One of global health’s leading open-access journals has secured funding that will help keep it available to readers and authors while positioning it for its next chapter.
Global Health: Science and Practice (GHSP), the flagship journal of the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP), will receive $520,000 from the Gates Foundation to support a transition to more sustainable publishing infrastructure and maintain no-cost access for authors and readers for the next 22 months.
Since its launch in 2013 with support from USAID, GHSP has provided a forum for implementation-focused global health evidence and experience: the kind of actionable knowledge that program practitioners, researchers, decision-makers and donors can readily use in real-world programs, policies and health systems.
Unlike journals that focus primarily on discovery science, GHSP emphasizes what happens after evidence is generated: how it is used, adapted and applied to improve health outcomes.
That focus has helped the journal reach more than one million readers annually and attract a global authorship base, with about 63 percent of authors coming from low- and middle-income countries. For many, GHSP has become a trusted source of practical evidence that informs decisions and strengthens programs.
Following the end of USAID funding in 2025, CCP began exploring ways to sustain the journal for the long term while preserving what has made the journal distinctive. In a publishing landscape where many journals rely on author fees or expensive proprietary systems, GHSP has remained a diamond open-access journal, meaning it does not charge readers to access articles or authors to publish their work.
The grant provides bridge funding as CCP moves GHSP toward a more sustainable future. The transition includes two key priorities: moving the journal to more sustainable, open-source publishing platforms that reduce operating costs, and expanding the journal’s governance by bringing on a partner institution from a low- or middle-income country.
“GHSP is committed to free and open access to knowledge,” said Ruwaida Salem, GHSP’s managing editor. “This funding gives us the opportunity to move forward on some of our biggest priorities while making sure the journal remains available to the global health community.”
The support will also allow GHSP to resume normal operations after months of uncertainty.
“We’re excited to ramp our operations back up,” Salem said. “We’ll be able to move the remaining articles through our pipeline, publish new issues and, later this year, reopen the journal to new submissions.”
CCP also sees an opportunity to make the journal’s leadership more representative of the field it serves.
“Global health should reflect global perspectives,” Salem said. “Bringing on a partner institution from a low- and middle-income country isn’t about adding a new voice. Rather, it’s about recognizing and formalizing the central role that frontline researchers and practitioners have always played and ensuring they have an even greater role in guiding the journal’s future.”
CCP is building a diversified, long-term sponsorship strategy for GHSP, seeking additional sponsors, both large and small, to sustain the journal. GHSP is welcoming the Gates Foundation as its first founding sustainability sponsor. To explore sponsorship opportunities, please contact the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs Business Development Team at ccpbd@jhu.edu.
“Our goal isn’t to rely on a single funder,” said Debora B. Freitas López, CCP’s executive director. “We want to build a consortium of supporters who share our commitment to sustaining the journal over time. GHSP truly is a global good, and its future should reflect the global community it serves.”
