Instruction for Authors

Overview

World Nutrition is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access scholarly journal dedicated to advancing rigorous, ethical, and policy-relevant research in public health nutrition and related disciplines. All content is permanently archived. The journal welcomes high-quality submissions that improve population health, strengthen food systems, and advance nutrition equity worldwide. Authors are encouraged to review these guidelines carefully before submission to ensure efficient editorial processing and peer review.

Publishing Model and Open Access

World Nutrition operates under a diamond open-access model:

  • No article processing charges (APCs)
  • No submission fees
  • Immediate, free access to all published content

The World Public Health Nutrition Association (WPHNA) covers all article processing charges (APC) for research articles, ensuring that neither authors nor readers bear publication costs. WN authors are automatically eligible to join WPHNA, for which fees are lower for specific groups and regions. Editors and peer reviewers work on journal tasks on a strictly volunteer basis. The journal is editorially independent of the Association and thus free from conflicts of interest. For selected non-research articles (e.g., commentaries, reviews, perspectives), a minimal typesetting fee applies. Ability or willingness to pay has no influence on editorial review or publication decisions. It is published quarterly, on the last days of March, June, September, and December.

The journal adheres to global open-access best practice and promotes the widest possible dissemination of scholarly work. Authors retain copyright and publish under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.

Authors can submit previously unpublished original research, literature reviews, editorials, commentaries, book reviews or letters to the editor. It is unethical and unacceptable to submit an article to more than one publisher or journal simultaneously. (Each journal does a lot of work to review and edit your submission, and none wants to publish something already published elsewhere.) If you would like to publish an article similar to or translated from one published in another language, contact the editor to discuss this before submitting it. 

Substantive critiques of previously published articles in the journal are welcomed and, if warranted, will be published as a letter to the editor. The authors of any such critiqued article will be allowed to publish a response in the same issue. If you would like to contribute a regular column to the journal, please contact the editor to discuss this. 

Scope and Suitability

Manuscripts must align with the journal’s mission to advance knowledge in public health and community nutrition. Submissions that fall outside the journal’s scope — particularly those focused exclusively on animal studies, laboratory experimentation, or highly clinical populations without clear population-health relevance — may be declined without external review. Authors are strongly encouraged to consult the journal’s Aims and Scope before submission.

Submission Checklist

Please:

  1. Read the Aims & Scope to see if your manuscript fits this journal.
  2. Use the Microsoft Word template to prepare your manuscript. See “Preparing Manuscripts” for further details.
  3. Ensure that all aspects related to publication ethics, research ethics, copyright, authorship, figure/table formats, data, and reference formats have been properly addressed.
  4. Ensure that all authors have approved the content of the submitted manuscript and confirm that they have read the Instructions for Authors.
  5. Authors are encouraged to add an ORCID to the submission

 Manuscript Submission Overview

World Nutrition imposes no limit on manuscript length as long as the text remains concise and comprehensive. But literature reviews or commentaries longer than 2000 words should be preceded by an abstract. Adding an abstract to any submission on the metadata page increases its visibility because each word you enter there is searchable.  Authors must include complete experimental details to enable reproducibility. Additionally, they are required to publish all experimental controls and, where feasible, provide full datasets.

Manuscripts submitted to World Nutrition must be original, not published elsewhere, and not under review by another journal. The primary article types are outlined below; a complete list is available here—note that some types may not be available across all disciplines.

Article Types

The journal considers the following categories:

  • Original Research Article: The journal welcomes all original research manuscripts that present scientifically rigorous experiments and contribute significant new insights. Authors are encouraged to avoid splitting their work into multiple related papers unless submitting brief Communications that highlight preliminary yet important results. The peer review process will assess both the quality and impact of the study.
  • Review: These offer clear, focused updates on the latest advancements in a specific research area. Systematic reviews ought to adhere to the PRISMA guidelines.
  • Systematic, Scoping, and Narrative Reviews
  • Policy Analyses and Implementation Research
  • Commentaries
  • Opinion and Perspectives
  • Letters to the Editor

Additional formats may be considered at the editors' discretion.

Submission Process

Manuscripts for World Nutrition must be submitted online at worldnutritionjournal.org. The corresponding, or submitting, author is responsible for the manuscript during submission and the peer-review process. This author must ensure all eligible co-authors are listed according to authorship criteria and have read and approved the final manuscript. To submit, register and log in to the submission website. After registration, click the link to access the submission form for World Nutrition. All co-authors can view the manuscript details if they register and log in with the email used during submission.

Accepted File Formats

Authors are encouraged to use the Microsoft Word template for the main manuscript body and the separate Title page template.

Disclaimer: These templates are solely for submission to the journal for peer review. They are strictly limited to this purpose and cannot be shared online on preprint servers or other websites. When you write your paper, do not copy anything directly from the internet into your Word document. First, remove all hidden formatting, for example, by copying first to Notepad or by using the far right paste option on the Word menu. 

Editorial and Peer Review Process

All manuscripts undergo an initial editorial screening by the editors personally, followed, where appropriate, by double-blind external peer review. We do not use AI in the editing process. Research papers, literature reviews, and evidence-based commentaries will also be sent for peer review. Peer reviewer and author identities are masked to ensure double-blind peer review. Usually, at least two peer reviews must be complete before they are shared with authors. All submitted material will be handled in confidence except for the purposes of review and/or in order to investigate possible misconduct.

Editorial decisions are based exclusively on:

  • Scholarly merit
  • Methodological rigour
  • Originality
  • Ethical compliance
  • Relevance to the field

Our editors are not involved in making decisions about papers which:

  • they have written themselves.
  • have been written by family members or colleagues.
  • relate to products or services in which they have an interest.

Any submissions will follow the journal's standard procedures, with peer review conducted separately from the editor and their research group. Learn more about the editor's responsibilities.

Authors may submit a formal appeal request to the editorial decision, provided it meets all the requirements and follows the procedure outlined in the World Nutrition Appeal Policy. Only one appeal per submission will be considered, and the appeal decision will be final.

Detailed information on manuscript evaluation is available in the journal’s Peer Review Policy.

Special Issues and Article Collections

The peer-review process for special issues and article collections is similar to that for regular submissions. However, guest editors can submit papers to reviewers and recommend decisions to the journal editor. The journal editor oversees the peer review process for all special issues and collections, ensuring high standards of publishing ethics and responsiveness, and makes the final decision on acceptance or rejection.

Manuscript Revision and Disclosure of AI-Assisted Writing

When authors are provided with reviewer responses and requested to revise and resubmit their manuscript, they should revise the manuscript accordingly. While authors are not required to comply with all reviewer requests, for substantive comments, authors should explain their response if they believe the reviewer is incorrect or explain why the requested revision is beyond the scope of the article. The revised version MUST include a point-by-point response to the reviewer's comment or a rebuttal letter, as the case may be.

We request that authors disclose the use of AI or translation websites in the manuscript's actual writing. (This is not necessary if AI was used for something like checking the grammar.) Here are two examples of the kind of language we request be used: 

  • "We used the AI tool ChatGPT to generate a draft of the literature review for our manuscript."
  • "We used the AI tool LaMDA to translate our manuscript from Spanish to English."

In their cover letter to the editor, to enable scientific scrutiny, authors should disclose the full prompt used to generate the research results, the date and time of the query, the AI tool used, and its version. 

Submission Requirements

Submissions must represent original work that has not been previously published and is not under consideration elsewhere.

Authors should ensure that manuscripts:

  • Are written in clear, scholarly English
  • Follow recognised academic conventions
  • Present methods and findings transparently
  • Situate results within the broader scientific literature

Manuscripts may be returned for technical revision prior to peer review if they do not meet baseline submission standards.

During the submission process, the corresponding author must add names and information for each coauthor. They are urged during this process to add all ORCID numbers. These can be obtained here: Register - ORCID

Please remember to submit both your manuscript and a separate cover page. On the cover page, each name is listed this way: first, middle, last name.

Author Affiliation

All authors should list their current affiliations and the affiliation where most of the research for the manuscript was conducted. We recommend listing the primary affiliation as the one where most of the research was conducted or supported, but please check with your institution for any contractual agreement requirements. Provide a complete and accurate affiliation (place of employment) for each, following the standard affiliation style: “Department, Institution, City, Country”. Please include ORCID numbers. 

It is very important that author names and affiliations are correct. Incorrect information can result from a lack of proper attribution or citation and can even lead to problems with promotion or funding. After the publication of an article, updates or corrections to the author’s address or affiliation may not be permitted.

Cover Letter

A cover letter must accompany each manuscript submission. It should be brief and clarify the paper's content, contextualising the findings within the existing literature. Additionally, it should specify why the manuscript aligns with the journal's scope.

All cover letters must include the following statements:

  • We confirm that neither the manuscript nor any parts of its content are presently under review for publication elsewhere, nor have they been previously published in another journal.
  • All authors have approved the manuscript and agree with its submission to World Nutrition.
  • If a manuscript is accepted for publication, we will add an icon linking to your online ORCID profile in the final version of the published paper.

Manuscript Preparation

While the journal does not impose unnecessarily rigid formatting requirements at initial submission, manuscripts should typically include:

  • Title page (submitted separately for blinded review)
  • Main Manuscript: a separate file that should include the following:
  • Title
  • Structured abstract (for research and review articles)
  • Keywords
  • Highlights / Key Messages
  • Main text with clear section headings (Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions)
  • Tables and figures with descriptive captions should be embedded within the manuscript body text
  • Back matter: Author Contributions, Use of AI declaration, Funding, Data Availability Statement, Acknowledgments, Conflicts of Interest, Supplementary Materials,
  • References

 Line numbering is recommended to facilitate peer review.

 A separate title page should include:

  • Full manuscript title
  • Author names and institutional affiliations
  • Corresponding author contact details
  • ORCID identifiers (strongly encouraged)
  • Funding information
  • Conflict-of-interest disclosures

 To preserve double-blind review, the main manuscript must not include identifying information.

 Graphical Abstract: A graphical abstract (GA) is an image placed below the text abstract. Besides summarising the main points, it should also visually highlight the article's topic in an engaging manner.

 A graphical abstract should differ from any figure within the paper, avoid merely overlapping multiple subfigures, and should not simply combine the abstract text with an image.

  • A graphical abstract must be an original, unpublished artwork. It should not include postage stamps, currency from any country, or trademarked items. No copyrighted material is allowed in a GA.
  • A graphical abstract must be a high-quality illustration or diagram available in PNG, JPEG, or TIFF formats.
  • The graphical abstract must be at least 560 pixels in height and 1100 pixels in width.

 Other Requirements

  • Use of acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms: Ensure to define them when they first appear in each section: the abstract, the main text, and the initial figure or table. When introduced for the first time, include the acronym or abbreviation in parentheses following the spelt-out form.
  • SI Units (International System of Units) should be used. Imperial, US customary, and other units should be converted to SI units whenever possible.
  • Equations: If you are using Word, please utilise either the Microsoft Equation Editor or the MathType add-on. Ensure that equations are editable by the editorial office and are not inserted as images.
  • Accession numbers for RNA, DNA, and protein sequences referenced in the manuscript should be listed in the Materials and Methods section. Additionally, refer to the section on Deposition of Sequences and Expression Data.
  • Research Data and supplementary materials: Please be aware that publishing your manuscript requires you to make all related materials, data, and protocols accessible to readers. During submission, disclose any restrictions on the availability of materials or information. For further details, review the guidelines on Supplementary Materials and Data Deposit.

Reporting Standards and Statistical Rigour

Authors should adhere to internationally recognised reporting guidelines where applicable (e.g., CONSORT, STROBE, PRISMA, COREQ).

Statistical reporting should prioritise:

  • Effect sizes
  • Confidence intervals
  • Transparent description of analytical methods

Reliance solely on p-values is discouraged.

Methods must be described in sufficient detail to support reproducibility.

Research Ethics and Integrity

World Nutrition maintains strict adherence to internationally recognised ethical standards, including guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.

Authors must ensure that:

  • Human research received prior ethics committee approval
  • Participants provided informed consent where applicable
  • Clinical trials were prospectively registered
  • Research was conducted responsibly and transparently

Comprehensive ethical requirements are detailed in the journal’s Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement.

Authorship and Contributorship

The criteria for authorship recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors are as follows:

  1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
  2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
  3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND
  4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

The journal encourages transparency in contributor roles. Changes to authorship after submission require written agreement from all authors and editorial approval.

Concealing Authorship

World Nutrition subjects all original research, literature reviews, and evidence-based commentary to a double-blind review process. (Opinion-based letters, commentary, and book reviews are reviewed only by editors.) Reviewers should not know the authors' identities, and contributing authors should not know the reviewers' identities. To facilitate this concealment, authors are asked to submit a "blinded" version of their manuscript, with the cover or title page submitted as a separate file. If published, the title page will be added after review. Thus, no author's name should appear on the manuscript itself. The file name should also not include the authors' names or initials. However, do NOT remove your name from any references you are the author of. 

To remove metadata in the Word document itself that might convey the author's identity: 

  1. For PC users: the method to use depends on the version of Word. Go to Help and ask how to remove personal information.
  2. For Mac Users: Click Tools (on the top bar)>Protect Document>Scroll down to Privacy>Check box for "Remove personal information for this file on save">Save>OK>Save

 Studies in Humans

Authors are required to adhere to ethical guidelines when conducting studies involving humans. Any work involving human subjects must adhere to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects.

  • Manuscripts should adhere to the ICMJE guidelines for conducting, reporting, editing, and publishing scholarly medical work. They should also reflect the diversity of human populations in terms of sex, age, and ethnicity. Correct usage of sex and gender terms, as specified by WHO, is essential.
  • Manuscripts must include a statement confirming that all procedures adhered to relevant laws and institutional guidelines and received approval from the appropriate institutional committee(s). This statement should specify the date and reference number of the ethical approval(s) obtained.
  • Manuscripts should also include a statement confirming that the privacy rights of human subjects have been upheld and that informed consent was secured for any human subject experimentation.

This journal will reject manuscripts that include data from organs or tissue obtained unethically, such as from executed prisoners or prisoners of conscience, in line with Global Rights Compliance recommendations on reducing human rights risks in transplantation. For all research involving human organs or tissues, authors must demonstrate that procurement adhered to the WHO Guiding Principles on Human Cell, Tissue, and Organ Transplantation. In clinical studies, a statement confirming the patient's or their designated representative's informed consent and ethical approval from a relevant institution may suffice as evidence. However, the journal may request additional proof if needed. The source of organs or tissues in clinical research must be clear and traceable. If your manuscript involves organ transplantation, you must also declare within the manuscript that:

  • consent was obtained freely and without coercion from the donor or their next of kin.
  • organs and tissues were not obtained from executed prisoners or prisoners of conscience. 

Studies in animals

Animal, in vitro, or laboratory-based experimental studies are not considered, except in rare cases where findings directly inform population-level nutrition interventions or policies. Authors must follow ethical guidelines for studies carried out on animals. All animal experiments should comply with ARRIVE (Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments) guidelines.

Studies should be carried out in accordance with Guidance on the operation of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 and associated guidelines, NIH (National Research Council) Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals or the EU Directive 2010/63 for the protection of animals used for scientific purposes.

Your manuscript should include a statement confirming that the guidelines mentioned above were followed. Additionally, specify the sex of the animals and, where relevant, the impact or correlation of sex on the study's outcomes.

Informed Consent and Patient Details

Authors should clearly state in the manuscript that they have obtained ethics committee approval and informed consent for studies involving patients, volunteers, or organ/tissue donors. Specific guidelines:

  • When including case details, personal information, or images of patients or other individuals in a publication—even if anonymised—appropriate consents, permissions, and releases must be secured.
  • Never use patient or research subjects’ names, initials, hospital or social security numbers, dates of birth, or any other personal or identifying information, even if consent has been given.

Written consents must be kept on file. They should only be shared with this journal if explicitly requested in exceptional cases, such as legal issues. In such instances, provide copies of the consents or proof that all necessary consents were obtained.

Personal details of any patient should only be included in your article or supplementary materials, such as images and videos, if written permission has been obtained from the patient or, if applicable, their next of kin.

Conflicts of Interest and Funding Disclosure

Authors must disclose any financial, institutional, or personal relationships that could influence the interpretation of their work.

In the context of the journal World Nutrition, a conflict of interest (CoI) is defined as "a situation that is present when there is a meaningful risk that a primary professional interest might be unduly influenced by incompatible interests."  Awareness of CoI's are important to authors and readers in maintaining the integrity of World Nutrition.

The existence of a CoI does not mean that someone is corrupt. They might not have allowed this CoI to influence what they think, how they do their research, or what they write. But the risk is there. The perception that this conflict MIGHT influence them is unavoidable.

A good deal of research does suggest that many researchers allow CoI to influence not only their judgement but also how they conduct, analyse, or report research. For example, published studies by drug companies routinely report higher efficacy for those drugs than studies funded by others. Being suspicious of authors with CoI is not the same as drawing conclusions about any particular author's integrity, but it is important to be aware of the risks CoI pose. Thus, we ask all authors to provide a statement about potential conflicts of interest.

CoIs include relevant financial interests, activities, relationships, and affiliations, including, but not limited to, employment, funding and grants received or pending, consultancies, honoraria, membership in speakers' bureaus, stock ownership and options, expert testimony, royalties, and patents planned, pending, or issued. These disclosures should describe any potential conflicts of interest involving the work under consideration for publication (during the time involving the work, from initial conception and planning to present), any relevant financial activities outside the submitted work (over the 5 years prior to submission), and any other relationships or activities that readers could perceive to have influenced, or that give the appearance of potentially influencing what is written in the submitted work (based on all relationships that were present during the 5 years prior to submission).

All sources of funding must be declared. Transparency supports reader trust and scholarly credibility.

Authors who are uncertain about what constitutes a relevant financial interest or relationship for an individual author or relevant support for the work being reported should err on the side of complete disclosure or contact the editor for clarification.

For all accepted manuscripts, summaries of the CoIs will be published in an Acknowledgement section of the article to ensure they are disclosed to readers.

World Nutrition will, at its discretion, consider publishing papers whose authors have only minor CoIs. However, if CoIs are judged to be so severe that the integrity of the article is in doubt, the manuscript may be rejected for that reason alone. Alternatively, the journal may publish a simultaneous commentary about that CoI and/or present an opposing point of view.

Data Transparency and Availability

Authors are strongly encouraged to make the underlying research data available whenever it is ethically and legally feasible.

A Data Availability Statement should indicate whether data are:

  • Publicly accessible
  • Available upon reasonable request
  • Restricted due to ethical or legal considerations

Editors may request access to data during review, as needed.

Preprints and Prior Dissemination

Submission of manuscripts previously posted on reputable preprint servers is permitted, provided this is disclosed at submission.

Preprint posting does not constitute prior publication.

Authors should not submit manuscripts that have been formally published elsewhere.

Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools

Artificial intelligence tools may assist in language refinement or manuscript preparation; however:

  • Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy and originality of their work
  • AI tools must not be listed as authors
  • Substantive AI use must be transparently disclosed

The journal does not permit AI systems to replace human scholarly judgment.

Plagiarism Screening

All submissions are screened using professional similarity-detection software. Manuscripts exhibiting plagiarism, redundant publication, or unethical overlap will be rejected and may be subject to further investigation.

We take plagiarism seriously. We define it as copying a sentence or more from another author. We ask that you avoid copying too much, even from your own previously published work. Our methods for dealing with it are illustrated here. If you use a large language model, including AI, to write any part of your paper, please indicate this in your methods section. 

Reference Style

World Nutrition uses a straightforward author-date referencing system that conforms to APA 7th Edition guidelines, making it easier for authors without reference management tools. If you utilise such software, the APA 7th Edition author-date style generates a reference list that we favour.

References should:

  • Be accurate and complete
  • Include DOIs where available
  • Prioritise primary sources
  • Reflect current scholarship

If you copy references from the internet, note that they often use different referencing systems. It is the author’s responsibility to make changes in them so they adhere to our requirements and are consistent with your other references. Note also that references from Google Scholar are often incomplete, and you must find a way to complete them in that case. They do not capitalise every word in journal names nor include DOIs, and thus must be edited by you.

Key Components & Formatting Rules for Reference List:
1. Author(s):
    • Format: Last name, Initial(s).
    • Use a comma between authors
2. Year of Publication:
    • Follow the author(s) name(s) with the year, followed by a period.
    • Example: 2020.
3. Title of the Article:
     • Use sentence case (capitalise only the first word and proper nouns), 

  • Example: The impact of urban agriculture on food security.
  1. Title of the Journal:
          • Use italics and title case (headline-style capitalisation of every important word in the journal name).
          • Example: Journal of Food Science
    5. Volume and Issue Number:
          • Provide the volume number, followed by the issue number in parentheses, followed by a colon and the page range. Do not use spaces.
          • Example: 45(3):212–225.
    6. Page Range:
         • Give the full span of the article pages.
         • Example: 212–225.
    7. Use "et al." for in-text citations when there are more than two authors. But only use one author's name in the text citation. 
  2. DOI or URL:
        • If available, provide the DOI in full URL format:
           https://doi.org/...
         • If no DOI, provide the URL of the article if accessed online.

Each citation in the text must be associated with one of the entries in the alphabetised reference list at the end of the document. In the text, as close as possible to where a reference is needed, only the surname of the author (or both if there are two; first author followed by "et al." if there are more than two) and then the year of the publication, should be placed in one set of parentheses.

Thus, the journal reference below would be cited in the text as (Akob et al., 2025). Alternatively, one can write something like, "As Akob et al. (2025) have pointed out." If you cite two references with the same author and year, label the one you mention first as (Smith, 2016a) and the next one as (Smith, 2016b). 

Sample Reference List

  1. Journal articles 

Akob F.A., Pillay K., Wiles N., Siwela M. 2025. “Dietary intake and dietary diversity of adults and children in the North West region of Cameroon: A comparative study”. World Nutrition, 16(2): 73–86.

The journal name is followed by the volume number, a colon, the issue number in parentheses (where possible), a colon, and then the page numbers -- with no spaces. 

  1. Books and reports follow a similar format: author, date, title. Then comes the city of publication, followed by a colon and the publisher's name. Each important word, along with the first and last words in a title, is capitalised.

Thompson H.S., Kelly W.C. 1990. "Vegetable Crops". 5th Edition. New Delhi: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Ltd.

WHO. 2018. "Implementation Guidance: Protecting, Promoting and Supporting Breastfeeding in Facilities Providing Maternity and Newborn Services: The Revised Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative". https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/272943/9789241513807-eng.pdf?sequence=19

  1. Book chapters or articles within an edited book. First comes the name of the author(s) of the chapter and the year. Then the title of the chapter. This is followed by "In:", then the editors' names, "Eds.", and the page numbers. The city: publisher comes last. 

Amir, L. H. 2010. "Medicines for breastfeeding women: risky business?" In: Wilma G. Nueland (Ed.), Breastfeeding: Methods, Benefits to the Infant and Mother and Difficulties, pp. 129–141. Hauppauge, New York: Nova Science Publishers.

Use of Statistics

Authors are asked to examine whether the way percentages are calculated in tables is logical. For example, if the percentage malnourished is presented for two different groups, readers want to be able to compare the proportions malnourished in each group, which generally means that all values in each vertical column will add up to 100%.

Many authors rely on p-values, often stating that they have chosen p<0.05 as the threshold for rejecting the null hypothesis. However, it is preferable to present both magnitude-of-effect estimates (e.g., odds ratios, rate ratios, risk differences) and precision estimates (confidence intervals). Effect estimates should reflect the study design. For example, a case-control study might use an odds ratio, whereas a longitudinal study would use a hazard ratio. 

Additionally, findings should be discussed in the broader literature to assess their consistency with existing evidence and their relevance to different populations. Repeated observations of similar findings across studies with different designs, contexts, and populations strengthen the evidence that a real effect has been identified rather than one due to chance.

Add Your Metadata and Cover Image for Publication

As part of the submissions process, you will be required to fill in a page asking for a range of information. These metadata are shared widely on the internet and thus assist people in finding your paper, for example, in Google Scholar searches. So it should be complete. Add each author's name in the correct order. Some information about each author is obligatory; additional information, such as position, department/institution, degree, and ORCID number, is optional. When you type in the names of disciplines involved (example: "public health nutrition") or keywords (example: "infant feeding"), you must place a comma at the end of each and then hit return, or they will all be combined into a single word--and thus be useless. Choose keywords that are relevant but not in your abstract or title. 

If your manuscript is accepted, you will be requested to send an image for your paper. This image will appear before your title in the table of contents. Either use an image of your own or upload a free, copyright-free image from the internet.  

Supplementary Materials

Authors may submit supplementary files that enhance transparency and reproducibility, including:

  • Data sets
  • Analytical code
  • Extended methods
  • Reporting checklists

These materials may be published alongside the article at editorial discretion.

Appeals and Complaints

Authors who believe an editorial decision was made in error may submit a formal appeal in accordance with the journal’s established procedures.

Appeals are reviewed independently, and decisions are final.

Post-Acceptance, Production and Publication Process

Following acceptance, manuscripts enter professional production, which includes copy-editing, English editing, professional typesetting, and metadata preparation.

Typesetting

Research papers are sent for professional typesetting. Authors can see how they will look here. The World Public Health Nutrition Association pays this cost. Typesetting of other types of papers, such as Review Papers, can be done at the author's discretion. Costs for this will be offset by current membership fees paid by any coauthor. Or the authors can reimburse WPHNA for this cost. (We pay $65 plus $1.30 for every 10 references.)

Authors will receive proofs for review prior to publication and are responsible for confirming accuracy. The journal is committed to timely publication while maintaining production quality.

Usually, authors cannot modify the main text after acceptance, except for layout, English grammar, and similar aspects. If they wish to revise the main text, they should notify the journal's editorial office and provide their reasons. A subsequent review process will then determine the outcome based on the manuscript and the authors’ explanations. Upon the authors' approval of the final corrections, the document is paginated and published on the www.worldnutritionjournal.org website.

Corrections and Retractions

The journal safeguards the integrity of the scholarly record through transparent correction mechanisms, including:

  • Corrections
  • Expressions of concern
  • Retractions

These procedures adhere to internationally recognised best practice.

Copyright and Author Rights

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right to publish their work under the CC BY 4.0 licence. This licence permits sharing and adaptation, provided appropriate attribution is given.

Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions are made independently of the journal’s owner and are not swayed by commercial or financial considerations.

Scholarly integrity remains the journal’s highest priority.

Why Publish in World Nutrition?

Authors benefit from:

  • Global visibility
  • Immediate open access
  • Rigorous peer review
  • Ethical editorial governance
  • Policy-relevant readership
  • International reach

The journal welcomes submissions that advance knowledge and meaningfully improve global population health.

JOURNAL POLICIES

Authors are advised to see the appropriate section on the World Nutrition website for further information regarding the various policies governing the journal's ethics, which include

 

Copyright Notice

Authors retain all copyrights. In making a submission to World Nutrition, they are certifying that all material is theirs except quotations, as indicated, and that they have obtained permission for any photos, tables, or graphics taken from other publications or websites. 

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.