The Editorial Board of the Health Sciences Investigations Journal, an open-access journal established by the College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana has held a three-day retreat at Forest Hotel, Dodowa from 2nd – 4th February, 2022. The Journal was established to contribute towards the actualization of UG’s strategy of becoming a “world-class research-intensive university” by making UG visible at the global stage through the publication of cutting-edge research findings and policy issues in health-related disciplines.
The Editors Retreat was recognized as a means to evaluate the performance and processes involved in the management of the Journal after successfully publishing 2 Volumes and 4 Issues since its inception in July 2020. Again, it was to afford the editorial team the privilege to share experiences, evaluate the performance of editors and develop strategies for the future.
The Provost, Prof. Julius Fobil in his opening remarks, thanked members for their massive participation in the retreat and also for their untiring efforts towards the editorial work since the inception of the Journal. He added that to sustain the journal there is the need to explore other avenues of raising funds for its management and publications and therefore pledged his commitment to ensuring that this was actualized. He assured the team of his readiness to support the journal and wished the team a fruitful deliberation.
The three-day retreat was facilitated by Prof. David Ofori-Adjei and Prof. Mercy Newman who took the editors through various topics including proofreaders' observations, publishing ethics and responsibilities, research fraud, journal publication cycle, legal issues, and challenges of managing journals. Prof. Ofori-Adjei enjoined the editorial board to develop a comprehensive scope to be able to decline manuscripts that are not up to standard and should also be mindful of original research authored by only one individual. For her part, Prof. Mercy Jemima Newman touched on some of the errors and mistakes committed by authors, citing poor sequence of tenses, misspelling, incoherent sentence construction, poor phraseology, and malapropisms, incorrectly compiled references, and incorrect statistical software citations.
The Editorial Board members include Prof. Andrew Anthony Adjei, Prof. Regina Appiah-Opong, Prof. Christabel Enweronu-Laryea, Prof. Mark M. Tettey, Prof. Alfred Yawson, Prof. Collins Ahorlu, Prof. Japheth Opintan, Prof. Irene Kretchy. The others are Dr. Benjamin Arko-Boham, Dr. Josephine Akpalu, Dr. Florence Naab, Rev. Dr. Thomas Ndanu, Dr. Phyllis Dako-Gyeke, Dr. KwakuAsah-Opoku,Dr. Noah Obeng-Nkrumah, Dr. Antoinette Bediako-Bowan, Dr. NiiKoney-KwakuKoney, Mr. Godfred Amoah Mr. Amin Baba Agongo and Ms. Yvonne Okantey
Prof. Christable Enweronu-Laryea, Associate Editor-in-Chief, in her closing remarks recognized the efforts and zealousness of the editorial team that has ensured that the journal published quality and high impact articles that contribute to addressing national and global health concerns and by that put the name of the College and University of Ghana on the global stage.
