Forum
articles
Forum articles
should address important policy, research, service delivery or practice
issues that have wider application to primary and community health.
They should present new ideas, proposals and analyses through scholarly
argument drawing on the literature and previous literature as appropriate.
Forum papers should not normally exceed 5000 words in length.
Research
papers
Research
papers should present new findings on issues in primary and community
health. Topics may include services research, consumer research, policy
analyses and clinical studies. A range of methodological approaches
including qualitative research, time series designs, experimental studies
and correlational designs are acceptable. Papers should include an abstract,
up to six key words; introduction, methodology, results and discussion
section. Research papers should not normally exceed 4000 words in length,
including abstracts and references.
Practice and innovation
Practice
and Innovation papers are different from research papers in some important
ways. First, they may be about learning from practice. In the Journal
context this requires clarity about the problem addressed, the context
in which the practice is located, and how particular projects or practices
add to our knowledge of ways to solve the problem. Second, they may
be about exploring evidence-based practice. This may mean either that
practices emerge from relevant research or evaluation, or it may mean
exploration of evidence to practice processes and actions in their own
right.
Walter et al. (2003) describe a taxonomy of interventions reported in
the literature on evidence-based policy and practice. In the taxonomy
there are six categories of activity: professional, financial, organisational,
patient-oriented, structural and regulatory interventions. Some interventions
were about publicising research with potential users, and others were
about promoting uptake of research findings by users. Some promoted
findings of particular research projects, others promoted user engagement
with researchers and accumulated bodies of knowledge, while yet others
promoted practices that required the acquisition of knowledge (Walter
et al. 2003). For a more detailed discussion of these issues see the
editorial in the November 2007 issue of the AJPH.
Practice and Innovation papers need to be carefully and systematically
written in a style, and with a structure, that is accessible to readers
and builds upon existing knowledge. Normally practice papers will be
between 2000 and 3000 words.
A typical structure for a practice paper is the following:
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Introduction
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Context
- policy or service context |
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Review
of literature on similar cases |
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The
case study or practice innovation |
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What
can be learnt from this case |
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Conclusion
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References |
The structure
of a research to practice paper, which addresses some of the issues
described by Walter et al. (2003), may have a structure more like the
following.
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Introduction |
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Discussion of the evidence base |
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Discussion
of the relevant links between researchers and practitioners |
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Description
of the initiative |
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What
was learnt or what resulted from the initiative |
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Conclusion |
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References |
Reference
Walter, I., Nutley, S., & Davies, H. (2003). Developing a taxonomy
of interventions used to increase the impact of research. Research
Unit for Research Utilisation, Department of Management, University
of St Andrews, St Andrews.
Tips
for writing practice papers
Writing
for Publication
Letters
Letters should be in the form of research reports or commentary on topics of current interest in primary health care policy, research and practice issues. They may include comments on articles published in the Journal. Letters should not exceed 600 words in length or 5 references. Publication is at the discretion of the editors.
Book
Reviews
Book reviews
should be between 1000-1500 words
Submission
Process
Authors should forward one copy of their manuscript typed
in double spacing. A covering letter should identify the author to receive
correspondence, including address, telephone and facsimile numbers.
Upon acceptance of the manuscript, authors will be requested to submit
the document either via e-mail
or on a CD-ROM. Any Apple Macintosh or IBM word processing program is
acceptable (PLEASE clearly label the CD-ROM with the application
used to prepare the manuscript). Manuscripts should generally conform
to the following sequence: title page; abstract; key words (up
to six); text; acknowledgements; references;
footnotes; full address for corresponding author and ALL co-authors)
and requests for reprints.