About The Journal

Eastern Heartland Journal of Medicine (EHJMED)

About Us

The Eastern Heartland Journal of Medicine (EHJMED) is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal dedicated to advancing medical and health-related knowledge. Affiliated with the Federal Teaching Hospital Owerri, EHJMED is published bi-annually and serves as a platform for high-quality, evidence-based research, clinical studies, case reports, case series, and reviews across all medical and health-related disciplines.

Focus and Scope

EHJMED considers articles from all medical and health-related disciplines, including but not limited to General medicine, Surgery, Internal medicine, Paediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Public health, Community medicine, Psychiatry, Dental and oral and maxillofacial surgery, Pharmacology, Nursing, Laboratory sciences, and emerging domains such as Telemedicine, Digital health, and Medical informatics. We evaluate research based on scientific validity, strong methodology, and high ethical standards—not perceived significance. Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research, case reports, case series, negative, and null results are all considered for publication.

Open Access

All articles published by EHJMED are made freely and permanently accessible online immediately upon publication, without subscription charges or registration barriers. Authors retain copyright of their articles and grant third parties the right to use, reproduce, or disseminate the article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, which permits reuse for non-commercial purposes with appropriate credit, a link to the license, and indication if changes were made.

Types of Articles

EHJMED welcomes original research submissions from medical and health-related disciplines, including:

  • Primary research that contributes to the base of scientific knowledge, including interdisciplinary, replication studies, and negative or null results.
  • Secondary research whose methods ensure the comprehensive and unbiased analysis of existing data.
  • Qualitative research that adheres to appropriate study design and reporting guidelines.

Article Processing Charges (APC)

Authors who publish open access in EHJMED are required to pay an article processing charge (APC). The APC is determined from the date on which the article is accepted for publication. The current APC, subject to VAT or local taxes where applicable, is:

  • 50,000 Naira for authors from within Nigeria
  • 100 US Dollars for authors from outside Nigeria

Peer-Review Policy

Peer-review is the system used to assess the quality of a manuscript before publication. Independent researchers in the relevant research area assess submitted manuscripts for originality, validity, and significance to help editors determine whether the manuscript should be published. EHJMED employs a rigorous multi-stage editorial screening and assessment process. An initial in-house quality check identifies potential issues such as competing interests, compliance with ethical standards for studies involving human and animal subjects, financial disclosures, data availability, and other scientific and policy requirements. Submissions may be returned to authors for changes or clarifications at this stage.

Manuscripts are subsequently assessed by editors and/or peer reviewers. Editors aim to obtain a minimum of two peer reviewers for manuscripts reporting primary research or secondary analysis of primary research. In exceptional cases, particularly in niche and emerging fields, a decision to publish may be based on one peer review report, provided it meets the journal’s standards. Overall editorial responsibility lies with the Editor, with Editorial Board Members acting as section or handling editors.

Criteria for Publication

Manuscripts submitted to EHJMED must meet the following criteria:

  • The study presents the results of original research.
  • Results reported have not been published elsewhere in whole or in part in the peer-reviewed literature.
  • Submissions are not currently under consideration for publication elsewhere.
  • Experiments, statistics, and other analyses are performed to a high technical standard and described in sufficient detail.
  • Conclusions are presented appropriately and supported by the data.
  • The article is presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English.
  • The research meets all applicable standards for the ethics of experimentation and research integrity.
  • The article adheres to appropriate reporting guidelines and community standards for data availability.