Help For Authors

Requests For Abstracts And Announcements

Abstract Process

Health Affairs has devoted many of its issues to the in-depth exploration of particular policy topics. These thematic issues gather together in one place the top research, important data, and policy thinking of leaders in the field. We have found that Health Affairs' readers refer to these thematic volumes for years afterwards--using them as classroom textbooks, primers, and resource material.

The process for a typical theme issues begins with a planning meeting several months to a year before publication involving a small group of experts; the aim of the meeting is to identify appropriate topics and authors for consideration for the issue. Following this session, Health Affairs may directly invite some authors to submit work for consideration; we may also issue invitations to a group of potential authors identified at the planning session and through other processes. We typically invite authors of 20 to 25 of these abstracts to submit a full paper for consideration for the issue.

We also consider unsolicited papers on related topics for these theme issues, as long as the papers arrive by the appropriate deadline for the issue. Invitation or submission by the deadline does not guarantee publication; all papers (including invited papers) go through the internal review process, then, if selected for advancement, the external review process, and our publication decisions are based partly on these processes.