Health Promotion Research Methods

Preparing Students to Publish

Abstract

Since few Master’s level students publish papers, we specifically designed our course in Health Promotion Research to facilitate the process. Students learned about research design and theory in the first half of the course and prepared a paper on archival data for journal submission in the second half. The content and approach for the 16 class sessions varied in approach and included lectures, discussion and homework assignments. Students worked on papers in 2 groups of three and had a chance to meet with a journal editor to discuss the publishing process along the way. Students gave a power point presentation of their findings at the end of the semester along with submitting their finished paper. Overall, students reported learning a lot in the class and they appreciated the chance to publish a paper. Suggestions for improvements included incorporating the paper topics more into the first half of the course.