Using the responsibilities of the health educator to rate journals in the field

American Journal of Health Studies, Winter, 2002 by Roberta E. Donahue, Eugene Fitzhugh, Whitney Boling, James M. Eddy, Deidre Leaver-Dunn, Rachel L. Abbott, Tracy M. Carter, J. Don Chaney, Ronda Childress, Melvin Lewis, Patti A. Murphey, Camille Filoromo, Sheri Strasser, Marci L. Hardy, Stephen J. Notaro, Thomas O'Rourke, Graham Watts

Abstract: Little is known about the coverage of health education responsibilities in peer-reviewed literature. Abstracts (n = 17,391) from one hundred health education related journals were reviewed and compared to the entry and graduate level responsibilities of health educators. Journals were ranked by percent of abstracts addressing at least one responsibility. The Journal of Nutrition Education and Health Education and Behavior received the highest ratings with over 90% of their abstracts pertaining to health education. A large number of abstracts addressed Responsibility I (needs assessment), but there was limited coverage of most other responsibilities. These findings have implications for professional development.

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Health education is unique in that it incorporates a particularly broad variety of health related literature to enhance theory and practice. Thus, when Sechrist and Governali (1990) produced a listing of journals and other serials useful for health educators, it contained over 400 publications. This over-abundance of resources exceeds the capabilities of most library budgets and creates confusion within the profession (Price & Robinson, 1999). Many academic disciplines have defined keys journals in their field, but health education has failed to do so. There is currently no widely accepted, concise, definitive list of key health education journals. However, in recent years a number of researchers have attempted to define and refine listings of health education journals for a variety of research purposes, to include publication issues, indexing, and serial holdings.

The extensive listing of health journals and newletters created by Sechrist and Governali (1990) included some publications that were only tangentially related to health education. Price and Robinson (1999) winnowed this comprehensive listing to 61 journals by eliminating publications they perceived to be either clinically oriented or newsletters. These researchers used this more manageable list to conduct a mail survey of chairpersons and faculty members from health education doctoral programs. Participants were asked to rate the journals using a 5-point scale on the basis of a) acceptance rate, b) influence on the field, c) frequency of citations, d) timely and provocative content, and e) likelihood of causing others to act. Respondents were given the option of indicating they were unfamiliar with or uncertain about the quality of a journal.

Latin, Horowitz, and Nims (1999) published a manuscript to facilitate the publication process for health education researchers. The purpose of their guide was to assist authors in the selection of the appropriate journal for manuscript submission. They built upon earlier work conducted by Ogletree, Glover, and Hu (1997) in which the characteristics of 16 health education or health education related journals were described. The rationale for the Ogletree et al. study was to assist professionals in the development of a publication plan. Characteristics of interest were related to manuscript submission such as number of readers, acceptance rate, peer review policy, weeks required for decision, months required for publication, and required style. In addition to collecting data on these variables, Latin et al. also considered indexes in which the journals were cited, number of issues, average pages per issue, articles per issue, Continuing Education Units (CEUs), and categorical journal descriptions from a significantly greater range of health education journals (n=86).

Latin et al. (1999) developed their list of 86 health education journals using the Delphi technique to obtain information from health education leaders and scholars (n=8) about journal content areas, prestigious journals and basic journal characteristics. The study participants identified the following nine primary journal content areas: Stress, Human Sexuality, Drug Use and Abuse, Nutrition, Physical Activity/ Fitness, Environmental Health and Safety, Health Behavior/Health Education, Community Health, and Children and Adolescents. The category with the smallest number of journals was Nutrition with 5, and the largest number of journals was 18 in the category of Health Behavior/Health Education.

Horowitz, Latin and Nims (1999) published a study using a slightly modified version of the data set mentioned above. The researchers sought to highlight the importance of indexing in health education and provide information on where journals were indexed. They eliminated two journals that were not indexed whose editors declined to participate in the Latin et al. (1999) study. This resulted in a listing of 84 health education journals that they used to identify the top indexes for dissemination of health education research and provide guidance on index use for literature reviews.

Latin, Horowitz, Nims and Morrell (2000) used the original Latin et al. (1999) list of 86 journals to survey librarians about the holdings at 367 colleges or universities that offered degrees in health education. The researchers were motivated by the belief that health educators need on-site access to relevant, published research in order to build a coherent knowledge base. The American Journal of Public Health was the publication to which the most libraries subscribed (95.9%). As resources continue to diminish, libraries will increase journal deselection. If circulation is considered to be a proxy measure of quality and impact, size of the readership must be combined with institutional subscriptions to obtain a more meaningful measure of journal distribution.