221439 Publishing Diverse Products of Community-Engaged Scholarship

Sunday, November 7, 2010 : 10:15 AM - 10:30 AM

Catherine Miller Jordan, PhD , Children, Youth and Family Consortium, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Community-based participatory research, service-learning and other community-engaged forms of scholarship require diverse products that reach and benefit community members, practitioners and policy makers. Universities across the country are showing increased interest in community-engaged scholarship. In the fields of medicine and public health alone, the NIH Clinical and Translational Science Awards and the CDC Prevention Research Centers are developing innovative products ranging from health promotion program manuals to community-engaged research training modules. However, since these products are not typically peer-reviewed and published the way journal articles are, promotion and tenure committees are unable to determine their quality or impact and often discount them. Further, they are not routinely disseminated beyond the communities with which the work was conducted. Faculty members and their community partners need new venues for peer-reviewed dissemination of their work.

CES4Health.info was launched in November 2009 as an online mechanism for peer-reviewed publication of diverse products of community-engaged scholarship. The products accepted by CES4Health.info -- including a film about health impacts of the built environment in post-Katrina New Orleans, a cultural competency curriculum for health professionals, and a toolkit to promote walking in rural communities – reflect the depth and breadth of knowledge made possible through community-academic partnerships.

A product peer-reviewed and published through CES4Health.info is comparable to an article published through a peer-reviewed print or online journal. Diverse products of health-related community-engaged scholarship in English from anywhere in the world can be submitted to CES4Health.info at any time – a two-step process that involves completing an online application form and submitting the actual product. CES4Health.info defines ‘health-related' broadly to include, for example, health care, public health, health policy and the social determinants of health – such as education, food security, housing, income and its distribution, and social support. Recognizing that the “peers” in community-engaged scholarship come from the community and the academy, all products posted on CES4Health.info have been reviewed and recommended by expert academic and community reviewers. Faculty members who author products that are published through CES4Health.info can note them in the peer-reviewed publications section of their curriculum vitae and describe them as peer-reviewed scholarly products. CES4Health.info also provides authors with a measure of impact by tracking how often each product is accessed and how it is used.

Learning Areas:
Administration, management, leadership
Communication and informatics
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Other professions or practice related to public health
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines

Learning Objectives:
*Describe different types of products of community-engaged scholarship *Assess the strengths and limitations of different types of products of community-engaged scholarship *Identify vehicles for developing and publishing diverse products of community-engaged scholarship *Describe the purpose, peer review process and key features of CES4Health.info

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: As co-director of CCPH's Faculty for the Engaged Campus initiative, I led the team that examined the challenges to diverse products of community-engaged scholarship and designed CES4Health.info as the first online mechanism for peer-reviewed publication of these diverse products. I also serve as founding editor of CES4Health.info and in that role advise faculty from across the U.S. in preparing and submitting diverse products of their community-engaged scholarship.
Any relevant financial relationships? Yes

Name of Organization Clinical/Research Area Type of relationship
Community-Campus Partnerships for Health Program Administration Principal investigator on a sub-contract between CCPH and my employer, the University of Minnesota. Travel has been paid for in part by the Community Campus Partnerships for Health. and Speaker's bureau and teaching engagements

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 2011.0: Supporting Faculty Who Advance Social Justice through Community-Engaged Scholarship