I am pleased to open the first volume of the Health Education in Practice Journal (HEPJ) published under a continuous publication model.
The digital age has led to an increase in online journals, a medium that has become an integral part of knowledge dissemination. There are over one million articles published in Pub Med every year. That is a paper every 2 minutes.
The continuous publication model will allow us to maintain our commitment to increase the visibility of the knowledge published on HEPJ by expediting its dissemination, with articles being published as soon as they undergo the rigorous process of peer review and production. By eliminating the need to wait for a predetermined number of articles to form a volume, we aim to provide authors with the immediacy they desire and, consequently, increase the likelihood of their work receiving timely citations.
One of the key benefits of submission to the HEPJ is that we do not charge a publishing fee. We recognise the financial constraints faced by many researchers, particularly those starting their careers. Aligning with the principle that any publicly funded research should be freely accessible, we have chosen not to burden authors with publishing fees. Our goal is to encourage more local healthcare researchers to contribute to our journal.
Over the past two years, I have observed a notable increase in the quality of publications in the HEPJ. Thank you for your support.
The 2024 volume opens with an insightful discussion by Links et al on ISBAR+, a communication framework that supports patient advocacy. It is important for healthcare practitioners to have an advocacy role for their patients based on a person-centred approach. The paper discusses how the ISBAR+ framework supports a structured approach to enhancing advocacy within healthcare.
I hope you enjoy reading this paper and I look forward to sharing more papers in this volume in the coming months.
1 For correspondence: Prof Kichu Nair, Director - Educational Research, Health Education & Training Institute (HETI), Locked Bag 2030, St Leonards NSW 1590, Australia.
Email: [email protected]
Health Education in Practice: Journal of Research for Professional Learning, Vol 7, No 1, 2024