LI Course
CE Hours: 6 contact hours

Partnership: I am an APHA member and belong to the MCH section. However, the skills taught at this workshop would be applicable to anyone.

Statement of Purpose and Institute Overview: The purpose of this Institute is to help public health practitioners turn their work into manuscripts for publication in the peer review literature, which could be the results of an analysis, a scientific study or a program evaluation. The course will cover the following sections: why write for publication; what an editor looks for; how to write each section of a manuscript; and tips for submitting to journals. There will be two main presenters: one presenter is the Editor-in-Chief for Preventing Chronic Disease while the other presenter has served on the AJPH and MCHJ editorial boards, and has edited special issues of Pediatrics. Both presenters have published over 100 articles. They will be assisted by a number of other experienced authors who will work with the class on partially-completed manuscripts that they will be asked to bring to class. This course is proposed because a common complaint has been that there is a dearth of manuscripts from public health practitioners, particularly from state and local-level health departments. Publishing in peer-reviewed journals is one method for communicating the results of health department programs to a wider audience. These skills will take on greater importance with the need to communicate results emanating from the Affordable Care Act.

Session Objectives: Describe why publication of state and local-level program results are important. List the key points of each section of a scientific paper, how to choose the best journal for submitting their work, and use writing style tips to improve their own scientific writing. Demonstrate that they have taken a partially-completed paper and moved it much closer to completion through working with the instructors and their assistants.