South African Family Practice

Aims & Scope

The South African Family Practice (SAFP) journal is the official journal of the South African Academy of Family Physicians (SAAFP), and is aimed at all SAAFP members (including family physicians, registrars, associate members, students), working within primary care (both private and public health sectors, as well as urban and rural practice settings) within South Africa and the wider region.

SAFP is a peer-reviewed scientific journal, which strives to provide primary care physicians (and their teams), as well as researchers, with a broad range of scholarly work in the disciplines of family medicine, primary health care, rural medicine, district health and other related fields.

SAFP publishes original research, clinical reviews, and pertinent commentary that advance the knowledge base of these disciplines.

The content of SAFP is designed to reflect and support further development of the broad basis of these disciplines through original research and critical review of evidence in important clinical areas; as well as to provide practitioners with continuing professional development material.

SAFP adheres to the international acceptable editorial standards, as published by The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).The journal's editors are supported by an editorial board, which consists of South African members representing the nine academic training programmes as well as a representative from RuDASA (Rural Doctors Association of South Africa), and key members from the international family medicine and primary care community.

Metrics & Ranking

Abstracting & Indexing

Journal is indexed in leading academic databases, ensuring global visibility and accessibility of our peer-reviewed research.

• Scopus
• Google Scholar
• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
• Web of Science
• Embase

Subjects & Keywords

Journal’s research areas, covering key disciplines and specialized sub-topics in Medicine, designed to support cutting-edge academic discovery.

Licensing & Copyright

This journal operates under an Open Access model. Articles are freely accessible to the public immediately upon publication. The content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), allowing users to share and adapt the work with proper attribution.

Copyright remains with the author(s), and no permission is required for non-commercial use, provided the original source is cited.

Policy Links

This section provides access to essential policy documents, guidelines, and resources related to the journal’s publication and submission processes.

• Aims scope
• Homepage
• Oa statement
• Author instructions
• License terms
• Review url
• Board url
• Copyright url
• Plagiarism url
• Preservation url
• Apc url
• License

Plagiarism Policy

This journal follows a plagiarism policy. All submitted manuscripts are screened using reliable plagiarism detection software to ensure originality and academic integrity. Authors are responsible for proper citation and acknowledgment of all sources, and any form of plagiarism, including self-plagiarism, will not be tolerated.

For more details, please refer to our official: Plagiarism Policy.

APC Details

The journal’s Article Processing Charge (APC) policies support open access publishing in Medicine, ensuring accessibility and quality in research dissemination.

This journal requires an Article Processing Charge (APC) to support open access publishing, covering peer review, editing, and distribution. The current APC is 18,320.00 ZAR. Learn more.

Explore journals without APCs for alternative publishing options.

Most Cited Articles

The Most Cited Articles section features the journal's most impactful research, based on citation counts. These articles have been referenced frequently by other researchers, indicating their significant contribution to their respective fields.

• Depression in older adults: prevalence and risk factors in a primary health care sample

  Citation: 75

  Authors: U, S, J

• The prevalence of burnout and depression in medical doctors working in the Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality community healthcare clinics and district hospitals of the Provincial Government of the Western Cape: a cross-sectional study

  Citation: 66

  Authors: L, S, RA, S, D

• Hypothyroidism: an update

  Citation: 56

  Authors: DY, KD, LB

• Suicide and suicide risk factors: A literature review

  Citation: 50

  Authors: SM, ST, AA

• Reasons for doctor migration from South Africa

  Citation: 45

  Authors: MM, G, LA, MC

• Management of upper respiratory tract infections in children

  Citation: 45

  Authors: MF, S, H, A, H

• Exploring the key principles of Family Medicine in sub-Saharan Africa: international Delphi consensus process

  Citation: 44

  Authors: R, R, S, J

• Evaluating the performance of South African primary care: a cross-sectional descriptive survey

  Citation: 43

  Authors: Graham, Klaus B, Robert

• An assessment of the level of knowledge about diabetes mellitus among diabetic patients in a primary healthcare setting

  Citation: 43

  Authors: LM, V

• Factors associated with unintended pregnancy among women attending a public health facility in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

  Citation: 40

  Authors: Firoza, Laura, Nalini, Poovendhree, Maureen Nokuthula, Shanaz, Thembelihle, Dorinda