World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!
Health Policy and Planning
H-index 27

Health Policy and Planning

0268-1080

Published by: Oxford University Press

https://academic.oup.com/heapol

Ranking & Metrics

Discipline name Position Best Scientists Publications D-Index
Social Sciences and Humanities 50 121 224 24
Medicine 1578 53 59 16

Additional Metrics

Number of Best Scientists*: 212
Documents by Best Scientists*: 281
Top 100 Ranked Scientists*: 9
SCIMAGO H-index: 118
SCIMAGO SJR: 1.372
Impact Factor: 3.1

Overview

Top Research Topics at Health Policy and Planning?

The concepts of Health care, Economic growth, Developing country, Health policy and Environmental health are tackled in the journal. Some problems in Health care that were presented in the journal overlapped with concepts under Quality (business), Nursing, Private sector, Rural area and Family medicine. The Nursing study featured in Health Policy and Planning draws parallels with the field of Qualitative research.

The research on Private sector discussed in Health Policy and Planning draws on the closely related field of Public sector. The research on Economic growth tackled can also make contributions to studies in the areas of Government, Public economics, Politics and Public health. Developing country research presented in the journal encompasses a variety of subjects, including Psychological intervention, Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), Program evaluation, Socioeconomic status and Socioeconomics.

It focuses on Health policy but the discussions also offer insight into other areas such as Global health, Public relations and Health promotion. The work on Health promotion addressed in it expands to the thematically related Health education. Research on Environmental health addressed in Health Policy and Planning frequently intersections with the field of Prenatal care.

  • Health care (28.92%)
  • Economic growth (28.77%)
  • Developing country (28.06%)

What are the most cited papers published in the journal?

  • Constructing socio-economic status indices: how to use principal components analysis. (2008 citations)
  • Reforming the health sector in developing countries: the central role of policy analysis (812 citations)
  • Measuring social capital within health surveys: key issues. (747 citations)

Research areas of the most cited articles at Health Policy and Planning:

The journal papers investigate studies in Health care, Economic growth, Developing country, Health policy and Nursing. The most cited publications with studies in Economic growth featured incorporate elements of Government and Public health. While Developing country is the key highlight in the journal publications, thet also covered some subjects on Environmental health and Socioeconomic status.

What topics the last edition of the journal is best known for?

  • Law
  • World War II
  • Health care

The previous edition focused in particular on these issues:

The discussions in Health Policy and Planning mainly cover the fields of Health care, Psychological intervention, Public health, Health policy and Government. While Health care is the focus of Health Policy and Planning, it also provided insights into the studies of Quality (business), Accountability, Public relations, China and Payment. The research on Psychological intervention featured in the journal combines topics in other fields like Developing country, Service delivery framework, Community health and Environmental health.

Health Policy and Planning explores topics in Public health which can be helpful for research in disciplines like Preparedness, Legislation, Pandemic and Data collection. The study of Health policy encompasses disciplines such as Policy analysis, as well as fields such as Framing (social sciences), all of which overlap with one another. Issues in Government were discussed, taking into consideration concepts from other disciplines like Economic growth, Public policy, Tobacco control, Public administration and Politics.

The most cited articles from the last journal are:

  • Remote data collection for public health research in a COVID-19 era: ethical implications, challenges and opportunities. (8 citations)
  • Document analysis in health policy research: the READ approach (7 citations)
  • Disruptions in maternal and child health service utilization during COVID-19: analysis from eight sub-Saharan African countries. (4 citations)

Papers citation over time

A key indicator for each journal is its effectiveness in reaching other researchers with the papers published at that venue.

The chart below presents the interquartile range (first quartile 25%, median 50% and third quartile 75%) of the number of citations of articles over time.

The top authors publishing in Health Policy and Planning (based on the number of publications) are:

  • Lucy Gilson (52 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition, 2 less than at the previous edition,
  • Richard Coker (27 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Anne Mills (27 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Sara Bennett (26 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Martin McKee (25 papers) published 2 papers at the last edition.

The overall trend for top authors publishing in this journal is outlined below. The chart shows the number of publications at each edition of the journal for top authors.

Only papers with recognized affiliations are considered

The top affiliations publishing in Health Policy and Planning (based on the number of publications) are:

  • University of London (489 papers) published 27 papers at the last edition, 5 more than at the previous edition,
  • Johns Hopkins University (168 papers) published 16 papers at the last edition, 5 more than at the previous edition,
  • Harvard University (129 papers) published 22 papers at the last edition, 13 more than at the previous edition,
  • World Health Organization (112 papers) published 9 papers at the last edition, 4 less than at the previous edition,
  • University of Cape Town (71 papers) published 9 papers at the last edition, 1 more than at the previous edition.

The overall trend for top affiliations publishing in this journal is outlined below. The chart shows the number of publications at each edition of the journal for top affiliations.

Publication chance based on affiliation

The publication chance index shows the ratio of articles published by the best research institutions in the journal edition to all articles published within that journal. The best research institutions were selected based on the largest number of articles published during all editions of the journal.

The chart below presents the percentage ratio of articles from top institutions (based on their ranking of total papers).Top affiliations were grouped by their rank into the following tiers: top 1-10, top 11-20, top 21-50, and top 51+. Only articles with a recognized affiliation are considered.

During the most recent 2021 edition, 4.92% of publications had an unrecognized affiliation. Out of the publications with recognized affiliations, 51.72% were posted by at least one author from the top 10 institutions publishing in the journal. Another 6.90% included authors affiliated with research institutions from the top 11-20 affiliations. Institutions from the 21-50 range included 16.67% of all publications and 24.71% were from other institutions.

Returning Authors Index

A very common phenomenon observed among researchers publishing scientific articles is the intentional selection of journals they have already attended in the past. In particular, it is worth analyzing the case when the authors participate in the same journal from year to year.

The Returning Authors Index presented below illustrates the ratio of authors who participated in both a given as well as the previous edition of the journal in relation to all participants in a given year.

Returning Institution Index

The graph below shows the Returning Institution Index, illustrating the ratio of institutions that participated in both a given and the previous edition of the conference in relation to all affiliations present in a given year.

The experience to innovation index

Our experience to innovation index was created to show a cross-section of the experience level of authors publishing in a journal. The index includes the authors publishing at the last edition of a journal, grouped by total number of publications throughout their academic career (P) and the total number of citations of these publications ever received (C).

The group intervals were selected empirically to best show the diversity of the authors' experiences, their labels were selected as a convenience, not as judgment. The authors were divided into the following groups:

  • Novice - P < 5 or C < 25 (the number of publications less than 5 or the number of citations less than 25),
  • Competent - P < 10 or C < 100 (the number of publications less than 10 or the number of citations less than 100),
  • Experienced - P < 25 or C < 625 (the number of publications less than 25 or the number of citations less than 625),
  • Master - P < 50 or C < 2500 (the number of publications less than 50 or the number of citations less than 2500),
  • Star - P ≥ 50 and C ≥ 2500 (both the number of publications greater than 50 and the number of citations greater than 2500).

The chart below illustrates experience levels of first authors in cases of publications with multiple authors.

Becoming a Researcher in the Field

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Top Publications

  • Remote data collection for public health research in a COVID-19 era: ethical implications, challenges and opportunities.

    B Hensen;C R S Mackworth-Young;M Simwinga;N Abdelmagid

    (2021)
    137 Citations
  • Community engagement for health system resilience: evidence from Liberia's Ebola epidemic.

    Kathryn M Barker;Emilia J Ling;Mosoka Fallah;Mosoka Fallah;Brian VanDeBogert

    (2020)
    78 Citations
  • Barriers to cervical cancer and breast cancer screening uptake in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review

    (2022)
    67 Citations
  • Maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response in low- and middle-income countries: a scoping review of implementation factors.

    Mary V Kinney;David Roger Walugembe;Phillip Wanduru;Peter Waiswa

    (2021)
    54 Citations
  • Shocks, stress and everyday health system resilience: experiences from the Kenyan coast.

    Nancy Kagwanja;Dennis Waithaka;Jacinta Nzinga;Jacinta Nzinga;Benjamin Tsofa;Benjamin Tsofa

    (2020)
    51 Citations
  • The effects of medicines availability and stock-outs on household's utilization of healthcare services in Dodoma region, Tanzania

    August Kuwawenaruwa;August Kuwawenaruwa;August Kuwawenaruwa;Kaspar Wyss;Kaspar Wyss;Karin Wiedenmayer;Emmy Metta;Emmy Metta

    (2020)
    47 Citations
  • On time horizons in health economic evaluations.

    Markus Haacker;Markus Haacker;Markus Haacker;Timothy B Hallett;Rifat Atun

    (2020)
    47 Citations
  • Improving antibiotic use through behaviour change: A systematic review of interventions evaluated in low- and middle-income countries

    Carla Cuevas;Neha Batura;Luh Putu Lila Wulandari;Mishal Khan;Mishal Khan

    (2021)
    45 Citations

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