Early Career Researchers (ECRs) face many challenges in their career path to establishing themselves in their respective fields and being recognized by their peers. One of the greatest difficulties is publishing. The motto “publish or perish” is repeated like a mantra, putting immeasurable pressure on ECRs. Publications are vital not only for scientific communication but also instrumental for Ph.D. candidates and as a means of tracking the career’s development – researchers are evaluated based on the number and quality of their publications by funding bodies, universities, and research institutes. In spite of an increasing number of journals, finding the appropriate one to publish might be difficult. In the field of variations in health care services, there are few specialized journals. “Research in Health Services and Regions” (RHSR) now attempts to close this gap.

RHSR welcomes ECRs to contribute papers to the collection “Designing the Future through Understanding the Past and the Present: Emerging Researchers Take on Regional Variation in Health Care.”

With this series, we want to acknowledge the research efforts of the ECRs by providing a publication platform and granting a prize. Through our peer-review process, we aim to provide valuable and constructive feedback, supporting the improvement of the manuscripts. Also, we want to stimulate the dialogue, positioning RHSR as a forum of exchange. Such knowledge exchange should also map the main topics of interest of ECRs and gain insight into how this field of research will develop in the near future.

Submission guidelines for this collection:

- This is a call for Original Articles.

- The article should address one of our main themes: research on geographical variation of health care systems – variation may concern utilization, quality, costs, etc.; methods, best practices, policy papers. Read our aims and scope.

- Methods studies may both be based on quantitative or qualitative methods.

- The article must be previously unpublished.

- The article must be connected to the Master’s Degree, the Ph.D. Thesis or the Post-Doc work of the researcher.

- The main author should not have previously published more than three articles in peer-reviewed journals. The published articles must be disclosed in the author’s cover letter.

- Co-authorship is allowed.

- We will publish up to 5 peer-reviewed articles in the collection without any costs to the authors.

- The best published article, chosen by our Editors-in-Chief and Editorial Board Members, will receive a EUR 1000,- Prize from the ZI.

- Brief communications will be accepted for publishing, but will not be considered for the prize.

About the journal

“Research in Health Services and Regions” is an e-only open access journal with a focus on variation in health care, published by Springer Nature. All publications in RHSR are open access, published under a Creative Commons license in which authors retain the copyright of their papers. The journal is sponsored by the Central Research Institute for Ambulatory Health Care in the Federal Republic of Germany (Zi), a not-for-profit tax-exempt research foundation devoted to research in support of universal access to health care. Zi covers the article processing charges, and no article processing charges or fees apply. All published papers are made freely and permanently accessible online, without subscription fees or registration barriers, providing immediate and equitable access to information.

For advice on articles categories we accept, please click here.

Submission can be made via Editorial Manager: https://www.editorialmanager.com/rhsr/default1.aspx

For further questions, please write an email to our Managing Editor Camila Gonzatto da Silva: cgonzatto@zi.de

The peer review process for these articles is the same as the peer review process of the journal in general. Final decisions are made by the Editors-in-Chief.

While entering the third year of the COVID-19 Pandemic with a toll of more than 5.5 million deaths and enormous socio-economic consequences, we can already look back and draw some lessons from this still ongoing experience.

The current pandemic exposed the fragilities of health care systems around the world. Even in high-income countries, many health systems were overwhelmed and under pressure. In many other developing nations they collapsed or, surprisingly, did not so. Many places could not provide sufficient capacities to treat so many patients at the same time. The situation also brought disadvantages to non-COVID patients, who haven’t received proper treatment for their conditions - at least temporarily. Inequalities in health care services were accentuated as we have seen discrepancies among regions and countries.

The pandemic still poses many challenges to all – researchers, health care workers, physicians, policymakers, and governments. On the other hand, a common effort in research delivered vaccines and treatments in record time. The use of digital health technologies, such as telehealth, was further developed and gained more acceptance in the general population. And very remarkably: data was never delivered at such a rapid pace. Analytic tools became popular, and forecast models were used to orient decision-makers.

Is this going to help shape systems of continuous and close health/healthcare monitoring, taking also into account geographical differences? What can we learn from this pandemic in order to build more resilient and efficient health care systems? What were best practices in different countries that can be applied elsewhere? What lessons can we learn from these findings for other areas of health care beyond the pandemic? How can we better protect vulnerable people? How can we minimize inequalities in health care among regions?

These and many other pressing questions will be addressed in the new collection “Lessons of the Pandemic – How the pandemic affects our health care system” to be published in our journal “Research in Health Services & Regions – Methods, Results, Implementation.”

In this collection, we will feature original articles, including policy analysis, and brief communications like research briefs and commentaries that delve into those themes, ideally connected to regional variation of health care services.

This is an open-ended collection. We very much welcome further submissions for ongoing publication.

For advice on articles categories that we accept, please click here.

The journal is initiated and fully funded by the Central Research Institute for Ambulatory Health Care during its first years. No Article Processing Charges (APC) or fees are applicable.The peer review process for these articles is the same as the peer review process of the journal in general. Final decisions are made by the Editors-in-Chief.