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The European Journal of Health Communication (EJHC) is dedicated to the current research questions of European Health communication. Its cross-national approach is reflected in the diversity of the contributions as well as in the composition of the international Management Board (based in Zurich, Amsterdam, and Erfurt). As a Platinum Open Access Journal, all content is accessible without license or fees. This enables the dissemination of research beyond the research community.

The EJHC also breaks new ground with a pre-registration procedure and the living review (more information) as article format. As an alternative to the traditional publication model, using pre-registration, researchers can use a peer review process to qualify the theory, hypothesis, methods and analysis plan of their study for publication even before its implementation. If accepted, researchers are given the opportunity to publish their results regardless of whether an expected result has been achieved. By shifting the publication decision from the results to the process, an open-ended research is supported.

The living review as a new article type offers the opportunity to update review articles. Based on the original article the author connects the current state of research, the latest developments and their relevance for the field of research. The pre-registration procedure and the living review can be seen both as contribution in supporting a transparent and open research in the sense of Open Science.

The journal is published on UZH’s open publishing platform HOPE. This service is offered by the main library of the University of Zurich based on the infrastructure of Zentrale Informatik and is available to UZH researchers for the publication of Open Access journals. The Open Source software Open Journal Systems (OJS) is used as its basis.