize human exposure, internal dose, early biological effects, susceptibility, or health effects associated with environmental contaminants.

Environmentally Related Diseases

Research on vector-borne, waterborne, foodborne, zoonotic, infectious, and non-communicable diseases in which environmental conditions or environmental exposure constitute important determinants of health.

Built Environment and Health

Research addressing housing conditions, indoor environments, urbanization, transportation, land use, healthy settlements, green space, environmental infrastructure, and other characteristics of the built environment affecting human health and well-being.

Climate Change and Health

Research examining climate-sensitive environmental exposures and health outcomes, extreme weather, heat exposure, climate-related infectious diseases, food and water security, environmental vulnerability, adaptation, resilience, and health-related consequences of climate change.

Environmental Health Intervention and Policy

Studies evaluating environmental health interventions, prevention strategies, risk communication, environmental health programs, regulatory measures, community interventions, and policies designed to reduce environmental exposures and protect population health.

Emerging Environmental Health Issues

Research addressing emerging contaminants, novel exposure pathways, new environmental technologies, digital approaches to environmental health surveillance and assessment, environmental justice, planetary health interfaces, and other emerging issues with clear relevance to environmental health.

HIGIENE particularly welcomes multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research integrating environmental health, public health, epidemiology, toxicology, exposure science, occupational health, risk assessment, environmental science, and related disciplines.

Studies focusing primarily on clinical medicine, general health promotion, environmental engineering, ecology, agriculture, or environmental science without a clearly articulated relationship to human exposure or environmental health outcomes are generally outside the journal's primary scope.

Article Types

HIGIENE considers scholarly manuscripts that make a meaningful contribution to environmental health science, policy, or practice.

Original Research Article

Original Research Articles report novel empirical research relevant to the journal's aims and scope. Studies may employ epidemiological, quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, laboratory, experimental, field-based, biomonitoring, exposure-assessment, health-risk-assessment, spatial, or other scientifically appropriate methodologies.

Original Research Articles constitute the journal's primary publication priority.

Review Article

Review Articles provide a rigorous and critical synthesis of existing evidence on a clearly defined environmental health topic. Systematic reviews, scoping reviews, meta-analyses, and other scientifically justified evidence-synthesis approaches are welcomed.

Systematic and scoping reviews should follow appropriate reporting guidelines and clearly describe their search strategy, eligibility criteria, study selection, and evidence-synthesis methods.

Short Communication

Short Communications present important preliminary findings, novel observations, methodological developments, or concise research findings that make a substantive contribution to environmental health knowledge but may not require presentation as a full Original Research Article.

Case Report or Case Study

Case Reports or Case Studies may be considered when they describe unusual, significant, or scientifically informative environmental or occupational exposures with clear implications for environmental health science, practice, prevention, or policy.

Editorial

Editorials address significant developments, emerging issues, policies, scientific debates, or matters relevant to the development of environmental health science and the journal. Editorials are normally commissioned or invited by the Editor-in-Chief or Editorial Board.

Other manuscript types may be considered at the discretion of the Editorial Board when they provide a substantial scholarly contribution consistent with the aims and scope of HIGIENE.

Peer Review Process

HIGIENE is committed to maintaining a rigorous, fair, independent, confidential, and timely peer-review process.

Initial Editorial Assessment

All submitted manuscripts undergo an initial assessment by the editorial team before being sent for external peer review.

The initial assessment considers:

  • conformity with the journal's aims and scope;

  • originality and scientific relevance;

  • adequacy of the research question and study design;

  • methodological quality;

  • completeness and clarity of reporting;

  • adherence to ethical requirements;

  • compliance with manuscript preparation and submission requirements; and

  • overall potential contribution to environmental health knowledge, policy, or practice.

Manuscripts that are clearly outside the journal's scope, fail to meet minimum scientific or editorial standards, contain major methodological deficiencies, or do not comply with fundamental ethical requirements may be declined without external peer review.

Similarity Screening

All submitted manuscripts are subject to similarity screening using Turnitin or another appropriate similarity-detection system before or during the editorial assessment process.

Similarity reports are evaluated contextually by the editorial team. A similarity percentage is not used as the sole criterion for determining plagiarism, research misconduct, or manuscript acceptance. The nature, extent, and source of overlapping text are evaluated before an editorial decision is made.

Suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, redundant publication, or other forms of publication misconduct are handled in accordance with the journal's publication ethics policies.

Double-Anonymized Peer Review

Manuscripts that successfully pass the initial editorial assessment are evaluated through a double-anonymized peer-review process, in which the identities of the authors and reviewers are concealed from each other during the review process.

Each research or review manuscript is normally evaluated by at least two independent peer reviewers with relevant subject-matter and methodological expertise.

Reviewers are selected based on their expertise, scholarly experience, independence, and absence of relevant conflicts of interest.

Reviewers are asked to assess, where applicable:

  • originality and scientific significance;

  • relevance to the journal's scope;

  • appropriateness of the study design and methodology;

  • validity and reliability of the analysis;

  • adequacy of ethical considerations;

  • accuracy and transparency of reporting;

  • interpretation of findings;

  • consistency between results and conclusions;

  • quality and relevance of references; and

  • contribution to environmental health science, policy, or practice.

Revision

Authors may be requested to undertake minor or major revisions in response to editorial and reviewer comments.

Authors submitting a revised manuscript are expected to provide a clear point-by-point response explaining how each reviewer and editorial comment has been addressed or, where a suggested change has not been made, providing an appropriate scientific justification.

A revised manuscript may be returned to the original reviewers or evaluated by additional reviewers when further assessment is considered necessary.

Editorial Decision

Peer reviewers provide recommendations to assist editorial decision-making; however, reviewers do not make the final publication decision.

The final decision is made by the Editor-in-Chief or an appropriately delegated Editor, taking into consideration:

  • the scientific quality of the manuscript;

  • reviewers' evaluations and recommendations;

  • authors' responses and revisions;

  • compliance with ethical and editorial standards; and

  • the manuscript's contribution to the aims and scope of the journal.

Editorial decisions may include:

Accept — Minor Revision — Major Revision — Reject

The Editor-in-Chief retains responsibility for the final editorial decision.

Editorial Independence and Conflict of Interest

Manuscripts submitted by members of the Editorial Board or individuals with potential conflicts of interest are handled by an independent editor who has no relevant conflict with the authors or manuscript.

Editors and reviewers must disclose any circumstances that could compromise, or reasonably be perceived to compromise, the objectivity and independence of the editorial or peer-review process.

Research and Publication Ethics

HIGIENE is committed to maintaining high standards of integrity, transparency, accountability, and ethical conduct in scholarly publishing.

Research involving human participants must have been conducted in accordance with applicable ethical principles and institutional requirements and, where required, must have received approval from an appropriate Research Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board before the research was undertaken.

Authors must provide relevant information regarding ethical approval, informed consent, conflicts of interest, funding, authorship, and other required declarations.

Research involving animals must comply with applicable institutional, national, and internationally recognized ethical standards for animal research.

The journal's editorial decisions are based on scholarly merit, methodological quality, ethical compliance, relevance, and contribution to environmental health knowledge without discrimination based on authors' institutional affiliation, nationality, ethnicity, gender, religion, political views, or other characteristics unrelated to scientific merit.

HIGIENE's publication ethics policies are guided by internationally recognized principles of responsible scholarly publishing, including relevant recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) where applicable.

Publishing Frequency

HIGIENE: Environmental Health Journal publishes three issues annually, in April, August, and December.

The journal is committed to maintaining a regular and predictable publication schedule.

Open Access Policy

HIGIENE: Environmental Health Journal is an open-access journal.

All published articles are made freely and immediately accessible online without subscription or access barriers. Readers may access, read, download, and use published scholarly content in accordance with the applicable license and copyright provisions.

HIGIENE supports open access as a means of increasing the visibility, accessibility, dissemination, and potential societal impact of environmental health research and promoting the wider exchange of scientific knowledge among researchers, practitioners, policymakers, students, and the public.

Copyright and Licensing

Articles published in HIGIENE are distributed under a Creative Commons license, allowing scholarly content to be accessed and reused subject to the conditions specified by the applicable license.

For the current draft policy, HIGIENE adopts the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits users to share and adapt published material for non-commercial purposes provided that appropriate credit is given to the original authors and source, a link to the license is provided, and any changes made are indicated.

Authors retain appropriate rights to their scholarly work in accordance with the journal's copyright and licensing agreement.

Commitment to Scientific Quality

HIGIENE is committed to strengthening the quality, transparency, reproducibility, accessibility, and international visibility of environmental health research.

The journal encourages authors to follow internationally recognized reporting guidelines appropriate to their study design, including relevant guidelines for observational studies, randomized trials, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, diagnostic studies, qualitative research, and other research designs.

Through rigorous editorial assessment, independent peer review, ethical publication practices, and open dissemination of scientific findings, HIGIENE seeks to contribute to the development of environmental health science and to evidence-informed actions that protect human health and promote healthy and sustainable environments.