Spiritual_Wellness_Holistic_Health_and_the_Practic

74 Philosophical Foundations of Health Education
TABLE 9.2 Types of Articles Published in Health Education Quarterly ,
1981 – 1985 *
Content Process Research Theory History Yr
2 4 7 3 0 1985
5 8 14 2 0 1984
2 3 6 3 0 1983
4 4 11 1 0 1982
6 11 3 4 0 1981
19 30 41 13 0 5 - year total
* Excludes special cancer issue
Brief definitions of the headings/terms of the charts are necessary for clarification.
A theoretical article, to an editor of a journal, likely would be one which presents learnings,
information, or new findings, not a research article. However, in this article, the
term theoretical means those articles which provide a philosophical and theoretical
body of knowledge, one that provides substance and knowledge for the basis and foundation
of the field of health education and health promotion. “ Content ” articles provide
information other than research, a did - you - know article, new learnings in the content
areas of health education that can utilize the process aspect of the field in order to
deliver information. “Process ” articles are the how-to-do-it articles which provide
teaching and presentation ideas, techniques, skills, methods, roles, or program development
ideas. “ Research ” articles are the ones that use a research design, use descriptive
or inferential statistics in their presentations, and show that research actually was conducted.
“ History ” articles advance an understanding of the beginnings of the profession
by presenting what was done in the past (see Table 9.1 and Table 9.2 ).
The journals of the profession should consider their current [1988] posture in
accepting/rejecting theoretical articles (as per the definition above) in relation to the
other types of articles, thereby fulfilling their responsibility to contribute more to
advancing the theoretical basis of the profession. Another solution is to consider the
approach the American Academy of Management has taken, that is to have two journals,
one for the informational articles and another professional journal for research
and primarily academic articles.