Volume 2 Issue 1 (July 2003)
Harold Harvey and Paul Fleming
The publication of the third issue of the Journal of Environmental Health Research has more than ever convinced the editorial team of the need for capacity building in the reporting of environmental health research. We have undertaken an extensive call for papers and have found that while much good work is being undertaken, relatively little of it is being disseminated at present. This brings into sharp relief a number of issues.
We need to ask why reporting of research is not a priority. In many cases, research is undertaken to pass an academic qualification. The immediacy and relief of finishing the project can lessen the enthusiasm to share findings with the wider professional world. Often those who undertake needs assessments and evaluations as part of their professional role are not given time to disseminate often interesting and important findings. In the academic world, the pressures of teaching and administration can militate against publication.
No matter what the inhibiting factors, we are losing the opportunity to enrich the environmental health profession as a whole and strengthen the evidence base from which we work. Therefore, to assist the large numbers of people who are undertaking research, but who are relatively new to the world of academic and professional publication, we have included a paper in this issue entitled “Writing for JEHR and other peer reviewed journals”. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the capacity building process which seeks to reinforce the evidence-based practice approach to professional activity which we hope will yield a crop of interesting and informative publications.
The substantive academic papers, which encouragingly have been written by both academics and field-based practitioners, cover an eclectic range of issues from food safety, home maintenance and waste management to health and safety systems in small business. These display a range of research designs and strategies from biochemical environmental monitoring to desk-based research into policy. This range of strategies also contributes to the capacity building agenda in that they demonstrate the wide range of endeavour which bears reporting.
The inclusion of the progress reports on CIEH supported research reminds us of the important contribution being made by the Institute to capacity building through research funding. It is one of the functions of this journal to help practitioners to build up a publishing record which will assist them in the often difficult task of obtaining research funding.
We hope that this and subsequent issues of the journal will play a part in developing the research culture in environmental health.